Illinois Authors

Potomac Books, Washington, D.C. : ©2005.

"Historians consider Douglas Haig one of the most controversial military leader in British history. Today his career is at the center of a swirling debate concerning the nature of the First World War. The traditional school contends that, like the majority of generals from both sides, he was an overmatched, hidebound relic of a bygone military age who could not come to grips with modern war. Such men allegedly sent their soldiers "over the top" in pointless attacks, with a criminal disregard for the enormous cost in lives. A new revisionist school now contends that many Great War leaders, including Haig, stood at the center of a phenomenal period of military innovation, one that laid the foundations for modern warfare. This learning curve led from the killing fields of the Somme to the protoblitzkrieg tactics of the Hundred Days Battles." "Haig had achieved a measure of fame in Britain's colonial wars and began the First World War as a corps commander. He obtained command of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France in 1915. Under his leadership, the BEF fought its two signature battles of the war at the Somme and Passchendaele, earning him a reputation as a "butcher and bungler." The slaughter at the Somme and the muddy hell of Passchendaele forever tarnished his reputation; however, as Andrew Wiest points out, in 1918 Haig proved instrumental in winning one of the greatest victories in British military history. While the Hundred Days Battles often go unnoticed or unappreciated in the history of the First World War, obscured as they were by the failures of earlier campaigns, here modern war came of age. Haig's role in that transformation makes him the central figure of the war on the Western Front."--Jacket.

MBI Pub. Co., St. Paul, MN : 2002.

Witness the amazing development of the role the soldier plays on the battlefield as technology has evolved over the past century. From WWI trenches to today's desert battlegrounds, infantry soldiers are integral components in modern warfare. Learn how their strategies and tactics have evolved, both to exploit and to counter new technology, through the use of specially commissioned maps, diagrams and insightful text. Illustrates harrowing battles fought and the tactics employed.

Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn. : 1995.

Osprey, Oxford ; 2006.

Andrew Wiest has collected 15 uniformly excellent new essays by highly regarded scholars, veterans, and victims from differing military, political, and academic perspectives to present the Vietnam War in a global context.

Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, CA : 2000.

Text, maps, and numerous photos chronicle the history of the Vietnam War; also includes a chronology, statistics list, and bibliography.

Spellmount, Staplehurst : 2001.

Routledge, New York : [2003]

New York University Press, New York : ©2008.

Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN chronicles the lives of Pham Van Dinh and Tran Ngoc Hue, two of the brightest young stars in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Both men fought with valor in a war that seemed to have no end, exemplifying ARVN bravery and determination that is largely forgotten or ignored in the West. However, while Hue fought until he was captured by the North Vietnamese Army and then endured thirteen years of captivity, Dinh surrendered and defected to the enemy, for whom he served as a teacher in the reeducation of his former ARVN comrades. An understanding of how two lives that were so similar diverged so dramatically provides a lens through which to understand the ARVN and South Vietnam?s complex relationship with America's government and military. The lives of Dinh and Hue reflect the ARVN's battlefield successes, from the recapture of the Citadel in Hue City in the Tet Offensive of 1968, to Dinh's unheralded role in the seizure of Hamburger Hill a year later. However, their careers expose an ARVN that was over-politicized, tactically flawed, and dependent on American logistical and firepower support. Marginalized within an American war, ARVN faced a grim fate as U.S. forces began to exit the conflict. As the structure of the ARVN/U.S. alliance unraveled, Dinh and Hue were left alone to make the most difficult decisions of their lives.

New York University Press, New York : ©2001.