Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: allen%codon1.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: _Red Army_ by Ralph Peters
Message-ID: <8444@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 20 Jul 89 01:34:56 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 40
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: allen%codon1.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU




I just finished reading _Red Army_ by Ralph Peters, The latest of the
"Next
War in Europe" genre books. It's a very interesting and thought-provoking
book.
Unlike Hackett's Third World War books, Team Yankee, set in the same
background, and Red Storm Rising, this story is viewed entirely from the
eyes of Soviet soldiers and doesn't cut NATO any slack.  Its a cautionary
tale for NATO on one level, showing how things could go wrong at the
strategic level.  Its also an attempt to get into the heads of
representative Russian soldiers.  Peters doesn't show any of Tom Clancy's
tendency to denigrate the competence of Soviet soldiers because of
disagreement with their political and social structure.  His appraisal of
their army's strengths and weaknesses comes across as fair.  He basically
puts forth a scenario in which things go more or less right for the
Soviets in the battle in NORTHAG's sector, northern West Germany.  This is
also the part of the battlefield he shows the readers.  The technical
aspects seem to be very realistically portrayed, but without ramming the
names and model numbers of every vehicle and weapon on the battlefield
down the reader's throat.  In fact he takes the opposite tack.  I don't
remember a single mention of Soviet equipment by type code, and maybe only
three or four instances of NATO equipment.  What he does do is give good
accounts of how the weapons are used tactically and how tactics and
strategy integrate.
   The book does inspire a bit of schizophrenia in the American reader.
While I was on one hand identifying with the people portrayed and their
own personal struggles, another part of me kept saying "Come on, Brits,
they're on your flank.  Turn!  Look!" or similar things.  And even
 "Release the tactical nukes already.  Nuke 'em before its too late."

I'd recommend this one to anybody with an interest in modern ground
warfare.

Ed Allen (allen@enzyme.berkeley.edu)