America at War: Concise Histories of U.S. Military Conflicts From Lexingtonto Afghanistan

by Terence T. Finn

  Did other nations besides the United States engage in Afghanistan?

  Yes, they did. True, the bulk of the military effort to stabilize Afghanistan once the Taliban were removed from power was American. But Britain, France, Germany, and other nations participated. Germany sent 4,701 troops to Afghanistan, though, as mentioned earlier, they were limited to no-combat roles. Not so the French. In addition to ground troops, they deployed units of the Armee del’Air, the French air force. It began operations early on and, employing Mirage and Super Entendard jet fighters, flew some seventy-two hundred sorties over a period of six years.

  One nation that goes to war when the United States goes to war is Australia. In Korea, in Vietnam, in the Gulf, and in Iraq, troops from “Down Under” joined their American comrades in battle. So too in Afghanistan, where Australian Special Forces displayed their usual skill and courage.

  What is likely to happen once the Americans depart in 2014?

  If, as planned, the American military leaves Afghanistan in 2014, the security of its citizens and of the central government will rest on the shoulders of the Afghan national police and Afghan army. Neither organization appears equal to the task, despite efforts by ISAF troops to train and equip the personnel involved. Additionally, the central government is in need of financial assistance. Recognizing this need, donor nations, urged on by the United States, in July 2012 pledged $16 billion over four years. These funds, if they materialize, are to be directed toward civil projects. The hope is that they will enable the government in Kabul to continue the construction of a modern state, one that provides security and prosperity to its citizens.

  What of the military situation? What will prevent a resurgence of the Taliban when the United States and other ISAF troops no longer are present? The hope is that the Afghans themselves will keep the Taliban from power. However, in May 2012 Leon Panetta, the American secretary of defense, said the United States would have “an enduring presence” in Afghanistan after 2014. What he meant was that U.S. troops would continue to train and support the Afghan forces. Whether they will engage in combat was not addressed.

  If they do not, if American soldiers keep to the sidelines when the bullets start to fly, then the Taliban and al-Qaeda will gain in strength. The result will be pressure on the government in Kabul. Whether it will then survive is a problematic question to answer. If the government doesn’t survive, America’s war in Afghanistan, its longest war, will have been in vain, because al-Qaeda and the Taliban will rise again.

  SELECTED READINGS

  ONE—INDEPENDENCE

  Allison, Robert J., The American Revolution: A Concise History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2011.

  Billias, George Athan, editor, George Washington’s Generals, William Morrow and Company, New York, 1964.

  Ferling, John, Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007.

  Golway, Terry, Washington’s General: Nathanael Greene and the Triumph of the American Revolution, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2005.

  Hairr, John, Guilford Courthouse, DeCapa Press, Cambridge, 2002.

  Harvey, Robert, A Few Bloody Noses: The Realities and Mythologies of the American Revolution, The Overlook Press, Woodstock and New York, 2001.

  Hibbert, Christopher, Redcoats and Rebels: The American Revolution Through British Eyes, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 1990.

  Ketchum, Richard M., Victory at Yorktown: The Campaign That Won the American Revolution, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2004.

  Marston, Daniel, The American Revolution 1774–1783, Osprey, Oxford, 2002.

  Matloff, Maurice, general editor, The Revolutionary War, David McKay, undated.

  Mitchell, Joseph B., Decisive Battles of the American Revolution, Westholme Publishing Company, Yardley, 1962.

  Stephenson, Michael, Patriot Battles: How the War of Independence Was Fought, HarperCollins, New York, 2007.

  Wood, Gordon S., The American Revolution: A History, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 2003

  TWO—1812

  Benn, Carl, The War of 1812, Osprey, Oxford, 2002.

  Bickman, Troy, The Weight of Vengeance: The United States, the British Empire, and the War of 1812, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012.

  Daughan, George C., 1812 The Navy’s War, Basic Books, New York, 2011.

  Dudley, Wade G., Splintering the Wooden Wall: The British Blockade of the United States, 1812–1815, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2003.

  Fowler, William M. Jr., Jack Tars & Commodores: The American Navy 1783–1815, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1984.

