The first (and hopefully not last) book for the "book of the month" club will be Amazon.com: Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime: Books: Eliot A. Cohen.
I'll reopen this thread once we begin the discussion in August. Below is a review of the book by noted conservative columnist Michael Barone, as well as an interview of the author on PBS News Hour.
Michael Barone reviewed the book back in 2002. Here's his closing remarks, which send a chill down my spine.
Five years later, we'll be able to judge whether Barone's interpretation of the book's prescriptions was correct or not.
Here's a PBS News Hour interview with Professor Cohen on the book. Here's the intro to the interview:
I'll reopen this thread once we begin the discussion in August. Below is a review of the book by noted conservative columnist Michael Barone, as well as an interview of the author on PBS News Hour.
Michael Barone reviewed the book back in 2002. Here's his closing remarks, which send a chill down my spine.
To find a workable plan for action against Iraq, Bush is going to have to act more like Cohen's supreme commanders than he has so far, and he is going to have to give full backing to Rumsfeld's efforts as well. War is too important to be left entirely to the generals. It is time for the supreme commander to command.
Here's a PBS News Hour interview with Professor Cohen on the book. Here's the intro to the interview:
MARGARET WARNER: In wartime, who should run the show: The politicians or the generals? That's the subject of a provocative new book by military affairs expert Elliott Cohen. The book is "Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime." It looks at four great war time leaders-- Abraham Lincoln; World War I French Premiere George Clemenceau; Winston Churchill; and Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurian-- to answer the question. Among its readers, President Bush, who read it during his Texas vacation. Cohen is a professor at the school at the Nitze School at Johns Hopkins University. A former Pentagon official, he now serves on the defense policy board, a group that advises the secretary of defense. And welcome, Professor Cohen.
Comment