History Books

I have read many books on combat in Vietnam, but not one compares to Low Level Hell. Hugh Mills writes much like he talks -- with a rare combination of wit and wisdom that makes you want to say "tell me more!" I eagerly await his next book.

I was a Crew Chief on an OH-6A and sat behind my pilot each and every time the aircraft left the ground. We flew many a mission for Captain Mills and you will not find a truer account of the life of an Aero Scout Pilot and his Crew Chief as you will in his book Low Level Hell. He was there, we were there, and when you read the book YOU will be there! An excellent account of what we went through in Vietnam.

Very, very good book. Gave me a good idea as to what my father might have went through as a scout pilot flying the OH-6 with the 2/11th A.C.R. Blackhorse in Vietnam.

I recently read Low Level Hell, and I want to say it was one of the best books I've ever read!! Hugh does a great job of captivating the reader from the first chapter to the very end. Every chapter has you on the edge of your seat, taking you through the drama of fighting in Vietnam. I honestly felt as if I was flying with him! At times I was howling in laughter and others crying at the loss of fellow officers. Hugh's last chapter sent chills down my spine. I honestly cannot think of a better read on one man's experience in Vietnam. Great job Hugh!

Angie Chirnside

absolutely a must read if you love flying helicpoters and enjoy the action of combat flying in the nam....could not put it down...scout pilot flying in vietnam had to be the most intense and insane mission that one could imagine...loved every minute of this read.

Not only did I receive this product faster than expected, it was brand new and it was one of the most amazing books I have ever read with some of the most exquisite photography I've ever seen!

if you believe in God or not, i dare you to look at this book and not be in awe of nature. my husband and i enjoy looking at this book any seeing God's wonderous creation. anyone who has children should get this book. they probably won't read every word, but they will learn a lot from the pictures.

I have not had the chance yet to review this product. I'd thought I'd purchased the dvd set for this same title, so was surprised to receive a book. I decided not to return it, but I know I will enjoy it.

BEAUTIFUL BOOK TO HAVE. NOT ONLY IS IT INFORMATIVE, BUT THE PICTURES ARE TRULY A PIECE OF ARTWORK.

Breathtaking! What an incredible collection of photographs of our amazing planet. A great addition to the dvd collection.

This book should be be considered "must read" materials for parents with children attending school. The first 3 parts of the book addresses the terror attack itself and what the terrorists hoped to achieve. The last part talks about teaching your child to survive. In these days and times, children are "locked down" in a school when something happens. If I were a terrorists or just a VT or Columbine nutcase I would thank you for teaching your child to sit and wait for me. Please read this book and help keep your children alive. Even if you only read part 4 of the book, it will be worth it.

Wow! A real eye opener. What has become of the human race?! This book is very powerful. Written to "capture" you from the first page. We live in a world with so very many differences. Wars have been fought from the beginning of time. Children have lost their lives due to "collateral damage". And now, our school are being targeted. Not to destroy, but to use our children as weapons. This book brings out our need to become aware of the dangers that now exist within our own country. "We're not in Kansas anymore".

A fantastic book that connects the dots of terrorist acts in Russia to those in the U.S., the Middle East, Africa and Israel. Should be required reading for school administrators, military and law enforcement officers.

The attrocities committed by the terrorists are difficult to read about, but necessary in order to understand. I applaud the author for recognizing the contributions that can be made by the general population. It has been a long time since the public at large have been engaged in the defense of this country, and that needs to change as soon as possible.

I waited a long time to get this book, because it was sold out everywhere I looked, and now I understand why.

This story is a tragedy through and through. What happened in Russia cannot be allowed to happen here. It's time to stop being politically correct pandering to fanatics. These people do not understand good will, they only respect ferocity that is greater than their own.
Mr. Giduck puts you on the ground, at the school. You will hear the children , you will feel the anguish, and you will become angry. You will not be able to put this book down.
SSG John Tidona
NYG G3 NCOIC

I found this was an excellent book. While the military is at war, America is at the mall, and this book aims to try and get our country of ostriches to pull their heads out of the sand and DO something about the possibility of a terrorist threat in American schools.

This book was well-written, packed full of information and suggestions. It covers the history leading up to the school siege at Beslan; the siege itself; a breakdown of what happened and what was planned and what went wrong; and finally, what America can learn from the tragedy. It was inspiring in its advocacy of regular citizens, not just cops and military, being some of the keys to helping protect against this frighting threat.

HOWEVER, one warning. On the strength of this book, I purchased two others from the Archangel Group's publishing services. I do NOT recommend 'The Green Beret In You', much as I recommend Terror at Beslan to anyone who will listen. TGBIY was horrible. The entire book, instead of inspiring like TaB, had a snotty, self-aggrandizing tone, belittling basically anyone not in the Special Forces, and advocating the SF way as the only way. That's well and good, I suppose. But what I found totally dismaying was TGBIY's attitude towards women, which exemplified the worst of the stereotypes about how military men think about women. Contrary to the authors, not all women are weak, frail, incompetent, or unable to get along without their man home. SF wives are not the only military wives who can be strong, faithful, and supportive. And some women are strong enough, capable enough, and motivated enough to help protect this country alongside the men. But that's not something TGBIY cares to acknowledge. To be fair, it is somewhat equal opportunity - the average American male is viewed as spineless, weak, slimy and stupid as well.

All in all, it is hard to believe the same man wrote 'Terror at Beslan' and 'The Green Berety in You'. Stick with Terror at Beslan and its inspiring words. Give it to your local school superintendent or legislator for a gift. But don't let Archangel's site snooker you into spending money in TGBIY unless you view it strictly as a charitable donation.

This book is about a 10 year old girl named Sookan and she lives with her mother, grandfather,aunt, and little brother. They live in North Korea in 1945. Her and her mother and aunt work in a sock factory for the Japanese soliders in World War II. They had a Captain Narita and he came by and it was her sister's birthday and mother went to go get a book from older sister at the convent. Mother gave it to her and Captain Narita told his men to destroy it. Sookan's mother can't even have a garden or else Captain Narita will have his men step on them. Her father is in the military and her sister is in a convent. Also, her older brothers were sent away tp labor camps. The war ends and the Japanese lose. The Russions take over North Korea and brainwash them into loving Russia, so Sookan and her brother must go to South Korea because she thinks that her dad and older brothers and sister are waiting for them. She hopes she will find freedom in South Korea. I think that is really sad to not have your father around or older brothers and to have to work in the sock factory. Also, I liked how her and her brother stood side by side. This book is a Fantasy book and the theme is Fictional.

