Chain of Command : The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
by Seymour M. Hersh
List Price:
Our Price: $3.35
You Save: $22.60 (87%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.94 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Seymour M. HershEdition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2004-09-01
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 416
Book Reviews of Chain of Command : The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
Book Review: Flawed Facts and Flawed Logic
Summary: 3 Stars
The author begins the book by establishing his credibility by recounting how he was the journalist who discovered the "conspiracy" of the massacre at My Lai (my lie) where U.S. Army Lt. Calley was "framed" as the sole, independent actor in what was a general practice of village pacification where the government encouraged U.S. military personnel to shoot every man, woman, child and chicken in South Vietnamese villages.
The difficulty with the author's logic in the original theory was the fact that most of the enlisted subordinates of Lt. Calley submitted to their lieutenants illegal order to fire on the villagers. Obviously, his subordinates didn't get the memo to slaughter people wholesale without reason or threat. The second challenge is the U.S. Army helicopter pilot who saw the Lt. Calley massacre in progress from the air. Hugh Thompson, who died on Jan. 6 at the age of 62 from cancer, landed his helicopter, pointed his service revolver at Calley's head and order him to stop shooting, saving a group of terrified Vietnamese villagers.
Obviously Hugh Thompson didn't get the "Village Pacification" memo.
Given the facts that the author played so loosely with in his reporting on the alleged conspiracy of the 1960s, one must inevitably consider his most recent work with a grain of salt.
He proceeds to interview a range of people who were displeased with the operations surrounding interrogations in Iraq and concludes -- certainly not shockingly -- that things got out of hand. Of course, most of America had already come to the same conclusion. He ties it all to a chain of command that failed entirely and seems to lose sight of the alternate reason that fear of a subsequent terrorist attack on the U.S. might have driven the personnel concerned to exceed their appropriate limitations.
His overall driving theme in both stories denies what the full details of the Lt. Calley story tell -- that individual Americans, whether in uniform or not, will chose their individual actions based on their own morals and not merely based on what they were ordered to do.
The interviews he conducts are interesting, but the conclusions are questionably.
Nonfiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Seymour Hersh, a great man
Chemical and Biological Warfare: America's Hidden Arsenalby Seymour M. Hersh
Bobbs-Merrill; Published: 1968; Unknown Binding; Book
Target Is Destroyedby Seymour M. Hersh
Random House; Published: 1986-08-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.69
Price in other shops:
Against All Enemies (Library of Contemporary Thought)by Seymour M. Hersh
Ballantine Books; Published: 1998-06-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.70
Price in other shops:
The Dark Side of Camelotby Seymour M. Hersh
Little, Brown and Co.; Published: 1998-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.98
My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and Its Aftermathby Seymour M. Hersh
Random House Trade; Published: 1983-02; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
THE TARGET IS DESTROYED": WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO FLIGHT 007 AND WHAT AMERICA KNEW ABOUT ITby Seymour M. Hersh
Random House New York; Published: 1986; Hardcover; Book
The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policyby Seymour M. Hersh
Random House; Published: 1991-10-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.97
Price in other shops:
The price of power : Kissinger in the Nixon White House / Seymour M. Hershby Seymour M. Hersh
Summit Books; Published: 1983-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Chain of Command : The Road from 9/ 11 to Abu Ghraibby Seymour M. Hersh
Published: 2004-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.41
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008by Bob Woodward
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2008-09-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.10
Price in other shops:
![Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army [Revised and Updated] Image](/images/Blackwater-The-Rise-of-the-World-Most-Powerful-Mercenary-Army-Revised-and-Updated-B001IWO884-X.jpg)
Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army [Revised and Updated]by Jeremy Scahill
Nation Books; Published: 2008-05-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.77
Price in other shops:
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part IIIby Bob Woodward
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2007-09-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.84
Price in other shops:
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalismby Naomi Klein
Picador; Published: 2008-06-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.97
Price in other shops:
Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terrorby Mark Danner
New York Review Books; Published: 2004-10-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.50
Price in other shops:
The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White Houseby Seymour M. Hersh
Summit Books; Published: 1983-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.99
Price in other shops:
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Idealsby Jane Mayer
Anchor; Published: 2009-05-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.32
Price in other shops:
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005by Thomas E. Ricks
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-07-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.95
Price in other shops:
Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Husseinby Scott Ritter
Nation Books; Published: 2006-09-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.98
Price in other shops:
The Dark Side of Camelotby Seymour M. Hersh
Back Bay Books; Published: 1998-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.82
Price in other shops: