Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942, Toll - A*

                                               This book is the first in what looks to be a very promising trilogy. Toll's presentation of history prior to Pearl Harbor begins with Japan's victory over the Russians at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 and the subsequent enhanced strategic role played by the navy in Japan. The Japanese became convinced that the West, the US and Britain in particular, treated them as an inferior race and with disrespect. The Versailles Treaty, the 50-50-30 limitations of the naval disarmament agreements, and the US 1924 law prohibiting Japanese immigration fueled the fire that led to increasingly nationalist policies in Japan. The militarists took over the government and by the early thirties, had set the nation on the course to war. Ridding Asia of the two English-speaking hegemons was the objective.  Manchuria and China were invaded and Japan left the League of Nations. While the army caused as many as 10 million civilian casualties in China, the navy prepared to launch a war in the Pacific. Admiral Yamamoto is portrayed very favorably. He was opposed to war and did not think that the US could be defeated. Even though there were those in the navy hierarchy who pushed the ongoing building of battleships, including two behemoths 50% larger than ours, he realized that submarines and carrier-based planes were the weapons of the future. He had extracted from his superiors an assurance that his audacious plan for Pearl Harbor would never be called a sneak attack. There was supposed to be a Japanese declaration of war prior to the initiation of hostilities. Meanwhile, in the decades leading up to 1941, the US Navy war-gaming analytics and strategic planning involved one enemy and one enemy only - the naval forces of the Empire of Japan. In essence, both navies were ready for each other, but the Japanese were better trained and prepared.
                                                The US response to Pearl Harbor was a declaration of war and much anxiety. A very brave resistance on Wake Island was the high point of the month of December. The year ended with Nimitz arriving in Pearl Harbor with a directive to win the war. Ironically, Pearl Harbor had eliminated the US's anti-war movement and assured America would rally around the flag and crush the Japanese. Also, Japan's success at Pearl, and two days later off Singapore when they sent two British capital ships to the bottom, signaled the ascent of the carrier and the end of the battleship era. This was apparent to the Americans, but not the Japanese, who believed in the battleship almost to the end.
                                                The US had available only four carriers - Saratoga, Enterprise, Yorktown and Lexington - to start offensive operations. In January, Halsey led a successful two-ship raid on the Marshall's. But the Japanese tide could not be thwarted. By the end of the first quarter of 1942, they were as far west as Rangoon, Burma and were threatening India. In the southeast, they had conquered Java and Borneo and were on the way to Australia. They had succeeded so quickly that they literally did not know where to turn next. Doolittle's April raid was a shock, but of no real strategic import. Central planning in Tokyo thought that severing the sea lanes between the US and Australia was the opportune choice. Yamamoto wanted to attack Midway and draw the US fleet out for destruction.  The Japanese decision was to strike first in the Coral Sea between New Guinea and Australia and then at Midway. Although overmatched and outnumbered at every turn, the US had a better intelligence system, and the analysts at Pearl called the Japanese moves. Later historians have concluded that the local cryptographer, Cmdr. Rochefort, was one of the most important men in the war. The early May Battle of the Coral Sea saw the US stop the intended landing at Port Moresby, New Guinea, but at the cost of the loss of the Lexington.  The first week of June saw the incomparably brave and fortuitous turn of events to the northwest of the Midway atoll. We managed to sink four carriers, the Akagi, Soryu, Kaga, and Hiryu, losing only the Yorktown.  For all intents and purposes, the Japanese expansion in the Pacific was over. It would now become a war of attrition in which Japan hoped that their intensity and devotion to their Emperor would overcome the industrial might of the democratic opponent.

