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The Easter Offensive Of 1972 (Indochina Monographs #5)
by Lt. Gen. Ngo Quang TruongIncludes over 30 maps and illustrationsThis monograph forms part of the Indochina Monograph series written by senior military personnel from the former Army of the Republic of Vietnam who served against the northern communist invasion."In 1968, a U.S. presidential election year, Communist North Vietnam initiated the Tet Offensive, striking at almost all major cities and towns of South Vietnam. This general offensive was eventually defeated by the collective efforts of the Republic of Vietnam, United States and Free World Assistance forces. Four years later, in 1972--again a U.S. presidential election year--North Vietnam threw its entire military might behind an invasion to conquer the South. This time, however, South Vietnam had to fight for survival with only logistics and combat support provided by the United States. Almost all U.S. and Free World Military Assistance combat forces had been withdrawn when the first attacks began on 30 April 1972.By all standards, the Easter Offensive of 1972 was one of North Vietnam's most significant initiatives during the Vietnam War. This all-out effort involved eventually in excess of ten divisions on each side and affected the lives of well over a million South Vietnamese people. During the eight long months of fierce fighting, the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces put Vietnamization to a severe test.During the period of the Easter Offensive, I had the privilege of participating in some of its major battles, first as IV Corps and then as I Corps commander beginning in early May 1972. I visited many of our combat units as they fought the North Vietnam Army and commanded the RVNAF counteroffensive to retake Quang Tri City. My critical analysis of the enemy 1972 Easter Invasion, therefore, is based almost exclusively on my own personal observations, impressions and interviews with Vietnamese who were directly involved."-Authors' Preface.
The Eastern Fleet and the Indian Ocean, 1942–1944: The Fleet that Had to Hide
by Charles StephensonThe story of the British Eastern Fleet, which operated in the Indian Ocean against Japan, has rarely been told. Although it was the largest fleet deployed by the Royal Navy prior to 1945 and played a vital part in the theater it was sent to protect, it has no place in the popular consciousness of the naval history of the Second World War. So Charles Stephenson’s deeply researched and absorbing narrative gives this forgotten fleet the recognition it deserves. British prewar naval planning for the Far East is part of the story, as is the disastrous loss of the battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse in 1941, but the body of the book focuses on the new fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir James Somerville, and its operations against the Japanese navy and aircraft as well as Japanese and German submarines. Later in the war, once the fleet had been reinforced with an American aircraft carrier, it was strong enough to take more aggressive actions against the Japanese, and these are described in vivid detail. Charles Stephenson’s authoritative study should appeal to readers who have a special interest in the war with Japan, in naval history more generally and Royal Navy in particular.
Eastern Front: Encirclement and Escape by German Forces (Eastern Front From Primary Sources)
by Bob CarruthersThe ferocious battles for survival fought by trapped German forces in Russia have become synonymous with that most terrible of all military campaigns. shortly after the war the personal experiences of those who had fought in the battles were collected together as the German report series. These reports include invaluable information from impeccable sources on the pockets formed at Klin, Velikiye Luki, Cherkassy and Kamenets-Podolskiy.Also included are contemporary reports featuring German encirclement tactics, and an in-depth feature on the Kiev operation. This new compilation is essential reading for anyone interested in discovering the real experience of the German forces trapped in Russia.This book is part of the 'Hitler's War Machine' series, a new military history range compiled and edited by Emmy Award winning author and historian Bob Carruthers. The series draws on primary sources and contemporary documents to provide a new insight into the true nature of Hitler's Wehrmacht.The series consultant is David Mcwhinnie creator of the award winning PBS series 'Battlefield'.
