Customer Reviews

America's Splendid Little Wars: A Short History of U.S. Military Engagements: 1975-2000

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a splendid little exploration of the flurry of American military engagements in the thirty years since the end of the Vietnam imbroglio, and illustrates both the awesome power and inherent limitations of attempting to accomplish political goals through force of military arms. And somewhat of a decidedly mixed bag is what we have to show for the more than a dozen such operations detailed and analyzed herein. And herein Peter A. Huchthausen, best selling author of the absorbing "K-19", takes the reader on a fascinating and thought-provoking journey into each of these adventures.

Many of the operations have been successful indeed, including the Mayaguez incident in the mid 1970s, Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm all being impressive displays of our incredible ability to project power into any little corner of the world. On the other hand, sordid failures abound as well, such as the botched Iranian hostage situation in the desert, the disastrous peacekeeping operation in Lebanon, and the exercise in `nation-building' amid the squalor of Somalia. The author pulls few punches in relating how such elements as arrogance, ignorance, and inter-service rivalries often hamper and limit our military exercises, such that having not properly done the necessary homework can sometimes result in massive casualties or miscalculation when we do not appreciate the threat of the opposing forces or underestimate their resolve.

Finally, he discusses successful but somewhat conflicted efforts such as both the intervention in Bosnia and later Kosovo, where we limited ourselves to air campaigns which translated into much higher levels of unintended civilian collateral casualties then would otherwise have been the case, and where the enemy defended themselves by using innocent civilians as `human shields', and Grenada, where our own casualties were higher than necessary due to lack of inter-service cooperation. The author, a retired navy officer, displays a magnificent respect for the men and women in arms, especially the enlisted troops, while being less kind and deferential to the officers and higher echelons of the power elite, who often send the fighting force off on what are destined to become fools' errands for their own somewhat limited and sometimes selfish political reasons. This is an interesting book and provides a wonderful summary of American miltary actions over the last quarter century. Enjoy!

The major U.S. wars -- especially the Civil War and the highly romanticized WW II -- loom large in the American consciousness. But as Max Boot demonstrated in his "The Savage Wars of Peace" (2002), scores of military engagements, interventions, peacekeeping operations and so-called "small" wars have had consequential impact. Boot discusses many such pre-Vietnam operations, including the efforts to end Barbary Coast piracy, the Spanish-American war, the Pancho Villa expedition, and various South America and the Caribbean interventions, among others.

Now Peter Huchthausen picks up where Boot left off, with a concise examination of more than a dozen military operations that occurred between 1975 and 2000.

Huchthausen, best known as the author of "K-19: The Widowmaker," presents the ignominious (Iranian Hostage Rescue, Lebanon, Somalia) alongside the unqualified successes (Panama, Desert Shield/Storm, Libya retaliation) and engagements in which success came at a price (Grenada, Kosovo).

Throughout the narrative, it is interesting to observe the U.S. military progressively restoring its efficacy following its "hollow" period in the immediate aftermath of Vietnan. And we see the positive effects of the Goldwater-Nichols reforms (1986) in fostering increased inter-service cooperation and improved operational performance. Inter-service coordination, for example, was much better in Panama (late 1989) than in Grenada (1983).

Huchthausen's book is a highly readable, compact overview, easily digestible in one session or two. Well worth the time for anyone interested in the creation of the modern U.S. military, whose recent successes in Afghanistan and Iraq we've all marveled at.

This wonderful book walks the reader through all the 'little' wars that america fought after Vietnam. It takes you through 'Desert One' the disaster of the Carter administration. it looks at the Magasuay indcident in Cambodia, the invasion of Grenda, the duel with Quadafy, the Beirut peacekeeping, the invasion of panama and the missions in Haiti and Somalia.

This is a wonderful book. Well written, packed with information and gives good overviews of the countries and participants involved.

A great way to understand americas role in the late 20th century.

The title of this book is taken from a quote by Secretary of State John Hay, who in 1898 called the quick war against Spain a "splendid little war." The U.S. gained parts of Cuba and the Philippines in addition to other territories. But Secretary Hay was being ironic. The splendid little war actually mired the U.S. in long term, drawn out conflicts with insurgents, guerillas and others. (Just like the current quagmire in Iraq) The book opens with the Mayaguez incident in May 1975 which was more about President Ford telling the world that America was not crippled than about rescuing a ship and crew from pirates. It gives eleven more examples, including battles in Somalia, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, and the Gulf. The book provides excellent brief analyses of the battles, failures, and victories. Once your curiosity grows however, you should seek out more complex focused deeper analyses to get more of the political flavors of why the U.S. got involved.

I must say, this is the first book I have ever read that I feel was custom written for me. I was born in mid 1975, just after the US pulled out of Vietnam. For some reason, despite being well educated, my history classes over the years seems to skip many of the conflicts the US was involved with. Many of the conflicts I was too young to remember or too immature to notice and care.