  Gardiner, Robert, editor, The Naval War of 1812, Chatham Publishing, London, 1998.

  Hitsman, J. Mackay, updated by Donald E. Graves, The Incredible War of 1812: A Military History, Robin Brass Studio, Toronto, 1999.

  Latimer, Jon, 1812: War with America, Belknap Press, Cambridge, 2007.

  McCranie, Kevin D., Utmost Gallantry: The U.S. and Royal Navies at Sea in the War of 1812, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2011.

  Rutland, Robert Allen, James Madison: The Founding Father, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1987.

  Robotti, Frances Diane, and Jame Vescovi, The USS Essex and the Birth of the American Navy, Adams Media Corp., Holbrook, 1999.

  Sweetman, Jack, American Naval History, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1991.

  THREE—MEXICO

  Bauer, K. Jack, The Mexican War 1846–1848, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1974.

  Eisenhower, John S. D., So Far from God: The U.S. War With Mexico 1846–1848, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2000. Originally published by Random House in 1989.

  Henry, Robert Selph, The Story of the Mexican War, DeCapo Press, New York. Copyright 1950 by the Bobbs-Merrill Company.

  Meed, Douglas V., The Mexican War 1846–1848, Osprey, Oxford, 2002.

  Seigenthaler, John, James K. Polk, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2003.

  Winders, Richard Bruce, Mr. Polk’s Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican War, Texas A & M University Press, College Station, 1997.

  FOUR—BETWEEN THE STATES

  Ades, Harry, The Little Book of the Civil War, Barnes and Noble, New York, 2002.

  Gallagher, Gary W., Stephen D. Engle, Robert K. Krick, and Joseph T. Glatthaar, The American Civil War: This Mighty Scourge of War, Osprey, Oxford, 2003.

  Masur, Louis P., The American Civil War: A Concise History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2011.

  McPherson, James M., Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, Oxford University Press, New York, 1988.

  McPherson, James M., This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War, Oxford University Press, New York, 2007.

  McWhinney, Grady, The Civil War: A Concise Account by a Noted Southern Historian, McWhinney Foundation Press, Abilene, 2005.

  Neillands, Robin H., Grant: The Man Who Won the Civil War, Cold Spring Press, Cold Spring Harbor, 2004.

  Reid, Brian Holden, The American Civil War and the Wars of the Industrial Revolution, Cassell and Company, London, 1999.

  Sears, Stephen W., Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam, Ticknor and Fields, New Haven and New York, 1983.

  Sheehan-Dean, Aaron, editor, Struggle for a Vast Future: The American Civil War, Osprey, Oxford, 2006.

  Sweetman, Jack, American Naval History, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1991.

  Taaffe, Stephen R., Commanding the Army of the Potomac, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, 2006.

  Williams, T. Harry, Lincoln and his Generals, Gramercy Books, New York, 1952.

  FIVE—SPAIN

  Bradford, James C., editor, Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American War & Its Aftermath, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1993.

  Field, Ron, Buffalo Soldiers 1892–1918, Osprey, Oxford, 2005.

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sp; Goldstein, Donald M., and Katherine V. Dillon, The Spanish-American War, Brassey’s, Washington, 1998.

  Halstead, Murat, The Full Official History of the War With Spain, Dominion, Chicago, 1899.

  Konstam, Angus, San Juan Hill: America’s Emergence as a World Power, Osprey, Oxford, 2005.

  Nofi, Albert A., The Spanish-American War, 1898, Combined Books, Pennsylvania, 1996.

  O’Toole, G. J. A., The Spanish War: An American Epic, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 1984.

  Silby, David J., A War of Frontier and Empire: The Philippine-American War, 1899–1902, Hill and Wang, New York, 2007.

  SIX—WORLD WAR I

  Bowen, Ezra, Knights of the Air, Time-Life Books, Alexandria, 1980.

  Farwell, Byron, Over There: The United States in the Great War, 1917–1918, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 1999.

  Franks, Norman, American Aces of World War I, Osprey, Oxford, 2001.

