Compass Points - Books of Battle
Plus Vietnam Veterans Day
Compass Points - Books of Battle
Plus Vietnam Veterans Day
March 29, 2024
.
Today, March 29th is National Vietnam War Veterans Day. Happy Viet Vets Day! The Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 was signed into law by the 45th U.S. President designating every March 29 as National Vietnam War Veterans Day. The Vietnam War, which included fighting in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, spanned two decades, roughly from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. The US Marines distinguished themselves on the battlefields of Vietnam. Later after the conflict, many of the Vietnam era Marines helped to repair and upgrade the Marine Corps into the premier, global, crisis response force that has been the subject of such acclaim for the last 50 years. Many of the Vietnam era Marines are still working to upgrade and improve the Marine Corps today. Compass Points salutes all the Vietnam era Marines for their faithful service to Country and Corps.
.
In addition to celebrating the service of all Vietnam era vets, today is a good day to celebrate Spring. Spring is here. It is time to open up some windows, get outside, and start enjoying sunny days. Besides opening up some windows, Spring is a great time to open up new ideas and new thinking from new books and blogs.
.
We live in an age of social media including popular sites like: LinkedIn, TikTok, Tumblr, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, SnapChat, X (Twitter), WhatsApp, Quora, Facebook, Pinterest, Telegram, WeChat, Discord, Rumble, Messenger, and Twitch. All of these are short form social communication platforms, emphasizing speed, fun, informality, and always pics and videos and more pics and videos. The social sites have their uses and obviously a wide appeal, but social media sites are also limited. As powerful and ubiquitous as social media is today, social media is not a good source for longer, more in depth study. Social media cannot do what a book can do. A book is a long form discussion between the reader and author. The author has the pages and time to delve into a subject and explain an entire new theory, perspective, or event.
.
Books are long compared to the few words of a social media post and most books have no pictures at all. Yet, in the hands of a powerful author, a book conjures up whole worlds into existence. The reader becomes immersed in the author's argument and the author's world. And even when the reader may disagree and talk back, out loud, to the author, the reader reads on. Pages slide along as the battle, the story, the proposal expands. The reader turns dozens of pages one by one, and then perhaps hundreds of pages more. At the conclusion of a good book, the reader awakens as if from a trance and regrets that the author's magic has gone. The journey, though, remains. The right books are foundational. They form a bedrock of knowledge, insight, understanding and belief.
.
Military. com recently surveyed their readers and came up with a reading list of military related books. The list includes:
.
============
.
"The Killer Angels: A Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara: "Though it covers a past conflict, it discusses the American civil-military relationship like no other book. Its insight on tactical preparation for combat is also without equal."
"Starship Troopers" by Robert A. Heinlein: "The book showcases the importance of loyalty, moral courage, recognizing humanity even in adversaries, and the sense of duty that comes from love of country and what it represents.These timeless soldierly values ring true regardless of branch, era or [the] true sci-fi nature of the story."
"Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae" by Steven Pressfield: "It is the quintessential book on leadership, service and sacrifice for the greater good. There are more lessons and good quotes in this book than any other I have ever read."
"Catch-22" by Joseph Heller: Since its publication in the early 1960s, "Catch-22" has been a top pick for both military and civilian reading lists, and our survey was no different.
"On War" by Carl von Clausewitz: "It is one of the most important treatises on political-military analysis and strategy ever written, and remains both controversial and influential on strategic thinking."
"A Message to Garcia" by Elbert Hubbard: "It promotes attention to detail, following orders, taking initiative, and determination."
"About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior" by Retired Col. David H. Hackworth: "This book stands up to the test of time as a classic with insights into historical conflicts and the impact of decisions made by the Pentagon and the U.S. government."
"Art of War" by Sun Tzu: Many Military.com readers chose "Art of War" by Sun Tzu as their No. 1 book for service members.
Top Pick: Overwhelmingly, "Once an Eagle" by Anton Myrer was suggested as the book U.S. service members should read. Over and over, readers cited the novel's accurate depiction of leadership and service across ranks as the reason it rose to the top of their lists.
-- Military.com
.
============
.
Compass Points readers have their own thoughts about books and blogs. First, some recommended military related blogs include:
https://mwi.westpoint.edu/
https://www.understandingwar.org/
https://taskandpurpose.com/
https://smallwarsjournal.com/
https://warontherocks.com/
https://military.feedspot.com/military_blogs/
https://feedly.com/i/top/military-blogs
https://themilitaryleader.com/resource-recommendations/blogs/
https://blogsofwar.com/
-----------------------
Then, in no particular order, here are some books recently read or re-read and recommended by Compass Points readers.
.
============
.
