Customer Reviews:
An important contribution........2001-12-13
These are the stories of two former colonels of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam who were sent to North Vietnamese reeducation camps for thirteen years each after the collapse of Saigon. They had to battle winter chills, starvation, hunger, lack of medications, and exhauting work in the rice paddies.
The only treatment for any illness is tam lien, a local herbal medicine, which instead of helping, worsens their medical illnesses. Malnutrition and manual labor undermine the health of the remaining people. Others were plucked in the middle of the night for intensive and mind numbming interrogations, from which they returned "dazzled, silent, and uncommunicative."
This important contribution to the Vietnam War history underlines the mistreatment and violation of human rights of prisoners by the Hanoi government. I only wish it was more detailed, but the authors have advised us they are warriors not "writers".
I also learn that general Le Minh Dao, commander of the 18th ARVN division, who magnificently repulsed repetitive attacks from five North Vietnamese divisions at Xuan Loc during the last days of April 1975, was also sent to the North for 17 years of reeducation. He is working on his memoirs and everyone is anxiously waiting to read them.
Book Description
Award-winning broadcast journalist and public radio correspondent Michael Goldfarb has written the most stirring narrative to emerge from the Second Gulf War. It travels to the frontlines of battle and into the hearts of two men from different cultures whose intimate friendship and mutual passion for freedom can inspire us all.
Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace is the author's tribute to Ahmad Shawkat, the Iraqi Kurd who served as Goldfarb's translator during “Major Combat Operations.” Under an oppressive regime, Ahmad worked to promote freedom of expression. Goldfarb recounts his powerful yet all-too-brief relationship with Ahmad and introduces readers to the life of a true hero.
Eighteen years old when the Ba’ath Party seized control in Iraq, Ahmad intimately and poetically describes his imprisonment and torture twice by Saddam Hussein’s regime. Ahmad was banished from his hometown of Mosul for his political writings, and just as he began to taste freedom with the fall of Saddam and his large family’s return home, Ahmad was murdered for publicly decrying Islamic terror in newspaper editorials that he began to publish.
Ahmad’s story of one heroic man will forever change our perception of what all Iraqis have suffered and continue to endure.
Customer Reviews:
Recommended Reading For Anyone Interested In Iraq, The Middle East, Or Simply Human Study.......2007-02-02
Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace: Surviving Under Saddam, Dying In New Iraq is an outstanding book that inspires and educates.
The story centers around the United States' invasion of Iraq and the subsequent overthrow of Saddam Hussein and Ahmad Shawkat, an Iraqi Kurd. Ahmad is an intellectual, a reader, a writer, a husband, and a father. He's had many different ups and downs throughout his life in a country that didn't quite value its intellectuals and often times tried to silence them.
As told by Michael Goldfarb, a British journalist in Iraq to cover the war, the story is both beautiful and heartbreaking. Going behind the scenes, Mr. Goldfarb shows us the life in Iraq from the perspective of a native.
Very few books remain neutral on the subject of Iraq War. Goldfarb manages to do so well. I highly recommend picking this one up.
Ahmad Shawkat: scholar, intellectual, writer, patriot.......2006-02-21
This book is the author's tribute to the late Ahmad Shawkat, a Kurdish translator who worked with Goldfarb when we was covering the war in Iraq for WBUR radio. Goldfarb is a London-based reporter for the American public radio station; he first met Shawkat shortly before the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.
Goldfarb was more than a man who knew the language. As an intellectual, he had moved in revolutionary circles for many years, agitating against Hussein's government. He had been captured, imprisoned and tortured on a couple of occasions and once even met the dictator. As a Kurd, he rejected the sectarian leanings of many of his people in favor of a single, unified nation. As Goldfarb explains, Ahmad Shawkat was uniquely qualified not only to translate words but to provide context to what the reporter was seeing and hearing on the streets of a new Iraq.
