Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 alpha 4/15/85; site pucc-i
Path: utzoo!lsuc!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!pucc-j!pucc-i!afb
From: afb@pucc-i (Michael Lewis)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Conventional Arms Balance in Europe (Reposting)
Message-ID: <1288@pucc-i>
Date: Mon, 10-Feb-86 17:16:39 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-i.1288
Posted: Mon Feb 10 17:16:39 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Feb-86 00:44:59 EST
References: <1245@pucc-i> <915@whuxl.UUCP> <1908@brl-tgr.ARPA> <516@whuts.UUCP> <257@garth.UUCP>
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 25
Summary: There's fiction, and then there's *fiction*....

In article <257@garth.UUCP>, baba@garth.UUCP (Baba ROM DOS) writes:
> In article <1264@pucc-i> afb@pucc-i (Michael Lewis) writes:
> >
> >    By the way, my source for the data I will use is "World War 3: August 1985"
> >by former NATO general Sir John Hackett, with contributions from many others. I
> >believe I gave the author's name incorrectly in a previous posting...(General
> >Bernard Rogers is the current head of NATO).
> 
> For Heaven's sakes, man, look at the cover of that book!  It's a *novel*,
> a work of *fiction*!
> 						Baba

     What else would a book called "WW 3: August, 1985" that was written in 
1979 be?  General Sir John Hackett is hardly Rosemary Rogers.  If you look at
the force levels he projected for 1985, I think that they jibe very well with
the current levels.  This is easy to do, because all of the relevant data is
presented in *tabular* form (rather strange for a novel).  He wrote this 
"novel" with the purpose of shaking the West out of its malaise, therefore it
was written with as much care and accuracy as possible.  It is a *novel* 
because General Hackett wanted to convey his message as widely as possible,
and deemed that a work of fiction would be the most effective way.

     For Heaven's sakes, man, look at the *inside* of that book!

     Michael Lewis