Customer Reviews

America's Splendid Little Wars: A Short History of U.S. Engagements from the Fall of Saigonto Baghdad

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"America's Splendid Little Wars: A Short History of U.S. Engagements from the Fall of Saigon to Baghdad," by Peter Huchthausen, is a fascinating guide to a quarter century of American military actions. Starting with the S.S. _Mayaguez_ incident off the coast of Cambodia in 1975, Huchthausen tells the story of many missions: the failed 1980 attempt to rescue hostages in Iran, intervention in Lebanon in the 1980s, the 1983 Grenada invasion, the 1986 attack on Libya, activities in the Persian Gulf in the late 1980s, intervention in Panama in 1989, Operation Desert Shield (1990-91) and the 1991 Gulf War, the 1991 relief effort on behalf of the Kurds of northern Iraq, actions in Somalia in the early 1990s, intervention in Bosnia in the 1990s, and the 1999 Kosovo campaign.

The book is full of good features: logical organization, more than a dozen clear and informative maps, several pages of black-and-white photographs, a comprehensive nine-page bibliography, and an index. Huchthausen's prose style is clear and to-the-point. A paragraph about the author notes that he is a retired U.S. Navy captain, and that he served as an analyst of the Soviet navy, a submarine expert, and a naval attache. In his introduction Huchthausen notes that the phrase "splendid little war" was used in 1898, by a U.S. ambassador, to describe the Spanish-American War (incidentally, Theodore Roosevelt's classic memoir of that war, "The Rough Riders," would make a great companion text for this book). Huchthausen notes the irony of his book's title: "The U.S. military encounters from 1975 to 1999 were neither splendid nor small."

Huchthausen offers gripping descriptions of the unfolding events, both political and military, of each "little war." He gives historical backgrounds for the conflicts and also provides interesting analyses of the U.S. actions. Significant recurring themes include relations between the press and the military, the combination of assets from different branches of the U.S. military, and the use of unconventional forces such as Navy SEALs and the Army's Delta Force. We get glimpses of some fascinating personalities: U.S. Admiral William J. Crowe, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, Somali warlord Muhammad Farah Aideed, Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, and more. In an afterword (to the 2004 edition), Huchthausen reflects on more recent U.S. wars in Afghanistan (since 2001) and Iraq (since 2003).

Yes, one can only fit so much information into the relatively short space allotted to each "little war," and at times I felt that the book didn't give a full enough story. Still, as a general overview of this era the book is very useful, and the excellent bibliography offers interested readers plenty more places to go if he or she wants to learn more. For additional companion texts that cover some of the same material from other valuable perspectives, I recommend "Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy SEAL," by Chuck Pfarrer, and "Inside Delta Force," by Eric Haney. Overall, I consider "America's Splendid Little Wars" a well-written and valuable book--in particular, essential reading for contemporary military professionals.