Word: dunnigan
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NONFICTION: After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection, James Davidson and Mark Lytle/ Clare Boothe Luce, Wilfrid Sheed/ How to Make War, James F. Dunnigan/ The Imperial Rockefeller, Joseph E. Persico/ Mrs. Harris: The Death of the Scarsdale Diet Doctor, Diana Trilling/ Scenes of Childhood, Sylvia Townsend Warner
NONFICTION: After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection, James Davidson and Mark Lytle∙Clare Boothe Luce, Wilfrid Sheed∙How to Make War, James F. Dunnigan The Imperial Rockefeller, Joseph E. Peisico∙Mrs. Harris: The Death of the Scarsdale Diet Doctor, Diana Trilling∙Scenes of Childhood, Sylvia Townsend Warner
Modern does not always mean better. Dunnigan holds that artillery remains the most feared and efficient means of killing soldiers in the field. He notes that during the 1973 Middle East war, Arab forces fired 2,100 Russian-made antiaircraft missiles. They shot down 85 jets-but 45 belonged to Egypt and her allies. Lack of experience and skill with high-tech also showed up on the Iran-Iraq killing grounds where both sides used 1970s weapons and 1917 tactics...
...superpowers cannot afford such indulgences. This, says Dunnigan, is particularly true for the Soviet Union. Despite vast quantities of men and materiel, the U.S.S.R. is believed by the author to be in a poor position for a prolonged stalemate. His reasons: a strained economy, naval bases that are awkwardly located, unreliable satellites, and equipment and maintenance that are generally inferior to those of the West. This is not especially good news, for if a Soviet blitzkrieg should fail, Dunnigan feels that Russian leaders might quickly resort to chemical and nuclear weapons...
...this death and destruction is logically projected in a spirit of gamesmanship. Yet How to Make War is far more than "Dungeons and Dragons" for grownups. One Dunnigan scenario of how World War III could come about touches on the irrational, which is history as it endlessly reveals itself: "A vicious circle develops as each side suspects the other of superior technical performance. Lacking any means to validate this performance, the claims become even more outrageous and expensive ... In Russia, where the spirit and practice of the Potemkin village (a false front, as in motion picture sets) still lives...