How to Read 20th-Century Military History

The 20th century reigns as the bloodiest in history. Mankind has sought to throw off oppressors' chains and nations have confronted aggressors' ambitions, but as humanity has struggled toward freedom and democracy, we have left a trail of sacrifice.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

The Battle Record

1. Seek out the history of the Russo-Japanese War at the turn of the century.
2. See American colonialism confronted in the Philippines.
3. Read accounts of World War I and learn how reactionary leadership and outdated strategies bled Germany, France and England dry.
4. Find histories of the Battle of the Somme, Gallipoli, Verdun, Saint-Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne.
5. Look into the Russian Revolution.
6. Move on to a study of China, Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Tse-tung and the cruel Japanese occupation of parts of China.
7. Trace the beginnings of World War II to Hitler's movement into Czechoslovakia and Austria.
8. Seek studies of the critical battles of World War II, beginning with the Battle of Britain, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Midway, El Alamein, D-Day at Normandy, Stalingrad, Leningrad and the Battle of the Bulge.
9. Turn to the opposite side of the globe to the equally critical campaigns against the Japanese Imperial Army in the Pacific.
10. Read about Gen. MacArthur's campaign to cut off and isolate the enemy's forces in the South Pacific.
11. Learn about the island-hopping campaigns of the U.S. Marines.
12. Seek the history of Zionism and the confrontations surrounding the founding and sustaining of the state of Israel.
13. Move on to the United Nations' opposition to Communist aggression in Korea.
14. Seek histories of anti-colonial wars and revolutions around the globe, from Malaya to Cuba to the Congo.
15. Seek the truth about the French and American military actions in Vietnam.
16. Investigate the conflict between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands.
17. Delve into the bloody confrontation between Iran and Iraq.
18. Check the early histories of the coalition action against Iraq following that country's invasion of Kuwait.

The Factual Record

19. Read the master works of Stephen Ambrose, Samuel Eliot Morrison, Paul Fussell, John Keegan, Barbara Tuchman, Robert Leckie, John Toland and Cornelius Ryan.
20. Read the great war correspondents such as Ernie Pyle, Bill Mauldin, Dickey Chapelle and Michael Herr.
21. Read Gen. Eisenhower's "Crusade in Europe" and other studies written by those who were at the helm of history, perhaps even those instrumental in the workings of the Third Reich, such as Albert Speer.
22. Read Winston Churchill.
23. Learn about the untold devastation and useless deaths brought on by Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's plan to conquer the Soviet Union.
24. Read William L. Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich."
25. Find a copy of Bernard B. Fall's "The Street Without Joy" for a definitive look at some of the underpinnings of the conflict in Vietnam.
26. Read citizen accounts of participation in the wars of the 20th century.

The Fictional Record

27. Get the soldier's point of view from World War I by reading "All Quiet on the Western Front."
28. Read Hemingway's writings on war, both fiction and nonfiction.
29. Get the soldier's point of view from World War II with the novels of Norman Mailer and James Jones.
30. Find a copy of John Hersey's "Hiroshima" and see what the atomic bomb wrought. Hersey also wrote tellingly of the terror in the skies over Europe in his novel "The War Lover."
31. Find a copy of Richard Hooker's "MASH" for a personal observation on the Korean War.
32. Read Philip Caputo, James Webb, Tim O'Brien, Robert Del Vecchio and others who were on the ground and in action during the Vietnam conflict.

Tips & Warnings

• Guide youngsters carefully in reading about warfare. We must honor the sacrifices made in the name of freedom, but we cannot romanticize war.