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From: gatech!mit-eddie!eddie.mit.edu!rabbit@uunet.UU.NET (Warren J. Madden)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Tom Clancy (actually, The Third World War)
Message-ID: <12143@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 9 Dec 89 00:40:26 GMT
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From: gatech!mit-eddie!eddie.mit.edu!rabbit@uunet.UU.NET (Warren J. Madden)
In article <12095@cbnews.ATT.COM> willner@cfa203.harvard.edu (Steve Willner) writes:
>
>
>From: willner@cfa203.harvard.edu (Steve Willner)
>
...[Stuff about Tom Clancy and accuracy deleted]
>
>If you want to see this sort of thing done right, read _The Third World
>War_; it's by a retired general and is much more convincing.  (My copy
>has somehow disappeared, so I can't give author's name or publisher,
>and there is some chance the title is slightly wrong.  It was published
>in the early 1980's, I think.)

The title was indeed "The Third World War" and it was by General Sir John
Hackett, a high level British NATO type.  It described a hypothetical war
between NATO and the Warsaw Pact occurring in August of 1985, and was
written from the perspective of historians looking back on the war shortly
after it had concluded.  It was written in the very early 80's to try to
point out what he saw as NATO's shortcomings.  Hackett frequently says
things like, "...  as a result of the improvements instituted between 1980
and 1985, disaster was averted."  Not as good a story as Red Storm Rising,
but interesting reading nonetheless.

A few years later Hackett put out a second book, entitled "The Third World
War Revisited," in which he expanded upon the original and revised the
scenario to take into account events that happened between the two books,
such as the downfall of the Shah of Iran.

This hypothetical war again pops up in Harold Coyle's book "Team Yankee."
Coyle apparently got Hackett's permission to use the scenario in TTWW as
the framework around which the story in TY revolves.  IMHO, Team Yankee
is an excellent book and well worth reading, especially if you enjoyed Red
Storm Rising.

Warren J. Madden
rabbit@eddie.mit.edu
...!eddie!rabbit

	[mod.note:  Urgh.  I read _Team Yankee_ myself, and was decidedly
	underwhelmed.  To give Coyle credit, I think he did an excellent
	job of portraying the fog of war and included many credible, if
	decisive mistakes; the stuff of which battles are made.  But
	overall, I found the book disappointing.   IMHO - Bill ]