10 books about war

Draws on recently declassified documents and exclusive interviews to recount the dramatic story of a World War II rescue mission in 1944 during which the OSS embarked on a daring scheme to recover more than five hundred airmen trapped behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia. Reprint.

The host of MSNBC's Morning Joe reveals how President Harry Truman defended democracy against the Soviet threat at the dawn of the Cold War. Harry Truman had been vice president for less than three months when President Franklin Roosevelt died. Suddenly inaugurated the leader of the free world, the plainspoken Truman candidly told reporters he, "felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me." He faced a hostile world stage. Even as World War II drew to a close, the Cold War was around the corner. The Soviet Union went from America's uneasy ally to its number one adversary. Through shrewd diplomacy and military might, Joseph Stalin gained control of Eastern Europe, and soon cast an acquisitive eye toward the Balkans--and beyond. Newly liberated from fascism, Europe's future was again at risk, its freedom on the line. Alarmed by the Soviets' designs, Truman acted. In a speech before a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947, he announced a policy of containment that became known as the "Truman Doctrine"--a pledge that the United States would "support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." In Saving Freedom, Joe Scarborough moves between events in Washington and those in Europe--in Greece, where the U.S.-backed government was fighting a civil war with insurgent Communists, and in Turkey, where the Soviets pressed for control of the Dardanelles--to analyze and understand the changing geopolitics that led Truman to deliver his momentous speech. The story of the passage of the Truman doctrine is an inspiring tale of American leadership, can-doism, bipartisan unity, and courage in the face of an antidemocratic threat. Saving Freedom highlights a pivotal moment of the Twentieth Century, a turning point where patriotic Americans worked together to defeat tyranny.

Chronicles the daring mission of the elite U.S. Army Sixth Ranger Battalion to slip behind enemy lines in the Phillipines and rescue the 513 American and British POWs who had spent over three years in a hellish, Japanese-run camp near Cabanatuan. Reprint. 300,000 first printing.

World War II in the Pacific Theater, oral histories collected from over 30 U.S. veterans, told in their own words.

The definitive visual history looks at this epic war from every angle, tracing the course of military, strategic, and political events across the globe, and documenting the experiences of combatants and civilians.

The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, Oleg Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. Desperate to keep the circle of trust close, MI6 never revealed Gordievsky's name to its counterparts in the CIA, which in turn grew obsessed with figuring out the identity of Britain's obviously top-level source. The CIA officer assigned to identify him was Aldrich Ames, who would become infamous for secretly spying for the Soviets. -- adapted from jacket.

More than 140 detailed maps tell the story of pivotal episodes in world history, from the first human migrations out of Africa to the space race. Custom regional and global maps present the history of the world in action, charting how events traced patterns on land and ocean--patterns of exploration, discovery, or conquest that created empires, colonies, or theaters of war. Thoughtful organization of information will help you follow the story of civilizations through ancient, medieval, and modern times. But not every page is full of maps. At key points in History Map by Map, broad, sweeping introductions provide a chance to step back and look at entire periods, such as World War II, or to explore overarching themes, such as the Industrial Revolution. Picture spreads, meanwhile, focus on epoch-defining moments or developments, such as fascism and communism, and the invention of printing.

Popular Southern historian and author Seabrook sets the record straight in this easy-to-read, well documented handbook that confronts the North's many falsehoods about the American Civil War.

"A chronicle of the extraordinary feats of heroism by Marines called on to do the impossible during the greatest battle of the Korean War."--Provided by publisher.