  Fussell, Paul, The Great War and Modern Memory, Sterling, New York, 2009.

  Hart, B. H. Liddell, The Real War: 1914–1918, Little Brown and Company, Boston, 1930.

  Hindenburg, Paul von, edited by Charles Messenger, The Great War, Greenhill Books, London, 2006.

  Hough, Richard, The Great War at Sea: 1914–1918, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1983.

  Keegan, John, The First World War, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1999.

  Lengel, Edward G., To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2008.

  Massie, Robert K., Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea, Random House, New York, 2003.

  Neiberg, Michael S., Fighting the Great War: A Global History, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2005.

  Prior, Robin, and Trevor Wilson, The First World War, Cassell, London, 1999.

  Strachan, Hew, The First World War, Viking, New York, 2003.

  Terraine, John, Douglas Haig: The Educated Soldier, Hutchinson, London, 1963.

  Terraine, John, The U-Boat Wars: 1916–1945, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1989.

  Willmott, H. P., World War I, DK, New York, 2003.

  Votaw, John F., The American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, Osprey, 2005.

  SEVEN—WORLD WAR II

  The War in the Pacific

  Dull, Paul S., A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy (1941–1945), Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1978.

  Grove, Philip D., Midway 1942, Brassey’s, London, 2004.

  Hastings, Max, Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1941–45, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2008.

  Marston, Daniel, editor, The Pacific War Companion: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima, Osprey, Oxford, 2005.

  Polmar, Norman, The Enola Gay: The B-29 That Dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, The Smithsonian Institution and Brassey’s, Washington, 2004.

  Potter, E. B., Nimitz, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1976.

  Spector, Ronald H., Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan, The Free Press, New York, 1985.

  Willmott, H. P., Pearl Harbor, Cassell and Company, London, 2001.

  The Battle of the Atlantic

  Dallies-Labourdette, Jean-Philippe, U-Boote 1935–1945 The History of the Kriegsmarine U-Boats, Histoire & Collections, Paris, undated.

  Doenitz, Grand Admiral Karl, translated by R. H. Stevens in collaboration with David Woodward, Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1959.

  Edwards, Bernard, Donitz and the Wolfpacks, Brockingham Press, London, 1999.

  Hughes, Terry, and John Costello, The Battle of the Atlantic, Dial Press/James Wack, New York, 1977.

  Showell, Jak P., U-Boat Command and the Battle of the Atlantic, Vanwell Publishing, St. Catherine’s, 1989.

  Syrett, David, The Defeat of the German U-boats: The Battle of the Atlantic, University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, 1994.

  Van der Vat, Dan, The Atlantic Campaign: World War II’s Great Struggle at Sea, Harper & Row, New York, 1988.

  The War in North Africa and in Europe

  Atkinson, Rick, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2002.

  Badsey, Stephen, Normandy, 1944: Allied Landings and Breakout, Barnes and Noble/Osprey, 2000.

  Davies, Norman, No Simple Victory, World War II in Europe, 1939–1945, Viking, New York, 2007.

  Eisenhower, Dwight D., Crusade in Europe, Doubleday and Company, Garden City, 1948.

  Korda, Michael, Ike: An American Hero, HarperCollins, New York, 2007.

  Messenger, Charles, The D-Day Atlas, Thames and Hudson, New York, 2004.

  Penrose, Jane, editor, The D-Day Companion: Leading Historians Explore History’s Greatest Amphibious Assault, The National D-Day Museum, New Orleans, 2004.

  Wilt, Alan F., The Atlantic Wall: Rommel’s Plan to Stop the Allied Invasion, Enigma Books, New York, 2004.

  The War in the Air

  Carter, Ian, Fighter Command 1939–1945, Ian Allan, Hersham, 2002.

  Cooper, Matthew, The German Air Force 1933–1945: An Anatomy of Failure, Jane’s, London, 1981.

  Copp, DeWitt S., Forged in Fire: Strategy and Decisions in the Airwar over Europe 1940–1945, Doubleday and Company, Garden City, 1982.

  Goodson, James A., Tumult in the Clouds, William Kimber, London, 1983.