Sookan is a 10-year old girl living in Korea in 1945. The Japanese have taken over and force communist ideas and laws onto the Koreans. Each day, Captain Narita inspects the house and backyard. Their backyard holds a shack that is used for sock-making. The sock-girls would work day and night trying to meet their quotas. Koreans are deprived of rice and money. The children, including Sookan and her brother Inchun, have to attend a very strict Japanese run school. When the Japanese leave, the Koreans rejoice, but are shortly taken over by the Russians. Things begin to get worse, and Sookan, with her mother and brother, try desperately to escape to the South where the Americans are.

This historical fiction book takes you along the incredible journey of 2 children as they take drastic forms of lifestyles to earn the freedom they deserve. The beginning of this book started out slow, but took fast pace when the Russians were introduced. The author has a wonderful writing style that truly makes you feel like you are part of the story, especially near the end. This is my favorite book and I recommend it to everybody of all ages. Do not miss out on this surprisingly realistic journey.

Sookan is ten years old, living in Korea with her mother, grandfather, aunt, cousin, and little brother. World War II is going on and things are very hard in Korea. The Japanese forces are in control of their country and they treat the Korean people like slaves in their own home, making them give up all valuables to help the Japanese army, putting them to work making clothing for the Japanese and sending the children to schools where they make weapons and learn propaganda about the Japanese army. More than anything, Sookan wishes she were with her father, her older sister or her three older brothers, who are all far away. Her father is working with the resistance forces, her brothers have been taken away to labor camps and her sister is in a convent.

Then after what seems like an eternity of being at war and under Japanese control, the war is over and the Japanese have lost. Sookan and her family think that things will be much better now, but then they find that their country has been divided into two parts. Rather than being helped by the Americans as they'd hoped, they are instead under Russian control, and the Russians seem determined to brainwash everyone into loving Russia. They make everyone go to meetings to show their support and those in authority are constantly looking for traitors. It becomes clear to Sookan's mother that they need to get to South Korea where the Americans are, and where she expects Sookan's father and brothers may be waiting for them. But will Sookan and her little brother be able to make the journey to safety?

I liked the descriptions of what life in Korea was like during the war. It's hard to imagine what was going on in other countries when we mostly hear about what was happening in our country. I also liked the interaction between Sookan and her brother. They were really nice to each other and probably wouldn't have made it without each other's help.

It was sad to read about the lives of the Koreans during the war; it sounds like such a horrible way for anyone to spend a childhood.

You MUST read this book and the two other books by Choi-Echoes of White Giraffe & Gathering of Pearls. All three books are written from Sookan's perspective, as she grows up in the midst of the Japanese occupation, the war and in America, as a foreign college student. Aside from the cultural issues, as well as historic issues, the plot flows very well. The stories are very personal & honest. I really enjoyed these books and I know that when my kids, ages 5 and 9, get a little older, they will also. These are enjoyable and educational stories.

The Year of Impossible Goodbyes is written by Sook Nyul Choi. The book is 169 pages in length. It is about a girl named Sookan who lives in Korea during World War II. At this time, Korea is under control of the Japanese. Sookan and her family are being suppressed by the Japanese. Sookan's mother is a supervisor at a sock factory. But, the workers at the sock factory were sent away to the war, forcing Sookan's mother to close down the factory. Then, Sookan is sent to a Japanese school, where she learns about Japan and nothing else. But soon after, the war ends! Freedom at last! Sookan and her family rejoice! But neither the rest of their family nor the sock girls have returned. Sookan is worried. Also, to make things worse, Russia took over North Korea, and they again are suppressed. But, after a couple of attempts, she and her family make it to liberated South Korea!
Sookan is kind, loving, compassionate, smart child. She takes care of others and has an unbroken spirit. She is resolute and determined.
Sookan faces many conflicts throughout this book. First, she hates her enemies, the Japanese, who have been occupying her country for many years. She is taught not to hate; yet she is unable to suppress these feelings. Sookan knows that if she spoke what is on her mind, her whole family could be executed. Luckily, she is mature enough to realize this and keeps her emotions to herself.
Another of Sookan's conflicts is her attempt to escape from northern Korea. She gets separated from her mother at the passport checkpoint and is left with caring for her younger brother. Sookan is ten years old and has neither currency nor provisions. She is by herself. Escaping is very risky and life hostile. Sookan and her brother stay alive on their own and make it to South Korea; where they are reunited with their family.
Finally, the Japanese occupying Korea is another conflict Sookan has to face. The Japanese suppress Sookan's family, forcing them to do Japan's bidding. The Japanese police take their belongings to help in the war effort and force Sookan's mother to supervise a sock factory. Sookan's patience helped her wait out the war.
The author uses the reoccurring theme of determination in her novel. An example of this theme is when Sookan gets divided from her mother at the identification checkpoint and is left with caring for her youthful sibling. Sookan is ten years old and has no money or food. She is on her own. Escaping is very dangerous and life threatening. Sookan and her brother manage to survive on their own and finally reach South Korea, where they are reunited with her family. This shows determination because she is only ten in an unknown world. She has no money and has to take care of her younger brother.
Another example of the determination theme occurs at the beginning of the story. The Japanese suppress Sookan's family, forcing them to do Japan's bidding. In fact, the Japanese police take their belongings to help in the war effort and force Sookan's mother to supervise a sock factory. Still, Sookan's patience helped her wait out the war. This shows determination because she does not give up her life and try to run away, but is patient.
The style of novel is very unique. Author Sook Choi writes in first person view and adds very smooth sentences. Most of her sentences are like this,"Listening to this boy was as refreshing as diving into a cool stream". In this sentence she uses many descriptive words and there was no comma to slow it down. Choi's sentences are both short and long. Many authors use only one kind of sentence. This is what makes this novel and author unique.
The plot, characters, theme, and style are all good, which makes this book really fun to read. It's filled with adventures and many other thrilling topics. This book is great for most ages. I recommend this book to whoever loves adventure!

One Day She'll Darken: The Mysterious Beginnings of Fauna Hodel

Audrey Hepburn loved her children and all the children of the world...Sean honors his mother...we all honor his mother...a mother to so many...indeed...an elegant spirit...

The photos here are lovingly chosen by her son, and the entire book is an absolute joy.

This book was pleasant and thoughtful, as is its subject. Though admittedly the writing was far less enchanting than I would have expected; I like to think it was kept simple to further emphasize the simplicity and sincerity of Audrey herself. This book did not add any revelation for the reader about her life; but instead, allowed for a glance at Audrey Hepburn's everyday existence. I was constantly amazed at how strong and genuine her character when faced with life's sometimes complicated decisions. This book shows Audrey as a person who effortlessly put others before herself, and seemed to never question her sense of what is right.

Even the idea of such simplicity has become a fairytale in our lives, and it is so refreshing to read about someone who was capable of remaining so solidly pure, that I cannot help but read a little more. One need only look to her work with UNICEF to know how first-rate she truly was.