The Eastern Front 1914-1917
by Norman Stone'Without question one of the classics of post-war historical scholarship, Stone's boldly conceived and brilliantly executed book opened the eyes of a generation of young British historians raised on tales of the Western trenches to the crucial importance of the Eastern Front in the First World War' Niall Ferguson 'Scholarly, lucid, entertaining, based on a thorough knowledge of Austrian and Russian sources, it sharply revises traditional assumptions about the First World War.' Michael Howard
The Eastern Front Air War, 1941–1945: Rare Photographs From Wartime Archives (Images of War)
by Anthony Tucker-JonesThis lavishly illustrated WWII history examines the bitter aerial combat of the Eastern Front through rare wartime photographs and informative text. Though the air war was a major aspect of the Eastern Front conflict, it has long been neglected by historians. Anthony Tucker-Jones&’s photographic history offers a vividly detailed introduction to the subject. With more than 150 archival images—most of which have never been published before—this volume examines Stalin&’s Red Air Force and Hitlers Luftwaffe, their equipment, and the role they played in supporting the war on the ground. Just before Hitler&’s invasion of the Soviet Union, Stalin had decimated the leadership of the Red Air Force in a series of purges. Thousands of Russian fighter aircraft were swiftly destroyed in the German Blitzkrieg. But a remarkable recovery followed as the Red Air Force turned the tide against the ravages of the Luftwaffe to wrestle back air superiority by 1944.
The Eastern Front Campaign: An Operational Level Analysis
by Major David S. WilsonThe Eastern Front, 1941-1945, is one of the biggest and most decisive theaters of operation in modern history, and was the largest theater of war in World War Two. A total force of 9 million Germans and Russians battled on both sides with a combined strength of 590 divisions. Military losses approached 5 million German casualties, and 17 million Russian casualties. Altogether, both sides had an active strength of 13,000 tanks, 18,000 combat aircraft, and 50,000 artillery pieces. With the exception of the massive Allied Combined bombing campaign, the Allied effort of ninety-three divisions in Western Europe against seventy German division pales in comparison.Another interesting point in the Eastern Front was initial nature of German operational maneuver, followed by the evolution of Russian operational maneuver. By 1944, the Russian Army had become experts on operational maneuver, and maximized the principals of war of mass, objective, offense, and maneuver. The German Army against an army four times its size eventually culminated, but not until after four years of intense fighting. Eighty percent of total German casualties were lost on the Eastern front, 4.7 million of 6 million casualties. Further, both sides lost an estimated 65,000 tanks and 60,000 combat aircraft, two-thirds being Russian.The methodology of this analysis is chronological, based on the successive operational campaigns from June 1941 through May 1945. Each campaign lists the order of battle, and then the combat power using Lanchester equations (Frederich W. Lanchester) of military combat. In studying modern war, the Eastern Front is a case study in a maneuver oriented army versus a large attrition based army. With almost six hundred years’ worth of German divisional combat on the Eastern Front, valuable lessons can be learned in studying this theater of war.
Eastern Front Sniper: The Life of Matthäus Hetzenauer (Greenhill Sniper Library)
by Roland KalteneggerEastern Front Sniper is a long overdue and comprehensive biography of one of World War IIs most accomplished snipers.Mathus Hetzenauer, the son of a Tyrolean peasant family, was born in December 1924. He was drafted into the Mountain Reserve Battalian 140 at the age of 18 but discharged five months later.He received a new draft notice in January 1943 for a post in the Styrian Truppenbungsplatz Seetal Alps where he met some of the best German snipers and learned his art.Hetzenauer went on to fight in Romania, Eastern Hungary and in Slovakia. As recognition for his more than 300 confirmed kills he was awarded on the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on April 17, 1945.After nearly five years of Soviet captivity Mathus Hetzenauer returned to Austria on January 10, 1950. He lived in the Tyrol's Brixen Valley until his death on 3 October of 2004.
The Eastern Gate: War and Peace in Nagaland, Manipur and India's Far East
by Sudeep ChakravartiTraders, Pushers, Soldiers, Spies.A pivot for India&’s Act-East policy. The gateway to a future of immense possibilities from hydrocarbons to regional trade over land and water that could create a new Silk Route. A bulwark against China. A cradle of climate change dynamics and migration. &‘Northeast&’ India, the appellation with which India&’s far-east is known, is all this and more.Alongside hope and aspiration, it is also home to immense ethnic and communal tension, and a decades-old Naga conflict and the high-profile peace process that involves four gateway states—Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam—and several million people. It&’s among the most militarized zones in the world. It&’s a playground of corruption and engineered violence. Only real peace, and calm in both Myanmar and Bangladesh, will unlock this Eastern gate.A keen observer and frequent chronicler of the region, Sudeep Chakravarti has for several years offered exclusive insights into the Machiavellian—Chanakyan—world of the Naga and other conflicts and various attempts to resolve these. He now melds the skills of a journalist, analyst, historian and ethnographer to offer inside stories and a ringside view to the tortuous, no-holds-barred attempts at resolving conflict.Employing a &‘dispatches&’ style of storytelling, and interviews with rebel leaders, politicians, bureaucrats, policymakers, security specialists and operatives, gunrunners, &‘narcos&’, peace negotiators and community leaders, Chakravarti&’s narrative provides a definitive guide to the transition from war to peace, even as he keeps a firm gaze on the future. The Eastern Gate is a tour de force that captures this story of our times.
