Typhoon China

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Enter The Dragon: China's Undeclared War Against The U.S. In Korea, 1950-51 Review

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Enter The Dragon: China's Undeclared War Against The U.S. In Korea, 1950-51 ReviewI was a automatic rifleman (BAR) in the USMC during the 1st 4 months of the Korean War, wounded at the Chosin Reservoir. Enter the Dragon is a fascinating story told from the Chinese view. It is seldom that anyone in combat ever gets to see his theater of action reported on by his enemy. After 40 years I turned to the books on the war. This one is As Good As it Gets. Anyone interested in the Korean War from the enemy "grunt's" view, this is your book.Enter The Dragon: China's Undeclared War Against The U.S. In Korea, 1950-51 Overview

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OSS in China: Prelude to Cold War Review

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OSS in China: Prelude to Cold War ReviewI have had a deep interest for some time in how the US government got sucked into the quagmire of intervention in SE Asia in the fifties. If you read the French sources, they blame the triumph of Ho Chi Minh on the materiel support given him by the OSS missions at the end of the war. If you read the massive work by Archimedes Patti, the support did not make any difference. But that aside, when one starts pulling on the strings of why the OSS mercy missions of 1945 to Vietnam were sent, it descends from the various US intelligence and special operations agencies working in the area, and a very tangled web leads back to China--with its US Army-Navy rivalries, US- British rivalries, plus the US State Dept vs. many of the others. Then throw in the Free French and the Vichy governments. And some of these folks lost sight of the fact they were guests and not in a conquered country.Until the release of the OSS records to the National Archives a few years ago, much of this was hidden except glimpsed in a few memoirs. But the OSS side and the State Department side and the other US departments ' sides are unavoidably biased views for and against each other and the Chinese sides-the Reds and the Nationalists. Without seeing from the Chinese side one cannot balance the view point. The author has done this. He has been able to use the memoirs and histories now available from mainland China to develop this history as well as can be expected this close on. Sometimes it takes a hundred years for everyone to finally agree and sometimes there never is a consensus. We have not sorted out our Civil War yet. How can we expect the Chinese to have done so when even the territorial and economic consequences are still being worked out. This book is an essential tool for beginning that task. It makes clear what all the turf quarrels were between the War Department, the Navy Department, the OSS, the 14th Air Force (Claire Chennault, a profit without honor in his own country, who had to go to China to prove his theories of air combat.), the British and French governments, and the Chinese Nationalists, whose guests they all were. If you like organizational histories of the sort of who said what when then this is for you. If you want daring tales of dauntless deeds then look elsewhere. This is an extremely well written and thoroughly researched book but it is not a shoot 'em up operational history. There are many good histories and memoirs of those. Stratton's SACO history is still quite useful but hard to find. (By the way, I'm still looking for that Vietnam history.) Carter RilaOSS in China: Prelude to Cold War Overview

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China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950-1975 (The New Cold War History) Review

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China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950-1975 (The New Cold War History) ReviewMr. Zhai's contribution to Cold War history is a worthy addition to any CW buff's collection, since China's role in the conflict has always been a mix of "Yellow Peril" paranoia, rumor and biased commentary. It is a sound summary of the initially cozy, then increasingly frosty relations between the two communist Asian nations. However, being familiar with many of the observations made in this book from other sources, I was hoping for a more cogent analysis of the synergy between the radicalization of Mao's vision of perpetual revolution and the Indochinese wars. For example, did the Cultural Revolution hinder or help the Vietnamese, and what were their perceptions? Did China encourage Pol Pot's intransigence vis-a-vis Hanoi because of ideological affinity or just plain spite? How did the Ussuri River clashes affect the Soviet supply link to Hanoi? This is a good volume for factual summary of the events, but a more profound reading of the new archival sources needs to follow.China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950-1975 (The New Cold War History) Overview

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China's Use of Military Force: Beyond the Great Wall and the Long March (Cambridge Modern China Series) Review