The first section of the book follows the two men together as Goldfarb reports on the war for public radio. (His dispatches can be heard on WBUR's Inside Out web site.) The last section is the story of Shawkat's tragic death at the hands of an assassin and the months after when the author returns to the war-torn country. The middle section, Ahmad's Life, is the author's reconstruction of his translator's story. From his early life as a bookish boy through college and into adulthood, the reader learns to know a man who never stopped searching for the answers in life, and the solutions, whether they be of a political or a religious nature.
Goldfarb's own take on the war in Iraq may surprise some readers. Although he is very critical of the Bush administration's handling of the post-war situation, the author and reporter initially supported U.S. action there in the belief that the Iraqi people could be freed. He and Ahmad speak about this shared belief at length, alternately dreaming of the future and despairing as the country falls into chaos and internal strife in the months after the fall of Saddam's army.
Michael Goldfarb writes about the qualities he looks for in a translator. Often he cannot find all of those things in one person. In Ahmad Shawkat, he finds a scholar, an intellectual, a writer, a patriot and at the end a close friend. It is a remarkable life story which could be difficult to read due to the fact that one knows how it ends. In spite of this, Goldfarb's skill makes for a moving, poignant read from start to finish. Highly recommended.
Such Is Life in the Middle East........2005-10-07
In this book, you will find information about leaders we have heard of. some famous and some infamous. Khomeini Auyatollah, Osama bin Laden, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Jelal Talabani, Kind Faisal I & II, and Saddam Hussein. American generals include Norman Schwarzkopf and General David Petraeus. Theirs is a history of duplicity and violence against others. One of the triumps of the Bush administration's Iraq policy is that "they managed to create an environment in which Americans, rather than being thanked, are more likely to be abducted and decapitated if they walk down a street alone."
Iraq was born in the aftermath of WWI, as the Allies carved up the Ottoman Empire and created the nations of the modern Middle East. The British created an Iraqi government modeled on their own, with a constitutional monarchy established. Faisal I was chosen to be elected the first King, and his relaitonship with T. E. Lawrence is shown in the movie, 'Lawrence of Arabia.'
When wars end, generally the battlefield is cleaned up. After WWII, warships were mothballed and the California desert was filled with old warplanes. That would be a sight to see! When the Cold War was over, USA did nothing to decomission its proxies (tyrants created and sustained in power), and it is now paying the price. In Afghanistan, Taliban and al Qaeda were formed as terrorist groups against their own people.
"Life without problems is not interesting" and "We each have a role to play" introduce you to the integrity and devotion of Ahmad Shawkat to his family and to his country. He felt helpless and told the author, "Only America has the power to do these things." Ahmad looked like someone I know here, Jim Nahmad, always on the prowl to find lost people whom he can help. Ahmad took chances and went into war torn areas, and paid the price, just as America paid for their intervention with the deaths on 9/11/01. If you are a listener to Public Radio, you willl have heard Goldfarb's "Inside Out" program. He won the Edward R. Morrow award for one of his features on Ahmad.
I had a doctor called Ahmed. They said he came to America from India. I once worked as a medical transcriptionist for Dr. Z also from India. I became friends with his sister-in-law who, with her two brothers, attended Vo-Tech when I did. They are secretitive people, innocent in a way about America's abundance, and hire family to work in their offices. Dr. Z. had his connected to the local hospital; on Secretaries Day, even though I was not one of his employees, I was invited to have a meal with them and he told me, "Betty, when I was in school in Chicago, I actually laughed." I would ask sometimes if he ever smiled; his wife was always smiling. The different cultures keep nationalities apart as they feel they cannot trust each other and thus, deception rules. Ahmed is young and agrees that he does not know how to get a specialist, or prescribe the needed medicines. He was personable, but incompetent as a family doctor. He wanted to be a specialist and so charged accordingly.
"Admad began to feel freedom at last with the fall of Saddam. He had a newspaper in which he decried terrorists in his editorials. He as murdered as a result. Goldfarb won the Lowell Thomas award for his report about British Jihad in 2005.
A Beautiful Friendship.......2005-10-04
Besides being an extremely well-written crash course in what went on in Iraq at the outset of the current war, Michael Goldfarb's superb book describes the beautiful friendship that developed between him & his extraordinary interpreter while Goldfarb was covering the war in Iraq. Goldfarb has been a voice of reason on NPR for many years; anyone familiar with his first rate radio work will easily be able to hear him telling this story -- he writes the way he talks: the voice is engaging, precise & always lucid. He has a gift for describing even the most complicated events in a way that the general reader can readily understand. As engaging & personable as Goldfarb is himself, he never lets you forget that the real hero is Ahmad, an amazingly resilient & likeable fellow -- a man of honor & courage & of incredible personal warmth.
Despite the cruel tribulations recounted in the story, the book is notable for its gladness of spirit -- it isn't grim & forbidding -- quite the contrary: Ahmad's story is a sad one, but the man himself was not a sad person, & certainly not one given to self-pity. He is full of life & enthusiasm & you will be glad to meet him.
A Savage Beauty.......2005-08-16
Of all the articles and books that I've read concerning the modern history of Iraq, none has affected me as much as Michael Goldfarb's wonderful new work. Goldfarb brilliantly interweaves the history of Iraq with life story of his interpreter Ahmad--his suffering, joy, hopes seemingly fulfilled by the fall of Saddam, hopes corroded by the miscalculations and lack of planning by the American government. No matter which side of the Iraqi debate a reader has taken, this is a book that challenges all pre-conceived ideas. Perhaps even more importantly, it is a shattering personal story written with enomrous skill and perception by an exceptional journalist.
Essential reading.
Average customer rating:
- The real deal
- Many related tales, separated for 53 years, come together
- Seems unbelievable, but factual. and interestingly done.
- An account of stalag life telling what it was really like
- Fascinating book about meeting of enemy flyers over Germany
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Boys at War, Men at Peace: Former Enemy Air Combatants Meet to Remember and Reconcile
E. D. McKenzie
Manufacturer: Vantage Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0533124662 |
Customer Reviews:
The real deal.......2000-06-22
I read this book with great interest. Every time I thought I had read something incredible, there was something even more incredible in the very next chapter. The guys who were there are the only ones who know what it was like to be shot while flying a B17 bomber over Europe in WWII, then taken POW by the Germans, and endure the rigors of life as a prisoner. The events that took place are shocking to those of us who, thankfully, have never had to endure such trials. I appreciate the authors very much for giving us a glimpse into their lives, and into an important historical time period. Carol, cmaps@384thbg.iwarp.com
Many related tales, separated for 53 years, come together.......1999-01-24
What makes this book outstanding amongst the many written about experiences in the air war over Germany and being shot down and taken as a prisoner of war, is the recent, first person accountings; the enemy pilot who shot him down, the ground witnesses and capturers, but also importantly, the man who was the American leader of the thousands of shot down flyers in Stalag 17 reveals his inside stories which were for so many years held secret. The POW who became a playwright after the war and responsible for the fictionalal, award winning Broadway show and movie named STALAG SEVENTEEN, adds his own story to this book. There is a smooth transition as the story moves back and forth from 1944 to 1996 where now the German and U.S. flags fly side by side, the national anthems are played and the flyers who once tried to kill each other overhead now stand holding hands while hundreds too young to remember, look on and applaud. I liked the epilogue in which the people of the village describe the affect of the war on them, and the biggest event of all; the shooting down of the Flying Fortress named "Toonerville Trolley" onto the hillside next to their farms.
Seems unbelievable, but factual. and interestingly done........1999-01-24
My wife and I were fascinated by the author's ability to bring the stories of all the principal characters together, when they assembled for a special ceremony 52 years after the traumatic experiences they endured together. Finding the German pilot, the POW camp leader, the man shot by guards and many others took the combined efforts of German researchers and many Americans. The weaving together of their stories was masterfully done; and surprisingly has led to their reacquaintance and friendship after all these years. We recently read a Ken Follet book in which he fabricated his story and characters, not nearly as astounding and interesting as the "real thing" published in Boys at War, Men at Peace. It should be in libraries and book shops for many years, to be studied by historians of the great air war over Europe, and many previously unpublished incidents in one of the most infamous Stalag Luft camps in Germany. You can put it down, because of the way it is laid out, but you will be anxious to pick it up again to learn what happens next.
