Customer Reviews

Way of a Fighter: The Memoirs of Claire Lee Chennault (History United States Series)

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Chennault gives one of the most accurate and unbiased accounts of WWII in China. He shows the dark side of the US Military brass and how bad our own government can be without tarnishing the reputations of the people involved. He also tells how the US lost China to the Communists after the war and its betrayal of Nationalist China during and after the war. Chennault was one of the most farsighted men of all time. He and the daring exploits of his AVG Flying Tigers are legendary. Generalisimo Chiang Kai-shek hailed him as a true friend of Free China. Many of his predictions in 1949 later came true with US foreign policy in Korea and Vietnam and the Cold War with Russia. Had Chennault been listened to, Korea and Vietnam would never have happened. I highly recommend this book.

Chennault gives one of the most accurate and unbiased accounts of WWII in China. He shows the dark side of the US Military brass and how bad our own government can be without tarnishing the reputations of the people involved. He also tells how the US lost China to the Communists after the war and its betrayal of Nationalist China during and after the war. Chennault was one of the most farsighted men of all time. He and the daring exploits of his AVG Flying Tigers are legendary. Generalisimo Chiang Kai-shek hailed him as a true friend of Free China. Many of his predictions in 1949 later came true with US foreign policy in Korea and Vietnam and the Cold War with Russia. Had Chennault been listened to, Korea and Vietnam would never have happened. I highly recommend this book.

Ever wonder about how we lost China, found ourselves attacked and nearly overwhelmed in Korea, got involved in Vietnam? "The Way of a Fighter," is a desperate appeal aimed directly to all Americans. It eerily and accurately predicts these events. While excellent foresight remains a common theme in revisionist histories, this book was written in 1948.

One would expect a general's post-war autobiography to stand as a monument to self-justification and glorification, those were only Chennault's secondary purposes. His primary objective: raising the alarm to forestall disaster.

American schoolbooks omit our role in the loss of China to communism. "The Way of a Fighter" will fill in many of these details from the first person perspective and put you in the seat of the man who saw it coming and dedicated his life trying to prevent it.

Jammed full of names, places, events, self-promotion, and vitriol, Chennault steps you through a life filled with conflicts against those in authority. His observations and concerns should be included in every history textbook on 20th century China. The bile with which he writes against his superiors made this book more visceral and aggravating to read.

If you want a quick, insightful perspective on China through 1948, read the Forward.
If you want details on Chennault's political fights, read the book.
If you want action/adventure stories, read something else.

On a side note, Chennault's failure to forestall disaster reminded me a lot of the lessons Tolstoy taught in "War and Peace" Epilogue Part 2 regarding leadership. Even though Chennault's concerns were justified, strategies sound, and tactics realistic, Americans just didn't care. Though his book represented a good effort to change that, Chennault simply failed to rouse a war-weary West.

I'm delighted that this book is back in print, even if at a high price. Chennault's "autobiography" was written in 1949 just as the Chinese Nationalist government and his airline were starting life anew on Taiwan. The text was written by Robert Hotz, with the chapters okayed by the Old Man. They express his views fairly, but Hotz did not have all the documents available to him, and Chennault was too busy to fill in the details. Still, you get the flavor, and it's eminently worth reading and owning.

Ever wonder about how we lost China, found ourselves attacked and nearly overwhelmed in Korea, got involved in Vietnam? "The Way of a Fighter," as a desperate appeal aimed directly to all Americans, eerily and accurate predicts these futures. While excellent foresight remains a common theme in revisionist histories, this book was written in 1948!

While one would expect a general's post-war autobiography to stand as a monument to self-justification and glorification, those were only Chennault's secondary purposes. His primary objective: raising the alarm to forestall disaster.

The American schoolbooks omit our role in the loss of China to communism. "The Way of a Fighter" will fill in many of these details from the first person perspective and put you in the seat of the man who saw it coming and dedicate his life trying to prevent it.

Jammed full of names, places, events, self-promotion, and vitriol, Chennault steps you through a life filled with conflicts against those in authority. His observations and concerns should be included in every history textbook on 20th century China.

If you want a quick, insightful perspective on China through 1948, read the Forward.

If you want details on Chennault's political fights, read the book.

If you want action/adventure stories, read something else.

On a side note, Chennault's failure to forestall disaster reminded me a lot of the lessons Tolstoy taught in "War and Peace" Epilog Part 2 regarding leadership. Even though Chennault's concerns were justified, strategies sound, and tactics realistic, Americans just didn't care. Though his book represented a good effort to change that, Chennault simply failed to rouse a war-weary West.

Chennault joined the army during World War I but never got to the front and not until the war was over did he achieve his goal of becoming a pilot. By all accounts, he was a great one. "Nobody flies a plane like the Old Man," said one of his admirers. He rapidly hit a ceiling in the Air Corps, however, making important enemies with his insistence that pursuit planes (fighters) could intercept the bombers that the generals believed were unstoppable. He was eased out in 1937 and went to China as air adviser to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. In 1940-41 he organized the American Volunteer Group that would become immortal as the "Flying Tigers"--and cinch Chennault's own claim to fame as the maverick who managed to do what the generals could not. They never forgave him. Though he was taken back into U.S. service and eventually became a general in his own right, he was once again forced out when his services were no longer needed.

Another way to get the essentials of Chennault's life is to buy Daniel Ford's history of the AVG, Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942, recently revised and published in a handsome and thrifty paperback from HarperCollins. For those more interested in the man than in the airplanes he flew and the battles he fought, read Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger, by Martha Byrd. -- CDB

I read this book many times (the 1949 book) at my high school library and it is one of the greatest books I have ever read. Please do not buy the 1991 version because it is of poorer quality as the kid reviewer had stated with regards to the print matter and the photographs.

The product could have authenatic photographs just like the 1949 book had. Also in some of the pages, the printed words look like they were starting to disappear book which means you were going to be looking a blank pages down the road.