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China's Use of Military Force: Beyond the Great Wall and the Long March (Cambridge Modern China Series) ReviewAndrew Scobell's book China's Use of Military Force gives Western readers and government professionals a fascinating insight into Communist China's historical use of military power. This book is not overburdened by verbiage and reads quite easily, and makes some potent insights into the mindset of Chinese leaders. With China and Taiwan a ongoing hot button issue, this book is especially relevant.
Scobell argues that the Chinese government's decision making process for military actions has always been one of the "cult of defense". What is unusual about this doctrine is that their notion of self-defense includes aggresive offensive action to counter the possibility of a threat to their borders as well as their Communist leadership. The most notable examples of this are the border war with Vietnam in the 70's and the Chinese intervention in Korea in 1950. Scobell also argues that the "cult of defense" includes internal matters that threaten the stability of the communist leadership, ie Tianamen Square. Despite commonly held beliefs that it is the PLA military leaders who wish for action, in most cases it has been the civilian government pushing for action with the military arguing for restraint.
What does this mean for the future? Scobell believes that the established use of this doctrine makes it more likely that China would act aggresively in the future towards its neighbors, IF it feels that the neighbor's actions threaten them in some manner. It is not quite clear what boundries limit this theory, for example, would the Chinese use military force to secure the entire Spratly Island chain if it believed that other countries would attempt to access its oil fields? Based on Scobell's thesis, the answer would likely be yes. Overall a well argued and researched book, and one not to be taken lightly when discussing the strategic situation in Asia.China's Use of Military Force: Beyond the Great Wall and the Long March (Cambridge Modern China Series) Overview

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I Have Seen the World Begin: Travels through China, Cambodia, and Vietnam Review

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I Have Seen the World Begin: Travels through China, Cambodia, and Vietnam Review"The lone traveller is the most dependent of all, because he has need of everybody and no one has need of him."
So notes Carsten Jensen in I HAVE SEEN THE WORLD BEGIN, his narrative account of his journey of discovery through China, Cambodia and Vietnam during the early 90s.
Jensen begins his travelogue in Beijing, but quickly moves on to Shanghai, from which he travels by boat up the Yangtse River, then by rail and bus, into southeastern China near the border of Myanmar (Burma). A constant thread is the state of the country and its inhabitants, individually and collectively, post-Tiananmen Square.
Then it's on to Cambodia, a country yet to recover from the cruel self-immolation imposed by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge minions. As Jensen writes about this "biblical Judgement Day":
"... when the gates of Paradise were opened, it was only to reveal yet another graveyard. ... It was the humbled, the abased and the desperate who were raised on high, not to put an end to despair, but to extend it to everyone."
And lastly, Vietnam, with which the author is obviously entranced, and the reader with him. Much of Carsten's enthrallment is with the country's women - Tam, Kim and Scent of Spring in particular. It's with the first that he has a physical relationship. And it's Tam who states in the most eloquent manner I've ever encountered the worst thing about not being able to conceive a child:
"You can't pass on the eyes of the one you love to posterity. Like the stars they will be put out, instead of living on in a new face."
Whether Jensen is describing China's Tiger Leap Gorge, Shanghai's New Year fireworks celebration, Cambodia's Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh's horrific Security Prison 21, Vietnam's Hanoi ("like a wood with streets"), the royal tombs at Hue, or Dien Bien Phu, the graveyard of French colonialism in Southeast Asia, his magnificent prose transports you there.
I was tempted to award I HAVE SEEN THE WORLD BEGIN five stars, but am prevented from doing so by what I consider to be a significant omission. There's no photo section. What were the publisher and the author thinking?
Having finished the book, I now want to visit Vietnam, a country I really had no desire to visit before. If a travel essay can accomplish this for any destination, it's very good indeed.I Have Seen the World Begin: Travels through China, Cambodia, and Vietnam Overview

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China Candid: The People on the People's Republic Review

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China Candid: The People on the People's Republic ReviewI really enjoyed reading the little interviews in this book. There is a very wide range of people included, from common street hustlers and prostitutes to entrepreneurs and policemen, and there is even an interview with a Beijing executioner. The sum total of the work is hard to pin down, but I think what is most valuable to take from it is that the economic transition and overall changes taking shape in China in the past 20 years have effected many people in many different ways, some good some bad, and that just because China is economically open and generally prosperous doesn't mean the people are all rosy-eyed and loving every minute of it. Even the well-to-do, and connected insiders are frustrated with the government's penchant for red tape but feel powerless to change it, and the economic openness that has brought many new wealth is also seen as a double-edged sword that has brought about a Wild-West kind of materialism, selfishness and detachment from one's neighbors.China Candid: The People on the People's Republic Overview

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Mao's Military Romanticism: China and the Korean War, 1950-1953 (Modern War Studies) Review

