Résultats de recherche de titre
Articles 101 à 120 sur 578
Getting Out of Saigon: How a 27-Year-Old Banker Saved 113 Vietnamese Civilians
Par Ralph White. 2023
A &“captivating&” (The Washington Post) true story of &“courage, resolve, and determination&” (Christian Science Monitor), author Ralph White&’s successful effort…
to save nearly the entire staff of the Saigon branch of Chase Manhattan bank and their families before the city fell to the North Vietnamese Army. In April 1975, Ralph White was asked by his boss to transfer from the Bangkok branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank to the Saigon Branch. He was tasked with closing the branch if and when it appeared that Saigon would fall to the North Vietnamese army and ensure the safety of the senior Vietnamese employees. But when he arrived, he realized the situation in Saigon was far more perilous than he had imagined. The senior staff members there urged him to evacuate the entire staff of the branch and their families, which was far more than he was authorized to do. Quickly he realized that no one would be safe when the city fell, and it was no longer a question of whether to evacuate but how. Getting Out of Saigon is an &“edge-of-your-seat&” (Oprah Daily) story of a city on the eve of destruction and the colorful characters who respond differently to impending doom. It&’s a remarkable account of one man&’s quest to save innocent lives not because he was ordered but because it was the right thing to do.Fighting to Leave: The Final Years of America's War in Vietnam, 1972–1973
Par Colonel Robert E. Stoffey. 2010
From a Vietnam wartime veteran and US Marine officer, an insider’s account of the final military strategies of the Vietnam…
war.Perhaps more vexing than any part of the Vietnam War—Americas longest—was getting out. This book offers a chronicle of those last difficult years, 1972 and 1973, that is at once a detailed and thorough overview and at the same time a vividly personal account. The year 1972 found Marine Corps pilot Robert E. Stoffey beginning his third combat tour in Vietnam.After flying 440 combat missions out of Da Nang and Marble Mountain Airfields in South Vietnam—and being shot down twice—between 1965 and 1970, Stoffey was in a unique position to judge the United States changed strategy. From the vantage point of the USS Oklahoma City, he fought—and observed—the critical and complex last two years of the war as Marine Air Officer and Assistant Amphibious Warfare Officer on the staff of the Commander, Seventh Fleet. As the South Vietnamese battled for survival against the onslaught from the Communist North Vietnamese Army, the US Seventh Fleet, afloat in the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea, was a significant supporting force.With the US Navy’s mining of North Vietnams waterways, concentrated shore bombardments, and air attacks, this sea power was instrumental in leading to the negotiated end of the war and return of our POWs. This is the story that Robert Stoffey tells in his firsthand account of how the Vietnam War finally ended and what it took to get our POWs home.An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us
Par James Carroll. 1997
National Book Award winner: This story of a family torn apart by the Vietnam era is &“a magnificent portrayal of…
two noble men who broke each other&’s hearts&” (Booklist). James Carroll grew up in a Catholic family that seemed blessed. His father, who had once dreamed of becoming a priest, instead began a career in J. Edgar Hoover&’s FBI, rising through the ranks and eventually becoming one of the most powerful men in the Pentagon, the founder of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Young Jim lived a privileged life, dating the daughter of a vice president and meeting the pope—all in the shadow of nuclear war, waiting for the red telephone to ring in his parents&’ house. James fulfilled the goal his father had abandoned, becoming a priest himself. His feelings toward his father leaned toward worship as well—until the tumult of the 1960s came between them. Their disagreements, over Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement; turmoil in the Church; and finally, Vietnam—where the elder Carroll chose targets for US bombs—began to outweigh the bond between them. While one of James&’s brothers fled to Canada, another was in law enforcement ferreting out draft dodgers. James, meanwhile, served as a chaplain at Boston University, protesting the war in the streets but ducking news cameras to avoid discovery. Their relationship would never be the same again. Only after Carroll left the priesthood to become a writer, and a husband with children of his own, did he begin to understand fully the struggles his father had faced. In An American Requiem, the New York Times bestselling author of Constantine&’s Sword and Christ Actually offers a benediction, in &“a moving memoir of the effect of the Vietnam War on his family that is at once personal and the story of a generation . . . at once heartbreaking and heroic, this is autobiography at its best&” (Publishers Weekly).Civil-Military Relations and Peacekeeping (ISSN)
