COUNTERCOLUMN: All Your Bias Are Belong to Us

Phil Carter has an interesting analysis of the changing intellectual climate in the Army, as evinced in the revised professional reading lists.

Here are my own favorites:

1.) About Face, by Col. David Hackworth

2.) Blackhawk Down, by Mike Bowden.

3.) Enemy at the Gates, by William Craig. The book. Not the movie (Even though Rachel Weisz joins Monica Bellucci on the Countercolumn "Officially Hot" list.)

I much prefer Enemy at the Gates to Antony Beevor's Stalingrad. Craig's reliance on personal accounts lends his book a human element and emotional impact that surpasses any military history I've ever read.

4.) The Defense of Hill 781: An Allegory of Modern Mechanized Combat. (I'd like to see this book--itself adapted from the much earlier "Defense of Duffer's Drift" updated to reflect an urban counterinsurgency mission)

5.) Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command, by Douglas Southall Freeman. Yes, I read all three volumes. Very dry, but once you invest in the first two volumes, reading about the final collapse of the Army of Northern Virginia when it was finally pushed into a hopeless position--and the astounding bravery of the desperate rear guard action at the little known Sayler's Creek--was a surprisingly moving experience.

6.) Street Without Joy, by Bernard Fall. But "A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Viet Nam" is excellent, too. One or the other will probably do. But if you liked one, you'll probably devour both. If you need more, then for God's sake, seek professional help!

7.) The Minutemen, by Gary Hart. Yes, that Gary Hart. A must-read for a political history of the Army, and as a treatise in the role an Army should play in a democratic republic. Journalists on the military/pentagon beat should be all over this one.

8. Company Commander, by William MacDonald.

9. Small Unit Leadership: A Common Sense Approach (for Cadets, sergeants, and platoon Leaders)
Company Command: The Bottom Line (for new company XOs and company commanders.)

10. The Art of Maneuver, by Robert R. Leonhard.

Honorable Mentions:

Knights Cross, a biography of Erwin Rommel. I remember that it was said that he never stopped teaching.

War As I Knew It, by General George Patton. Especially the last two chapters, consisting of proverbs, observations, and vignettes. Patton was at his best when he was also at his briefest and most direct.

Strategy, by B.H. Liddel-Hart. Check out Belisarius!
The Battle for the Falklands, by Max Hastings. I vividly remember the logistic lessons learned by the Royal Marines.

The Writings of Mao Tse Tung. Sure, he's a disgusting Chicom. But the man understood insurgent warfare. Indeed, he literally wrote the book.

The poetry of Wilfred Owen.

No, I'm not a big fan of S.L.A. Marshall, or John Keegan, particularly. Marshall's intellectual influence was huge, but I think his biggest contribution to military thought was his pioneering after-action review techniques, rather than anything he wrote himself.

John Keegan seems to demonstrate a firm grasp of the obvious. I remember attending a lecture of his once. He spent two hours leading up to the earth-shattering conclusion that the big winner of the Second World War was...drum roll...the United States.

And the biggest loser: Poland.

Well, no shite, Sherlock! Have another sherry!

Splash, out

Jason