Customer Reviews

The Third World War: August 1985

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I have been searching for this book for the past 3 years, since I lost my original copy in the move to Australia. John Hackett writes a book which is fluid in its description of the horrific actions of Nuclear War. Not a small book by any means, the 800+ pages seems to only last a day when reading it. Whether you are in Iceland with the marooned marine, against an island crawling with Soviet soldiers, or dieing in a flash of blazing light in Birmingham, the story is just as real and exciting.

This book has left such a picture in my mind, that I can remember most details of the storyline, after reading it when I was 14 (12 years ago), I tried to read it again 3 years ago after reading some Dale Brown and Tom Clancy, although DC and TC write a fantastic read the details of the story are not as good as this well informed NATO General and his motley crew. It is a pity he only has one more book, I wish that he had written more.

This book is about the Soviets invading Germany starting the Third world war. This is not your ususal Tom Clancy style book, but is a Geopolitical look at what could happen. (at the time it was written) The perspective is very different, written as if it was done after the war from news paper, and wire reports.

It is not a book for those who just want to read about things getting blown up, this is a serious military and political essay on what was a huge posablilty at the time. The authors go into great depth to explain everything in detail, and there is a great glossery in the back og the book for those who are not up on the military terms.

There are some good combat action scenes, but there is just as much politics as action. I personally got bored with the politics after awhile, but after re-reading it 15 years later, I have to admit it does add to the book.

The author does have a good eye for detail, and knows his stuff, so much so that it is not always easy to read. At over 800 pages it gets a litle long, but it covers all facets of the war, from the action on the ground, the air, the oceans, and finally the nuclear option.

I first bought and read this book in hardback as a first edition while in the US Army. It wasn't reviewed as a "literary project" so much as a dire warning to NATO countries in general and the US in particular if steps were not taken to face the growing Soviet threat at a key juncture in the Cold War. In that respect, the book succeeded, as President Reagan's modernization plan went into effect. Some may scoff that all Reagan did was turn the US from a creditor nation into a debtor nation in the early 1980's. However, as someone who served on the Inter-German Boundary tripwire while this equipment modernization process was taking place, every military professional who had read the book by that point was keeping track of how fast our readiness programs were going as we advanced towards the "August, 1985" deadline Sir John Hackett had given us to prepare by. For perspective, picture yourself and your unit outnumbered 5 to 1, on alert and deploying forward as martial law is declared in Poland in 1981...

Sir Thomas Hackett's "The Third World War: August 1985" is the fictional story of a European conflict between the NATO and the Warsaw Pact. A former commander of the British Army on the Rhine, General Hackett had a lot of knowledge about this potential war. It is written as a non-fiction historical account of the war, and although considered by many a definitive account of this potential war (and the basis for other accounts, such as Harold Coyle's "Team Yankee"), upon re-reading this book recently I was very disappointed in it.

The story is very simple - after some political crises, the Soviet Union decides to go to war against NATO in Europe. Written as if this was a history of the war, Hackett focuses on the big picture, but includes short anecdotal stories and episodes of individuals involved in the fighting - some written as first-person accounts.

But Hackett's story suffers from a few problems. First, his story jumps around a lot - it feels like he describes the opening hours of the war three or four times, then he jumps back and writes at length on the history of another pre-war issue (for example, the pre-war naval race). The end of the war feels very artificial, as he describes a simple and orderly withdrawal of Soviet forces to the pre-war borders, but the way it happens just doesn't ring true. And finally his writing style is slow, ponderous, unnecessarily comma-filled - very dry and British.

General Hackett wrote this book as a warning to the West about its military shortcomings. It inspired much of the 1980s World War III fiction (Red Storm Rising, Red Army, Team Yankee, etc.). However, this book has not stood the test of time and is not as good now as I remember it being 25 years ago when I first read it.

$.50 is half a buck too much. This is not is hindsight. I read it long ago and it made no sense then. Try Odom instead.