Freedman, Lawrence: The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy (St Martin's Press, New York, New York, 1983).
Personal Comments- Covers the strategy of nuclear war from 1945 through 1983. This includes the atomic weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Most of the strategy discussed was extremely abstract and almost philosophical, though I get the impression from the book that this is the way that nuclear strategy has been. The thought that losing 10 million American lives in a nuclear exchange was deemed acceptable by the think tanks of the 1960's gives one pause. The book was well documented and concise, though lacked much specific information about individual weapon systems or deployment strategies. For instance, it was never really mentioned that the B-1 bomber program was cancelled by the Carter administration (though revived later by Reagan) due to high cost and the suspected demise of the manned bomber. That a leg of the nuclear triad was close to being phased out seems to me a hefty omision in a discussion about nuclear strategy.
Herzog, Chaim: The Arab-Israeli Wars (Random House, New York, New York, 1982).
Personal comments- With a varied and distinguished career as Israeli Director of Military Intelligence, the first Military Governor of the West Bank of Jordan, and Israeli embassador to the U.N., Herzog was in a position to write the definitive book on the Israeli side of the Middle East conflicts. Obviously biased, he nonetheless writes a compelling book describing the wars for Israeli existance against fantastic odds.
The book is well written and very informative in terms of battles. When it comes to political aspects of the 1948, 1967, and 1973 wars, however, I suggest balancing this book with a book written by an Arab. This is because Herzog definitely sides with Israel on controversial issues such as the Palestinian exodus during the outbreak of the 1948 War of Independence. Documentation is limited to a bibliography, and some excellent maps are provided.
Halle, Louis J.: The Cold War as History (Harper and Row, New York, New York, 1967).
Personal comments- Halle attempts in his book to write an unbiased history of the cold war while living in the thick of it. Written in 1967, the Cuban Missile Crisis had just concluded, while the space race was in its most vigorous pursuit. The book covers the topics of Soviet expansion immediately after World War II, the Korean war, the death of Stalin and the ascention and fall of Kruschev, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Most interesting of all, however, is the mentioning of US embroilment in Asia. The book was written immediately before the Vietnam War really took off, and it is fascinating to read what a historian familiar with the containment of communism thought of the logic behind our involvement. In short, he thought that the US was misguided, attempting to prevent foreign intervention by the Chinese by our own foreign intervention.
The book is written very matter of factly, with minimal documentation at the end in the form of a bibliography.
Rich, Ben: Skunk Works (Little, Brown, and Company, New York, New York, 1994).
Personal comments- Ben Rich was the head of the Lockheed Skunkworks from 1975 to 1991, so this book is straight from the source. He worked under Kelly Johnson, arguably the best aeronautical engineer in history, and helped to design the engine intakes on the U-2 and SR-71. Furthermore, the F-117 stealth fighter was his baby, and he pushed its development when everyone told him it was a multi-million dollar boondoggle. Come Desert Storm, his boondoggle opened the way for one of the greatest military victories in history.
The book is well written in a light tone until the end, when he gives prescriptions for the military and for other aviation companies on how to weather the post-cold war dry spell in military spending. I was so caught up in this book that I read it in its entirety over two days. Documentation is completely missing, but then again this is basically an autobiography, so it can be viewed as a primary source without need of further documentation.