The War Game : Australian war leadership from Gallipoli to Iraq

 2022-07-06 02:14:10     English Books      17 views
ISBN9781761065958
Tác giảDavid Horner
Nhà xuất bảnAllen & Unwin
Ngày phát hành05 Jul 2022
Loại bìaPaperback
Số trang480 pages
Cân nặng732g
Kích thước153x234mm

’Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand why Australia has made the decision to go to war - over and over again.’ Professor Peter Stanley, UNSW Canberra

’A masterful study of Australian war leadership, by Australia’s pre-eminent military historian.’ Professor Emerita Joan Beaumont, author of Broken Nation

’The War Game is compelling. This is not a game.’ Dr Brendan Nelson AO, President Boeing Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific

’A book of lessons for Australian political leaders on managing wars.’ The Honourable Kim Beazley AC, Governor of Western Australia

Committing the nation to war is the gravest decision its leaders can make. The War Game examines why and how Australia went to war, and how it managed the nation’s nine conflicts between the First World War and the Iraq War. It explores the relationships between some of the most dominant political leaders in Australian history - Billy Hughes, Robert Menzies, John Curtin, Harold Holt, John Gorton, Bob Hawke and John Howard - and their top military commanders, including William Birdwood, John Monash, Brudenell White, Thomas Blamey, Vernon Sturdee, Douglas MacArthur, Sydney Rowell, Frederick Scherger, John Wilton, Peter Gration and Peter Cosgrove.

The War Game raises important questions about the process of war leadership. Should political leaders leave the conduct of the war to their top military commanders or should they interfere? Have Australia’s war leaders always made wise decisions? Given that Australia has always fought as a junior partner in a coalition, either within the British Empire or as part of the US alliance, how should Australia’s leaders manage these alliance arrangements? And how should Australia’s future war leaders prepare for the tasks ahead?

Ultimately, it is the soldiers, their families, and the people of Australia who bear the burden imposed by the decisions of the war leaders. Based on exhaustive research, The War Game is about the greatest challenges likely to face Australia’s leaders.

Table of contents

Introduction
1 ’To our last man and our last shilling’: Cook and Fisher, First World War 1914-15
2 ’I’m an Attorney-General not a Major General’: Hughes, First World War, 1915-17
3 ’We shall have to humour them’: Hughes, First World War, 1917-19
4 ’A disposition to treat Australia as a colony’: Menzies, Second World War, 1939-40
5 ’Australia’s very existence is at stake’: Menzies and Fadden, Second World War, 1941
6 ’This is a new war’: Curtin, Second World War, 1941-42
7 ’The decisions are matters for the Australian government’: Curtin, Second World War, 1943-45
8 ’We have not a minute more than three years’: Menzies, Korean War and Malayan Emergency,1950-55
9 ’Looking for a way in and not a way out’: Menzies, Confrontation and Vietnam, 1962-65
10 ’All the way with LBJ’: Holt, Vietnam War, 1965-67
11 ’I’m certainly no trained strategist’: Gorton and McMahon, Vietnam War, 1968-72
12 ’Australia had vital interests at stake’: Hawke, Gulf War, 1990-91
13 ’It is right, it is lawful and it’s in Australia’s national interest’: Howard, Afghanistan and Iraq Commitments, 2001-03
Conclusion
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index

Review quote

’Absorbing’ - The Australian

About David Horner

David Horner, AM, FASSA, is an emeritus professor in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University. He served as an infantry platoon commander in the Vietnam War and later, as a colonel, was head of the Australian Army’s Land Warfare Studies Centre. He is the author or editor of 37 books on Australian military history, defence and intelligence, including The Spy Catchers, SAS Phantoms of War, Duty First, Blamey, and Battles that shaped Australia.

Resource: https://www.bookdepository.com/War-Game-David-Horner/9781761065958

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