Eyewitness Pacific Theater

Eyewitness Pacific Theater, firsthand accounts of the war in the Pacific from Pearl Harbor to the atomic bombs. By John T. Kuehn, Commander, USN (Retired) with D.M. Giangreco; foreword by Eric M. Bergerud.

buy Uber shares Eyewitness Pacific Theater tells the remarkable story of U.S. operations in the Pacific during World War II by documenting the experiences of the men and women who were stationed there. Written by award-winning author D.M. Giangreco and venerable Commander John T. Kuehn, this volume is illustrated with hundreds of contemporary photos, including wartime pictures of the veterans themselves. Bringing the full force of personal recollections home to the reader, Eyewitness Pacific Theater is accompanied by a full-length compact disc of interviews produced by Emmy Award-winning historical documentarians Rob Lihani and Rob Kirk in collaboration with First Person Productions. Listen to dramatic tales in the voices of the Allied soldiers, sailors, airmen, and medical personnel as they recount the tragedies and triumphs of life during wartime in the Pacific Theater.

Hard Copy Available at the CARL : New Items Display - 1st Floor, CALL # 940.5426 G433e

Back From Iraq

how to invest in Uber shares On January 15 Brigadier General Edward C. Cardon, Deputy Commandant of the US Army Command and General Staff College, gave a presentation at the Kansas City Public Library. He addressed a large crowd of community members on the subject of leader development in challenging times. The presentation was part of a larger Kansas City Public Library series entitled, “The General Knowledge Series,” hosted in the Helzberg Auditorium of the Library’s central branch and started in cooperation with the CGSC Foundation and its Chief Executive Officer, Robert Ulin.

For more information on the presentation ... Click Here.

SSI January 2009 Newsletter

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New Publications HAMAS and Israel: Conflicting Strategies of Group-Based Politics, by Dr. Sherifa Zuhur. This monograph considers the changing fortunes of the Palestinian movement, Hamas, and the recent outcomes of Israeli strategies aimed against this group and Palestinian nationalism external to the Fatah faction of the Palestinian Authority. The author demonstrates that efforts made to separate Hamas from its popular support have not been effective in eradicating the will to resist among a fairly large segment of the Palestinian population. War without Borders: The Colombia-Ecuador Crisis of 2008, by Dr. Gabriel Marcella. Latin American countries, in varying degrees, are suffering from the combination of weak states, ungoverned space, terrorism, and international criminal networks resulting in a different kind of war that defies borders. The author analyzes the critical role that the United States plays in the emerging security environment in the region. Affairs of State: The Interagency and National Security, edited by Dr. Gabriel Marcella. The authors of this compendium join in a common effort to shed light on how the interagency works with respect to national security. They are particularly sensitive to matters of institutional culture and to the proclivities that go into making and implementing decisions in the complex U.S. national security system. Regional Spillover Effects of the Iraq War, by Dr. W. Andrew Terrill. Long-term planning remains vital for advancing region-wide U.S. and Iraqi interests following a U.S. drawdown in Iraq. The author explores the actual and potential spillover effects of the war that will face U.S. policymakers: the flow of refugees and displaced persons from Iraq; cross-border terrorism; the potential intensification of separatism and sectarian discord among Iraq's neighbors; and transnational crime. After Iraq: The Search for a Sustainable National Security Strategy, by Dr. Colin S. Gray. The author of this monograph identifies the "pieces of the puzzle" most relevant to national security strategy; surfaces the leading assumptions held by American policymakers and strategists; considers alternative national security policies; and specifies the necessary components of a sustainable national security strategy. He concludes that the United States has much less choice over its policy and strategy than the public debate suggests. Monthly Op-Ed The Army's Ethic Suffers under its Retired Generals, by Dr. Don M. Snider Events Trans-National Criminal Organizations in the Americas: Responding to the Growing Threat January 29, 2009, Washington, DC 20th Annual Strategy Conference "Strategic Implications of Current and Emerging Technologies" April 14-16, 2009, Carlisle, PA Sign-up for notification of online registration today. Opportunity at SSI The U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) seeks an expert on Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational (JIIM) security studies to join one of the most dynamic think tanks in the national security field and help shape U.S. national security policy. Check our website for more details. Coming Soon Nuclear Heuristics: Selected Writings of Albert and Roberta Wohlstetter, edited by Robert Zarate and Henry Sokolski The Serpent in Our Garden: Al-Qa'ida and the Long War, by Colonel Brian Drinkwine News and Updates On January 5, the Chairs of East Asian Studies and Political Science departments of Dickinson College appointed Dr. David Lai to be a Dean's Fellow. COL John Dabrowski joins SSI as the Director of Academic Engagement. SSI launched its new website on December 15, 2008. The views expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. This newsletter is cleared for public release; distribution is unlimited.

