A DIFFERENT KIND OF WAR

Not really a different kind of war since another military memoirist takes to the field again to give vent to the multitude of frustrations which complicates the life of the field commander--the bureaucracy and red tape in Washington, the interference of ""uninformed"" superior officers, logistical difficulties, bungling. Vice Admiral Miles' biography, hors de combat of literature, is typical of the genre; he was also an unsung hero. There is no doubt that his story is interesting. He created an army of 100,000 Chinese guerrillas to fight the Japanese and lived and fought with them for four years enduring countless difficulties. Much of the sophistication of our armed forces counter-insurgency techniques were first learned in China. These often become peripheral, however, to his frustrations, which almost border on paranoia at times. Washington was a vast conspiracy against him. He was a military man who thought merely in terms of military goals rather than military/political ones. It is well to read such a volume if for no other reason than to remind ourselves that ""wars are too dangerous to be fought by the military."" Still, his name does not have the automatic assurance of other old soldiers.