Best 1960s American History

Here, for the first time, are gripping accounts of Khrushchev's plan to destroy the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo; the handling of Soviet nuclear warheads on Cuba; and the extraordinary story of a U-2 spy plane that got lost over Russia at the peak of the crisis. In this re-examination of the 1963 Bay of Pigs face-off between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., Dobbs combines visits to Cuba, discussions with Russian participants and fingertip command of archival and printed U.S. sources to describe a wild ride that—contrary to the myth of Kennedy's steel-nerved crisis management—was shaped by improvisation, guesswork and blind luck. In a densely packed, fast-paced, suspenseful narrative, Dobbs presents the crisis from its early stages through the decision to blockade Cuba and Kennedy's ordering of DEFCON 2, the last step before an attack, to the final resolution on October 27 and 28. Although nothing presented here will change the overall view of the crisis, Dobbs presents new and often startling information that again confirms that the thirteen days in October brought the world to the edge of an unprecedented cataclysm.

"The Division's Expendables" is how one division commander described the 1/9th Cavalry's understrength, aero-rifle infantry platoons (called "Blues"). My first reaction was that Brennan's War was a work of fiction--no one in Vietnam was involved in enemy contact for such a long period of time. "...the reader sees bloody combat amid lavishly beautiful surroundings--a juxtaposition so constant it begins to seem natural rather than sadly ironic."

Updated with the latest evidence, Pulitzer Prize finalist Anthony Summers’s essential, acclaimed account of President Kennedy’s assassination. .” —Jacqueline Kennedy, recalling the fatal moment in Dallas. Fifty years on, most Americans still feel they have not been told the truth about President Kennedy’s death. Millions of pages of assassination records were finally made public in the late 1990s. Why hold these records back if—as we were told half a century ago—Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone assassin? “Fresh and important . We rush on through [Summers’s] narrative as if we were reading an artful thriller.” — The New York Times“An awesome work, with the power of a plea as from Zola for justice.” — Los Angeles Times“The closest we have to that literary chimera, a definitive work on the events in Dallas.” — The Boston Globe.

Here, for the first time, are gripping accounts of Khrushchev's plan to destroy the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo; the handling of Soviet nuclear warheads on Cuba; and the extraordinary story of a U-2 spy plane that got lost over Russia at the peak of the crisis. In this re-examination of the 1963 Bay of Pigs face-off between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., Dobbs combines visits to Cuba, discussions with Russian participants and fingertip command of archival and printed U.S. sources to describe a wild ride that—contrary to the myth of Kennedy's steel-nerved crisis management—was shaped by improvisation, guesswork and blind luck. In a densely packed, fast-paced, suspenseful narrative, Dobbs presents the crisis from its early stages through the decision to blockade Cuba and Kennedy's ordering of DEFCON 2, the last step before an attack, to the final resolution on October 27 and 28. Although nothing presented here will change the overall view of the crisis, Dobbs presents new and often startling information that again confirms that the thirteen days in October brought the world to the edge of an unprecedented cataclysm.

The long-awaited Blacklisted by History , based on six years of intensive research, dismantles the myths surrounding Joe McCarthy and his campaign to unmask Communists, Soviet agents, and flagrant loyalty risks working within the U.S. government. Blacklisted by History shows, for instance, that the FBI knew as early as 1942 that J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the atomic bomb project, had been identified by Communist leaders as a party member; that high-level U.S. officials were warned that Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy almost a decade before the Hiss case became a public scandal; that a cabal of White House, Justice Department, and State Department officials lied about and covered up the Amerasia spy case; and that the State Department had been heavily penetrated by Communists and Soviet agents before McCarthy came on the scene. But as Evans writes, “The real Joe McCarthy has vanished into the mists of fable and recycled error, so that it takes the equivalent of a dragnet search to find him.” Blacklisted by History provides the first accurate account of what McCarthy did and, more broadly, what happened to America during the Cold War. -Glenn Beck. "the greatest book since the Bible". -Ann Coulter, Creators Syndicate. "It takes M. Stanton Evans's meticulous investigative journalism to show what Joe McCarthy's short stay on the national stage (a little under five years, from February 1950 to December 1954) really was about." -Bob McMahan, Foreign Service Journal "Evans goes through extensive files and transcripts with complete mastery of complex material and an engaging turn of phrase that makes more than 600 pages of painstaking analysis both a triumph of historical scholarship and a gripping detective story." -Jack Cashill, WorldNetDaily. "This is a master newspaperman at work: digging, interviewing the record, pulling apart and putting together the details of deeds done mostly by the politicians who ran our imperfect national government in the nineteen fifties."

“The division's expendables.” That's what one division commander called the 1/9th Cavalry Blue platoons during the Vietnam War. My first reaction was that Brennan's War was a work of fiction--no one in Vietnam was involved in enemy contact for such a long period of time. "...the reader sees bloody combat amid lavishly beautiful surroundings--a juxtaposition so constant it begins to seem natural rather than sadly ironic."

The instant classic and runaway bestseller that changed the way we saw World War II and an entire generation of Americans, from the beloved journalist whose own iconic career has lasted more than fifty years. From military heroes to community leaders to ordinary citizens, he profiles men and women who served their country with valor, then came home and transformed it: Senator Daniel Inouye, decorated at the front, fighting prejudice at home; Martha Settle Putney, one of the first black women to serve in the newly formed WACs; Charles Van Gorder, a doctor who set up a MASH-like medical facility in the middle of battle, then opened a small clinic in his hometown; Navy pilot and future president George H. W. Bush, assigned to read the mail of the enlisted men under him, who says that in doing so he “learned about life”; and many other laudable Americans. However, this collection is more than a mere chronicle of a tumultuous time, it's history made personal by a cast of everyday people transformed by extraordinary circumstances: the first women to break the homemaker mold, minorities suffering countless indignities to boldly fight for their country, infantrymen who went on to become some of the most distinguished leaders in the world, small-town kids who became corporate magnates. From the reminiscences of George Bush and Julia Child to the astonishing heroism and moving love stories of everyday people, The Greatest Generation salutes those whose sacrifices changed the course of American history.