More on Military Blogging

Uber shares Now that SEC football season is officially over and before I get too involved in the SEC football recruiting blogs, I thought I'd take another look at Military Blogging. Lets start with the unofficial blogs. There are lots out there and one of the biggest hosting sites is Milblogging.com. Here's a neat post from Newsweek's David Botti called "New Looks at Military Blogging". Botti mentions a great article from the Columbia Journalism Review called "Blogging the Long War". The article "Muddy Boots IO: The Rise of Soldier Blogs" by MAJ Elizabeth L. Robbins is also well worth reading.

This is starting to sound like a webliography, so now I'll list a few CAC and CGSC blogs not mentioned in my 2 January 2009 Military Blogging post.

CGSC History Department Blog - provides a forum in which CGSC Students, the Army at large, academia, and the general public can engage with the DMH faculty in a dialogue that will help all involved develop a better understanding of military history. My thoughts -I like this blog's variety of historical topics and hope it continues to grow.

Military Review - Military Review provides a forum for the open exchange of ideas about military matters of importance to the U.S. Army with a focus on the concepts, doctrine, and warfighting at the tactical and operational levels of war. My thoughts - not a lot of content but their posts revolve around the publication of new issues of "Military Review".

Reflections From Dr Jack - Dr. Jack is a Supervisory Professor in the Department of Joint, Interagency, and Multinational Operations at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. My thoughts - Good content on a variety of topics.

CARL Book Beacon - Blog of the Combined Arms Research Library (CARL). Provides info on books, resources, and general info about the CARL. We hope to expand in the areas of content, quality of posts, and variety of topics covered. My thoughts - Totally Awesome! Give that dude a raise.

Enjoy! My thoughts in this blog are my personal opinions and not endorsed by the management of the Combined Arms Research Library, the US Army Command and General Staff College, or the Department of the Army.

The Tet Offensive: A Concise History

The Tet Offensive: A Concise History.

Dr James H. Wilbanks' 2007 book The Tet Offensive: A Concise History is now available in paperback.

In the Tet Offensive of 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces launched a massive countrywide attack on South Vietnam. Though the Communists failed to achieve their tactical and operational objectives, James Willbanks claims Hanoi won a strategic victory. The offensive proved that America's progress was grossly overstated and caused many Americans and key presidential advisors to question the wisdom of prolonging combat.

Willbanks also maintains that the Communists laid siege to a Marine combat base two weeks prior to the Tet Offensive-known as the Battle of Khe Sanh—to distract the United States. It is his belief that these two events are intimately linked, and in his concise and compelling history, he presents an engaging portrait of the conflicts and singles out key problems of interpretation.

Willbanks divides his study into six sections, beginning with a historical overview of the events leading up to the offensive, the attack itself, and the consequent battles of Saigon, Hue, and Khe Sahn. He continues with a critical assessment of the main themes and issues surrounding the offensive, and concludes with excerpts from American and Vietnamese documents, maps and chronologies, an annotated list of resources, and a short encyclopedia of key people, places, and events.

An experienced military historian and scholar of the Vietnam War, Willbanks has written a unique critical reference and guide that enlarges the debate surrounding this important turning point in America's longest war.

Hard Copy Available at the CARL 2nd Floor Main Collection, CALL # 959.704342 W696to

Click Here for book reviews of this title (available to CAC, CGSC, and CARL Patrons with Library Cards)

Agents of innovation: the General Board and the design of the fleet that defeated the Japanese Navy

New from Dr. John T. Kuehn, Agents of innovation: the General Board and the design of the fleet that defeated the Japanese Navy.