She has allways been one of my favorite stars.The book has a beautifull
lay-out and is a pleasure to read.Lots of photographs never seen before
and beautifull passages about her work for Unicef and what a wonderful mother she was.I can highly recommend this book.

Bought this as a gift for my daughter as she is a fan and thought that the personal insights were revealing and poignant.

This colorful guide book to the reef fish of Florida, the Bahamas, and the Carribean is an excellent reference. Fish are shown in beautiful color pictures with information on size, shape, where to find them,and how they are likely to react to divers.
All the usuals are of coures here but so are many less commonly seen in guide books. Written information also includes descriptions of common variants.
An all around excellent book for the semiserious to serious snorkeler or diver who enjoys identifing what they see.

As book reader and Diver, I just love this book, It gives me all the pictures and characteristics for an accurate evaluation of the creatures I found under water. Great pictures, and outstanding charcterization of fishes.

At one time I was the head of a volunteer organization in WPB, Florida that assisted Palm Beach County with their artifical reef program. Part of the qualification was to get training in a variety of related subjects (like fish identification) sponsored by the Florida Oceanographic Society. This book served as our fish identification "bible." I no longer live in FL, but when I go diving in the Caribbean I stil take this book with me. If you need to (or just want to) know the fish of the Caribbean, buy this book.

This is a fabulous resource, and I wish we had bought it before to take with us on our trip to BVI

This is a reef fish identification book. This sounds obvious, but that really is the focus here. It's not a book to teach you about fish behavior, biogeography, community ecology, or population trends. Author, diver, captain, photographer, and attorney (!) Paul Humann took most of the 670 photographs in this book, a real accomplishment for any diver, since the result of a blurred or indistinct photograph of a fish is to... go get another.

The organization of this ID book is by fish shape. He's got 12 "identification groups":

- disks and ovals (colorful)
- silvery
- sloping head and tapered body
- small ovals
- heavy body and large lips
- swim with pectoral fins, and with obvious scales
- reddish and big eyes
- small, elongated bottom-dwellers
- old-shaped bottom dwellers
- odd-shaped swimmers
- eels
- sharks and rays

Any fish watcher would see the "logic" of this organization, although it could make some ichthyologists squirm with these sets of artificial groupings.

The book is spiral-bound so that the pages, when opened, stay open. And the clay content in the paper makes it more resistant to water dripping from your wetsuit or your hair. Just make sure you wipe it off, pronto.

Now the photos... They are very high quality, and Humann is to be commended for taking, or selecting from other photographers, pictures that really pull out the details of the various fish . For example, the Sergeant Major has the delicate yellow along the base of its dorsal fin, and those frogfish must be viewed in both a camouflaged condition and in a setting where they are contrasted with the background.

Any amateur photographer will soon discover the difficulty in getting a full, close-up and lateral view of a fish. They tend to swim away from you as you get close, giving you a great view of the tail sweeping away. These photos are the result of a truly amazing amount of patience.

In an appendix, he throws in some sea turtles and dolphins or good measure, as well as a checklist for keeping track of the reader's sightings.

My ocean diving has all been in the Pacific, and it was interesting seeing species related to my own "friends." If I get the opportunity to dive in Florida, the Caribbean, or the Bahamas, this will be the book I throw in my dive bag... in a zip-lock bag, of course.

Recieved item on time, right when we were told it would arrive. Book in very good condition.

Simon Wiesenthal is best known as the man who had been indefatigable and single-minded in trying to bring Nazi criminals to justice as long as there was a single one of them left. For him this was an absolute moral imperative and something that he felt he owed to the memory of the murdered millions of Jews, of whom Wiesenthal could so easily have been one: he was the survivor of a succession of concentration camps: the Janowska camp outside Lvov, Plaszow (the camp of Schindler's List), Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen, and finally Mauthausen. It may come as a surprise to some readers that Wiesenthal was sensitive to the moral problems raised by the issue of forgiveness - yet this book is a moving meditation on that theme. According to his biographer, Hella Pick, Wiesenthal had `always considered it his most important book'.

Cruelty and casual murder were everyday occurrences in the Janowska camp, and are described in gut-wrenching detail in the first half of this episode from Wiesenthal's life. While doing slave labour at a military hospital near the camp, he was secretly brought to the death-bed of Karl, a gravely wounded 21-year old SS officer whose conscience was wracked - not just at death's door, but apparently immediately after the event - by his participation in a horrific massacre of Jews in Dnepropetrovsk. The officer got a nurse to find `a Jew', who happened to be Wiesenthal, to whom he could make his confession and from whom he could seek forgiveness. Wiesenthal wanted to get away; but something - apart from the dying man's grip - made him stay to hear him out. A Catholic priest later told him that that alone should have helped the man to die in peace, since confession and genuine repentance are more important than any absolution. But at the end Wiesenthal left the room without saying anything. Quite apart from the sufferings he was himself undergoing at the hands of the SS just then and from his expectation of death at their hands at any moment, it was not for him to offer forgiveness on behalf of the victims of Dnepropetrovsk. But the issue haunted him - had he done the right thing? After the war he sought out the SS man's mother. The young man had come from a devout and Social Democrat family who were distressed when their son had joined the Hitler Youth and even more when he had volunteered to join the SS. But the mother was convinced that her son had been a good man. Wiesenthal said nothing to her about what her son had done... The short but haunting book charges the reader to put himself in Wiesenthal's shoes and to ask himself `What would I have done?'

Before publishing his book in 1969, Wiesenthal sent his manuscript to a number of distinguished thinkers for their response, and the comments of ten of them were included in the first edition. Further contributions were made by others to the 1997 and 1998 editions: there are now 53 altogether, and they make up nearly two-thirds of the book. They include - to name only the most famous - those of the Dalai Lama, Cardinal König, Primo Levi, Deborah Lipstadt, Herbert Marcuse, and Desmond Tutu.

Some of the respondents seem to me to veer away from the question Wiesenthal had posed, and draw a distinction between forgetting and forgiving; others discuss the question of collective guilt (some reject it; others blame all the bystanders) - interesting, but irrelevant in the context of this story. Almost all agree that whilst individuals can forgive offences committed against themselves, no human can forgive in the name of other victims. In such cases, if the victims cannot be asked because they are dead, perhaps only God can be asked for forgiveness - though one respondent says that God was hardly fit to forgive something which He had after all allowed to happen. And the Jewish tradition has it that even God will not forgive the unpardonable sin of murder. It is unpardonable, because it is the one sin for which reparation is impossible. The Christian tradition, basing itself on Jesus asking God to forgive them, `for they know not what they do', and on the idea that you must hate the sin, but not the sinner, shaped the answer of some Christian respondents. Some say that forgiveness is not only a boon to the penitent, but also for the victim, freeing him from the burden and poison of hate. Two Asian contributors, one a survivor from the Khmer Rouge and the other a victim of the Cultural Revolution in China, blame only the top leadership, and have some understanding for those who were brainwashed.

