Elephants and Blindness: Fodder for the Air Warrior's/Scholar's Professional Reading on the Gulf War
Abstract
This article seeks to render a fuller description of the Gulf War by providing an overview of its historical background and then examining the deployment and combat phases of the war, the latter objective aided largely through a review of "Shield and Sword: The United States Navy and the Persian Gulf War," an important new book by Edward Marolda and Robert Schneller, Jr. As noted in earlier articles in my "Fodder" series, the authors draw their inspiration in large part from the work of one of America's greatest military educators, the late Colonel Roger Nye of the U.S. Army, whose book "The Challenge of Command" every warrior/scholar should know. At the end of each of that book's chapters, Nye offers a list of 10 books on the subject, recommending two for openers and eight more for depth and mastery. I close with a sampler of 10 books on the Gulf War that may help readers with their own professional reading program. The article is divided into the following sections: Ancient Times; Modernity; World War I; Internal Combustion Engines and Oil; World War II; Palestine and Israel; British Withdrawal; Nixon Doctrine; Fall of the Shah; The Soviets, Afghanistan, and the Horn; Iran-Iraq War; Osirak Reactor; Invasion of Kuwait; The Gulf War -- Deployment and Combat; and Outcomes and Implications.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA517247
Entities
People
- David R. Mets
Organizations
- Air University