Eastern Inferno: The Journals of a German Panzerjger on the Eastern Front, 1941-43
by Hans Roth&“Remarkable personal journals…revealing the combat experience of the German-Russian War as seldom seen before…a harrowing yet poignant story.&”—Military Times Hans Roth was a member of the anti-tank (Panzerjager) battalion, 299th Infantry Division, attached to Sixth Army, as the invasion of Russia began. As events transpired, he recorded the tension as the Germans deployed on the Soviet frontier in June 1941. Then a firestorm broke loose as the Wehrmacht tore across the front, forging into the primitive vastness of the East. During the Kiev encirclement, Roth's unit was under constant attack as the Soviets desperately tried to break through the German ring. At one point, after the enemy had finally been beaten, a friend serving with the SS led him to a site—possibly Babi Yar—where he witnessed civilians being massacred. After suffering through a brutal winter against apparently endless Russian reserves, his division went on the offensive again, as the Germans drove toward Stalingrad. In these journals, attacks and counterattacks are described in you-are-there detail. Roth wrote privately, as if to keep himself sane, knowing his honest accounts of the horrors in the East could never pass Wehrmacht censors. When the Soviet counteroffensive of winter 1942 begins, his unit is stationed alongside the Italian 8th Army, and his observations of its collapse, as opposed to the reaction of the German troops sent to stiffen its front, are of special fascination. Roth&’s three journals were discovered many years after his disappearance, tucked away in the home of his brother. After his brother&’s death, his family discovered them and sent them to Rosel, Roth&’s wife. In time, Rosel handed down the journals to Erika, Roth&’s only daughter, who had emigrated to America. Roth was likely working on a fourth journal before he was reported missing in action in July 1944. Although his ultimate fate remains unknown, what he did leave behind, now finally revealed, is an incredible firsthand account of the horrific war the Germans waged in Russia.
Easternization: The Spread of Japanese Management Techniques to Developing Countries
by Raphael Kaplinsky Anne PosthumaJapanese industry has shown its superiority in a range of traded goods sectors. It was thought that this competitive advantage arose from the use of electronics-based flexible automation technologies, but it is now clear that the major source of this industrial strength is in the development and diffusion of new management techniques such as just-in-time production and total quality management.A number of Western firms have begun to introduce these management techniques and have begun to reap significant benefits, not just in lowering costs but also in improving product variety and quality, and in being able to satisfy customer needs more effectively. This is a practical and relevant book for those involved in the areas of policy and production, as well as being of relevance to those in the teaching and research communities.
Easy and Hard Ways Out: A Novel
by Robert GrossbachThe fast-paced, darkly funny novel of the men on the home front during the Vietnam War--with an infectious spirit akin to Kurt Vonnegut's finest storytellingThis furious, slapstick tale has been praised by the New York Times as one of the "best and brightest" novels about the Vietnam War. We follow the travails of Harvey Brank and his fellow employees, all undrafted malcontents working in a spectacularly small-minded, almost Kafkaesque engineering company. Assigned to build a fighter plane and drawn into office intrigues, Brank faces impossible demands. His wife, despairing of his patchy employment history and restlessness, hopes against hope that Brank won't get himself fired this time. But what do you do when everything conspires against your vision of a decent, peaceable life? Easy and Hard Ways Out is a blunt, freewheeling look at the men who stay home during wartime--a story about the everyday, with a timeless moral at its heart.
