Excellent, as is Halberstam’s custom, and instructive for those seeking to understand geopolitical realities.
Another weighty tome from the noted journalist and historian, this one chronicling the sometimes confused, always complex junction of foreign policy and military might.
Halberstam (The Children, 1998, etc.), a familiar explainer of the ways of Washington, here turns his attention to an ongoing matter: the reshaping of the US military following the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War. When the armed services faced its first major test after the fall of the Soviet Union, it was in the one-sided Persian Gulf War, “a devastating four-day land war, a rout preceded by five weeks of lethal, high-precision, high-technology air dominance.” Halberstam focuses closely on John Warden, a “brilliant, truly innovative, and equally difficult” air force colonel who, having been sharply critical of the conduct of the Vietnam War, developed a doctrine of absolute air supremacy and of bombing the enemy into submission; he also looks closely at Warden’s civilian counterparts, who imposed political conditions on the military and, some critics have charged, prevented the Allied forces from taking Baghdad and putting an end to Saddam Hussein’s regime. Other recent military ventures, Halberstam observes, ended less successfully than the Gulf War, among them the disastrous American intervention in Somalia and the inconclusive invasion of Haiti; no international conflict exposed the weakness of American resolve and the ongoing legacy of the so-called Vietnam Syndrome than the outbreak of the war in Bosnia, about which the first Bush administration did next to nothing and the Clinton administration merely dithered. As always, Halberstam’s cast of characters numbers in the high dozens, and his fondness for encyclopedic detail lends a daunting air to an already dense discussion. Still, well-written and lucid, his narrative reveals a military that continues to be ill-coordinated to meet—and sometimes opposed to—the political ends of its civilian overseers, who in turn often seem terminally confused about the rest of the world.
Excellent, as is Halberstam’s custom, and instructive for those seeking to understand geopolitical realities.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7432-0212-0
Page Count: 548
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2001
Yet another Kennedy bio from the school of journalism that mistakes an avalanche of minutiae for the thoughtful examination of a life. No irrelevant detail—from the length of her skirts to the thank-you notes she sent her dressmaker—escapes examination in this account of Ethel Kennedy's life. If Oppenheimer (Barbara Walters, 1990, etc.) has a point of view, it seems to be that being rich and famous is hell, and it is hell squared if you're both a Skakel and a Kennedy. A brief review of Ethel's ancestors takes the reader back to Yazoo County, Miss., and her great-grandfather, who was one of 11 children. Ethel herself was one of seven in an unruly tribe, wealthy and privileged but undisciplined. Her brothers terrorized Greenwich, Conn., with their antics, as some of Ethel's 11 children would later terrorize Hyannis Port, Mass., and Hickory Hill, Va. The young Ethel was nevertheless a good fit for the Kennedy family. Athletic, schooled by the nuns of the Sacred Heart (as were Rose and her daughters) to give husband and children priority in life, she was an exuberant, extroverted complement to the sometimes melancholy Robert F. Kennedy. She also bravely faced tragic loss—her parents, her brother, her brother-in-law, her husband, a son. But she was a notorious penny-pincher, could be vindictive and unreasonably demanding, and was given to rages after Bobby's assassination. That her flaws and her family scandals overshadow her virtues and accomplishments make this unrewarding reading. Arranging index cards in the right order does not make for enlightening biography. With her children leading relatively useful lives and with a personal history of philanthropic activism, Ethel deserves better. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen) ($150,000 ad/promo)
Pub Date: Sept. 23, 1994
ISBN: 0-312-11040-5
Page Count: 521
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
A copious account of the modern American experience with terrorism that substitutes descriptive detail for thoughtful analysis. Although the book's title implies a comprehensive history of terrorist activity in America, the text covers the period from 1776 to the 1950s in less than 30 pages. The narrative proper develops after 1968, which Simon, editor-in-chief of TVI (Terrorism, Violence, Insurgency Report), pinpoints as ``the beginning of international terrorism as we know it today.'' He explores three central themes: the growing frequency of terrorist acts; the presidential role in countering terrorism; and the potential for terrorists to exploit sophisticated weaponry and technology. Using interviews with terrorists, hostages and other victims, government officials, and, most effectively, former presidents, Simon conveys the personal drama inherent in these often tragic events. These episodes, however, are frequently mired in excessive detail and lacking in critical analysis. Simon accepts the ``endless nature of terrorism,'' and thus falls into a pattern of describing individual incidents without considering their larger causes or their common linkages. For instance, Simon does not discuss the relation between America's economic, political, and social ties to Israel and its increasing position as a target of terrorist activity. Thus the connections among the 197981 Iranian hostage crisis, the 1983 bombings of the US embassy and marine barracks in Lebanon, the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking, the Persian Gulf War, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing (to which he devotes significant space) are never drawn. Simon deserves credit for broaching such a broad and overwhelming subject as terrorism—a subject he has obviously studied at great length. Though he may understand the manifold definitions of ``terrorism,'' however, these distinctions are not clearly identifiable for the reader. Despite its various limitations, the book proves a worthwhile read on a thorny and highly sensationalized topic. (45 b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-253-35249-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Indiana Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
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