History

Title: Targeted Killing: Self-Defense, Preemption, and the War on Terrorism
Author: Thomas B. Hunter
Genre: Non-Fiction, History
Reviewer: Larry Wikoff

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 143925205X

Targeted Killing: Self-Defense, Preemption, and the War on Terrorism by Thomas Hunter presents a reasoned, impeccably researched, and multi-faceted analysis of the tactic of targeted killing assessing its role, efficacy, and appropriateness in the current world political and military climate. Target killing is just one available option to national governments in their varied arsenals of state-sponsored strategies and tactics for fighting terrorism. Nevertheless, it is one of the most controversial and logistically dangerous options a government can exercise in preemptive strikes against real and current threats to national security. Author Hunter skillfully maneuvers through the moral, military, political, and tactical issues that can both cloud and clarify a government’s implementation of state-sponsored targeted killing. Written with an expert and precise understanding of the issue, Targeted Killing offers an objective and indispensable perspective on a contentious and timely debate.

Title: Eisenhower & Montgomery at the Falaise Gap
Author: William Wiedner
Genre: Non-Fiction, History
Reviewer: Bill McDonald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1441597980

Hoping to avoid an unfavorable comparison with the much larger United States Army in France, British leaders sometimes played politics with Allied strategy. The trouble began at a small town in Normandy named Falaise. The fourteen (14) miles between Falaise and Argentan have come down through history as the Falaise Gap. Between August 8 and August 21, 1944, the Allies won a great victory in France. But it was not as complete as it might have been and over 100,000 German soldiers used this gap as their escape route out of France. The Supreme Allied Commander, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was not able to keep his generals focused on their enemy. As historian Russell F. Weigley observed, 'The Allied armies in Europe simply lacked one of the prerequisites of military success, unity of command.' After the Battle of the Falaise Gap, Allied decisions appeared to be more the result of partisan political bickering than sound military strategy. By September 1944, the Anglo-American military alliance was dead and it required every ounce of General Eisenhower's considerable political skill to keep this secret from the public

Title: T-41 Mescalero:The Military Cessna172
Author: Walt Shiel
Genre: Non-Fiction, History
Reviewer: Buddy Cox

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0974655333

In 2006, the ubiquitous Cessna Model 172 Skyhawk turned 50, with a seldom-heralded military record almost as long. Now, for the first time, the Skyhawk's military history is revealed in all its depth and breadth, covering its use by the armed forces of 54 countries. Cessna delivered 867 T-41 Mescaleros (the military version of the 172) in four distinct models to countries around the world -- plus another 158 off-the-shelf 172s, with many still serving into the 21st century. T-41 Mescalero captures this extensive history in print, complete with stories and photographs from around the world.

Title: American Guerrilla: The Forgotten Heroics of Russell W. Volckmann-The Man Who Escaped from Bataan, Raised a Filipino Army Against the Japanese, and ... True "Father" of Army Special Forces
Author: Mike Guardia
Reviewer: Bob Flournoy

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1935149229

A main selection of the Military Book Club and a selection of the History Book Club.

With his parting words "I shall return," General Douglas MacArthur sealed the fate of the last American forces on Bataan. Yet one young Army Captain named Russell Volckmann refused to surrender. He disappeared into the jungles of north Luzon where he raised a Filipino army of over 22,000 men. For the next three years he led a guerrilla war against the Japanese, killing over 50,000 enemy soldiers. At the same time he established radio contact with MacArthur's HQ in Australia and directed Allied forces to key enemy positions. When General Yamashita finally surrendered, he made his initial overtures not to MacArthur, but to Volckmann.

This book establishes how Volckmann's leadership was critical to the outcome of the war in the Philippines. His ability to synthesize the realities and potential of guerrilla warfare led to a campaign that rendered Yamashita's forces incapable of repelling the Allied invasion. Had it not been for Volckmann, the Americans would have gone in "blind" during their counter-invasion, reducing their efforts to a trial-and-error campaign that would undoubtedly have cost more lives, materiel, and potentially stalled the pace of the entire Pacific War.

Second, this book establishes Volckmann as the progenitor of modern counterinsurgency doctrine and the true "Father" of Army Special Forces- a title that history has erroneously awarded to Colonel Aaron Bank of the ETO. In 1950, Volckmann wrote two Army field manuals: Operations Against Guerrilla Forces and Organization and Conduct of Guerrilla Warfare, though today few realize he was their author. Together, they became the Army's first handbooks outlining the precepts for both special warfare and counter-guerrilla operations. Taking his argument directly to the Army Chief of Staff, Volckmann outlined the concept for Army Special Forces. At a time when U.S. military doctrine was conventional in outlook, he marketed the ideas of guerrilla warfare as a critical force multiplier for any future conflict, ultimately securing the establishment of the Army's first special operations unit-the 10th Special Forces Group.

Volckmann himself remains a shadowy figure in modern military history, his name absent from every major biography on MacArthur, and in much of the Special Forces literature. Yet as modest, even secretive, as Volckmann was during his career, it is difficult to imagine a man whose heroic initiative had more impact on World War II. This long overdue book not only chronicles the dramatic military exploits of Russell Volckmann, but analyzes how his leadership paved the way for modern special warfare doctrine.