The Brethren, Merle - B +

                                               This novel is the first in a remarkable 13 book series called 'Fortunes of France' written over the course of thirty-five years. It is immensely popular in France and only recently translated to English.  It is narrated by Pierre de Siorac as he tells the story of his father Jean and Jean's adopted brother Jean Sauveterre during the years  1547 to 1566.  They are  soldiers of the Norman Legion who receive battlefield promotions, acquire a small stake, and declare fidelity to each other when they acquire Mespech, a modest castle and its surrounding lands in the Perigord region of southern France. They are also quietly Hugenot, and I suspect the throes of the Reformation in France and the fighting it occasioned will be a running theme in the series.  They slowly build up their estate by common sense management, frugality and timely acquisitions. As they grow their wealth, they become less willing to hide their religious predilections as the strains between the Church and the Reformation grow. Jean de Siorac's household is rendered when his wife, Isabelle, opposes his attempt to convert all therein to the Hugenot cause.  The Brethren proceed to build their estates and skillfully avoid the wars that threaten all in France. The 1563 Edict of Ambroise ended the internecine wars. Soon thereafter, plague decimates the Perigord. The novel does a superb job providing the historical background, yet fully explores the human emotions of Isabelle's death, Pierre's promise to his mother to wear a medallion of her papist loyalty, his father's eventual outrage about it and Sauveterre's careful, thoughtful intervention that restores the domestic peace at Mespech. It concludes with a fifteen-year-old Pierre on the road to Montpellier, where he will study medicine with his half-brother,  Samson, who will study law. They leave behind Francois, the somewhat lacking older brother, to prepare for  his eventual inheritance. This novel does what one hopes a well-written and researched historical novel will do. It entertains but weaves a deep background that affords one the opportunity to learn a thing or two about a time and place. As I will likely never read a history of the Reformation in southern France, this helps build one's knowledge base.

Too Bad To Die, Matthews - C

                                               This is a novel imagining the wartime exploits of  naval intelligence officer, rake, and creator of James Bond - Ian Fleming. In Cairo in the run-up to the Tehran Conference, his old friend, Alan Turing, gets in touch from Bletchley with the suggestion that the 'Fencer', a German agent they've been very concerned about, is actually part of either the British or American delegation. In the meantime, noted Nazi commando Otto Skorzeny has parachuted into the wilds north of Tehran and both Churchill and FDR are headed to the ancient Persian city to meet Stalin. The whole thing eventually fell apart for me with the exploration of whether it was Churchill's daughter-in-law Pamela or Averill Harriman who was 'Fencer'. Add to that Fleming's capture and torture by first the NKVD and then the Nazis, 'Fencer' (actually Fleming's Yank buddy from prep school) almost getting FDR, and Stalin somehow escaping a turned SMERSH agent and you have quite a mish-mash.

The Patriarch, Walker - B +

                                               By my count, this is the 7th in the series and the third appearance here for Bruno, Chief of Police for St. Denis in the Perigord Region of southern France. Walker is a historian by trade and thoroughly enjoys telling these tales weaving together history and the culinary arts in the region. The back story is the French involvement in WW2 flying planes on the eastern front and helping the USSR in its long battle with the Luftwaffe. The son of the most famous and last fighter in the group is married to a beautiful, charming woman seeking public office while running the family wine business and looking to keep the past in the USSR buried there.  As always, it's great read.

Kissinger's Shadow: The Long Reach Of America's Most Controversial Statesman, Grandin - B +

                                                The author, a highly regarded NYU professor and Bancroft Prize winner, contends that Henry Kissinger's tenure in government  marks a turning point in American foreign policy. In the opening quarter-century of the Cold War, the foreign policy establishment, that we associate with an endless cast of Ivy League patricians, operated with a sense of decorum and an easily understandable American value system. In the 60's Kissinger wrote: "There are two kinds of realists: those who manipulate facts and those who create them. The West requires nothing so much as men able to create their own reality." From the violation of Cambodia's neutrality to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, those who created their own reality have kept America in a constant state of war.
                                                Kissinger was opposed to both containment and mutually assured destruction as the pillars of our policy versus the USSR. He felt containment limited us to the spot or place where the Soviets needed to be contained and MAD limited our ability to respond at a different level. And although he felt we could not win in Vietnam, he approved the fact that we were projecting power for power's sake. A response to the threat of communism was warranted. The author says that he believed the means justified the end. The US simply had to be powerful, had to do something. Kissinger was catapulted from theorist to power in late 1968/early 1969 when he transitioned from professor to the strongest National Security Advisor in history. Within a month of taking office, Nixon and Kissinger began the secret bombing of Cambodia in order to  send a message to North Vietnam. The bombing neither effected the Paris negotiations nor interdicted the flow of supplies south, and a year later, the US sent ground troops into Cambodia, exploding tensions at home - "Tin soldiers and Nixon coming........Four dead in Ohio".  Nonetheless, the bombings continued until 1972 and more bombs were dropped on Laos and Cambodia than on Germany and Japan. "By executing Nixon's war strategy with such zeal, he quickened the break up" of America's Cold War consensus, where "the White House and the foreign policy establishment operated with nearly unquestioned autonomy." In the opinion of many observers, Nixon and Kissinger achieved terms in 1972 that were available in 1969 and had extended the war primarily to appear strong and assure Nixon's re-election. In the post-Vietnam era, "Kissinger felt that public displays of resolve would help America restore its damaged credibility and legitimacy". Kissinger wanted to "go big" but the opportunity did not arise. Hr relied on covert CIA activities around the world to effectuate policy. "This coupling of secrecy and spectacle would evolve over the years, finding innovative expression during the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations."
                                             The last decades of the 20th century saw Kissinger's philosophy used to establish a near permanent state of war. "From Central America to Grenada, Panama to the First Gulf War and beyond, one can plot the crescendo, the way each military action represented a bit more - more commitment, more confidence regained, more troops deployed, more spectacular displays of fire power, more lives lost." He ardently and vigorously encouraged the invasion of Iraq after 9/11. He has supported Obama's significant expansion of drone strikes throughout the world. "And after Kissinger himself is gone, one imagines Kissingerism will endure as well."
                                            As a twenty-year old college junior, I felt that Nixon and Kissinger were plotting to destroy me and my friends. I've loathed them for for over forty-five years and after reading this book, still do.  The author is clearly of a similar mind, but I believe stretches at times and fails to connect all of his dots. Not every evil perpetuated in the defense of freedom can be traced to Kissinger. It is important to note that the NYTimes reviewer ( a University of Texas professor) feels the same way. "Did later leaders really require Kissinger's precedent to wage secret wars, violate foreign nations' sovereignty and prioritize grand displays of power?"  Grandin ignores Kissinger's success with China, in establishing detente with the Soviets and signing the SALT treaty. To castigate him for his successful post-government financial success seems a bit churlish. For anyone who has been paying attention for the last four or so decades, this is a very good read.