One respondent hopes that Karl will rot in hell; others also refuse to accept the genuineness of his repentance, indeed stress the offensiveness of him putting a Jew - chosen not as an individual but picked at random - under the moral burden of hearing the confession and being asked to forgive. Wiesenthal at least saw Karl as an individual and is capable of some compassion towards the dying man and later towards his mother (but one respondent thinks that Wiesenthal did wrong to shield her from the knowledge of what her son had done).

These are just some of the responses to Wiesenthal's question. It is a question addressed to all of us, and it is not surprising that this book has been used as a text in many courses on the Holocaust.

Multiple issues arrived ahead of schedule and are in new condition.The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (Newly Expanded Paperback Edition)

I've used Wiesenthal's The Sunflower as a text in college courses several times. On each occasion my original high estimation of Wiesenthal's narrative grows, while my dissatisfaction with the chorus of responses that takes up nearly two-thirds of the latest edition deepens.

Wiesenthal asks exactly the right questions that all of us need to confront about forgiveness. Is forgiveness always ours to bestow? Is it permissible or even possible to forgive on behalf of others? Should forgiveness be tied to repentance on the part of the transgressor? Should the transgressor try to atone for his/her wrongdoing? What if, as in the case of the dying SS-man Wiesenthal meets, the performance of overt acts of atonement are impossible? Are there certain actions that are unforgiveable, or is the philosopher Jacques Derrida correct when he insists (On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness) that the only kind of forgiving that makes any sense is the kind that forgives the unforgiveable? And in a godless world--a world where, as several characters in The Sunflower say, wickedness is so rampant that God seems to have gone on leave--is forgiveness necessarily a different kind of phenomenon than it would be in a Godded world?

Weisenthal doesn't pretend to answer any of these questions, but he and the other characters in his memoir discuss them, presenting different perspectives and coming to different conclusions. The very real value of The Sunflower is that it encourages readers to think about the questions.

Which brings me to the responses. Most are impressionistic, unanalytical, platitudinous, and hence totally out of step with the brutal authenticity of Weisenthal's text. A few stand out from the others: Robert Coles', Rebecca Goldstein's, Abraham Joshua Heschel's, Primo Levi's. But most can be given a pass. My suggestion would be to focus first and foremost on Weisenthal's text and forget about the responses. A nice cinematic complement to the book is the documentary "Forgiving Dr. Mengele."

Summoned to the bedside of a dying Nazi who had willingly participated in the systematic annihilation of Europe's Jews, concentration camp inmate Simon Wiesenthal found himself the captive, solitary witness to this 21-year-old SS man's confession of responsibility for committing acts of unspeakable cruelty.

Kurt had asked a nurse to bring him a Jew (any Jew would do); quite by chance the nurse selected Wiesenthal from the work detail assigned to the hospital that day. Against his will, he listened to this man recount his experience of packing a house full of Jewish men, women, and children and then setting the house on fire while lobbing grenades into the inferno and shooting at anyone who had attempted to escape this hell. Kurt watched a father, mother, and small boy leap from a window to their certain death. Before the leap, the father had shielded the child's eyes.

The image haunted Kurt, who was unable to fight again. Instead, he froze on the battlefield and suffered and injury that first cost him his sight and then took his life. Before he died, though, he wanted to confess his sins to a Jew that he might be forgiven and die in peace.

Wiesenthal, who was about the same age as this soldier, heard him out but refused to forgive. Instead, he offered silence in response to the story and returned to the concentration camp.

The experience haunted Wiesenthal; soon after it happened, he discussed it with his friends back at the camp, with a Polish Catholic seminarian. Much later, he presented the story to theologians, political leaders, Holocaust survivors, and victims of other attempted genocides and asked each of these persons what he or she would have done in the same situation.

The story itself is first book of The Sunflower; the responses to the question, "The Symposium," are the text of the second book in this volume. Broadly grouped, the respondents are Jews and Christians, primarily. There are two Buddhist respondents and one Chinese respondent who makes no reference to religion though his response is in keeping with Buddhist thinking. Within these broad categories respondents reflect on different facets of the experience Wiesenthal describes and facets of their faith and life experiences and knowledge to make a response.

The Jewish respondents point to the fact that only the person against whom a sin has been committed has the right to forgive the sinner. Therefore, Kurt cannot be forgiven; his victims are dead. The Christian respondents point out, first, that they feel they have no right to address the question because they have never been on the receiving end of genocide. Then they point out that God alone can forgive and that it is incumbent on each of us sinners to find forgiveness in our hearts for others. The Buddhists respond, as Buddhists do, in the present tense and with an eye on enlightenment--a release from suffering. Each perspective reflects a different concept of individuality and therefore of the nature of accountability.

For this reader, The Sunflower accomplishes the important task of bringing the reader into the concentration camp alongside one of its victims, into the hospital room of the dying SS man, and into the heart of the questions the Holocaust raises about responsibility, accountability, forgiveness, restitution, and grace. These are questions that refuse pat answers and therefore remain alive and active in our minds. Wiesenthal's book challenges our ability to empathize with those who suffer and our ability to think about how and why we believe what we do about ourselves and each other. It is a humble and beautiful tribute to those who suffered and died in the Holocaust. We too can honor their memory by participating in the conversation this book presents.

_Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond_, first published in 1985 and revised in 1992, by journalist and author Martin A. Lee and author Bruce Shlain is a fascinating and wild account of the history of LSD in America. The implications of this journalistic history are startling in that they show the role of the CIA and the government of the United States in creating much of the LSD culture that grew up during the Sixties. I should add that one advantage of this book over Martin A. Lee's other book _The Beast Reawakens_ (1999) is that Lee is able to keep a cool head and write about LSD without lapsing into paroxysms of hysteria as he does when writing about Nazis. This is very fortunate for the reader because it spares us from having to sort through a lot of irrelevant nonsense. The history of LSD in the United States is a fascinating one, and the creation of a drug culture in the Sixties as well as the links between this culture and the hippies, the New Left, and the anti-war movement offers much interesting material. But, lurking behind the whole thing is the nefarious role of the CIA and the government, originally in testing out these drugs in a series of unethical experiments and later in possibly manipulating the very culture that arose from their newfound prevalence itself. This is a fascinating story and one that should be told particularly in light of the complex relationship that has always existed between the drug culture and the state.

