zjjonathanjacobson
Rookie
I am a Cold War historian in the middle of a research project. I am looking for veterans of the American military, any service, any arena who served any time between 1962-64.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My question is a bit obscure. I was wondering if you might have a memory or a suggestion of which direction to sniff.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Pres. Kennedy was enamored with a book, "Guns of August" (just published in '62), Barbara Tuchman's history of the first month leading up to World War I, won the Pulitzer that year. Like we think of the lessons of Vietnam or Kosovo or Iraq, Kennedy saw the lessons from WWI as a clue for how to confront the Soviets in Red Cuba.
Historians write over and over of how Kennedy insisted that his aides and the officers around him read Tuchman's book (It sounds like he was a bit of a nag about it.)
He went further: Kennedy wanted to "send a copy of that book to every Navy officer on every ship right now." He told the Secretary of the Army, Cyrus Vance, to ship Tuchman's best-seller to "every U.S. military base in the world." These stories are repeated time and again.
Why?
-- A new grand strategy for a New Frontier from a long time ago?
-- Profiles in Courage writ large, supported by Tuchman's sweeping WWI account of heroes and prophets and bastards amidst the rabble?
-- A message to the troops: Hey, guys, you're too young to remember the First World War but I thought you should know that a lot of you are going to die, well, most of you will, no really...?
Unfortunately all the records seemed to have been destroyed, nothing kept on that level of detail (such as books distributed to troops) from back then.
Long story, long: There is no evidence, one way or other, if the book orders were ever carried out, if soldiers and marines, coastguards, pilots and sailors, as they readied for Cuba (and Vietnam) were reading of the misery and heroism and more misery of World War I--although several publications including Newsweek keep reporting the unsubstantiated lore that the distribution definitely happened.
SO, I was wondering, do you have any memories of receiving "Guns of August" during your tour? Have you heard of the book? Was there other book-of-the-month type lit passed around and read? discussed? Was there even time for that?
Did the lessons and misdeeds of World War I figure into your thinking when you were on tour?
[Fun fact: "Guns of August" also happens to be one of McCain's favorite books.]
All my best,
Zack
Zachary Jonathan Jacobson, PhD
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feel free to hit it me up:
[email protected]
@zacharyjacobson
the-watch.blog
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My question is a bit obscure. I was wondering if you might have a memory or a suggestion of which direction to sniff.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Pres. Kennedy was enamored with a book, "Guns of August" (just published in '62), Barbara Tuchman's history of the first month leading up to World War I, won the Pulitzer that year. Like we think of the lessons of Vietnam or Kosovo or Iraq, Kennedy saw the lessons from WWI as a clue for how to confront the Soviets in Red Cuba.
Historians write over and over of how Kennedy insisted that his aides and the officers around him read Tuchman's book (It sounds like he was a bit of a nag about it.)
He went further: Kennedy wanted to "send a copy of that book to every Navy officer on every ship right now." He told the Secretary of the Army, Cyrus Vance, to ship Tuchman's best-seller to "every U.S. military base in the world." These stories are repeated time and again.
Why?
-- A new grand strategy for a New Frontier from a long time ago?
-- Profiles in Courage writ large, supported by Tuchman's sweeping WWI account of heroes and prophets and bastards amidst the rabble?
-- A message to the troops: Hey, guys, you're too young to remember the First World War but I thought you should know that a lot of you are going to die, well, most of you will, no really...?
Unfortunately all the records seemed to have been destroyed, nothing kept on that level of detail (such as books distributed to troops) from back then.
Long story, long: There is no evidence, one way or other, if the book orders were ever carried out, if soldiers and marines, coastguards, pilots and sailors, as they readied for Cuba (and Vietnam) were reading of the misery and heroism and more misery of World War I--although several publications including Newsweek keep reporting the unsubstantiated lore that the distribution definitely happened.
SO, I was wondering, do you have any memories of receiving "Guns of August" during your tour? Have you heard of the book? Was there other book-of-the-month type lit passed around and read? discussed? Was there even time for that?
Did the lessons and misdeeds of World War I figure into your thinking when you were on tour?
[Fun fact: "Guns of August" also happens to be one of McCain's favorite books.]
All my best,
Zack
Zachary Jonathan Jacobson, PhD
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feel free to hit it me up:
[email protected]
@zacharyjacobson
the-watch.blog
