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Refighting the Pacific War presents the viewpoints of more than thirty historians, authors, and veterans regarding what happened and what might have happened if events in the Pacific had unfolded differently during World War II. Contributors to this alternative history include the noted military historians William Bartsch, John Burton, Donald Goldstein, John Lundstrom, Robert Mrazek, Jon Parshall, Douglas Smith, Peter Smith, Barrett Tillman, Anthony Tully, and H. P. Willmott. In chapters organized in a roundtable discussion format, the contributors present their differing views on the possible outcomes of the major campaigns of the Pacific War and the implications of those changes on the course of history. The result is a thought-provoking collection of divergent views about the outcome of the war that will be certain to stimulate debate. The naval campaigns and battles discussed include Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Philippine Sea, and Leyte Gulf. Additionally, the book delves into key island battles like Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, as well as prewar and postwar political issues: Could Japan have inflicted even greater damage at Pearl Harbor? How might Admiral Yamamoto have achieved victory at Midway? What would have been the impact of that victory on the direction of the war? These are just some of the discussion points posed in Refighting the Pacific War. In addition, the book explores whether the war was inevitable, includes an extensive study of the opening year of the war when the Japanese war machine seemed unstoppable, and considers if the conflict could have ended without the use of the atomic bomb.Vice Admiral Yoji Koda, Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (Ret.), Yamamoto’s successor as commander of Japan’s combined fleet and a pillar of the postwar alliance between the United States and Japan, provides the book’s introduction, in which he places the book in the context of the frequently told stories and views from the Japanese side.

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An international team of naval historians and scholars has pooled their expertise for this definitive reference on how the great navies of World War II were organized and how they trained, operated, and fought. They provide a point-by-point evaluation on the inner workings of the navies of the United States, the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, and the Soviet Union. Each navy has its own chapter, which covers such key features as weaponry, training, logistics, and doctrine. In bringing together data buried in specialized works in various languages, the authors deliver a fresh, multinational view of the naval war.

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The Purge of the Thirtieth Division by Major General Henry Dozier Russell is the only known written work by any of the eighteen National Guard division commanders mobilized in1940 and 1941. It chronicles from a National Guard perspective many of the challenges and growing pains experienced by the Army in the critical months leading up to its entry into World War II. Through Russell, the reader gains insight into the vast cultural differences between the Regular Army and the National Guard at the time.Russell’s memoir offer an invaluable source of a commander’s first-hand account of how his division trained and fared during the 1940 Louisiana Maneuvers, and 1941 Tennessee and Carolina Maneuvers, respectively, in its preparation for overseas deployment. The narrative also contains a compelling account of the relations and tensions between Regulars and National Guardsmen. It was a scathing indictment of the Regular Army high command for what he perceived to be unfair treatment of National Guard officers during World War II. He cited many examples to bolster his claims, and contended that the U.S. Army, under Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, was out to “get” the Thirtieth Division and other National Guard divisions. He further contended that the Army believed that a non-Regular officer should not advance beyond the grade of lieutenant colonel. His memoir, which he privately printed, pulled no punches. His first-hand account was very critical of how a number of senior Regular Army officers handled affairs with his division that led to his relief as the division commander. Russell completed his memoir in 1947 and subsequently printed 500 copies, which he distributed to senior National Guard officers. He did not sell any of the books, nor were they intended for or made available to the general public. Although there was a demand for additional copies, he did not print any more. The republication of The Purge of the Thirtieth Division is intended to expand the scholarship on the history of World War II and the history of the U.S. Army.

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This is the most comprehensive, English-language study of the German Imperial Navy’s battlecruisers that served in the First World War. Known as Panzerkreuzer, literally “armored cruiser,” the eight ships of the class were to be involved in several early North Sea skirmishes before the great pitched battle of Jutland where they inflicted devastating damage on the Royal Navy’s battlecruiser fleet. This book details their design and construction, and traces the full service history of each ship, recounting their actions, drawing largely from first-hand German sources and official documents, many previously unpublished in English.