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Mao's Military Romanticism: China and the Korean War, 1950-1953 (Modern War Studies) ReviewAlong with Jian Chen 1994 book on what drew Communist China into the Korean conflict, Prof. Zhang's book provides valuable insights on how Mao and the PLA "volunteer" army conducts its warfare against the much better equipped U.S. military. Red China paid a very high price to defend the North Koreans, and Prof. Chen explores the root motivation for this "sacrifice." Prof. Zhang's book focuses on the how of the war, from the Chinese view point. Working with previously classified Chinese documents, the book details how Mao and his military commanders (led by Peng Te-huai, who was purged three years after the Armstice) differed on the strategies and tactics, with Mao coming across as an incompetent bureaucrat who placed zero value on the lives of his soldiers. While there are many mistakes in this book concerning the movements of the U.S. forces (likely because Prof. Zhang is quoting from Chinese military memos -- but it would have been nice if he caught them and corrected them), this book is a must-read for every American who has not forgotten the Forgotten War and the hundreds of thousands of U.S. casualties.Mao's Military Romanticism: China and the Korean War, 1950-1953 (Modern War Studies) Overview

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With Chennault in China: A Flying Tiger's Diary (Schiffer Military/Aviation History) Review

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With Chennault in China: A Flying Tiger's Diary (Schiffer Military/Aviation History) ReviewThis is a somewhat edited version of Robert M. Smith's diary that he kept during his year with the American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers). Smith attended college before joining the Army, rather unusual for the time. He joined the AVG for adventure, like most of the pilots and technicians. And he kept a diary, as many of them did.
Smith's diary is especially insightful, and I used it a lot when I was writing my history of the Flying Tigers. He has a good eye for geography; I especially liked his account of driving up the Burma Road to the AVG's home base in Kunming.
I own the paperback; it was chock-a-block with photos, which I assume are included in the Schiffer edition. Good reading for all Flying Tigers buffs.With Chennault in China: A Flying Tiger's Diary (Schiffer Military/Aviation History) Overview

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The Fields of Bamboo: Dong Tre, Trung Luong and Hoa Hui, Three Battles Just Beyond the South China Sea (Vietnam War, No 7) Review

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The Fields of Bamboo: Dong Tre, Trung Luong and Hoa Hui, Three Battles Just Beyond the South China Sea (Vietnam War, No 7) ReviewI am married to a Vietnam Veteran who fought in the three battles contained in this book. This book is one of the books that is very precious to both of us. Since my husband suffers from some memory loss, this book has helped him remember some of what he has lost. Most importantly he remembers then Capt George Shea Jr. who was his commanding officer. It was shear luck I found the book and you can bet we went out and bought all the other copies we could find. I just wish there was someway to get in touch with the others who fought these battles and were with "A"Company First of the Fifth Cavalry (A 1/5) If you are out there please contact tootdai@AOL.comThe Fields of Bamboo: Dong Tre, Trung Luong and Hoa Hui, Three Battles Just Beyond the South China Sea (Vietnam War, No 7) Overview

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The Jungle War: Mavericks, Marauders and Madmen in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II Review

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The Jungle War: Mavericks, Marauders and Madmen in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II ReviewThis book is different from other Astor titles in that it lacks the personal accounts he's known for. If you're looking for a book on the CBI with lots of personal stories/recollections, you'll be disappointed by this book. However, this book provides good insights into the minds and characters of some of the CBI's main personalities: Slim, Stilwell, Chennault, and Mountbatten. It also provides a fairly well-detailed account of the war in the CBI, predominantly the fighting in Burma. Unfortunately, it suffers from an almost complete absence of maps, so unless your knowledge of Indian and Burmese geography is excellent you might get a bit lost when trying to figure out where battles and such are taking place.The Jungle War: Mavericks, Marauders and Madmen in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II Overview

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How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone Review

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How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone ReviewI picked up this novel after attempting (and then giving up on) a couple of others that I felt I was wasting my time on. I wanted to read a valuable book...and then I found one.
This starts out happy. And then it gets a little bleak. And then it comes together in a manic fit of emotion.
This is Aleksandar's documented memory and it provides so much insight to his shattered world. At times, we are as disillusioned as he is-but then he enlightens us with his deft storytelling... His sporadic thoughts...
"If I were a magician who could make things possible, I'd have lemonade always tasting as it did on the evening Francesco explained how right it was for the Italian moon to be a feminine moon. If I were a magician who could make things possible, we'd be able to understand all languages every evening between eight and nine. If I were a magician who could make things possible, all dams would keep their promises. If I were a magician who could make things possible, we'd be really brave."
Sasa Stanisic is a truly innovative author. This was spectacular.
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Normandy: The Real Story Review

