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From: yarvin-norman@CS.YALE.EDU (Norman Yarvin)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Military Books
Message-ID: <1991May24.030403.9101@amd.com>
Date: 23 May 91 23:40:49 GMT
References: <1991May22.035049.28162@amd.com>
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Organization: Yale University, Department of Computer Science, New Haven, CT
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From: yarvin-norman@CS.YALE.EDU (Norman Yarvin)


jmc@wuphys.wustl.edu (Jimmy Chen) writes:
>As to Thomas Cleary's translation, I don't really know since I've never
>read it.  But, I have a copy of his Mastering The Art of War.  All I
>can say about this book is, Don't Buy It.

>If his Sunzi Bing Fa is anything like this, it must be awful.

I have a copy, and can confirm this.

While I don't know too much about military matters, the books that have
made the most sense to me, and have been most interesting, are
memoirs.  Preferably these should be by people who made few mistakes,
and so don't lie too often.

Examples:

Erwin Rommel, _Attacks_
Eugene Sledge, _With the Old Breed_
R. V. Jones, _The Wizard War_  (_Most Secret War_, for those outside the US)
Winston Churchill, many books

--
Norman Yarvin					yarvin-norman@cs.yale.edu
"We have not much to learn from them, except what to avoid." - W. Churchill