- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Bantam (Sep 9 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 055380376X
- ISBN-13: 978-0553803761
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 635 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #974,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
This very readable eyewitness history of the 1st Marine Division in the recent Iraq War was penned by two very qualified observers: both West and Smith served in Vietnam as Marines; Smith also served in Granada and Beruit, while West (The Village; The Pepperdogs) is a former Assistant Secretary of Defense. Unsurprisingly, their account of Marines advancing from Kuwait to Baghdad-and thereby ending up farther from the sea than any Marines in history-is far from anti-military. Perhaps more unexpectedly, though, they present their campaign history warts and all. The portrait of the division owes its breadth to interviews from several hundred sources, not all of whom survived. Two stand out: Shane Ferkovich, whose squad prevented sabotage of an oil-pumping station in the beginning of the march and helped take down Saddam's statue at the end; and General Mattis, the division commander and chief juggler of conflicting demands. An exceptional selection of photographs and better maps than most books to date on the war add to this account's appeal.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Although the political wisdom of the war to remove the regime of Saddam Hussein remains a subject for debate, the brilliance of the military campaign to topple him must be acknowledged. Smith is a veteran of conflicts in Vietnam, Lebanon, and Grenada. West, also a Vietnam veteran, was assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration. They were embedded with the First Marine Division, which spearheaded the 1,184-kilometer march from Kuwait to Baghdad. This is a gritty, insider's account that reveals, often in dramatic fashion, the tensions, disputes, snafus, and successes that characterize a military campaign. As received on television news reports, high-tech warfare often seems sanitized, but West and Smith repeatedly remind us that war is still a horrid, nasty business that revolves around successful killing of enemy soldiers. Despite the rapid defeat and collapse of the regime, they credibly assert that rapid success was not inevitable; it was the product of numerous decisions, often taken at the tactical localized level, as well as healthy doses of good fortune. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Impeccable credentials, exellent access, mediocre writing,
By A Customer
This review is from: The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division (Hardcover)
Smith and West are two US Marine veterans with impeccable credentials for knowledge of war. There access was excellent, probably better than a number of the embedded reporters in Iraq. The writing in the book however, has something to be desired. The book is written like a "What I Did on My Vacation in Iraq." There is little analysis of the situations and the authors don't make the story interesting in any way. I actually had trouble forcing my way through some of the battle descriptions, because they are boring!! The authors provide a number of useless details, but don't provide any of the tension of the battles. In addition most of the men they talk to we get to know in only a superficial sense, which gets even more superficial as the book goes on until the individual Marines are reduced to only last names.I think if they would have spent more time researching and writing this book, they could have come up with something really special, but this isn't it. If you want a book about the war that is interesting try Rick Atkinson's "In the Company of Soldiers."
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Book If You Recognize What It Is,
By
This review is from: The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division (Hardcover)
This is a very good book for what it is -- the first campaign narrative and proproganda for a general. Hopefully there will be more books in the future with real research and more even-handedness. This book is not intended as research and is clearly a propaganda piece for General Mattis who gave them carte-blanche to roam his division. As such, the book could be titled "How to Launch Your Campaign for Commandant".With that said, the combat and writing experience of the authors combined with their proximity to the battles involved produces some strong insights that are not likely to be found in other books. In terms of an analysis of tactics, I thought the book was very strong. It is a lot more insightful than all the embedded journalism stories that reported the excitement but could make very little sense of the battles. For that reason I highly recommend "The March Up" as a campaign narrative.
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Marines Didn't Take Baghdad,
By A Customer
This review is from: The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division (Hardcover)
The 3rd Infantry Division did. The Marines couldn't find a bridge and the 3rd ID had already broken the back of the resistance with the "thunder runs". Just because the Marines toppled the statue, doesn't mean they should get the credit. Truman was right when he said the Marines have a better propoganda wing than Stalin. Other than that, I haven't read the book, but the title pisses me off.Rakkasan!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > History > Middle East > Iraq
- Books > History > Military > Iraq War
- Books > History > Military > United States
- Books > Nonfiction > Current Events > War & Peace
- Books > Nonfiction > Politics
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
