Recommended by a Friend: Dr Jim Greer at the Maneuver Warfare Symposium.

On my "To Do List" to watch: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS-YSz9LkjA

Chessboards that are of a Global Nature: The Important Place of Ukraine has as a Playing Piece

I was fascinated to hear repeated from several sources a comment from a presidential advisor called Zbigniew Brzezinski. He reported to the US President Jimmy Carter in teh 1980's, and stated the importance of Ukraine to Russia. Simply put without Ukraine, Russia cannot call itself an empire, with it, then it can. Ukraine has (or at least had) 40 million people, while Russia 140 million, but Russia desperately wants to claim these 40 million as its own, as well as the strategic importance of the land and sea access (see below, perhaps Brzezinski can shed more light on how Russia and America "really see the rest of the world"): 

I will have to read "The Grand Chessboard" the old fashioned way with the Mark One eyeball!

Footnote: The date of paperback publication I am reading was back in 1997, last century. I feel old saying that!

Audible Book: Nuclear War A Scenario

Well the title grabs your attention for sure. The theme tune of "Protect and Survive" rings in my ears but this is an American slant, so the melting milk bottles of Sheffield are not mentioned (see Threads, "THE" Nuclear War film). Nevertheless the scientific effects of nuclear hydrogen (H) bombs are chillingly accurate, well researched and repeats successfully what others have already stated, nuclear war is an Armageddon that you don't want to experience  (see below, the mushroom cloud cover will sell the book for sure):

Despite the warnings from history we never seem to earn and we are only happy when we are playing with fire. Annie Jacobsen then spins a scenario to draw the reader into a plausible sequence of events, albeit "unlikely" whereby a nuclear armed minor state (spoiler alert - North Korea) launches an attack on the United States of America .. twice, an ICBM and a submarine launched one. The response (because there may well be a third) is to obliterate North Korea, but because of technology defects on the Russia monitoring satellites they believe (falsely?) that this is an attack on Mother Russia and immediately fall into the "dead-man's hand" counter-strike mentality because they cannot talk to the US President (because he is "unavailable"). The Kremlin-Washington hotline goes very cold. What China would do in response to it meanwhile soaking up radioactivity by the mega-Currie is not deliberated, or India or Pakistan. The decapitation effect of not getting the President of the United States out of Washington in time is though. This is a curious thought experiment of things not going to plan. 

I have friends who are sceptical as to the plausibility of the scenario, stating that sixties-to-nineties technologies have been modernised (despite what detractors say of all things Russian) and the kind of mistakes Annie says could happen just don't add up. I do hope so. There is much that does not add up in the real world, but that is my worry. I read it (or rather listened to it) and had that morbid fascination of 'good when finished'. It did feel that Dr Strangelove had undergone a year 2000+ makeover, but highlighted that command elements of the Superpowers are (or could be) stuck in the 1970s.  

Links: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EKS_(satellite_system)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_warning_satellite

https://www.twz.com/39264/take-a-look-inside-russias-doomsday-ballistic-missile-warning-system

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/how-us-tracks-ballistic-missile-launches-2024-11-22/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_RYAN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oko

The more I look the more I wonder how thin is the knife edge we walk?

Nuclear Close Calls: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_close_calls

Vietnam War - US News Broadcast of the (Surprise) Tet Offensive (NBS News Saigon) - You Tube Footage

Sometimes history is thrust upon a sleep walking nation and they are rudely awakened to unpalpable truths (see below, incredible News footage from 1968): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=wA8n114eYXc&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.uk%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo

Amazing that was shown as a "special broadcast" to the US people outside of direct political control!

Audible - Vietnam, Max Hastings

I knew I needed to read this book, so I bought it, but it sat on the shelf (as it is no small volume) for  a long time. I knew I needed something to complement the numerous first hand accounts I had read, to try and to get a wider picture of the conflict. I relished Ken Burns marvellous TV documentary series and it stands out for its graphic imagery and cinematography. The hurdle of "reading about it" (a much more intimate process) defeated me though. As a second best (listening to it) Audible came to my aid. Max Hasting's "Vietnam" via Audible has become a friend on car journeys and dog walks, telling a very dark history with my hard copy flicked through for reference points of maps and pictures (see below, Max Hastings certainly pulls no punches with his views on the American politicians and Generals, which in his capacity as a reporter, he met first hand, from the likes of President Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert McNamara; absolutely fascinating): 

Update I: Just over a third of the way through this book and it is truly an epic journey, masterfully told. Starting with Vietnams earliest modern colonial history and disputed WWII ownership, through the French post WWII period in Indo China and finally into its most turbulent and troublesome times with the active American involvement. Still twenty hours to go! Gripping! Highly recommended.