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A great power arms race in naval weaponry and platforms, rising challengers seeking to overturn the existing international order in Asia, an economic slump that put immense pressure on politicians in democracies to trim defense budgets, and diplomatic efforts by statesmen to find ways to promote mutual security and avoid rivalries that could lead to war—all these features mark the current-day strategic environment. These features also marked in the era between the two world wars. To prevent the naval rivalries that augured international conflict, statesmen and naval leaders sought to negotiate arms control agreement. Their efforts to avert a great power naval arms race were crowned with achievement at the London Conference of 1930.What was accomplished at London, of course, did not prove lasting; nor did it lead to additional meaningful arms control and prevent future wars. Instead, London proved a dead end in the evolution of interwar international relations. The London Treaty marked the high point of interwar arms control. When measured against the magnitude of the international catastrophe that would unfold over the next decade, this achievement in arms control now appears practically meaningless at best and dangerous at worst. Critics of interwar arms control argue that, by weakening of American and British naval power, as well as stirring up extremist nationalism in Japanese internal politics, the London agreement represents a case study in political folly that contributed to the awful events leading to the war. The London Conference of 1930 thus represents a watershed, a turning point in the history of the interwar period.In this volume, leading naval historians tackle the question of how to assess the role played by naval arms control in the history of the interwar period. In addressing this important question, the authors uncover new evidence about the role of intelligence and behind-the-scenes political deal making that adds much to our knowledge of the international and naval history of this important era. This volume’s authors provide the first complete account of the strategic calculations and negotiations that shaped the outcome at the London Conference. No one interested in twentieth-century naval history, international relations and the rivalries of rising and declining great powers, and the origins of the Second World War can afford to miss this important new history.

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The Strategy of Communication is a primer on the art and science of strategic communication. This book covers the foundation of communications strategies as well as solid tactics, techniques, and procedures for media relations, campaign planning, crisis communication and strategic communications planning. It is both a philosophy of communication and a solid practical reference manual. Like no other book on public relations, public diplomacy, or media operations and community outreach, it offers a compelling look at how all communication processes can be made to function more efficiently and with greater effectiveness. The ties are those of intention and purpose, both leading to meaningful and purpose-driven communication efforts, whether conducted by governments, organizations, or military units.From the most basic precepts of media relations interaction to massive information campaigns directed from the seat of government, communication that is broad-based, overarching and tied to strategic objectives can ultimately succeed using a variety of methods, from storytelling to building external champions. Practitioners and news media representatives alike should be aware of the nature of repetitive patterns in events, the power of myth in storytelling, and the significance of self-fulfilling prophesies. Influencing factors include new technologies that flatten communication hierarchies, social media platforms that empower amateurs, generational divides and a general decline in respect for the journalism profession and ebbing trust in the news as reported by the mainstream media. A coarsening of the public discourse throughout our celebrity-saturated culture likewise contributes to the difficulty of communicating with resonance and result in a toxic information environment. This book, a collection of collected essays on the communication practice, represents both a deeply passionate, strategically reasoned and thoroughly researched commentary on the field. It is both practical and theoretical.