Par Michael Williams. 2013
Peacekeeping in the late 1990s is a complex and diverse task, in which civilian and military personnel are working together…
to a greater degree than ever before. However, when an international body such as the UN takes strategic decisions, it does so with inadequate input from the military; in the field, there are clashes of culture, confusion over command and control arrangements and insufficient operational coordination. These issues also affect regional organisations such as NATO. The awkward management of operations and their uneven level of achievement have contributed to a decline in the number of UN peacekeeping operations since 1994. This paper argues that the balance between civilian and military expertise and advice at all levels of a peacekeeping mission – strategic, tactical and operational – needs to be reappraised.At the strategic level:* mandates must be clear, and must respond both to the needs of the situation and to the resources available* there must be regular dialogue between all the principal players, military and civilian; the military-staff capacity at UN headquarters should be made more effective, and should be responsible to the Security Council* major troop-contributing countries should be systematically involved in determining mandates, as well as in reviewing operational plans* senior military officers from all large troop-contributing countries should be based at a mission’s field headquarters. At the operational level: * the office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General – the head of a UN peacekeeping mission – should be strengthened. In non-UN operations, the authority of the High Representative needs to be increased* a cadre of civilian officials with peacekeeping experience needs to be developed; standard operating procedures for the civilian head of a mission to follow when dealing with the military need to be developed* greater emphasis should be placed on the ‘softer’ aspects of military science – managing resources, civilian control and human rights* the reluctance of civilians and non-governmental organisations to engage with the military should be addressed.Much experience has been gained from the peacekeeping operations of the 1990s, but both military and civilian participants must make considerably more progress before they can be said to have forged a partnership that makes them an effective intervention forceThis book studies war narratives and their role in the political arenas of post-conflict societies, with a focus on the…
former Yugoslavia.How do politicians in postwar societies talk about the past war? How do they discursively represent vulnerable social groups created by the conflict? Does the nature of this representation depend on the politicians’ ideology, personal characteristics, or their record of combat service? The book answers these questions by pairing natural language processing tools and large corpora of parliamentary debates collected in three southeast European post-conflict societies (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia). Using the latest advances in computer science, the book explores patterns in the war discourse of the political elites of these countries and discusses how politicians talk about war in terms of common narratives and shared frameworks. Mapping over 20 years of parliamentary debates, the book presents a new perspective on the role of the legacies of war in public space and develops theoretical arguments about reconciliation in post-conflict societies. The wars of the 1990s and the breakup of Yugoslavia have created three totally different settings for remembering the past conflicts in these countries, despite their common history. It is a story of victorious battles (Croatia), past grievances (Bosnia-Herzegovina), and denial (Serbia), showing the different flavors of past wars in various national contexts that are symptomatic of many post-conflict societies in different parts of the world.This book will be of much interest to students of war and conflict studies, southeastern European politics, discourse analysis, and international relations.The Doctor of Hiroshima: His heart-breaking and inspiring true life story
Par Dr Michihiko Hachiya. 2024
With what this poor woman had been through the sight of her crying tore at my heartstrings. What if something…
should happen to her; who would care for her little baby? To conceal the fear and terror in my heart I left her, trying to put up a cheerful front. But no one could conceal from her the ominous import of the dark spots that had appeared on her chest.The Doctor of Hiroshima is the extraordinary true story of Dr Michihiko Hachiya, whose hospital was less than a mile from the centre of the atomic bomb that hit on that warm August day. In immense shock and pain, he and his wife Yaeko dragged themselves to the devastated hospital building and what colleagues they could find.In time, they begin to heal, and start to treat the impossible numbers of patients - a small girl covered in burns, an elderly man with pneumonia, a young boy and his little sister looking for their parents. They also began to investigate the strange unexplainable symptoms afflicting his patients - things he never dreamed he would see... Told simply and poignantly in Dr Hachiya's own words, The Doctor of Hiroshima is a unique and deeply moving human story of survival about a small, committed band of hospital staff in the face of unthinkable destruction and loss.This book seeks to provide a comparative assessment of the significance of ‘human factors’ in effective counter-terrorism. The phrase ‘human…
