The Right Kind of War [Paperback]

John McCormick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1994

In a story of men in combat and camaraderie, the U.S. Marines land in the Solomons and fight their way across the Pacific, from the confusion of Guadalcanal to the epic struggle for Okinawa. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This impressive first novel is based on McCormick's WW 11 experience with the elite Marine Raiders, later consolidated as the 4th Marines. Unpretentious prose and a straightforward narrative style highlight the grim realities of combat against Japanese forces in the Solomons, on Guam, and above all, on Okinawa. Episodes set outside battle areas convincingly depict Raider training and attitudes. Pvt. Moe, the narrator, and his comrades are products of the Depression, more likely to have served in the CCC than to have graduated from high school. They do not question their roles in the right kind of war, waged without pity or hatred against an absolute enemy. McCormick's understated prose ultimately enhances his presentation of the value system promulgated in the Marine Corps. By urging Marines to objectivize the enemy, thereby encouraging detachment, they brought about the Corps's evolution into a warrior elite--America's samurai. 25,000 first printing.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This episodic first novel, written by a veteran of World War II, so realistically details the activities of a company of U.S. Marine Corps Raiders during the Pacific campaign that the reader suspects it is actually thinly veiled autobiography. Told from a private's viewpoint, it follows the Raiders across several Pacific islands as they fight the Japanese as well as their other enemies--disease, fear, and boredom. Spanning the months between July 1943 and September 1945, this tale is of a simpler time when the United States was right and everyone else was wrong, and "the Pacific War was the right kind of war, the simple war in which there were not the distractions of things like pity or Geneva conventions." Obviously no pacifist or antiwar sentiments here. Sure to be popular with World War II fans.
- Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, Ind.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Onyx (March 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451404505
• ISBN-13: 978-0451404503
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,159,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book on life with the Marines, WW11, November 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Right Kind of War (Paperback)

As a personal friend of Jim Rosevelt, in later life, the book caught my attention. The book is well written. I wish it could have included some of the first hand stories, he spoke of, during some of our family get togethers. The book portrays the heavy loss of life that occurred during those years to take the pacific islands. I would reread it, and plan to do just that.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Right Kind Of War Book, July 27, 2005

By 

Eric Howard "veteran" (kansas city, mo. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Right Kind of War (Hardcover)

This book is basicly a memoir written as fiction of service with the Marine Raiders and later with the 4th Marines. The accounts of jungle patrols are very intense and the discription of the battle of Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa is a pure nightmare. The book gives a good account of WWII Raider training and operations. At times, while describing camp life, the humour seems a bit strained.

If this book had come out twenty or thirty years earilar it would have been a classic, better than the exellent "Battle Cry." This a great Marine book, and an inside look at Raider life.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I CANNOT SAY ENOUGH GOOD ABOUT THIS BOOK, October 7, 2004

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Right Kind of War (Paperback)

This will be one you will want to add to your book shelf as it is a book that really deserves a couple of good readings. The author tells a compelling tale of battle, the Marines and the war in the Pacific. It is accounts like this one that enable us to increase our understanding of those times, those of us who were not actually there. I highly recommend this one.