The book begins with an Introduction entitled "Whose Worlds Are These?" by Andrei Codrescu. This Introduction lays out the use of LSD as presented in the book both through the experiments of the CIA and as promoted by such figures as Captain Al Hubbard, Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, Owsley, Art Kleps, Ken Kesey, and others. The book proper begins with a Prologue in which the authors explain the discovery of LSD-25 by Dr. Albert Hoffman, who was later to give an important speech to psychedelic followers in 1977. This Prologue also details the role of the CIA and through such projects as Operation MK-ULTRA engaged in unethical experimentation with LSD on unwitting participants. The first section of this book is entitled "The Roots of Psychedelia". The first chapter of this section is entitled "In the Beginning There Was Madness . . . " and details the role of the CIA in the unethical use of LSD and later in promoting the LSD subculture. This chapter includes sections entitled "The Truth Seekers", "Enter LSD", "Laboratories of the State", "Midnight Climax", and "The Hallucination Battlefield". This chapter details the role of the CIA in experimenting with LSD through projects such as Operation MK-ULTRA, mentioning such figures as William "Wild Bill" Donovan, Allen Dulles, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, and the hijinx of George Hunter White. The authors explain how originally the model for LSD was that the drug mimicked psychosis, but that eventually this model was to change. The CIA saw the drug as potentially useful for interrogations and engaged in many experiments on unwitting participants with the drug. The second chapter is entitled "Psychedelic Pioneers" and details how the drug was moved from the CIA clandestine operations to the counter-culture. This chapter includes sections entitled "The Original Captain Trips", "Healing Acid", and "Psychosis or Gnosis?". In particular, this chapter explains how government funded psychiatrists and psychologists came to believe that LSD may have some therapeutic potential thus abandoning the original "psychotomimetic" theory of LSD. The government engaged in much research on this drug, and by taking place in government sponsored experiments as participants, many prominent counter-cultural figures became involved with the drug (as a case in point there is the case of the poet Allen Ginsberg). Some figures came to see LSD as revealing deep secrets and as having a profound effect on human nature leading to the popular perspective that LSD offered a form of "gnosis" thus replacing the government's "psychosis" perspective. The third chapter is entitled "Under the Mushroom, Over the Rainbow" and explains how prominent individuals including Harvard professors (such as Timothy Leary and investment banker R. Gordon Wasson) became involved in the drug counter-culture. This chapter includes sections entitled "Manna From Harvard", "Chemical Crusaders", and "The Crackdown" - showing how the government eventually sought to crack down on LSD use eventually leading to its illegality. The fourth chapter is entitled "Preaching LSD" and discusses for example the hijinx of Timothy Leary (who some maintained was a CIA agent). This chapter includes sections entitled "High Surrealism", "The Psychedelic Manual", and "The Hard Sell". The fifth chapter of this book is entitled "The All-American Trip", detailing the rise of the Merry Pranksters who followed Ken Kesey. This chapter includes sections entitled "The Great Freak Forward" and "Acid and the New Left" - showing the problematic relationship between the LSD counter-culture and the political New Left. The second part of this book is entitled "Acid for the Masses". This part begins with the sixth chapter of this book entitled "From Hip to Hippie" showing how the LSD counter-culture created the emerging phenomenon of the hippie. This chapter includes sections entitled "Before the Deluge", "Politics of the Bummer", and "The First Human Be-In", in particular this chapter discusses how the "bad trip" came to emerge from a cultural matrix in which LSD was regarded as harmful by the establishment but as liberating by the counter-culture, virtually assuring that many would experiment with the drug themselves to find out for themselves the effects. The seventh chapter is entitled "The Capital of Forever" and includes sections entitled "Stone Free" and "The Great Summer Dropout". The eighth chapter is entitled "Peaking in Babylon" and includes sections entitled "A Gathering Storm", "Magical Politics", and "Gotta Revolution". In particular, this chapter shows how the LSD culture emerged in Haight-Ashbury and how it interacted with such other phenomena as the political New Left and the anti-war movement emerging as opposition to the Vietnam War, mentioning such things as the Diggers and the Yippies. In particular, many on the politically reductionistic New Left saw the whole hippie phenomena as an attempt to drop out of politics entirely and thus regarded it negatively. Further, many hippies became easy prey for dangerous psychopaths such as Charles Manson. The ninth chapter is entitled "Season of the Witch" and includes sections entitled "Armed Love", "The Acid Brotherhood", and "Bad Moon Rising". This chapter explains the relationships between the New Left and the anti-war movement forming as a force of opposition to the Vietnam War as well as the continuing and complicated relationship with the hippie culture and the phenomenon of folk music. The tenth chapter is entitled "What a Field Day for the Heat" and includes sections entitled "Prisoner of LSD", "A Bitter Pill", and "The Great LSD Conspiracy", in particular, this chapter maintains that behind the scenes the CIA may have been manipulating the drug counter-culture and may even have seen the Haight-Ashbury district as a social laboratory. The book ends with a Postscript entitled "Acid and After" and an Afterword.

This book offers an interesting study on the Sixties and the drug culture focusing around LSD that emerged out of this decade. In particular, after reading the book, it becomes clear that the hippie movement was easily manipulated by psychopaths such as Charles Manson and larger forces out of their control such as the CIA. Further, the naïve belief of many that LSD would lead to world peace turns out to have only been a passing phase. Another problematic raised by this book is the relationship between LSD use and New Left politics. Unfortunately, the New Left sought to reduce everything to politics so failed to appreciate any sort of development that lay outside of their own political sphere. This book offers a good examination of a troubled era and some of the hopes of people in that era that were ultimately manipulated by larger forces.

Yhis book belongs on the bookshelf of all those interested in the early days of psychedelic research and it's social ramifications. One word for it: Excellent!

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2NWFN612DXX3 My video review of Acid Dream. Really great bookAcid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond. ***** 5 stars =)

Can't think of a more informative and interesting way of describing this period of time. I loved this book. Big thanks to the authors!

This book is perfect - It offered everything I was hoping for when I first purchased it. It covered from the end of the 50's and the Beat generation and how their influence lead into the hippie generation, and it ended in the early 70's tying in the beginning of rock and punk. It is a true spectrum of the 1960's counterculture generation.

It's a large book but its facinating to learn about the history and the culture. Like previous reviewers said, it really ties up everyhting and clearly shows the correalation between the drug counterculture and the govn't & society during that time period. I was born in the 80's and this book really showed me alot about the 60's counterculture and the attitudes towards drug use and young people during that time. I can see alot of correalations between that era with Vietnam as the war that they were protesting versus todays war in Iraq and the amount of US citizens that are against it.