Update II: Coming to the final few chapters and I honestly cannot believe the twists and turns - trials and tribulations that South Vietnam went through. As much as the pre-American deployment history was new to me, the post American withdrawal, political cynicism and huge battles (AVRN supported by US air power) that followed were equally "new" to my previously selective history (Platoon and The Deer Hunter) of the period. Everyone could see it was not going to end well and it didn't! I literally don't want to hear the next chapter unfold.

Update III: Finished. And the avoidable horror happened all the way to the end of this tragic period of history. The gut-retching senselessness of it all and then the haunting words that Max Hastings penned, to parallel the folly of the 1960's and 10970's to the subsequent Iraqi and Afghanistan events. To quote a US Cavalry Troop commander from Iraqi, "There was nothing to hang any success onto". No fabric or structure that was not alien to the indigenous peoples - that we (the Western World) were supposed to be helping!

Corona Virus Project 2c: USN DDs - Completed, Remembering when ...

This seemed such a long time ago now (see below, early war USN destroyers for the Coral Sea, Guadalcanal and Midway operations): 

I sense a need to return and start the Japanese opponents!

Audible Books: Fleet at Floodtide

Completing the Pacific War saga in grand style. Again a very good read (or rather listen). Admittedly "one way traffic" (or rather the writing was on the wall after Guadalcanal) with much previously unknown (to me) anecdotes and information. I didn't realise how close the US Fleets (particularly with respect to Carrier Operations) were to the Japanese mainland and how costly a US lead invasion would have been. I can recommend "The Fleet at Flood Tide" (see below):

Footnote: I feel good (as in knowledge refreshed) with respect to the Pacific theatre [50+ hours of audio books over three+ months]. The only segment of Pacific history I am missing seen to need is a overview of the Pearl Harbour raid itself.

Another good Audible Book: "Miracle at Midway"

The WWII Pacific war is still key in my sights and interest. I felt as if I had to take some time out to take in what must have been the most pivotal battle of the campaign, Midway. "Miracle at Midway" gives a really good detailed account (see below):

 It is interesting to note that the American texts on the Pacific Way all give due deference to the "Japanese Destroyer Captain" of Hara.

PS: "Miracle at Midway" has a companion volume called "At Dawn We Slept". A word of warning if you type the title as a search string, I can assure that the books about "Dawn" that came back did not imply any WW2 Pacific naval history or restful sleeping activity ;)

 http://www.audible.co.uk/search?x=7&y=13&ref_=a_lib_tseft&filterby=field-keywords&advsearchKeywords=At+Dawn+We+Slept

An evocative little title for a book .. "War with Russia" (2017)

Certainly an evocative title which I read over the Xmas break. Written by a recent (now retired) high ranking UK NATO general to boot. 'Chops off at the knees' all those civil servants and politicians who for decades have crucified (or have stood by and simply watched as) the armed forces were "bugetised" (no such word) and then "castrated-by-accountants" (as painful as it sounds). So true operational capability shrinks leaving only a paper shadow of what was supposed to be still there. An aircraft carrier without planes? Really, surely fiction? Oh bugger! No more Nimrods? That leaves a whole somewhere! Half working tanks lacking spares? Phantom reservists on an Order of Battle still doing their days jobs out of theatre? It certainly is a page turner, jumps around a bit .. no spoilers, worth a read and pass on to a friend with a look of horror (see below the cover, the nuclear missile is more scary than the tank IMHO):

In summary: "War with Russia (2017)" I realy hope not as I don't think [spoiler alert] there is any hope of a "Boy's Own" ending in real life ... I think it what really would pan out is far more dire consequences, aka .. possibly no more "First World" and a nuclear winter (a more radical form of climate change nobody would be in a position to try and deny).

PS: It should all kick off in May apparently in the Crimea! Here's hoping not :(