An account of stalag life telling what it was really like.......1998-10-21
An account of the mission of the B-17 Toonerville Trolley, the shoot-down, memories and experiences of the crew members, the German FW 190 pilot, who made the "kill", and the German witnesses. The account of stalag life amd experiences has none of the histrionics shown in other books, and all is done in a low-key manner that I have not seen before. Later on, when someone asks what it was like, I will simply hand them this book and say, "Read this and you will know."
Fascinating book about meeting of enemy flyers over Germany.......1998-10-21
It is a unique piece of work, so different from what is normally found on the subject of World War II. On the one hand are the experiences of the cuel days of war, and on the other, my own recollections of our futile attempts to stop the armadas of Flying Fortresses, then finally meeting the author so many years later in an atmosphere of friendship, almost as if we had been members of the same squadron.
Average customer rating:
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Eisenhower and the German Pows: Facts Against Falsehood (Eisenhower Center Studies on War and Peace)
Gunter Bischof
Manufacturer: Louisiana State Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Prisoners of War
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ASIN: 0807117587 |
Customer Reviews:
German expellee 's view.......2006-02-22
My ancestors left Germany in the mid 1700's to settle in eastern parts of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Through wars, Mongol and Turkish attacks we hung on.
In 1945 we were fleeing ahead of the Russian armies as they destroyed everything in their path, until meeting the American armies heading east. Many in our village were shot or hauled off to Siberia as slave labor. As a youngster, I experienced the poverty and lack of food millions of refugees suffered.
Readers should be aware of the inherent bias of both Ambrose and Bischof as they are employees of the Eisenhower Center. In a subsequent book, CRIMES AND MERCIES, Drawing on newly released secret Soviet documents,Bacque refutes many of Bishop and Ambrose's objections.This is a must read as it completes the picture of the destruction and rebuild of Germany.
Average customer rating:
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An Englishman's Peace and War
Neil Boyd
Manufacturer: The Pentland Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1858212154 |
Average customer rating:
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My Lucky Life: In War, Revolution, Peace & Diplomacy
Sam Falle
Manufacturer: Guild (WI)
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1857761219 |
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Prisoner of Peace
Hans W/Hite Nancy &. McKee Gussmann
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1401094112 |
Book Description
Hans Gussmann was a German soldier interned by the Allies for nearly three years after the end of World War II. The story of prisoners held by the Russians is well known, but the prisoners held by the Allies have been forgotten. Prisoner of Peace is virtually an untold story of what occurred in those prison labor camps after the war. Prisoner of Peace is a true - and at times - humorous story based on the contents of Gussmann's prison notebooks and memoirs. Gussmann's story is not about the battles of combat, but rather the battles and struggles of everyday survival as a German POW laborer. He was drafted into the German Army without any political attachments, merely doing his duty for his country. Gussmann makes it clear up front that he was not a Nazi. Yet, he and thousands of other German soldiers captured during and after the war paid the price for the horrendous crimes committed on orders from Adolf Hitler. Today, Gussmann lives in the United States and is an American citizen.
Customer Reviews:
Don't Overlook This Book.......2005-09-17
I expected this book to be really depressing, but it isn't.
Prisoner of Peace is the story of a young man who was conscripted into the German Army in the closing days of World War II. He was soon captured, and held as a prisoner for several years after the war ended.
It's a well constructed book, translated from Hans Gussmann's journals by himself and his daughter. The story remains readable because of the reflections on the countryside, the people he meets and bits of humor that punctuate the dismal horrid reality of POW camps, mistreatment and the anxiety of wondering when, if ever, he would get home.
Editorial assistance from Nancy Hite helped keep this book moving along while giving some shocking information about Allied POW camps in Europe. Not surprising, this book was chosen Honorable Mention in the life stories category of the Writer's Digest International Self-Published Book Awards. With another book (from a BIG house) carrying the same title, this one would be easy for a reader pass by. Advise: Don't overlook this book.
