I'm Building a Reading List of US Military History, Need Recommendations (Vanity)

Nov 9, 2013 | frankenMonkey

[frankenMonkey]

OK, after having searched the internets in vain for a balanced (i.e. not history rewritten by America-hating libtards) reading list on modern U.S. Military history, perhaps you can help.

If you can personally recommend books covering the following, I'd greatly appreciate it:
World War II
Korean War
Vietnam War
Operation Desert Storm
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Operation Enduring Freedom
others...?

[TaMoDee]

As an introduction to the our portion of the Viet Nam War
start with Bernard B. Fall’s “Street without Joy”. His excellent book about the French defeat and what we were up
against when we started into a war we couldn’t win.

[ErnBatavia]

My uncle sent me that book a couple of years ago....he and the Sledge brothers were all childhood friends in Mobile.

Uncle was tickled when that TV miniseries "The Pacific" featured Sledge.

[blueunicorn6]

WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE....AND YOUNG

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Some of my favorites.

“D Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II,” by Stephen E. Ambrose
“The Bedford Boys: One American Town’s Ultimate D-day Sacrifice,” by Alex Kershaw
“Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II,” by Arthur Herman
“A Genius for Deception: How Cunning Helped the British Win Two World Wars,” by Nicholas Rankin

[3Fingas]

Are you interest in the civil war? If so, I hear that General Grant’s memoirs are very good.

For World War II, a lot of people like the works of William Manchester. I read one of his books a long time ago about the Pacific island hopping campaign that was very good.

[blueunicorn6]

BLACKHAWK DOWN

[blueunicorn6]

A BRIDGE TOO FAR

[cll]

1942: The Year That Tried Men’s Souls, Winston Groom.

Actually, any book by Winston Groom would do. Like A Storm in Flanders (WWI).

[mdittmar]

Between November 1990 and January 1991, 4th Tank Battalion was mobilized in support of Operation Desert Shield/Storm.

4th Tank Battalion Elements of the battalion were "in country" and combat ready within 32 days of activation. During the Gulf War mobilization, the 4th Tank Battalion, a United States Marine Corps Reserve unit in the 4th Marine Division, successfully transitioned from the M-60 to the M1-A1 Main Battle Tank in just 45 days. The battalion trained, shot and qualified, then deployed to the Gulf where it fought alongside its active Marine Corps counterparts. Indeed, one of its companies knocked out 35 of 36 Iraqi tanks in less than five minutes.

That Company was my brothers;)

Not a book,just an excerpt,and a bit of history proud of.

[NY Attitude]

Blind Mans Bluff

[cll]

Also, look up Bing West’s accounts of several War on Terror battles, like The March Up (Iraq).

[Little Bill]

I went in country about a month after the battle at Camp Zamma. They didn't separate out the Newbies then. There were a lot of people separating from the 7TH Cav.

Those guys were shaking and quacking and glad as hell that that they were going home. Charlie is going to get you was the refrain. I did two tours and never saw soldiers so shaken up and I did Tet.

[Alas Babylon!]

American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880 - 1964
by William Manchester

The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
by John Toland

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
by James M. McPherson

Going Downtown: The War Against Hanoi and Washington
by Jack Broughton

Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific
by Robert Leckie

[rabidralph]

Anything to add?

[SAMWolf]

Strong Men Armed by Robert Leckie

D-Day, Citizen Soldiers and Band of Brothers, all by Stephen Ambrose

An Army at Dawn, The Day of Battle and The Guns at Last Light, all by Rick Atkinson

September Hope, by John C. McManus

The Damned Engineers , by Janice Holt Giles

Hell in Hurtgen Forest, By Robert Sterling Rush

A Time for Trumpets, by Charles B. McDonald

The Blood of Heros, by Jame Donovan

[RJS1950]

Add to that these parallel and follow-on readings by some of the Marines mentioned in Sledge’s book. Hell in the Pacific... gives an excellent overall view of the Peleliu campaign.

Hell in the Pacific and Brotherhood of Heroes, The Marines at Peleliu, 1944 by bill Sloan

Islands of the Damned by R V Burgin

Last Man Standing by Bill Camp

Red Blood, Black Sand by Chuck Tatum

You’ll Be Sor-Ree by Sid Philips

Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie

[nathanbedford]

Anything written by Douglas Southall Freeman. I especially recommend his seven volumes (available abridged) biography of George Washington which of course covers the French and Indian war and the revolution. Equally, Freeman's Robert E Lee in four volumes, also abridged, is one of the finest biographies I have ever read. Freeman's, Lee's lieutenants, is a wonderful three volume series but I warn you it frolics in the beginning but is wrenching at the end.

Rick Atkinson has got two volumes of World War II and we await his third. Keegan has an excellent World War I.

All the Best and Brightest by David Halberstam is a brilliant treatment of the Vietnam War.

[GreyFriar]

The Army Chief of Staff’s reading list for NCO’s and Officers is at:

http://www.history.army.mil/reading.html

Also, all of the Army’s official histories are on line at that site — http://www.history.army.mil

[nathanbedford]

I do not understand how I could have forgotten to list Churchill's Second World War which is absolutely indispensable and a classic. His World Crisis, a treatment of World War I, is first-rate.

Manchester's biography of Churchill is great as is Randolph's succeeded by Martin Gilbert.

The biography of Douglas MacArthur, American Caesar, is worth reading but of course with a left-wing assault.

[blueunicorn6]

Thank-you for your service.