John Harris

"Pershing's Lieutenants: American Military Leadership in World War 1" is a multiple-author book, published (and stylishly producued) by Osprey in 2020. The editors, David Zabecki and Douglas Mastriano, are amongst the most distinguished American military historians now writing and the same applies to many of the authors of chapters. The book is divided into seven parts: each dealing with officers who served in a particular capacity or whose careers developed in a particular way e.g. future chiefs of staff of the US Army or future commanders of the Marine Corps. There are three chapters on regimental officers, those concerned ("Wild Bill" Donovan, Theodore Roosevelt Jr, and Harry S. Truman) apparently selected because they had, or later achieved, fame for reasons other than their WW1 service. For those whose interests centre on the First World War itself, the most interesting chapers will probably be those dealing with senior staff officers and Army, Corps and Division commanders. Yet very distiguished scholars, James Corum and Carlo D'Este, also contribute essays on Billy Mitchell and George Patton respectively: officers who would achieve great fame at later points in American military history. Particularly interesting for many people will be the introductory essay by Zabecki and Mastriono which deals largely with Pershing himself. Though a very forceful personality and, within limits, a good administrator, Pershing's ideas on tactics, the authors show, were unsophisticated and out of date. He also demonstrated a terrible arrogance and disdain when it came to learning from allies with more experience - an arrogance that cost American lives. The Western Front was a difficult place to demonstrate generalship and Pershing did not shine as a field commander. From the American point of view, however, the war was short - with US troops only doing real fighting July-November 1918 and it was also victorious. Pershing gained a god-like status, not altogether deserved. Zabecki's and Mastriano's account shows him as a very falible mortal with weaknesses as well as strengths:an assessment that iis balanced and convincing. "Pershing's Lieutenants" seems aimed at a broad popular readership. The chapters are (in general) written in a lively and engaging style, but are relatively lightly annotated. This book can be recommended to anyone with a broad interest in the First World War and particularly to anyone who wants to explore the American part in it.

Keith Saliba's "Death in the Highlands" is a highly detailed, extremely well researched account of a well-known action in Pleiku Province, in the area then generally known as the Central Highlands of Vietnam, in late October 1965. The Central Highlands was a strategically vital area - the key to South Vietnam. The Vietnamese Communists had been trying to take it over for years and had intensified their efforts in 1965 - with mixed success. The siege of the camp at Plei Me by the North Vietnamese Army was part of a renewed Communist effort to take over Pleiku Province - an important part of the Highlands. The siege commenced on 19 October and was largely broken by 25 October. The camp was initially defended mainly by troops recruited from the Jarai highland tribe and by a US Special Forces A-team. It triggered a highly complex campaign, drawing in many elements including US airpower on a massive scale, and the US 1st Cavalry Division, attempting to intercept and destroy North Vietnamese troops fleeing after the defeat of their operations around the camp. Saliba, a professor of journalism at Jacksonville University in Florida, tells the story of siege and relief in greater detail than anyone else has done. He tells it extremely vividly. I can strongly recommend this book. J.P. Harris