A vivid history of the long campaign against the Dragon’s Jaw Bridge; especially recommended for aficionados of air warfare.
The detailed story of American pilots’ attempts to destroy a key bridge during the Vietnam War.
Bestselling novelist and decorated Navy aviator Coonts (The Armageddon File, 2017, etc.) teams up with air warfare historian Tillman (On Wave and Wing: The 100 Year Quest to Perfect the Aircraft Carrier, 2017, etc.) for an account that looks well past its nominal subject to give a wide-ranging history of the Vietnam War in the air. The Thanh Hoa bridge, completed in 1964, got the name “Dragon’s Jaw” from the rock formations on which it was built. Carrying a highway and a railroad line, it was a strategic transportation link as well as a matter of national pride for North Vietnam. As such, the bridge became an important target for American forces. But its robust construction—and the defensive measures around it—made it an infuriatingly resistant target. The authors detail one assault after another, listing pilots killed or captured in the attempt and providing the stories of those who attacked it without success. Coonts’ novelistic skills make the set pieces compelling, and attentive readers will get an education in the evolving technology of air warfare and anti-aircraft defense. The narrative is especially memorable for its account of the naval aviators who launched their attacks from carriers, many of whom are quoted at length. The authors also draw on North Vietnamese records, though with a degree of skepticism. At the same time, they are scathing in their attack on American leaders, especially Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara, for their failure to press the air war as hard as they might have out of fear of bringing Chinese troops into the conflict. Several bombing halts gave the North time to build up its forces and launch offensives. In the end, advances in weaponry gave the bombers the edge they needed to bring down the bridge—though it took years of relentless attacks and the loss of numerous planes and pilots to do so.
A vivid history of the long campaign against the Dragon’s Jaw Bridge; especially recommended for aficionados of air warfare.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-306-90347-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Da Capo
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
HISTORY | MILITARY | WORLD | GENERAL HISTORY
A horde-pleaser, well-written and full of surprises.
“The Mongols swept across the globe as conquerors,” writes the appreciative pop anthropologist-historian Weatherford (The History of Money, 1997, etc.), “but also as civilization’s unrivaled cultural carriers.”
No business-secrets fluffery here, though Weatherford does credit Genghis Khan and company for seeking “not merely to conquer the world but to impose a global order based on free trade, a single international law, and a universal alphabet with which to write all the languages of the world.” Not that the world was necessarily appreciative: the Mongols were renowned for, well, intemperance in war and peace, even if Weatherford does go rather lightly on the atrocities-and-butchery front. Instead, he accentuates the positive changes the Mongols, led by a visionary Genghis Khan, brought to the vast territories they conquered, if ever so briefly: the use of carpets, noodles, tea, playing cards, lemons, carrots, fabrics, and even a few words, including the cheer hurray. (Oh, yes, and flame throwers, too.) Why, then, has history remembered Genghis and his comrades so ungenerously? Whereas Geoffrey Chaucer considered him “so excellent a lord in all things,” Genghis is a byword for all that is savage and terrible; the word “Mongol” figures, thanks to the pseudoscientific racism of the 19th century, as the root of “mongoloid,” a condition attributed to genetic throwbacks to seed sown by Mongol invaders during their decades of ravaging Europe. (Bad science, that, but Dr. Down’s son himself argued that imbeciles “derived from an earlier form of the Mongol stock and should be considered more ‘pre-human, rather than human.’ ”) Weatherford’s lively analysis restores the Mongols’ reputation, and it takes some wonderful learned detours—into, for instance, the history of the so-called Secret History of the Mongols, which the Nazis raced to translate in the hope that it would help them conquer Russia, as only the Mongols had succeeded in doing.
A horde-pleaser, well-written and full of surprises.Pub Date: March 2, 2004
ISBN: 0-609-61062-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Harari delivers yet another tour de force.
A highly instructive exploration of “current affairs and…the immediate future of human societies.”
Having produced an international bestseller about human origins (Sapiens, 2015, etc.) and avoided the sophomore jinx writing about our destiny (Homo Deus, 2017), Harari (History/Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem) proves that he has not lost his touch, casting a brilliantly insightful eye on today’s myriad crises, from Trump to terrorism, Brexit to big data. As the author emphasizes, “humans think in stories rather than in facts, numbers, or equations, and the simpler the story, the better. Every person, group, and nation has its own tales and myths.” Three grand stories once predicted the future. World War II eliminated the fascist story but stimulated communism for a few decades until its collapse. The liberal story—think democracy, free markets, and globalism—reigned supreme for a decade until the 20th-century nasties—dictators, populists, and nationalists—came back in style. They promote jingoism over international cooperation, vilify the opposition, demonize immigrants and rival nations, and then win elections. “A bit like the Soviet elites in the 1980s,” writes Harari, “liberals don’t understand how history deviates from its preordained course, and they lack an alternative prism through which to interpret reality.” The author certainly understands, and in 21 painfully astute essays, he delivers his take on where our increasingly “post-truth” world is headed. Human ingenuity, which enables us to control the outside world, may soon re-engineer our insides, extend life, and guide our thoughts. Science-fiction movies get the future wrong, if only because they have happy endings. Most readers will find Harari’s narrative deliciously reasonable, including his explanation of the stories (not actually true but rational) of those who elect dictators, populists, and nationalists. His remedies for wildly disruptive technology (biotech, infotech) and its consequences (climate change, mass unemployment) ring true, provided nations act with more good sense than they have shown throughout history.
Harari delivers yet another tour de force.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-51217-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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