All Necessary Means : Inside the Gulf War - Softcover

BBC-TV correspondents Brown and Shukman should have released their book in the United States in 1991, when it was published in Britain. It would have been the most informative book on the Gulf War then available to American readers. Revealed for the first time here are the friction between coalition military leaders; General Schwarzkopf's short and at times irrational temper; and secret SAS (British commando) activities in Iraq. By 1994, however, this book has been overtaken by others offering the same and additional information in much more detail (e.g., Rick Atkinson's Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War, LJ 10/15/93). Though somewhat compromised by the authors' antiwar bias, this small paperback nevertheless deserves a place in Gulf War collections. In contrast, Taylor, the son of Gen. Maxwell Taylor and a combat veteran of the 101st Airborne Division, has written one of the finest division histories in recent memory. Skillfully blending testimony from soldiers (generals to corporals) and their families back home, the author has given us the ultimate Gulf War memoir. The reader is there, feeling the desert heat, the excitement, and the adrenalin rush of war. Taylor describes the actions from the division's opening critical assault that blinded Iraqi radars to the unprecedented march to the Euphrates Valley in Iraq, and the war's end with the division poised to attack Baghdad. It doesn't get any better than this. Essential for all war collections.
Richard Nowicki, Emerson Vocational H.S., Buffalo, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A brief recap of the 1991 Gulf War that emphasizes the British contribution. The authors, two BBC television reporters, work their sources to recount their compatriots' military efforts in minesweeping and low-altitude air attacks, but particularly in commando raids behind the lines. Conducted by the elite Special Air Service, these raids helped stifle the Iraqi Scud attacks. Complete details of the missions, such as a Soldier of Fortune subscriber might demand, are still wanting, but Brown and Shukman outline the parameters of the entire theater of operations, plus tactical British-American disagreements on how to conduct it. Indeed the notion that all ran smoothly took a few hits in Rick Atkinson's Crusade , which dented Stormin' Norman's hero status; to that title, the best overview thus far of the war, Brown would make a compatible adjunct. Gilbert Taylor