factors’ is used to describe personal relationships, individual capabilities, effective leadership, technical interface, organisational culture and the community engagement necessary to effectively minimise, counter and control the threat of terrorism. Unlike many works in the field, this book is constructed around the input of ‘experienced knowledge’ from over 170 semi-structured interviews of specialist military, policing, intelligence and security practitioners - those actors actually involved in countering terrorism. These practitioners come from seven countries – the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, Israel, Turkey and the United States – all of which have suffered over the years from different types of terrorist threat and responded with a mixture of counter-terrorist measures. Where military practitioners also discussed overseas counter-insurgency measures, that material has been included, since terrorism forms a key aspect of such wider insurgencies. The resulting interview data was analysed through a variant of ‘Grounded Theory’ to identify key emerging themes and issues, both positive and negative, relevant to ‘human factors’ in the individual countries and more generically. This book incorporates the informed operational experiences and insights of the interviewees while seeking to provide examples of successful counter-terrorist measures at the strategic, operational and tactical levels. This book will be of much interest to students of counter-terrorism, defence studies and security studies in general.Four Battlegrounds: Power In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence
Par Paul Scharre. 2023
An NPR 2023 "Books We Love" Pick One of the Next Big Idea Club's Must-Read Books "An invaluable primer to…
arguably the most important driver of change for our future." —P. W. Singer, author of Burn-In An award-winning defense expert tells the story of today’s great power rivalry—the struggle to control artificial intelligence. A new industrial revolution has begun. Like mechanization or electricity before it, artificial intelligence will touch every aspect of our lives—and cause profound disruptions in the balance of global power, especially among the AI superpowers: China, the United States, and Europe. Autonomous weapons expert Paul Scharre takes readers inside the fierce competition to develop and implement this game-changing technology and dominate the future. Four Battlegrounds argues that four key elements define this struggle: data, computing power, talent, and institutions. Data is a vital resource like coal or oil, but it must be collected and refined. Advanced computer chips are the essence of computing power—control over chip supply chains grants leverage over rivals. Talent is about people: which country attracts the best researchers and most advanced technology companies? The fourth “battlefield” is maybe the most critical: the ultimate global leader in AI will have institutions that effectively incorporate AI into their economy, society, and especially their military. Scharre’s account surges with futuristic technology. He explores the ways AI systems are already discovering new strategies via millions of war-game simulations, developing combat tactics better than any human, tracking billions of people using biometrics, and subtly controlling information with secret algorithms. He visits China’s “National Team” of leading AI companies to show the chilling synergy between China’s government, private sector, and surveillance state. He interviews Pentagon leadership and tours U.S. Defense Department offices in Silicon Valley, revealing deep tensions between the military and tech giants who control data, chips, and talent. Yet he concludes that those tensions, inherent to our democratic system, create resilience and resistance to autocracy in the face of overwhelmingly powerful technology. Engaging and direct, Four Battlegrounds offers a vivid picture of how AI is transforming warfare, global security, and the future of human freedom—and what it will take for democracies to remain at the forefront of the world order.Flying Warrior: My Life as a Naval Aviator During the Vietnam War
Par Jules Harper. 2017
A Vietnam veteran takes you into the cockpit and shares true stories of his flying career in this compelling memoir.…