Kuehn examines the influence of the General Board of the U.S. Navy as an agent of innovation in the years between the world wars. A formal body established by the Secretary of the Navy, the General Board served as the organizational nexus for the interaction between fleet design and the naval limitations imposed on the Navy by treaty. Particularly important, Kuehn argues, was the Board's role in implementing the Washington Naval Treaty, which limited naval armaments after 1922. Kuehn explains that the leadership of the Navy at large and the General Board in particular felt themselves especially constrained by Article XIX of the Washington Naval Treaty, which implemented a status quo on naval fortifications in the western Pacific. Yet despite these limitations, the author reminds us, this so-called "treaty fleet" managed to fight the Japanese to a standstill in 1942.

John T. Kuehn is a former naval aviator who retired as a commander from the U.S. Navy in 2004. He holds a PhD in military history from Kansas State University and teaches at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, KS.

Available in Hard Copy from the CARL, 1st Floor New Items Display, Call # 359.030973 K95a

Michael Elliott: Custerology.

Join author and historian Michael Elliott as he discusses his new book Custerology: The Enduring Legacy of the Indian Wars and George Armstrong Custer.

The event is scheduled for Wednesday, January 14, 2009 @ 6:30 pm.

Location: Kansas City Public Library Plaza Branch, 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO.

For more information, check out the KCPL's website @ http://www.kclibrary.org/event/michael-elliott-custerology

Custerology is available for checkout from the CARL: CARL 2nd Floor Call Number 973.82092 C987e

Blogging Fort Leavenworth Style

Military blogs, whats the deal? Some say they're a security risk, others say they're crucial for information dominance, information superiority, and lots of other trendy phrases that mean the same thing -- getting people to believe you in an online environment, getting your message out there, and making your message discoverable.

SO, where do military blogs fit in to the information landscape? I generally stick to my SEC football blogs, so I don't know.

One thing I do know, you can check out the blogs yourself. Here's a few CAC and CGSC blogs on the net: Combined Arms Center Blogs

Reflections by Frontier 6 (LTG Caldwell's Blog)

CGSC Student Blog

USA and USMC Counterinsurgency Center Blog

SAMS Blog

Enjoy!

Playaways Available at the CARL

The CARL now has Playaway Audiobooks (sometimes called portadigibooky). So what's with Playaway Audiobooks? Playaway is the newest format of audio, combining a wide variety of content with an easy-to-use player all in one small unit. When you use a Playaway, all you have to do is press play to start listening immediately – there is no need for a separate player. You will need headphones though - Some things you just don't share.

Check out the poster on the left advertising this new media format. OK, the poster's lame, but the Playaways are kind of cool.

The CARL currently has 56 Playaway audiobooks available for checkout! CLICK HERE to see what Playaway books we have at the CARL

Ensuring that Army infrastructure meets strategic needs

Ensuring That Army Infrastructure Meets Strategic Needs By: Ellen M. Pint, Beth E. Lachman, Justin L. Adams, William M. Hix

U.S. national security strategy has changed since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; the Army must adapt to these changes to meet current and future strategic requirements. This documented briefing describes the results of a study that examined U.S. national-level strategic documents and Department of Defense and Army strategic plans and initiatives to identify issues affecting the Army's infrastructure needs. The authors then reviewed DoD and Army installation plans to determine how well these strategic issues are currently being addressed. Where gaps exist, Pint et al. identify areas that should be included in strategic planning activities. These areas include deployment infrastructure; training capacity needed to support restationing, joint training, and the introduction of new technology; hedging against long-term risk and uncertainty; using public/private and Army/community partnerships to increase investment in family and community services; sustainability of land use; and innovative approaches to relieve environmental pressures on Army installations. Finally, the authors discuss the types of data that would be needed for more in-depth infrastructure analysis, whether these data are currently available, and how they might be collected.

Available online at: http://www.rand.org/pubs/documented_briefings/DB547/

Hard Copy at the CARL: CARL 2nd Floor, Main Collection, Call # 355.033573 E59 2008