Easy Day for the Dead: A Seal Team Six Outcasts Novel (The SEAL Team Six Outcasts Novels)
by Howard E. Wasdin Stephen TemplinInfusing the hardcore intensity of their New York Times bestselling memoir, SEAL Team Six, into two pulse-pounding novels, Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin plunge readers into the electrifying action of the Outcasts, the elite SEAL warriors who covertly defy the rules when America&’s safety is on the line. They are the heroes the world will never know…Working under the radar in Special Ops unit Bitter Ash, these men and women take on the missions no one else wants. Every op is the highest possible risk and any moment could be their last. Now, they must parachute into the harsh desert on the border with Afghanistan, to meet a beautiful agent who will lead them to an Iranian biological warfare site they are to destroy with a suitcase-size nuke. And, like most missions, nothing goes according to plan, with a maniacal Revolutionary Guard officer a razor&’s edge away from exposing them. Then the team must free a hostage in Lebanon before the fight takes them halfway around the world—in a frantic battle of courage and stealth that America cannot afford to lose.
The Easy Day Was Yesterday: The Extreme Life of an SAS Soldier (Big Sky Publishing Ser.)
by Paul JordanFrom his cage in a putrid, overcrowded Indian gaol, Paul Jordan reflects on a life lived on the edge and curses the miscalculation that robbed him of his freedom. His childhood, marred by the loss of his father and brother, produce a young man hell bent on being the best of the best - an ambition he achieves by being selected to join the elite SAS. He survives the gut-wrenching training regime, deployment to the jungles of Asia and the horrors of genocide in Rwanda before leaving the army to embark on a career as a security adviser. His new life sees him pursuing criminals and gun-toting bandits in Papua New Guinea and the Solomons, protecting CNN newsmen as the US 7th Cavalry storms into Baghdad with the outbreak of the Iraq War, and facing death on a massive scale as he accompanies reporters into the devastated Indonesian town of Banda Aceh, flattened by the Boxing Day tsunami. During his 24 days in an Indian gaol, Paul Jordan discovers that friendship and human dignity somehow survive the filth and deprivation. This is a personal account of a tough, hardened fighter who suddenly finds himself totally dependent on others for his every need. The Easy Day was Yesterday is fast paced, brutally honest and raw, but laced with dark humour. The core of Paul Jordan's eventful life, however, is the strength of his bonds with family and friends and the ability of the human spirit to survive even the direst adversity.
Easy Target
by Tom SmithTom Smith didn't seem like the perfect candidate to fight for the United States in the Vietnam conflict, but being recruited for active duty gave him more than he bargained for. Chosen as an aero scout leading an elite squadron on combat missions, his job was to attract Viet Cong fire in order that the enemy be located and destroyed--a job with a fifty percent survival rate. From flying battle runs to rescuing wounded infantry to pulling off daring last-minute escapes, this is the incredible and unforgettable true first-hand account of the unlikeliest hero ever to survive a war.
The Eaves of Heaven
by Andrew X. PhamOne of the Ten Best Books of the Year, Washington Post Book World One of the Los Angeles Times’ Favorite Books of the Year One of the Top Ten National Books of 2008, Portland Oregonian A 2009 Honor Book of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association “Few books have combined the historical scope and the literary skill to give the foreign reader a sense of events from a Vietnamese perspective. . . . Now we can add Andrew Pham’s Eaves of Heaven to this list of indispensable books. ” —New York Times Book Review “Searing . . . vivid–and harrowing . . . Here is war and life through the eyes of a Vietnamese everyman. ” —Seattle Times Once wealthy landowners, Thong Van Pham’s family was shattered by the tumultuous events of the twentieth century: the French occupation of Indochina, the Japanese invasion during World War II, and the Vietnam War. Told in dazzling chapters that alternate between events in the past and those closer to the present,The Eaves of Heavenbrilliantly re-creates the trials of everyday life in Vietnam as endured by one man, from the fall of Hanoi and the collapse of French colonialism to the frenzied evacuation of Saigon. Pham offers a rare portal into a lost world as he chronicles Thong Van Pham’s heartbreaks, triumphs, and bizarre reversals of fortune, whether as a South Vietnamese soldier pinned down by enemy fire, a prisoner of the North Vietnamese under brutal interrogation, or a refugee desperately trying to escape Vietnam after the last American helicopter has abandoned Saigon. This is the story of a man caught in the maelstrom of twentieth-century politics, a gripping memoir told with the urgency of a wartime dispatch by a writer of surpassing talent.
Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945 (Dover Military History, Weapons, Armor)
by Robert J. HanyokThis recent government publication investigates an area often overlooked by historians: the impact of the Holocaust on the Western powers' intelligence-gathering community. A guide for researchers rather than a narrative study, it explains the archival organization of wartime records accumulated by the U.S. Army's Signal Intelligence Service and Britain's Government Code and Cypher School. In addition, it summarizes Holocaust-related information intercepted during the war years and deals at length with the fascinating question of how information about the Holocaust first reached the West.The guide begins with brief summaries of the history of anti-Semitism in the West and early Nazi policies in Germany. An overview of the Allies' system of gathering communications intelligence follows, along with a list of American and British sources of cryptologic records. A concise review of communications intelligence notes items of particular relevance to the Holocaust's historical narrative, and the book concludes with observations on cryptology and the Holocaust. Numerous photographs illuminate the text.
Eben-Emael and the Defence of Fortress Belgium, 1940
by Clayton DonnellIn the early morning of 10 May 1940, the sky literally fell on the heads of the defenders of Fort Eben-Emael, considered to be Belgium's most powerful fortress. This huge structure, with its powerful artillery and infantry weapons, was the key to the Meuse and Albert Canal defences. In the darkness of the pre-dawn, German DFS 230 gliders drifted silently over the southern Netherlands, landing one by one on top of Eben-Emael. Within minutes German Special Forces troops destroyed most of the fort’s weapons and observation capabilities. The following day, the garrison surrendered, and the door to Belgium and France was open. But, as Clayton Donnell relates in this perceptive and meticulously researched study, Eben-Emael was only one of the nineteen forts of the fortified positions of Liège and Namur attacked in May 1940. Three new and sixteen refurbished forts held out for several days, and fought to the death. The story he tells contradicts the common assumption that these static defences were rolled over or bypassed –powerless to resist the overwhelming force of the German combat engineer’s assaults, Stuka bombs and heavy artillery shells. In vivid detail he demonstrates that their importance in the 1940 campaign has been seriously under reported, and he gives clarity to some of the legends that have grown up around the capture of Eben-Emael itself.
Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar; A Memoir
by Moorfield Storey Edward Waldo EmersonFascinating biography of legal titan, noted abolitionist and diplomat Ebenezer Hoar.Ebenezer Hoar was admitted to the bar in 1835, and served the law at the bar and on the bench for more than a half century. He was a staunch Whig and a proponent of abolition of slavery. He served as Attorney General of the United States for more than a year during the first term of President Grant. He was also a member of the House of Representatives in 1872 and 1873 and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court.
Ebony & Scarlet: Poems of the Anglo-Zulu War
by Harry TurnerThe nineteenth century saw the British army engaged in a series of conflicts around the globe. Iin almost every continent the redcoats of British soldiers seemed to be in perpetual action against enemies of the Crown. The Anglo-Zulu War, fought in southern Africa in 1879, was one of the bloodiest of these conflicts, and one of the most famous, and it has fascinated historians ever since. But the story has never, until now, been re-told in verse and that is what Harry Turner does in the sequence of poems he has composed for this memorable volume. He concentrates on the relationship between the British and the Zulus, on the politics and ambition that gave rise to the war and on the series of bloody battles that followed in particular at Isandlwana, Rorke's Drift and Ulundi. Graphically he recalls how King Cetshwayo's Zulu warriors, armed mainly with spears, gave the British a mauling before they were finally overcome. The story has often been told before, but rarely in such an original and evocative way. Harry Turner's work will be an absorbing introduction to the subject for readers who are coming to it for the first time, and it will add a new dimension to the understanding of readers who are familiar with the many more conventional histories of the conflict.
The EC Archives: Aces High
by Irv Werstein Carl WesslerExperience the dangers and thrills of aerial combat with Aces High! This handsome volume collects issues #1-5 of the classic war comic, including unforgettable stories from the all-star artistic lineup of George Evans, Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Bernie Krigstein, Irv Werstein, Carl Wessler, and Jack Oleck. • Aces High issues #1-5, the complete series, in full color! • Features stories drawn by all-star comic artists George Evans, Wally Wood, Jack Davis, and Bernie Krigstein! • Dark Horse reprints the infamous comic series, including all the original ads, text pieces, and letters!