Dark Waters, Blake - B -

                                              This is another novel in the series about 18th century English coroner, Titus Cragg and his side-kick, Dr. Luke Fidelis. The fun is not just the crime solving- here a man drowned overnight in a salmon trap on the local river,-but, also the background story. Here the town of Preston is in the midst of a very serious event, a Parliamentary election. It's Whigs vs. Tory's at a time where there were no rules and, as I had forgotten, Catholics did not have the vote.  A second death, a possible poisoning, appears to be part of the electoral process. The victim was a 'tally', someone who led others to the polls. Elections then were about as civilized, thoughtful and honest as they are today. As it turns out, good old-fashioned greed was behind the murder, and Titus' considered analysis was behind the solution.

Once In A Great City: A Detroit Story, Maraniss - B +

                                               To most people Detroit, signifies all that is wrong with urban America.  As I made  hundreds of business trips there between 1985 and 2004, I have a somewhat different perspective.  Thirty years ago it was going downhill, but you could tell it had once been great. You could see that its downtown had the same glorious limestone skyscrapers that New York and Chicago do.  GM's old headquarters on West Grand Blvd. was majestic. The automotive industry had been the heart of America's industrial greatness.

                                              This book looks at the Detroit story through the prism of the year-and-a-half from November 1962 to the summer of 1964 and is meant to tell just how great it was at its apogee. The author is a native and this is a tribute to the city's past. Detroit was riding high that fall. It was the fifth largest city in America. G.M.'s market share was close to 60% of the booming US market and the Big Three had virtually no competition in the states. The middle class prospered because the auto workers were the highest paid blue-collar workers in the country.  His record company was doing so well that Berry Gordy, Jr. decided to take the Motown Revue on the road for 56 days. The city's grandees were preparing a bid for the 1968 Summer Olympics. In Dearborn, the design staff at Ford had come up with a car that would become the iconic symbol of Ford Motor Company, and perhaps, the entire decade. Lee Iacocca was working with the J. Walter Thompson advertising team to find a name for what they would ultimately call the Mustang. In June, the Reverend C. L. Franklin (father of Aretha), Walter Reuther of the UAW and Martin Luther King stepped off on Woodward Ave. for the Walk To Freedom.  A hundred thousand people, the then largest civil rights demonstration in US history, trekked the three miles to Cobo Arena, where many heard Dr. King rehearse the refrain he would make famous two months later.  Throughout 1963 and into 1964, Motown Records created a whirlwind of excellence, unparalleled then and to this day. Gordy brought to the world, and the world received with open arms, the Miracles, the Temptations, the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops, the Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas, Mary Wells and Smokey Robinson. Detroit in 1963 had had its biggest year ever, selling more cars than ever before. GM's profits were $3.3 billion. The city dominated American industry and music. In the spring President Johnson unveiled the Great Society in a speech at the University of Michigan. It all of course, unravelled quickly and soon thereafter, a victim of racial conflict and the international onslaught in the auto industry. Maraniss points no fingers and pays homage to what had been.