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Customer Review
- Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2016“The Guns of August” has been called the book that saved the world. In the fall of 1962, looking at each other across the island of Cuba, the United States and the Soviet Union came nose to nose to pulling the trigger on a nuclear weapons war. United States Air Force U2 pilot Major Rudolf Anderson, USAF was shot down and killed. “Our guest has been up there for over an hour,” [Russian] Lieutenant General Stepan Grechko told a deputy. “I think we should give the order to shoot it down, as it is discovering our positions in depth.” With the commanding general, the only man authorized to order a surface-to-air missile launch, nowhere to be found, Grechko gave the order himself: “Destroy Target Number 33.” American Generals urged President Kennedy to order an attack on Cuba. The President said that one passage from Barbara Tuchman’s book gave him the courage to resist the pressure of his generals. “Your Majesty,” General Moltke said to the Kaiser, “it cannot be done” when the German army began its advance into Belgium and the Kaiser ordered Moltke to stop The trains are already in motion--and with that simple phrase, a war that took over 10 million lives was launched. I have read “Guns” several times over the years and I know how the story ends, yet I follow each decision as though it were now, each description as though it is happening, not has happened. It is an incredible story of horror, yet with examples of incredible courage. Her humor is able to shine through the darkness of the times with her characterizations of the Generals and Statesmen, Bethmann-Hollweg, “who means well feebly”, British Field Marshall Sir John French, “who knows nothing at all about the subject” and most of these are simply quotations made by other participants. Her effort was tireless, her research masterful, and her writing brilliant. I work with soldiers in the recruiting group here and I have bought and given this book to several of the sergeants hoping that it will percolate upward. It’s a command decision book and anyone who would think about war should understand the true horror of war. Not only were soldiers injured, blinded, maimed and killed, but the general population was starved so much that the Germans called the time “the turnip winter”. No bombs fell on Berlin but Germans suffered gravely. Paris was almost reached by the German armies until German General Von Kluck made one strategic mistake and presented his flank to the retreating French army. Remember too, this deals only with August, only a single month of a war that was to last four years, and to be the trigger for the next war, World War II, in which 60 million lives were lost. I believe an entire semester course should be taught using this book, not just in college, but also in high school. One thing I should mention. I speak both German and French, and read in them, so it can be a challenge with some of the reports---but, don’t give up on it. Her writing still come through, loud and clear, and clairvoyant.
Stephen Joe Payne