-- The Arms of the Future: Technology and Close Combat in the Twenty-First Century
By Jack Watling, a Senior Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute in Great Britain
.
-- Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial intelligence
By Paul Scharre, a former US Army Ranger. He is currently the vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security.
.
-- The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict Between the US and Xi Jinping’s China
by Kevin Rudd, president and CEO of the Asia Society. He was the Australian Prime Minister from 2007-2010 and for three months in 2013. He is currently the Australian Ambassador to the United States.
.
-- War From the Groups UP: Twenty-First-Century Combat as Politics.
By Emile Simpson a former British Army officer with service in Afghanistan, Brunei, Nepal, and the Falklands. He was a Visiting Defence Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Changing Character of War Programme.
.
-- Reconsidering the American Way of War: US Military Practice From the Revolution to Afghanistan.
By Antulio J. Echevarria, a retired US Army officer who hold a doctorate from Princeton University. Currently he is the Editor-in-Chief of the US Army War College Press, a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and an Adjunct Fellow at the Modern War Institute.
.
-- The Direction of War: Contemporary Strategy in Historical Perspective.
By Hew Strachan. The author is Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford, a member of the Strategic Advisory Panel of the Chief of the Defence Staff and the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. From 2004 to 2012 he was the Director of the Oxford’s Changing Character of War Programme.
.
-- Combined Arms Warfare in the Twentieth Century.
By Jonathan M. House. The author is a retired US Army officer and a Professor of History at Gordon College in Georgia. He served as a political-military analyst for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
.
-- The Roots of Military Doctrine: Change and Continuity in Understanding the Practice of Warfare
By Aaron P. Jackson. The author is a Doctrine Desk Officer in the Australian Defence Forces Joint Doctrine Centre.
.
-- The Sociology of Military Science: Prospects for Postinstitutional Military Design
By Chris Paparone, a retired US Army officer and an Associate Professor & Deputy Team Leader at the US Army Command and General Staff College Fort Gregg-Adams Satellite Campus.
.
-- Understanding The Military Design Movement: War, Change and Innovation
By Ben Zweibelson, a retired US Army officer and director for the US Space Command’s Strategic Innovation Group.
.
-- Colonel of Marines, Michael D Wyly, a Marine with a Vision
By Anthony J. Piscitelli. A compelling biography of one of the principal leaders of the Marine Corps' maneuver warfare revolution.
.
-- The Shortest History of War -- From Hunter-Gatherers to Nuclear Superpowers―A Retelling for Our Times
By Gwynne Dyer
.
-- The Iran-Iraq War - The Greatest Land War of the Late Twentieth Century
By E.R. Hooton
.
-- The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order
By Samuel P. Huntington - University Professor at Harvard University, Director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies
.
-- Military History for the Modern Strategist: America's Major Wars Since 1861
By Michael O'Hanlon, Senior Fellow and Director of Research Foreign Policy Program, Brookings Institute.
.
-- Making the Corps - 10th Anniversary Edition
By Thomas E. Ricks
.
-- The Gallic War & the Civil War By Julius Caesar
.
-- War, Peace and International Relations - An Introduction to Strategic History
By Colin Gray
.
-- Maxims of War By Napoleon Bonaparte
.
-- Conflict -- The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine
By David Petraeus - Former CIA director & Leading warrior intellectual
.
-- Understanding the New Proxy Wars - Battlegrounds and Strategies Reshaping the Greater Middle East
By Peter Bergen
.
-- Money for Mayhem - Mercenaries, Private Military Companies, Drones, and the Future of War
By Alessandro Arduino
.
-- Brink of War - A Prosecution Force Thriller
By Logan Ryles - Action-packed and mystery-laced storyteller.
.
--Battlefield Ukraine - Book One of the Red Storm Series
By James Rosone
.
============
.
And because this is Viet Vets Day, we will add to the book list: Fields of Fire by Jim Webb and The Village by Bing West -- both classics of the Vietnam War. Compass Points salutes all our Vietnam Vets today and encourages readers to share additional books and blogs that they find valuable. Compass Points encourages everyone to go buy a book today! Then go buy a drink for your friendly, neighborhood, Vietnam Vet!
.
- - - - -
.
Military.com - 03/27/2024
17 Books Every Service Member Should Read, According to Troops and Veterans
By Joanna Guldin
Pretty good list, but don’t read just one and done, you’ll need to read multiple books in order to pull out the best bits. No book is perfect so expect to disagree with the author on some things but over a series of books you should be able to sharpen your understanding.
Please add then Major H R McMaster’s Dereliction of Duty:, LBJ, Robert MacNamara, the JCS and the lies that led to the Vietnam War