Red Army was a good read. Much better than the faceless horde the pact was stereotyped as in most western treatments of a conflict. Seeing the Soviets execute their tactics and operational art under best circumstances was really good. Peters probably suffered in review by having the Soviets focus on the “weak sisters” of Netherlands and Belgium to isolate the more effective British and German force at the expense of focusing on the usual decisive clash of US versus Soviet forces. That said, the Americans are a tactically decisive force on the battlefield but cannot overcome the political indecision of NATO.
I also liked The War in 2020, which was similar in showing the not necessarily symmetric relationship between tactics and strategy. The American forces suffer a strategic defeat in the beginning, and climb out of defeat to achieve battlefield dominance in the end. However, the political will to capitalize on battlefield gains is lacking and it’s all for naught. The pieces about domestic support operations and counter guerrilla operations in Mexico left me wishing for more detail. Seemed very T2K/recovery.
Last edited by Homer; 05-11-2023 at 02:37 PM.
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