If someone were to ask about the Mayaguez incident, I'd assume something happened in the city in Puerto Rico.

If someone mentioned something about Khmer Rouge, my guess would have been they were talking about a product made by Maybelline.

The Hostage Rescue attempt? A Chuck Norris movie vaguely touched on the subject.

Grenada? Clint Eastwood in Heartbreak Ridge.

This book is a 200 page documentary on the 15 conflicts fought by American soldiers between 1975 and 2000, starting with the SS Mayaguez incident and ending with Kosovo.

Through most of the conflicts discussed, I feel the author did an excellent job helping a history illiterate like myself. Typically, the author goes into some background into the whole conflict, discussing why and how tensions built up to the point of armed conflict. The author does an excellent job discussing the battle plans and strategy behind most of the conflicts.

I have to commend the author on his writing abilities. At times, the explanations of the military strategies got a little dull to me. However, the author is a very talented writer. When describing the battles, I fell the author did an excellent job describing the events with words. I felt as if I could have been watching it on TV.

The book is exactly what the title suggests, a chronological documentary of various US military conflicts. At times, I felt the book was slow reading, but overall, I thought it was an excellent resource on military conflicts that I knew little about and no one else seemed to pay attention to.

A short review of fifteen American conflicts in twenty-five years. The premise is good, but this is a short summary of many conflicts. They include the conflicts in Cambodia, Grenada, Lebanon, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Somilia, Kosovo, and Bosnia. Most of these were disappointing conflicts from the American point of view. The author basically rehashs the conflicts and how America intervened. One conflict he went in detail was Bosnia, but he gave short shift to the success of the reconquest of Kuwait.
These are OK summaries of all these conflicts, but one will not find any new information in them. None of them were new to me.

This is an OK read for those interested in American foreign policy from 1975-2000. This is a summarization of all the conflicts in these twenty five years. Most of them were disappointments to the U.S.. This includes even the successes such as the seizure of the SS Mayaguez. This conflict caused more deaths than it saved. An OK read.

This is book represents a straightforeward chronology of significant American military endeavors since Vietnam ending with the first Gulf war. The author is obviously a military fanatic, as we are treated to more a strategic analysis of these conflicts than any overall analysis of their long term consequences, but this is a minor criticism of a pretty good read.

This book is of considerable value in light of current events. When I was finished reading about the last 30 years of Americn imperialism, I was left with rather mixed feellings about the extent to which my country has meddled in the destiny of other nations and whether it has truly been worth it. America has had some heroic sucesses (Kosovo), military successes(Grenada,Panama,Gulf War 1) and dismal failures (Lebanon, Somalia). I found the chapter on the failed Iran hostage rescue to be a particularly depressing lesson in military incompetence.

The reasons for launching these foreign wars has been as varied as the results they have acheived, yet one aspect is crystal clear: despite America's monstrous advantages of wealth, military power and technology, long term victory even over 3rd world dictatorships is NEVER a sure thing.

This incisive and unbiased historical analysis of modern military engagements is invaluable as a basis for understanding the motivations,complexities, and details of armed conflicts that have involved America's fighting forces during the critical times covered in this book. Anyone wishing to broaden their comprehension of the policies, politics, and compulsions underlying decisions to engage in battle will find America's Splendid Little Wars a very satisfying read.>

This book is a survey of 14 American (some with allies) military actions from 1975 till 2000. For those interested in the military side it is interesting. He also writes a little about the politics behind it, though never really critizing it vehemently. It's a good reference book and I think well researched.

As a veteran and educator I find it, at best, disconcerting, and at worst, insulting, that there was little-to-no PRIMARY research conducted by Huchthausen on this topic.
Example? Here's one: Had the author actually spoken with the soldiers involved in the Somalia and Mogadishu operation(s) he would not be so far off-base at assessing the situation on the ground as he was. Also, he incorrectly labels the MH-6 the "Little Guy" throughout the chapter. It's actual name is the "Little Bird". While it may seem like an insignificant detail, consider the larger implications (e.g. he did not conduct primary research b/c no soldier would've called the MH-6 by the wrong name, which means he did not speak to actual soldiers, he simply slapped together information from various sources, i.e. textbooks, newspaper accounts, historical record, etc.). As a result of this, and numerous other examples, the author's credibility is destroyed with anyone knowledgable of the events. What is most tragic is, being a military veteran himself, he should have known better.
Furthermore, the socio-political, as well as military lessons and implications of these incidents are never fully explored from a holistic, or more global, level. In other words, Huchthausen's view is over simplistic and too ethnocentric. For dealing with complex issues, this author would be well-served to read Gen. W. Clark's: Waging Modern War.
If, as some of the others reviewers have stated, you want a simple, straightforward, and concise historical reader, buy this book. However, if you're interested in learning what truly occurred , written by someone who conducts his own research and delivers facts accurately -especially something as simple and readily accessible as the name of a helicopter- then skip this book.