Ecce and Old Earth
by Jack VanceThis sequel to "Araminta Station", features the character of Glawen Clattuc, who helped save the unique planet Cadwal. The charter that granted Cadwal conservation has disappeared - and Glawen and Wayness Tamm are sent across a variety of planets to try and retrieve it.
Ecclesiastical Knights: The Military Orders in Castile, 1150-1330
by Sam Zeno Conedera“Warrior monks”—the misnomer for the Iberian military orders that emerged on the frontiers of Europe in the twelfth century—have long fascinated general readers and professional historians alike. Proposing “ecclesiastical knights” as a more accurate name and conceptual model—warriors animated by ideals and spiritual currents endorsed by the church hierarchy—author Sam Zeno Conedera presents a groundbreaking study of how these orders brought the seemingly incongruous combination of monastic devotion and the practice of warfare into a single way of life. Providing a detailed study of the military-religious vocation as it was lived out in the Orders of Santiago, Calatrava, and Alcantara in Leon-Castile during the first century, Ecclesiastical Knights provides a valuable window into medieval Iberia. Filling a gap in the historiography of the medieval military orders, Conedera defines, categorizes, and explains these orders, from their foundations until their spiritual decline in the early fourteenth century, arguing that that the best way to understand their spirituality is as a particular kind of consecrated knighthood. Because these Iberian military orders were belligerents in the Reconquest, Ecclesiastical Knights informs important discussions about the relations between Western Christianity and Islam in the Middle Ages. Conedera examines how the military orders fit into the religious landscape of medieval Europe through the prism of knighthood, and how their unique conceptual character informed the orders and spiritual self-perception. The religious observances of all three orders were remarkably alike, except that the Cistercian-affiliated orders were more demanding and their members could not marry. Santiago, Calatrava, and Alcantara shared the same essential mission and purpose: the defense and expansion of Christendom understood as an act of charity, expressed primarily through fighting and secondarily through the care of the sick and the ransoming of captives. Their prayers were simple and their penances were aimed at knightly vices and the preservation of military discipline. Above all, the orders valued obedience. They never drank from the deep wellsprings of monasticism, nor were they ever meant to. Offering an entirely fresh perspective on two difficult and closely related problems concerning the military orders—namely, definition and spirituality—author Sam Zeno Conedera illuminates the religious life of the orders, previously eclipsed by their military activities.
Echo Class
by David E. MeadowsJune, 1967. In the waters of the Pacific, Captain Danny McDonald of the USS Monaghan is ordered to track down a Soviet submarine—without triggering World War III.
Echo in Ramadi: The Firsthand Story of US Marines in Iraq's Deadliest City
by Scott A. Huesing Major General James Livingston"In war, destruction is everywhere. It eats everything around you. Sometimes it eats at you." —Major Scott Huesing, Echo Company CommanderFrom the winter of 2006 through the spring of 2007, two-hundred-fifty Marines from Echo Company, Second Battalion, Fourth Marine Regiment fought daily in the dangerous, dense city streets of Ramadi, Iraq during the Multi-National Forces Surge ordered by President George W. Bush. The Marines' mission: to kill or capture anti-Iraqi forces. Their experience: like being in Hell. Now Major Scott A. Huesing, the commander who led Echo Company through Ramadi, takes readers back to the streets of Ramadi in a visceral, gripping portrayal of modern urban combat. Bound together by brotherhood, honor, and the horror they faced, Echo's Marines battled day-to-day on the frontline of a totally different kind of war, without rules, built on chaos. In Echo in Ramadi, Huesing brings these resilient, resolute young men to life and shows how the savagery of urban combat left indelible scars on their bodies, psyches, and souls. Like war classics We Were Soldiers, The Yellow Birds, and Generation Kill, Echo in Ramadi is an unforgettable capsule of one company's experience of war that will leave readers stunned.
The Echo of Battle: The Army's Way of War
by Brian Mcallister LinnIn the face of radically new ways of waging war, Brian Linn surveys the past assumptions--and errors--that underlie the army's many visions of warfare up to the present day. He explores the army's forgotten heritage of deterrence, its long experience with counter-guerrilla operations, and its successive efforts to transform itself. Distinguishing three martial traditions--each with its own concept of warfare, its own strategic views, and its own excuses for failure--he locates the visionaries who prepared the army for its battlefield triumphs and the reactionaries whose mistakes contributed to its defeats.