The author also goes into government policies at the time and conspiricys and covert CIA and classified documents. I was amazed by the actions of the CIA and thetesting of LSD on unsuspecting American citizens. It is like the stuff movies are made of but it really happened! Truly and amazing and interesting book - I could not put it down. I reccomend it to everyone, regardless of your view on LSD or drug counterculture - a true wealth of information on 1960's America.

This is just a great book. Being born and raised in a Coal Camp in McDowell County, West Virginia really made me appreciate the descriptive style of writing which captures the true spirit of the "holler." When I finished the book I celebrated by cooking up a big pot of pinto beans and baked a big ol' pan of cornbread. Thank you for such a wonderful book.

"Over the course of my life, I have been lucky in that I have seldom managed to get exactly what I wanted; instead, I have most often been able to grow to appreciate what I got." You find out all the things the author strove for during her youth that never seemed to materialize...except for her studies when she always did well except for a very short period of time.

Linda Scott has told about her life that is most revealing and about a place in Appalachia in Eastern Kentucky that is so well explained that you know exactly what her hometown area looks like and how everyone lived. The twists and turns in her life are like a corkscrew where changes are constant, but purpose remains strong. The author is the most down-to-earth academician I have ever known including my brother who is a retired professor. If you want a marvelous reading experience, then get this book. I guarantee it!

I loved this book. It really tells the story of my people.

I was born in Paintsville (home of Loretta Lynn) and had to move away when I was 4. Reading this book took me back to my Grandma's front porch and the well outside. It reminded me of church outhouses and dinner on the ground. Made me want to throw rocks in the creek off the bridge at Grandma's and walk up to the family graveyard to wonder about my ancestor's lives. If you are from Eastern Kentucky, this book will make you proud to say "warsh" and "tard." If you aren't from there, read it anyway. It might make you appreciate us "hillbillies" a little more.

As a long-time enthusiast of Appalachian literature, I was eagerly aniticipating reading 'Creeker'. Though I didn't care much for the stereotypical title, I thought I would be able to make it past it to enjoy a unique brand of literature.

Boy, was I wrong!

This book typifies the apologist mentality that premeates Appalachia and keeps the ignorant serfs on the proverbial feudal land.

If you're a true fan of Appalachian literature, stick with the true masters, Bobbie Ann Mason and Lee Smith.

I was moved to reread this fine book by Richard Frank by the allegation by Presidential candidate Senator Barak Obama's former preacher and confidant Jeremiah Wright's that one of America's supposed "sins" that he was cursing it for was the use of the Atomic Bombs on Japan at the end of the Second World War. I was in High School during the Vietnam War period and I recall my teachers telling us that that use of the Bomb was unnecessary and was carried out merely to scare the Communist Soviets and didn't matter anyway since the Japanese were supposedly viewed as "racially inferior". We were taught that the United State government is inherently dishonest, so any such decision to use the bomb must have had "tainted" motiviations. Such cynicism is potentially destructive, as Frank shows in his book.
Attitudes like these have unfortunately become common in the United States over the years, and as Frank points out, are based on ignorance and self-righteousness. President Truman's aide, Admiral Leahy claimed after the war that the use of the bomb was "unnecessary" (Frank points out that there is no record of his opposition at the time the decision was made). This is, of course, true. The Japanese would have eventually surrendered even without the use of the bomb. The question, though, remains "at what cost"? There are two possible scenarios, (1) American and Allied forces invade the Japanes Home Islands in order to force a decision, or (2) no invasion is mounted, but a tight blockade and heavy air bombing keep up the pressure.
Frank shows that although a two-phase invasion was planned, Operation Olympic in Kyushu, followed by Operation Coronet on Honshu near Tokyo, as time passed, American interception and decryption of Japanese messages showed that powerful forces were being brought up to the planned invasion zones along with thousands of aircraft designed for Kamikaze attacks. The civilian population was also being trained to carry out suicide attacks (the government's slogan was "100 Million Die Together"). As a result, American enthusiasm for the invasion scheme waned and, instead, a plan to destroy Japan's railroad system to prevent the distribution of food was developed, which, along with the naval blockade, would bring starvation to the population, forcing the Japanese government to eventually capitulate. The question remained "how long would it take to reach this situation"? Frank points out that over 100,000 Chinese were dying every month during the war, in addition to large numbers of Allied prisoners and forced Asian laborers in southeast Asia. If the war dragged on longer, hundreds of thousands of these people would have died. Had the blockade "succeeded" in bring famine in addition to plague and civil disorder to Japan, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Japanese would have died.
Frank also points out that something like 350,000 Japanese died in the Soviet campaign to conquer Manchuria, many of them civilians. In addition there were still large Japanese forces in China , the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia) and southeast Asia. Without the shock of a surrender brought about by the use of the Atomic bombs it is conceivable that these forces would have continued to fight on (the Japanese Army in China had a history of subordination). There was also a Soviet plan to invade the Japanese home island of Hokkaido. One can only specularte on how many deaths would this have caused, in addition to the possibility that the USSR would have set up a "Japanese Peoples' Republic" in their zone, just like they did in Korea, for which the world is still paying to this day. It is odd that those who show "compassion" for the Japanese people in saying that the bomb shouldn't have been used, seem to lack the same compassion for the oppressed thousands who were dying every day in the Japanese-occupied territories.
Frank also shows that the popular "deus-ex-machina" scenario that supposedly the Japanese government had really made a decision to surrender and were in contact with the USSR government is false. It is true that there were contacts with the Soviets, but they were on a low diplomatic level, and no decision to surrender had been made before the first use of the bomb. In addition, no contacts were made during the three days that passed before the use of the second bomb. It turns out that some Japanese leaders thought the bomb was merely a one-shot affair which the Americans couldn't repeat. Frank shows clearly that America's leaders had no choice but to make the decision they did and that this decision saved untold number of lives, both Allied and Japanese. Anybody who saw the horrific casualties at places like Iwo Jima and Okinawa in addition to the mass suicides of Japanese civilians at Saipana and Okinawa would reach the same conclusion.
Richard Frank is performing an invaluable service in destroying the "politically correct" myths demagogues like Wright are propagating and showing that a clear, open mind leads one to the truth.

Frank has done an excellent job of dispassionately presenting the facts about the endgame of the Pacific War. I appreciate that Frank laid out the evidence and left it to the reader to judge where it pointed.

What is clear from the evidence is that neither the Japanese nor American leadership had adequate information to judge the other's intentions during 1945. In fact, there is some evidence that the Japaneese High Command was being mislead by underlings regarding the state of American morale. Thus the War Council believed that they were just one decisive battle away from being able to negotiate with the Americans for softer terms than Unconditional Surrender. On the other hand, American intelligence community were not adept enough to draw out from the vast array of intercepted cable traffic a clear picture. Thus they did not provide Truman information that was 'actionable'.