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For centuries the world’s Great Powers, along with their fleets, armies, and intelligence services, have been drawn to the Persian Gulf region. Lying at the junction of three great continents – Asia, Europe, and Africa – and sitting athwart the oceanic trade routes that link the cities of the world, the Gulf, like a magnet, has pulled superpowers into the shallow waters and adjacent lands of the 600 mile long appendage of the Indian Ocean. An observer at Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf would alternately have watched pass in the 15th century the treasure ships of Chinese Admiral Zheng He, in the 16th century the caravels of Portuguese Admiral Afonso de Albuquerqe, in the 17th century the merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company, in the 18th to the 20th centuries the frigates and steamships of the British, and finally in the late 20th century to today, the cruisers and aircraft carriers of the U.S. Fifth Fleet. Perhaps in the future, Americans may be supplanted by the Indians, or perhaps the Chinese.In the Great Powers’ comings and goings since the 1400s, several consistent broad interests emerged. For the majority of this time, for example, the superpowers entered the Gulf region not to colonize, as the Europeans did in other places, but rather to further trade, which in the 20th century increasingly included oil. They also sought a military presence in the Gulf to protect seaborne flanks to colonial possessions further east on the Indian sub-continent and beyond (India, in fact, has long cast a shadow over the Gulf, given its historic trade and cultural ties to the Gulf region, strong ties that continue today). In their geo-political jockeying, furthermore, the Great Powers sought to deprive their rivals access to the states bordering the Gulf region. In tending to these enduring interests inside the Strait of Hormuz, the Great Powers through history concentrated their trade, political, and military presence along the littorals. Not surprisingly, their navies have played a substantive role.Imperial Crossroads: The Great Powers and the Persian Gulf is a collection of connected chapters, each of which investigates a different perspective in the broader subject of the Great Powers and their involvement with the states of the Persian Gulf. This volume concentrates on four western nations – Portugal, Holland, Britain, and the United States – and concludes with a look at the possible future involvement of two rising Asian powers – China and India.

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Rare among books on weapon systems technologies, this work traces China s development from a coastal defense force of obsolete ships with crude weapons to its current complex missile catamarans and Aegis-like destroyers with vertical launch weapons and long-range cruise missiles. As the only book devoted solely to all combat systems on Chinese warships, it is a convenient one-stop reference filled with tables that break down specifications and parameters into specific areas, such as sensors and weapons for specific hulls. The book is divided into sections on frigates, destroyers, submarines, patrol craft, and aircraft. Antisubmarine, anti-air, anti-surface, and mine warfare are covered separately. For war gamers, there are tables with frequencies, load outs, and ranges. The authors prompt readers to discern areas of weakness and strength in the Chinese combat systems.

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On November 20, l943, in the first trial by fire of America's fledgling amphibious assault doctrine, five thousand men stormed the beaches of Tarawa, a seemingly invincible Japanese island fortress barely the size of the Pentagon parking lots (three-hundred acres!). Before the first day ended, one third of the Marines who had crossed Tarawa's deadly reef under murderous fire were killed, wounded, or missing. In three days of fighting, four Americans would win the Medal of Honor. And six-thousand combatants would die.Now, Col. Joseph Alexander, a combat Marine himself, presents the full story of Tarawa in all its horror and glory: the extreme risks, the horrific combat, and the heroic breakthroughs. Based on exhaustive research, never-before-published accounts from Marine survivors, and new evidence from Japanese sources, Colonel Alexander captures the grit, guts, and relentless courage of United States Marines overcoming outrageous odds to deliver victory for their country.

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Hanson W. Baldwin was America's best-known military writer and analyst in the 20th Century covering conflicts from World War II to the Vietnam War. He was the military editor of the New York Times for forty years and his dispatches from Guadalcanal and the Western Pacific won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1943.This first biography of this Naval Academy graduate begins with an appreciation of the human and literary values learned from his Baltimore newspaper family. His midshipman years, 1920-1924, taught him the value of concentration. After three years of active service, he chose the life of a professional writer. A few days before the 1929 stock market crash, he joined the New York Times as a reporter. His career was advanced by the patronage of the Times publisher and by the talk of another European war in 1937. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1943 for his Guadalcanal series. After 1945, he thought the atomic bomb to be of limited use on the battlefield as well as in the politics of the Cold War. His news scoops upset many but were in keeping with his determination to tell his readers what its government was doing. His continuing criticism of Secretary McNamara's management of the Vietnam War and the Times management's annoyance with his pro-war position contributed to his decision to retire in March 1968. Later, he could only observe and to complain over the decline of American values and its harmful effects on the military. After his retirement he continued to write articles on military affairs for the news columns and Op-Ed page of the New York Times.

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