In this action-packed memoir, Jules Harper recounts the unique process of becoming a naval aviator, revealing his experiences as a brand new pilot in a combat squadron and, finally, a flying warrior. He survived two combat cruises aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk from 1966–1968, compiled 332 career carrier takeoffs and landings, and was shot at daily by enemy fire while completing 200 combat missions over Vietnam, and shares the views of the aviators who flew along with him on these missions while fighting this unpopular war. A recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, twenty-one Air Medals, and many other accolades, he offers readers a new understanding and appreciation of the warriors who protect not only their comrades in arms, but the defense of the nation as well.Unsinkable: Five Men and the Indomitable Run of the USS Plunkett
Par James Sullivan. 2020
In the bestselling tradition of Indianapolis and In Harm&’s Way comes a &“captivating…gripping&” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) account of the…
USS Plunkett—a US Navy destroyer that sustained the most harrowing attack on any Navy ship by the Germans during World War II, later made famous by John Ford and Herman Wouk.&“A reflection on the nature of storytelling itself&” (The Wall Street Journal), Unsinkable traces the individual journeys of five men on one ship from Casablanca in North Africa, to Sicily and Salerno in Italy and then on to Plunkett&’s defining moment at Anzio, where a dozen-odd German bombers bore down on the ship in an assault so savage, so prolonged, and so deadly that one Navy commander was hard-pressed to think of another destroyer that had endured what Plunkett had. After a three-month overhaul and with a reputation rising as the &“fightin&’est ship&” in the Navy, Plunkett (DD-431) plunged back into the war at Omaha Beach on D-Day, and again into battle during the invasion of Southern France—perhaps the only Navy ship to participate in every Allied invasion in the European theatre.Featuring five incredibly brave men—the indomitable skipper, who will receive the Navy Cross; the gunnery officer, who bucks the captain every step of the way to Anzio; a first lieutenant, who&’s desperate to get off the ship and into the Pacific; a seventeen-year-old water tender, who&’s trying to hold onto his hometown girl against all odds, and another water tender, who mans a 20mm gun when under aerial assault—the dramatic story of each plays out on the decks of the Plunkett as the ship&’s story escalates on the stage of the Mediterranean. Based on Navy logs, war diaries, action reports, letters, journals, memoirs, and dozens of interviews with the men who were on the ship and their families, Unsinkable is a timeless evocation of young men stepping up to the defining experience of their lives. &“If you were moved by Norman Maclean&’s A River Runs Through It, by William Kent Krueger&’s This Tender Land…by the values we hold dear, decency, sacrifice, steadfastness, then Unsinkable will take you to a place long dead in your soul, and flood it with light&” (Doug Stanton, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Horse Soldiers).Company Man: Thirty Years of Controversy and Crisis in the CIA
Par John Rizzo. 2014
The “revealing” (The New Yorker) insider history of the CIA from a lawyer with a “front-row seat on the hidden…
world of intelligence” (The Washington Post). Former CIA director George J. Tenet called Company Man a “must read.”Over the course of a thirty-four-year (1976-2009) career, John Rizzo served under eleven CIA directors and seven presidents, ultimately becoming a controversial public figure and a symbol and victim of the toxic winds swirling in post-9/11 Washington. In Company Man, Rizzo charts the CIA’s evolution from shadowy entity to an organization exposed to new laws, rules, and a seemingly never-ending string of public controversies. As the agency’s top lawyer in the years after the 9/11 attacks, Rizzo oversaw actions that remain the subject of intense debate, including the rules governing waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques.”Rizzo writes about virtually every significant CIA activity and controversy over a tumultuous, thirty-year period. His experiences illuminate our nation’s spy bureaucracy, offering a unique primer on how to survive, and flourish, in a high-powered job amid decades of shifting political winds. He also provides the most comprehensive account of critical events, like the “torture tape” fiasco surrounding the interrogation of Al Qaeda suspect Abu Zubayadah, and the birth, growth, and death of the enhanced interrogation program. Company Man is the most authoritative insider account of the CIA ever written—a groundbreaking, timely, and remarkably candid history of American intelligence. This is “emphatically a book for anyone who cares about the security of this country” (The Wall Street Journal).Soldier Dead: How We Recover, Identify, Bury, & Honor Our Military Fallen
Par Michael Sledge. 2004
The first book to address the complicated issues surrounding what happens to members of the United States Armed Forces after…