As for the bomb, the preponderance of evidence amassed by Frank points to the conclusion that once the decision to build the atomic bomb was made, the Manhattan project took on its own momentum and thus made the bombs use inevitable.

All-in-all a terrific book. Since I finished it on September 30th, it makes it onto my Summer Reading Favorites of 2007 :-)

Richard Frank conclusively shatters a number of myths about the end of the Pacific side of World War II.

First, Japan was NOT ready to accept unconditional surrender, even with the caveat of the preservation of the Japanese throne, until after both bombs were dropped. Frank uses extensive declassified transcripts of Ultra (military) and Magic (diplomatic) U.S. codebreaking to get members of the Japanese war cabinet's own words, or lack thereof, on this issue. Within that is the fact that Japan's attempt to use Russia as an intermediary-ally in negotiations was totally out of tune with reality, so much out of tune that Tokyo actually expected Moscow to honor the full one year's "down time" after abrogating the two countries' neutrality agreement.

Second, the Japanese Army was ramping UP the plans for Keisu-Go, the all-out defense of the Japanese homeland, after the spring firebombings of Tokyo and elsewhere. Top Army brass considered that the U.S. might well try blockade, and thought it had enough kamikazes, midget submarines, etc., to make the U.S pay enough a price for even the blockade that it would settle for a negotiated peace. Again, Frank looks in-depth at Magic and Ultra transcripts to show how much support there was for this.

Third, Frank demonstrates that U.S. casualty fears of an invasion of Kyushu were well-warranted and may even have been understated in some cases.

The determination of the Japanese Empire to resist was well-known by American troops in the Pacific who had seen the Japanese, on average, take 97 percent casualties in many of their defensive actions. A militaristic government was ready to exploit this to the death.

The atomic bomb was therefore used for reasons of the highest seriousness. It was NOT dropped on Hiroshima as a demonstration for Stalin. And, speaking of demonstrations, the fact that it took two atomic bombs on Japan to get it to surrender puts the lie to the idea that a "demonstration" bomb would have been enough to get the Japanese to a non-negotiated surrender with them attempting to hold on to territory.

I was so fascinated by this book that I read all the previous reviews. I only want to add my unlimited praise and to add a few thoughts and stories...
I was as unaware as anybody of the details of the end of the Pacific war until I met a fellow (Bill Lear, son of "the" Bill Lear) who was on a troop ship to Olympic. He said the officers told them that they all were going to die. After that the book was a natural, and I couldn`t have chosen better.
In my present line, I am in Japan a lot. If there is any one thing that makes Frank`s book fascinating, it is the detailed look at the inner workings of that eastern mind in the government and military leaders, and the resulting confusion for their hapless diplomats. In some cases it is not so radical - we Americans still get huffy about Pearl Harbor, when the Japanese were following a pretty basic tenet of war. Frank didn`t really go to a lot of trouble to remind us that the "unfathonable" Asian way of seeing things is normal to them. Perhaps it isn`t necessary. Any Japanese soldier who sees dying for his emperor/country as his highest honor will tend to see anyone who surrenders or is beaten before he can sacrifice himself, as the lowest sort of worm, not worthy of bayonet practice let alone a bowl of rice. Just an example, but with a point. Frank managed to state facts, back them up with numbers and intel documents and let it go at that. The case builds easily in the reader`s mind that this was a terrible war and that the allies/Americans were in a real conundrum about how to end it. Which brings up the sadly fascinating fact that the very thing that the allies demanded, as a way of keeping "these fascist and militarist governments from starting a world war every few years", was unconditional surrender, the very thing the Japanese couldn`t accept.
One thing which makes a really great book is that it opens discussion on the topic rather than, say, on the writer`s vocabulary. By that measure, this is one of the best. Please indulge me...
I have been to the peace museum in Hiroshima. It is very moving and also very evenhanded. It shows the little uniforms of the school kids killed - they were in town that day to help build firebreaks. It also has the army order on the wall which commanded that when the invasion came, all subjects were to show up on the beaches with pitchforks, sticks or any other weapon that came to hand. Hiroshima, by the way (to answer a previous comment) was the headquarters of the 5th Japanese Army, in charge of Japan and Korea (where they'd been since 1920, only getting to Manchuria in 1931, re another comment)It was also a recruit center, and a navy shipyard, in other words not exactly non-military.
My Dad flew in B-29s. He was a tough old farm boy, but once he met an army buddy who had also `been there` That`s the only time I saw him cry. I don`t think it`s wrong to lament the terrible things humans are capable of doing to each other and to make them stop; a basic about war, by the way. The fact that millions of innocents had died and were likely to keep dying in this war would make any way of stopping it look pretty good, ie, "moral". I personally would say, you can`t argue with success. The Japanese had been fighting since at least 1920. Days after the bomb, it was over. I`m in the camp of "the Russians had nothing to do with it." I want to thank Mr. Frank for explaning readably and in detail, how that came about.
Finally a note from my Mom... The war council was correct in believing that Americans were sick of the war (Incorrect in their eastern way in seeing Potsdam as weakness). They were beaten but wouldn`t quit. If you had a family member in the service, you put a red star in your window, and if they were killed, you changed it to a gold star. There were plenty of houses with two gold stars in the window. People in 1945 wanted the war to end and wanted the boys home. Imagine you are Truman, and a wife/mother says to you, "You mean to tell me you had the means to end this war the day before my boy was killed, and you didn`t do it?"
Read this book.

It is easy today, with so much information out there about the horrors of atomic warfare, and so little remembrance of the actual history of the final stages of WWII, to be critical of the U.S. decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan.

Sadly, as a result, most Japanese are taught today that they were merely the victims of overwhelming American might, rather than the aggressors and instigators of war, and even more sadly, we are confronted with the shameful specter of anti-nuke, anti-war, anti-history Americans pathetically apologizing to the Japanese, misquoting history, and blindly ignoring the real facts behind the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan.

In this book, Richard Franks sets about methodically re-creating the historical context of the end stages of WWII. He addresses virtually every controversial claim, every possible scenario, in the decision process that led to the atomic bombing. Other reviewers have mentioned several points already, and so I present only a summary of the major controversies dealt with in this book:

1. Why was it necessary to drop two atomic bombs or to use them on civilians? - The U.S. was afraid that Japan would think that its supply of atomic bombs was limited (and in fact, production was limited, but was steadily growing), and wanted to demonstrate to Japan that it had the ability and willpower to completely annihilate Japan with a series of atomic bombs. As it turns out, the U.S. calculations were correct. After Hiroshima was bombed, Franks points out that there was a faction in the Japanese military that had enough knowledge of the difficulty of uranium separation to deny the possibility that the U.S. could have developed such a bomb or claimed that the U.S. would not be able to keep up the atomic bombing, and used these arguments to continue to hold out against surrender. Other Japanese military leaders hoped that world opinion would bar the U.S. from further use of the atomic bombs on civilians. That the Japanese military doubted the willpower of the U.S. to use atomic bombs against civilians is proof that a mere demonstration on some unpopulated target would have been useless. Dropping two atomic bombs thus served to vaporize all of the final delusions of these fanatic military leaders.

