Opening Rounds. Lessons of Military History 1918-1988

In this book, the author highlights those precedents which deserve consideration as the peoples of North America and Western Europe seek to maintain peace by deterrence. He examines the factors which led to the outbreak of war in 1939 - political and military weakness after 1918, the seizure of power by fascist dictators in Germany and Italy, the militarisation of Japan - and demonstrates how, when Britain, France and, ultimately, the United States were obliged to defend themselves, they were beaten and humiliated in the opening rounds of war. He assesses the qualities of the commanders and fighting men involved in campaigns in Norway, the Philippines and Malaya, in terms by no means flattering to those defending these territories. In 1945 the ultimate triumph of the Western democracies in alliance with the Soviet Union - once Hitler's accomplice, later his prey - seemed to promise peace. However, almost at once the Soviet Union began to pick off small nations for incorporation as satellites. For those who find the ensuing development of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and the ongoing arguments about conventional military strength and nuclear arms balance, difficult to follow, the author traces clearly the path to the present situation. He considers how far nuclear weaponry has actually changed strategic options; the constraints which would militate against recourse to nuclear weapons; and the comparability in military terms of earlier campaigns to those which would develop if a third world war were fought out on a conventional basis. Opening Rounds offers a radical reappraisal of thinking on conventional warfare and provides a key to understanding how we have reached our present negotiating position for peace, and to assessing the prospects of its success. Very slight shelf wear to D/J. (We carry a wide selection of titles in The Arts, Theology, History, Politics, Social and Physical Sciences. academic and scholarly books and Modern First Editions ,and all types of Academic Literature.).…