Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post from 2000 through 2008. His latest book is The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008.For Foreign Policy, he named ten "books anyone interested in U.S. military history should read," including:
World War IIRead about another book on the list.
I think our best-written war. If you haven't, read these next two together:
Band of Brothers
by Stephen Ambrose.
With a company of the 101st Airborne from D-Day to the end of World War II. I was reading this book once aboard a Marine CH-53 flying off Bosnia, and the grizzled oldsergeant running the helicopter saw the book and gave me two thumbs up. By the way, I think the HBO series based on this book is the best war movie ever made.
Catch-22
by Joseph Heller.
The flip side of the band of brothers: Someone is trying to kill me, even though I have done nothing to him. More of a military book than many remember. "Without realizing how it had come about," Heller writes, "the combat men in the squadron discovered themselves dominated by the administrators appointed to serve them." Thus is it always.
--Marshal Zeringue
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