Average customer rating:
- Powerful account of one man's experience as a POW
- "Truely Inspirational"
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Prisoner of War and Peace
Nick Mustacchia
Manufacturer: Pentland Press (NC)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1571971432 |
Customer Reviews:
Powerful account of one man's experience as a POW.......1999-05-24
The author is a friend whom I have known for about four years. you would never suspect that he had been through the torture and terror outlined in this book. Every Ex-prisoner of war has a book in them. We are fortunate that this one wrote it.
"Truely Inspirational".......1999-05-09
The author's recollection of events as a prisoner of war during World War II is so vivid, you feel you are with him. The title reveals what all POW's must feel. The imprisonment does not end with liberation.
Average customer rating:
- An okay book for study...
- Not What I Thought It Would Be
- Stories that connect pasts to futures; civil to military
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Prisoners of Culture: Representing the Vietnam Pow (Communications, Media, and Culture)
Elliott Gruner
Manufacturer: Rutgers University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Prisoners of War
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ASIN: 0813519306 |
Customer Reviews:
An okay book for study..........2007-01-16
I used this as on of four or five textbooks in a Vietnam War class. It was all right, but not as insightful as he others It talks about how the war was presented in and to America, by way of certain cultural standards. Its title relates to the idea that the soldiers were perhaps inaccurately represented in the media to the common populace, but that cultural standards and expectations prevented them from deviating. They had something to live up to, so they were prisoners to that idea. On one hand it's good to see the war in the media at all, but on the other, it's too bad that the soldiers couldn't show how they truly felt. It had some good examples, but it talked a lot about film. So if you're studying Vietnam, you might be interested in this (as long as you have the extra time for it), but I think it's better as a resource for someone going into media to understand the effects that their wok have on the subject matter. You could also take the book's main premise (there's more to the war and its soldiers than what's in the media) and apply it to to other wars. It's okay if you're new to he concept but I was critical of it i the essay I had to write on it. Basically, it depends on where the reader is at on the ideas whether they will gain from it or not. If you're not interested in media or the the Vietnam War, this may not interest you in teh least.
Not What I Thought It Would Be.......2002-03-13
I would obtain this book through a local library or an inter-library loan system before making the purchase. The text addresses specific areas related to the media's reinterpretation of POW events, whether through the printed or film medium. Even though the book is full of endnotes I still found many statements or conclusions needing documentation--which he doesn't provide. Furthermore, some of the material related to the involvement of Sybil Stockdale is in error or taken out of context. Regarding VADM Stockdale: after in "Love and War" he wrote additonal books, which are not used as sources to address the development of his thought post 1973. And, leaving out the influence of Epictetus in his POW experience neglects a significant part of his story.
Stories that connect pasts to futures; civil to military.......1997-11-09
Elliott Gruner's book is destined to be a benchmark, if not a classic study of how we see ourselves through the men and women we send in to war and conflict. His appreciation for the disconnects between the realities of what POW's face and the images that media have put to them are timeless. Although it was written principally from the experiences of Vietnam, it grows in value with every media expansion in to every kind of conflict.
The book holds meaning for a cross section of society: certainly the soldier, probably the corresondent, and hopefully the policy maker. Excellent, clear, scholarly work.
Book Description
The nests and eggs of all the common birds found west of the Mississippi are covered in detail - 520 species in all. More than 400 photographs show the nests and eggs in their typical habitats. Descriptive text includes color, shape, and number of eggs for each species, plus information on nesting materials, construction, and dimensions.
Books:
- Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict With a New Introduction by the Author
- Reverse Heart Disease Now : Stop Deadly Cardiovascular Plaque Before It's Too Late
- Seasons of War: The Ordeal of the Confederate Community, 1861-1865
- Shakespeare and Co.: Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher and the Other Players in His Story
- Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell
- St Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica (translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province) (5 Volume Set)
- Struggle for the Heartland: The Campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth (Great Campaigns of the Civil War)
- Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind
- The Cheater's Guide to Baseball
- The Elizabethan World Picture
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