they die. Why does recovering the remains of servicepeople matter? Soldier Dead examines this question and provides a thorough analysis of the processes of recovery, identification, return, burial, and remembrance of the dead. Sledge traces the ways in which the handling of our Soldier Dead has evolved over time and how these changes have reflected not only advances in technology and capabilities but also the shifting attitudes of the public, government, and military. He also considers the emotional stress experienced by those who handle the dead; the continuing efforts to retrieve bodies from Korea and elsewhere; and how unresolved issues regarding the treatment of enemy dead continue to affect U.S. foreign relations. Skillfully incorporating excerpts from interviews, personal correspondence and diaries, military records, and journalistic accounts—as well as never-before-published photographs and his own reflections—Michael Sledge presents a clear, concise, and compassionate story about what the dead mean to the living. Throughout Soldier Dead, the voices of the fallen are heard, as are those of family members and military personnel responsible for the dead before final disposition. At times disturbing and at other times encouraging, they are always powerful as they speak of danger, duty, courage, commitment, and care. &“A timely and detailed investigation into the moral conscience of American society which will be of interest to anyone concerned with the human costs of war. An important and passionate book which deserves a wide readership.&”—Chris Shilling, University of Portsmouth, UKHill 488
Par Ray Hildreth, Charles W. Sasser. 2003
For some, Hill 488 was just another landmark in the jungles of Vietnam. For the eighteen men of Charlie Company,…
it was a last stand—this is the stirring combat memoir written by Ray Hildreth, one of the unit's survivors.On June 13, 1966, men of the 1st Recon Battalion, 1st Marine Division were stationed on Hill 488. Before the week was over, they would fight the battle that would make them the most highly decorated small unit in the entire history of the U.S. military, winning a Congressional Medal of Honor, four Navy Crosses, thirteen Silver Stars, and eighteen Purple Hearts—some of them posthumously. During the early evening of June 15, a battalion of hardened North Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong—outnumbering the Americans 25-to-1—threw everything they had at the sixteen Marines and two Navy corpsmen for the rest of that terror-filled night. Every man who held the hill was either killed or wounded defending the ground with unbelievable courage and unflagging determination—even as reinforcements were on the way. All they had to do was make it until dawn...The Crusader Armies: 1099-1187
Par Steve Tibble. 2018
A major history of the Crusades that illuminates the strength and sophistication of the Western and Muslim armies.During the Crusades,…
the Western and Muslim armies developed various highly sophisticated strategies of both attack and defense, which evolved during the course of the battles. In this ambitious new work, Steve Tibble draws on a wide range of Muslim texts and archaeological evidence as well as more commonly cited Western sources to analyze the respective armies’ strategy, adaptation, evolution, and cultural diversity and show just how sophisticated the Crusader armies were even by today’s standards.In the first comprehensive account of the subject in sixty years, Tibble takes a fresh approach to Templars, Hospitallers, and other key Orders and makes the controversial proposition that the Crusades were driven as much by sedentary versus nomadic tribal concerns as by religious conflict. This fluently written, broad-ranging narrative provides a crucial missing piece in the study of the West’s attempts to colonize the Middle East during the Middle Ages.“Now Tibble takes a new approach, one that adds to prior research and may well influence subsequent research. This book is a must read for medievalists.” —R. J. Powell, Choice“A book that welcomes everyone, regardless of the reader’s background in the subject. . . . Crusade historians like to complain that the general public knows nothing about their scholarship. It is books like this that will change that.” —Thomas F. Madden, Reading Religion“The Crusader Armies offers more than the obligatory corrections to the historical ignorance of our age. It is a full-scale reassessment of the warfare, armies, and enemies of the Western Crusades in the Middle East . . . readable, expertly sourced, and well organized.” —Timothy D. Lusch, Chronicles“The Crusader Armies: 1099–1187 is a worthy and sound contribution to the literature on its subject. . . . Steve Tibble paints a compelling picture of continual systemic warfare.” —Laurence W. Marvin, Michigan War Studies ReviewSelected for Choice's 2019 Outstanding Academic Titles ListThe Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001–2014
Par Carlotta Gall. 2014
A journalist with deep knowledge of the region provides &“an enthralling and largely firsthand account of the war in Afghanistan&”…
