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Review of Eleven Days of Christmas--was Friendly Fire Notebook



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 17th 04, 05:55 PM
Ed Rasimus
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Default Review of Eleven Days of Christmas--was Friendly Fire Notebook

After raising the questions in the previous thread regarding Marshal
Michel's "Eleven Days of Christmas" I thought it might help to post
the review I wrote of the book about two years ago when it was first
released:

Win, Loss or Draw: The Eleven Days of Christmas

Participants, modern warriors and military history buffs will find
Marshall Michel's latest work, The Eleven Days of Christmas: America's
Last Vietnam Battle a compelling read. For years we've gone along
telling ourselves that we won the war with that last intense effort,
unleashing the B-52s, showing we meant business and driving the
recalcitrant North Vietnamese back to the bargaining table. Now Michel
reveals that the North Vietnamese also believe they won the war
through this decisive battle that they call the "Dien Bien Phu of the
air." And, when you've finished reading this powerful indictment of
the U.S. Air Force, you may agree with them. Either way, you'll have
gained insight into the bureaucratic bumbling, organizational
arrogance, and pompous posturing that nearly led us into a military
fiasco.

Fighter pilots and bomber pilots have always chipped away at each
other, but it's been in the nature of locker-room ribbing. Michel's
work shows, however, that at the highest levels the competition and
animosity is deadly serious. Starting with the Cold War thinking of
SAC preeminence under Curtis Lemay, he tracks through the rationale
for establishing SAC as a specified command, never under the
operational control of theater commanders. As the Vietnam war goes on,
SAC is inexorably dragged into the conflict, not as a tool of the
field commander but rather as a reluctant partner who must join the
party to maintain a semblance of credibility and a large slice of the
budgetary pie. When the decision is made to finally unleash the total
capability of American airpower, the result is near disaster caused by
stereotypical tactics, inflexibility of SAC leadership, and absentee
management of the bomber force by a headquarters twelve thousand miles
away.

The book breaks valuable new ground in the story with the
incorporation of the North Vietnamese side of the battle. Michel has
gone to Hanoi and talked with the SA-2 operators and the air defense
coordinators to give the view from the ground. Move and counter-move
play out as the bomber crews try to convince their leadership to
change their tactics and the missile crews try to bring deployed units
back from the panhandle of Vietnam to participate in the last ditch
defense of the capital. There's plenty of heroism on both sides and
even career fighter pilots have to give the nod to the incredible
courage of the bomber crews who each night drive their craft into the
teeth of the defensive tiger.

Michel tells the story of the bomber raids of Christmas and shines a
bright light on the infighting of the top level players. In doing so,
he spends little time on tactical operations of Linebacker II, barely
mentioning the hundreds of sorties flown each day, the MiG kills or
the SAM sites destroyed. The reader will barely notice this loss of
micro detail as the book dumps you into the midst of the macro
machinations of the highest leadership levels. When you've finished,
you may still not be sure if we won or lost, but you'll be absolutely
certain to have lots to discuss.

The Eleven Days of Christmas: America's Last Vietnam Battle, Michel,
Marshall L., III. Encounter Books, San Francisco CA. 2002. ISBN
1-893554-24-4. $25.95. 325pp.

Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8
  #2  
Old April 18th 04, 11:15 PM
BUFDRVR
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Default

In doing so,
he spends little time on tactical operations of Linebacker II, barely
mentioning the hundreds of sorties flown each day, the MiG kills or
the SAM sites destroyed.


I've lent my book to someone so I can't look at the cover and read the books
"summary" (I'm sure there's some term used to describe the "amplifications" on
the books cover???), but I thought the book was supposed to be about the BUFF
contribution mainly? Michel doesn't even get into detail about night fighter
strikes or F-111 strikes. I thought this was by design.


BUFDRVR

"Stay on the bomb run boys, I'm gonna get those bomb doors open if it harelips
everyone on Bear Creek"
 




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