From Publishers Weekly
This bipartisan study, coauthored by Aspin, the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Dickinson, its ranking Republican member, aims to teach Congress the lessons of the Gulf war with a view toward future defense policy and budgeting. The report's succinctly stated findings offer no surprises. The air campaign is judged the decisive factor in the war. High-tech weapons and equipment, it concludes, for the most part worked satisfactorily. The Total Force policy, calling for integration of reserve components in a major contingency, was successfully implemented. The all-volunteer force turned out to be not only better educated and motivated than any other army in U.S. military history, but also more capable. The Goldwater-Nichols Defense Department Reorganization Act of 1986, with its streamlined chain of command (featuring strict operational control by the theater commander), passed its first major test with flying colors. For the general reader the report serves as a just-the-facts overview and a pragmatic assessment of the performances of U.S. military forces in their first post-Cold War test. Illustrations.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This dry Congressional report is a bipartisan review of what went right and what went wrong with Operation Desert Storm. Because it covers a wide range of topics, from high-technology weapons to operations and personnel issues, no topic is examined in any degree of depth. The book is unfairly critical of the performance of intelligence support, failing to realize that the success of the air campaign was first and foremost based on the successful identification of key targets by intelligence. There is no grand conclusion here; in fact, there is no concluding chapter. This is more an official reference critique than a comprehensive history of the war. For larger military studies collections.
-John Yurechko, Georgetown Univ., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
-John Yurechko, Georgetown Univ., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