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Normandy: The Real Story ReviewThis was a sound book. Denis Whitaker was a veteran of Normandy, fighting (and being wounded) with the Canadian army. Not surprisingly, this book gives a lot more attention to what the Canadians and also the Poles achieved, particularly regarding Falaise. It covers the basic Normandy campaign too but it's strength is a greater emphasis on the battles of Mortain and the closing of the Falaise gap than is normally the case. I read a lot of things I hadn't come across before, for example some unit strength stats for Mortain and some interesting stats regarding Typhoon casualties. There was also a lot of new veterans accounts, many obtained by the authors themselves but also some fresh stuff regarding the German perspective from New Orleans University's oral history unit. Indeed, overall, this book has something new to offer regarding a campaign that has been covered a lot, often using the same tired quotes.
The authors get a little breathless at times, especially when 'recounting' general's conversations and thoughts and there's the occasional passage that needed clarification - like the quote from an airforce unit claiming 100 Tiger tanks destroyed. But overall, the book has a lot to offer. I particuarly enjoyed the final chapter where the practise of praising the German defence is challenged and a (well argued) call made to give the Allied troops more credit for the victory.
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Sea Cobra: Admiral Halsey's Task Force and the Great Pacific Typhoon Review

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Sea Cobra: Admiral Halsey's Task Force and the Great Pacific Typhoon ReviewIn 2007 two different publishers released two different books on the 1944-1945 typhoons that sank three ships in the U.S. Third Fleet. Under the command of Admiral William Halsey, the U.S. Navy lost more men due to these natural disasters than it did at the battle of Midway. Bob Drury and Tom Clavin's "Halsey's Typhoon" was the first one to make it to book stores and garnered more attention and sales than Buckner F. Melton Jr.'s "Sea Cobra." Given the timing and focus of these two books, this review will compare and contrast the two. In short, there is no question that Melton wrote the better book.
The illustrations of carriers, battleships, oilers, destroyers, and destroyer escorts compared to 30, 60, and 90 foot waves is the best feature of Drury and Clavin's account. It gives landlubbers a good idea of how rough seas are problems for some ships and not for others. The shortcomings of this book, however, are much more significant. First, the book ignores altogether the second typhoon Halsey sailed into. Melton discusses this one, but not at length. This brevity is understandable, the second typhoon did less damage and sank no ships. It does show, though, that the commander and staff of the Third Fleet learned little from their experiences with the first typhoon despite efforts to do so. The problem that Drury and Clavin have is that this second storm undermines their argument that Halsey was largely blameless for sailing into the typhoons.
The mechanics of publishing also favor Melton. Drury and Clavin have only one map. Melton has nine. He also provides an extensive bibliography and footnotes, whereas Drury and Clavin have a brief bibliography and make no effort to provide any sort of documentation on their sources. Drury and Clavin also make a number of basic mistakes when it comes to nautical matters and use maritime terms incorrectly. Examples include "helming" a ship; calling a battle jack a "battle guideon" (an Army term); referring to a ship's mess deck as its "mess hall." They also put generals in the Japanese Navy Ministry and refer to the Army Ministry as the "War Department" (an American term). Stylistically, Melton is the better wordsmith. Drury and Clavin use too many editorializing adverbs ("legendary" or "untold") to exaggerate the significance of their story.
Much more significant is the thesis of each book. Drury and Clavin make Lt. Cmdr. James Marks, captain of the USS HULL, out to be the main villain in this incident. The HULL was one of his ships lost in the first typhoon. This charge seems reasonable at first, but Marks' seamanship does not explain why the USS MONAGHAN and SPENCE sank, nor does it explain a number of close calls on other ships. It seems that the two authors allowed crewmen from the HULL that they interviewed for the book to use the opportunity to settle old scores with Marks. In fact, Drury and Clavin do not spend much time talking about ships other than the HULL while Melton does. Melton also gives much more attention to the post storm investigation. Since Marks was the subject of an official investigation, Drury and Clavin argue this was proof enough of his guilt. The fact that there was no court-martial or that the other captains died in the storm makes this observation rather weak. Melton gives a much more nuanced description of the investigation. Halsey rather than Marks was the main target of the investigation and the board placed primary blame for sailing into the storm on the Admiral. There were a number of mitigating circumstances, though, and Melton is good at describing them. This incident is no black and white morality play.
In short, Melton offers a much better book than Drury and Clavin.
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