Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am an Honorably Discharged Viet Nam Era Veteran… and I feel “honored” just to be able to read this book. With the discord in some circles today about the lack of honoring our flag and our National Anthem… this book couldn’t have been released at a better time. This book is riveting… it’s bone chilling… it’s tears of pride… and tears of sadness… inducing… it produces nauseating disgust of what human beings are capable of doing… and also makes you literally want to get down on your knees… and thank the wondrous Lord… for the miracle of the men he has put on this earth… who truly put love of country first. And it so shamefully puts a spotlight on these people who try to discredit… demean… degrade… and disgrace our flag and what it stands for. As a child I was taught by my Dad as we raised the flag in front of our house… to never let the flag hit the ground… and if you did… you kissed it when you picked it up. I grew up to see first-hand in the military… the honor of the person who carried our flag in formations in front of us. And the hypocrisy and loss of a country’s literal spine… by allowing people to burn it… As a Grandfather now… I tell my son of my fear… of being jailed and having my life ruined… based on my physical response if someone in my vision tries to desecrate the flag. That’s what this world has come to… and reading this detailed book of World WarII’s darkest hours… and the heroism of United States Veterans… will make that great American Flag… literally come alive with voices… and faces… and unbelievable sacrifice… so powerful… you may literally throw your arm out of its socket when you are lucky enough to snap off a salute. Bill O’Reilly… some people may not know… was a history teacher… before he became a world famous journalist. He and his co-author Martin Dugard… have created a book that literally should be ordained into a standard textbook in our school systems. It is accurate… it is bloody… it’s absolutely no holds barred. If some school districts can hand out birth control to children… they sure as hell can hand out a book that describes why we’re free… and the bloody price we paid for our freedom. This book is tremendous in the detail of such historical figures as General MacArthur… and the President whom I personally believe probably made more important decisions than any president in my lifetime… good old… “Give-Em-Hell” Harry S. Truman. (By the way… the “S” doesn’t stand for anything… that’s the kind of detail these authors inundate you with… and the bevy of footnotes throughout the book… are perfectly placed… and totally illuminating.) Even more impactful… than the big names like MacArthur, Truman, Tojo, Roosevelt… etc. etc… is the poetic telling of the everyday… your next door neighbor… the gas station attendant… the farmer… the high school teenagers… who immediately enlisted after Pearl Harbor. The authors’ so reverently… stop… on a dime… and tell you all about their bravery… most is too much to fully believe. So the endless-countless-faces of American’s that make our flag and country great share equal billing. The savagery of the Japanese is not sugar coated. Everything from tying live human beings to trees and using them for bayonet practice… the joyful raping of tens of thousands Chinese… forcing Chinese families to perform atrocities on their own families… and the fact that it was almost fun and games to the Japanese civilians… as the hometown paper kept score of soldiers competing in how many heads they could chop off quicker. And then the race to develop an atomic bomb… and the decision to use it. At the end of the book (this is not a spoiler) you will see letters from former Presidents… as to the right decision being made by “THE BUCK STOPS HERE” Harry S. Truman. Oh… to have a leader like Harry today. To end my review… I can’t think of anything better than to share a quotation that I have had up on the wall in two rooms of my house for over twenty-five years: *** THOSE WHO HAVE LONG ENJOYED *** *** SUCH PRIVILEGES AS WE ENJOY *** *** FORGET IN TIME *** *** THAT MEN HAVE DIED TO WIN THEM” FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT