Flying Tigers
by John Toland

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Book Reviews of Flying Tigers

Book Review: A tale of Americans volunteering to go abroad and fight
Summary: 4 Stars

Part of the attraction was the cover painting of the P40B-Tomahawk flying low over the tops of the palm trees, its shark teeth emblazoned on the engine cowl. It was, to be sure, a hot looking plane (remember, this book was written in 1963), and the book was "Illustrated with photographs" so you did not have to endure page after page of text. Besides, at the time my father was stationed at McGuire A.F.B. in New Jersey and we lived on a street named for Chennault. But when I reread the book now I realize there are other things to be appreciated.

First, although written for young adults, it does not water down its subject matter. Toland discusses the political situation wherein young Americans went to China to volunteer and/or be hired long and fight the Japanese long before Pearl Harbor. Perhaps more surprisingly, Toland gets into the strategic and tactical importance of what Chennault and his fliers were doing. Most books in this Random House series tended to relate what happened without going too much into detailed explanations.

Second, it captures a time very much different from today, when American military intervention and public acceptance are invariably tied to whether or not the lives of the public at home are being affected. The idea of young American men wanting to travel halfway around the world to fight in war just because the other side represented tyranny is totally foreign to us today. Perhaps one of the legacies of the generation that fought World War II is that their efforts will never be duplicated because not only their situation was so different than where the world finds itself today, but that their passion and commitment to such abstract ideals as life and liberty has all but perished.

Who else, besides family and friends, would we be willing to lay down our lives for?

This book serves as a tribute to those who answered differently at a time when the world most needed them.

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