2. Wasn't Japan close to surrender already because of the massive firebombing of its cities? The U.S. had destroyed over 60 Japanese cities already, killing over 100,000 in one raid on Tokyo alone. However, while this caused enormous suffering for Japanese civilians, the military elite ruling Japan couldn't care less, and continued to hold out for a final land battle, intending to inflict enormous casualties on any U.S. invasion. Their calculation was that the U.S., a democracy with freedom of the press and freedom of speech that even then was extremely sensitive to casualties, could be forced to offer a negotiated surrender with better terms (see no. 5 below for more on this) instead of unconditional surrender. One thing that Franks does not emphasize enough is that subsequent firebombings after Tokyo killed far fewer people per raid, as the Japanese learned how to deal with the firebombing better. A significant factor in the success of the firebombing was the nature of the highly flammable wooden cities of Japan. However, neither firebombing nor the inaccurate conventional bombing of that era would have had much impact on the dispersed and hidden armed forces of the Ketsu-Go operation (the Japanese plan for a massive suicidal countering of an American invasion on the island of Kyushu). Ketsu-Go versus the atomic bomb would have been a completely different story. The general in charge of Ketsu-Go happened to have his headquarters in Hiroshima, and after surviving the atomic bombing and seeing its effects, he bluntly told Hirohito that he could not be sure anymore that his forces would be able to fend off an invasion. IMHO, it was this realization by the military that Ketsu-Go would fail in the face of the atomic bomb that was the key in forcing the military to accept defeat without an invasion. And it was this realization by Hirohito that the military would accept his "command" to accept unconditional surrender that encouraged this timid personality to finally step in and "command" surrender (Franks gives some more convoluted reasons that I think are less convincing. He does not emphasize enough that Hirohito had no legal authority at the time to force the military to do anything - Hirohito's power was entirely based on tradition, respect, and superstitious symbolism - and in fact the military fanatics had a history of assassinating advisors to Hirohito whenever it seemed that he was favoring a course of action that they did not like).

3. Weren't the estimated potential U.S. casualties in an invasion grossly inflated? Perhaps they were, but first of all, if you are an American and think that ANY number of dead American soldiers in an invasion of Japan would have been worth trading in return for not using the atomic bomb, then you need to have your citizenship revoked. And if you are Japanese, and believe that a U.S. invasion would have been preferable to atomic bombing, then you really don't understand the fanaticism of the military elite that was in control at the end of the war. At Saipan and Okinawa, the local Japanese citizenry had been recruited into the battles and had suffered enormous casualties. Even worse was being planned for an invasion of the Japanese homeland, with the entire civilian population given bamboo sticks and suicide bombs which they were expected to use against U.S. soldiers. Franks calculates that the civilian casualties in an invasion of Japan would have far exceeded what was suffered at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In addition, U.S. intelligence eventually revealed that preparations for Ketsu-Go were so extensive that chances for a successful invasion were becoming increasingly uncertain. American casualties would have almost certainly been enormous. While General MacArthur blithely swept all of that intelligence under the rug, and continued to insist on the original invasion plans, Admiral Nimitz was on the verge of going on the record opposing the invasion when the atomic bombs were dropped. This book makes clear that a U.S. invasion of Kyushu, led by the over-confident MacArthur, could have well been a complete disaster.

4. Wouldn't a blockade and continued bombing of Japan have forced a surrender? - Yes, but it would have taken a much longer period of time, at a minimum of several more months, and resulted in enormously greater loss of life to others besides U.S. soldiers. Franks points out that by attacking Japan's railway systems and vital coastal shipping, the U.S. could have easily shut down all food distribution in the country. However, again, because the Japanese warlords did not care about the suffering of the civilian population, it is likely in such a scenario that they would have held out for so long that Japanese deaths from starvation would have easily exceeded the deaths from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Plus there were also the vastly greater numbers of deaths that would have occurred in the countries that had been invaded by Japan, people who would have continued to die under a brutal occupation. There would also have been much greater numbers of deaths amongst Allied POWs. The numbers calculated by Franks are truly staggering, and make clear that atomic bombing to force a surrender was by far the least of all evils in terms of total numbers of dead people. Franks also recounts the massive atrocities committed by the Japanese in WWII. Yep, after you read these sections (the atrocities mentioned included dissecting and drilling holes into the brains of captured, living American airmen, among other niceties), you might also look more favorably upon atomic bombing Japan. Let's face it, this was a war without mercy, and the Japanese, who were merciless in their treatment of their enemies, had no right to expect any. Nevertheless, after the surrender, Japan did receive mercy, in the form of massive shipments of food from America to their starving civilians.

5. Wouldn't a negotiated surrender, as demanded by the military warlords, have been preferable to atomic bombing? No, first and foremost, up until the atomic bombings, the Japanese militarist faction simply refused to consider surrender under any conditions. They wanted an invasion and a chance at redemption of national honor with their Ketsu-Go operation. The peace faction's best efforts consisted of delusional hopes that Russia could somehow broker a negotiated settlement. Even AFTER both atomic bombs had been dropped, and Russia had declared war on Japan, the militarist faction continued to hold out briefly for a negotiated surrender with three additional terms besides maintenance of the emperor (which the peace faction also wanted): a short occupation by a minimal force, demobilization of Japanese troops by Japanese officers, and trying of war criminals by Japanese courts (Franks does not mention these details in his book - they are contained in another book "The Day Man Lost Hiroshima"). Acceptance of such conditions would have resulted in only a temporary cease-fire, much like the treaty of Versailles had been for WWI. It would not have removed the basic root causes that led Japan to attack East Asia and America - the institutions and ideology of an intensely nationalistic and fanatic military elite that put national honor and pride above everything else, including common sense. This bitter lesson from WWI, that the military elites and institutions of Germany and Japan needed to be completely eradicated in order to ensure lasting peace with those nations, was what caused Roosevelt to demand unconditional surrender. Roosevelt did not want the sacrifice of the lives of so many soldiers to be in vain, as it had been for WWI.

In summary, people critical of the atomic bombing of Japan simply fail to grasp just how difficult it was at that time for the U.S. and the peace faction in Japan to force an increasingly delusional military elite that was fanatically committed to national honor and pride to give up all of their institutions of power without first completely immolating their country. Read this book, read it carefully, and you WILL understand.