The March to War [Paperback]

James Ridgeway (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This latest entry in the flood of postwar books offers a chronological discussion of the more pertinent issues of the war for Kuwait, highlights the variety of opinions through 31 columns and ten testimonies from such contributors as Pat Buchanan, Noam Chomsky, Alexander Cockburn, and Richard Nixon, and argues that this was a masterfully thought-out, fought, and managed war. "The war with Iraq," writes Ridgeway, the "Moving Target" columnist and Washington correspondent of The Village Voice , "is the first of many on a North-South rather than an East-West axis." Even if Baghdad was not directly set up, Ridgeway argues, Kuwait's liberation was intended to create markets for American goods and services throughout the Gulf region. The proposed military build-ups in the Middle East and President Bush's vision of a New World Order are further pieces of evidence for Ridgeway. Provocative and challenging, this deserves a fair hearing.
- Joseph A. Kechichian, Rand Corp., Santa Monica, Cal.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

The trouble with history is its annoying tendency to continue to develop in complete defiance of publishing deadlines. This digest of op-ed pieces, speeches and magazine articles published in the weeks preceding and the months following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait claims to cover events through "war's end and beyond," yet it stops before the Kurdish and Shiite uprisings that became the major focus of the postwar period. Readers who recognize Ridgeway as a columnist and Washington correspondent for the Village Voice will guess that this is anything but a tribute to "our boys in the Gulf." Nevertheless, its anti-war slant is supported with contributions from Patrick Buchanan, William Safire and Henry Kissinger as well as Noarn Chomsky, Arthur Schlesinger and Ridgeway himself, demonstrating the unusual left/right coalition that formed against the war. The main thesis is summarized in a quote from Thucydides: "You are leaving many enemies behind you, and you apparently want to make new ones there and have them also on your hands." This is a book that may be useful to researchers seeking easy access to articles written by influential thinkers during the war. As history, however, it is too premature to be enlightening. There is, unfortunately, no index. -- From Independent Publisher

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Pr (April 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941423611
• ISBN-13: 978-0941423618
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,039,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Quite Reference, History Book, or Impartial, April 28, 2000

By 

James Schoonmaker (Centreville, Virginia USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The March to War (Paperback)

The March to War is an interesting book given its format: basically a collection of editorials, newspaper articles, and other material printed around the time of the Gulf War. Much of it is interesting reading, but it is all open-source material, easily found outside this book. If you followed the newspapers during the Gulf War, much of this will not be new to you.

The chosen format is novel, but presents some difficulties. The fact that the pieces were written around the time of Desert Shield/Desert Storm means that it serves more as a day-to-day history of the two operations than any sort of insightful analysis. The format also robs it of any sort of continuity other than the organization of the pieces, and the lack of an index makes it a very frustrating book if you are looking for a specific piece of information.

Readers familiar with the major voices in international affairs, however, will be interested to see the coalition of people aligned against the war: it ranges from conservatives such as Kissinger to such liberals as Noam Chomsky. All in all, however, there are better books out on the Gulf War, and all of the information contained in this book could be found just as easily by going to your local library.