(Financial Times). Few reporters know as much about Afghanistan as Carlotta Gall. She was there in the 1990s after the Russians were driven out. She witnessed the early flourishing of radical Islam, imported from abroad, which caused so much local suffering. She was there right after 9/11, when US special forces helped the Northern Alliance drive the Taliban out of the north and then the south, fighting pitched battles and causing their enemies to flee underground and into Pakistan. Gall knows just how much this war has cost the Afghan people—and just how much damage can be traced to Pakistan and its duplicitous government and intelligence forces. Combining searing personal accounts of battles and betrayals with moving portraits of the ordinary Afghans who were caught up in the conflict for more than a decade, The Wrong Enemy is a sweeping account of a war brought by American leaders against an enemy they barely understood and could not truly engage.Chancellorsville
Par Stephen W. Sears. 2014
A new look at the Civil War battle that led to Stonewall Jackson&’s death: A Publishers Weekly Best Book of…
the Year and &“tour de force in military history&” (Library Journal). From the award-winning, national bestselling author of Gettysburg, this is the definitive account of the Chancellorsville campaign, from the moment &“Fighting Joe&” Hooker took command of the Army of the Potomac to the Union&’s stinging, albeit temporary, defeat. Along with a vivid description of the experiences of the troops, Stephen Sears provides &“a stunning analysis of how terrain, personality, chance, and other factors affect fighting and distort strategic design&” (Library Journal). &“Most notable is his use of Union military intelligence reports to show how Gen. Joseph Hooker was fed a stream of accurate information about Robert E. Lee&’s troops; conversely, Sears points out the battlefield communications failures that hampered the Union army at critical times . . . A model campaign study, Sears&’s account of Chancellorsville is likely to remain the standard for years to come.&” —Publishers Weekly &“The finest and most provocative Civil War historian writing today.&” —Chicago Tribune Includes mapsWar on the Border: Villa, Pershing, the Texas Rangers, and an American Invasion
Par Jeff Guinn. 2021
The dramatic story of how over a century ago, the United States and Mexico went to war over their border,…
a conflict that still resonates today.In 1916, Mexican rebel Pancho Villa staged a bloody raid on a US border town, the latest incident in simmering tensions between the two countries. In response the United States launched the year-long Punitive Expedition—a military invasion of Mexican territory. Commanded by General John J. Pershing, who would go on to lead American troops in Europe a year later during World War I, the expedition included US Army troops, the National Guard, the Texas Rangers, and the legendary African-American Buffalo Soldiers. It was the first time the Army used automobiles and trucks, and Curtiss Jenny airplanes did reconnaissance, another first; even a young George Patton was involved. But despite several bloody encounters, the Punitive Expedition ultimately proved unsuccessful, and its contentious history continues to resonate in US-Mexico border relations today.Survival: Russia and the World
Par The International Institute for Strategic Studies. 2022
Survival, the IISS’s bimonthly journal, challenges conventional wisdom and brings fresh, often controversial, perspectives on strategic issues of the moment.In…
this issue: Robert Dalsjö, Michael Jonsson and Johan Norberg reconsider Russia’s military capability given its recent battlefield performance in Ukraine William Alberque and Benjamin Schreer argue that Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership would, if managed judiciously, bolster deterrence and European security Chuck Freilich contends that encouraging diplomacy is the best of Israel’s limited options for postponing Iran’s nuclear-weapons programme Nicolas Lippolis and Harry Verhoeven assess that if a wave of African defaults materialises in the near future, it will be catalysed more by private-sector manoeuvring and intransigence than by Chinese scheming Dana H. Allin and Erik Jones argue that Russia’s isolation is not a viable endgame for the West, but it may be unavoidable for a generation And seven more thought-provoking pieces, as well as our regular Book Reviews and Noteworthy column.Editor: Dr Dana AllinManaging Editor: Jonathan StevensonAssociate Editor: Carolyn WestAssistant Editor: Jessica WatsonEditorial Assistant: Charlie ZawadzkiJihadists and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Par Gary Ackerman, Jeremy Tamsett. 2009
Explores the Nexus Formed When Malevolent Actors Access Malignant MeansWritten for professionals, academics, and policymakers working at the forefront of…
counterterrorism efforts, Jihadists and Weapons of Mass Destruction is an authoritative and comprehensive work addressing the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the hands of jihadists,Cross-Training for First Responders
Par Gregory Bennett. 2010
The tragedy that occurred in the United States on September 11, 2001 brought enhanced emergency preparedness among first responders to…
the forefront of public awareness. Since those events � and despite significant progress made in many of the areas previously deemed deficient � some response areas are still woefully inadequate. Cross-Training for