  Hansen, Randall, Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942–1945, NAL Caliber, New York, 2009.

  Harvey, Maurice, The Allied Bomber War 1939–1945, Spellmount, Tunbridge Wells, 1992.

  Hastings, Max, Bomber Command: The Myths and Realities of the Strategic Bombing Offensive 1939–1945, Dial Press/James Wade, New York, 1979.

  Lyall, Gavin, editor, The War in the Air: The Royal Air Force in World War II, William Morrow and Company, New York, 1969.

  McFarland, Stephen L., and Wesley Phillips Newton, To Command the Sky: The Battle for Air Superiority over Germany, 1942–1945, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, 1991.

  Miller, Donald L., Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany, Simon and Shuster, New York, 2006.

  Parton, James, Air Force Spoken Here: General Ira Eaker and the Command of the Air, Adler & Adler, Bethesda, 1986.

  The Second World War in General

  Barnett, Correlli, Engage the Enemy More Closely: The Royal Navy in the Second World War, W.W. Norton and Company, New York and London, 1991.

  Bevor, Anthony, The Second World War, Little Brown and Company, New York, 2012.

  Borneman, Walter R., The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King—The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea, Little Brown and Company, New York, 2012.

  Burns, James MacGregor, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, Konecky & Konecky, New York, 1970.

  Corrigan, Gordon, The Second World War: A Military History, Thomas Dunne Books, New York, 2010.

  Hart, B. H. Liddell, History of the Second World War, Konecky & Konecky, Old Saybrook, 1970.

  Keegan, John, The Second World War, Viking, New York, 1989.

  Kimball, Warren F., Forged in War: Churchill, Roosevelt, and the Second World War, HarperCollins, London, 1997.

  Roberts, Andrew, The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War, HarperCollins, New York, 2011.

  Roskill, S. W., White Ensign: The British Navy at War, 1939–1945, United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, 1960.

  Ruge, Friedrich, translated by Commander M. G. Saunders, R.N., Der Seekrieg, The German Navy’s Story 1939–1945, United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, 1957.

  Sulzberger, C. L., The American Heritage Picture History of World War Two, American Heritage/Bonanza Books, 1966.

  Willmott, H. P., The Great Crusade: A New Complete History of the Second World War, revised edition, Potomac Books, Washington, 2008.
r />   EIGHT—KOREA

  Crane, Conrad C., American Airpower Strategy in Korea: 1950–1953, University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, 2000.

  Davis, Larry, The 4th Fighter Wing in the Korean War, Schiffer Military History, Atglen, 2001.

  Fehrenbach, T. R., This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History, Potomac Books, Dulles, Virginia, 2008.

  Futrell, Robert F., The United States Air Force in Korea, U. S. Air Force, Washington, 1982.

  Golstein, Donald M., and Harry J. Maihafer, The Korean War: The Story and Photographs, Brassey’s, Washington, 2000.

  Halberstam, David, The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, Hyperion, New York, 2007.

  Hallion, Richard P., The Naval Air War in Korea, The Nautical and Aviation Publishing Company of America, Baltimore, 1986.

  Hastings, Max, The Korean War, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1987.

  Hickey, Michael, The Korean War: The West Confronts Communism, The Overlook Press, Woodstock and New York, 2000.

  Lansdown, John R. P., With the Carriers in Korea: The Sea and Air War in SE Asia, 1950–1953, Crecy, Wilmslow, 1997.

  Sherwood, John Darrell, Officers in Flight Suits: The Story of American Air Force Fighter Pilots in the Korean War, New York University Press, New York, 1996.

  NINE—VIETNAM

  Frankum, Ronald B. Jr., Like Rolling Thunder: The Air War in Vietnam, 1964–1975, Bowman and Littlefield, Lanham, 2005.

  Goldstein, Donald M., Katherine V. Dillon, and J. Michael Wenger, The Vietnam War: The Story and Photographs, Brassey’s, Herndon, 1994.

  Herring, George C., America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975, second edition, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1986.

  Karnow, Stanley, Vietnam: A History, Viking, New York, 1991.