Persian Gulf War category: 297 books

Includes 103 photos, maps and illustrations The following account represents one of the earliest efforts to chronicle Marine Corps operations in Iraq between 2004 and 2005. This was a significant period in the history of Operation Iraqi Freedom, seeing two battles fought over the city of Fallujah,...

This thesis examines the British experience in Iraq from 1914-1926. Britain invaded Iraq to secure its oil interests and to protect its lines of communication to India. The British initially defeated Ottoman forces and captured the Basra vilayet (province) in December 1914. Although Basra’s capture...

Although the government’s reliance on contractors to support military forces is not a new phenomenon, the degree to which contractors are involved in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OIF) has increased substantially. In OIF in particular, contractors perform a wide range of services...

Operation Eagle Claw was tactically feasible, operationally vacant, and strategically risky. This paper examines the failed hostage rescue mission conducted by the U.S. in Iran during April of 1980. The following text will recreate the rescue mission in its historical context while identifying factors...

Emory Upton believed that politicians should leave war to professionals. This led to two assumptions that became conventional wisdom: first, an apolitical army represented a more professional force; and second, the problems at the tactical and operational level were similar enough to be useful in...

The focus of this work is to ascertain whether the concept of operational shock, which has served as the intellectual underpinning of the US Army’s doctrine over the past thirty years, can be used to guide an operational approach in a counterinsurgency campaign. The concept of operational shock...

Includes over 90 illustrations ‘Dr Kenneth Werrell’s history of ground-based air defense performs an important service both to scholarship and, more important, to the defense of our nation’s freedom. It is perhaps human nature that we tend over time to lose sight of the lessons of the...

An essential part of the Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base (AFB), Alabama, curriculum consists of the study of military history and specific campaigns. Distinguished military scholars often visit the college to discuss and explore issues with the faculty. Martin van Creveld was one of those...

This monograph answers the question “What must an encircled unit be provided and do in order to successfully hold?” Following the end of the Cold War and the subsequent drawdown, the United States adopted a military strategy of force projection. Given this new strategy, any future adversary of...

One of German General Carl Von Clausewitz’s key concepts is culmination. His primary work On War describes culmination for the attacker as the point beyond which he can no longer continue his attack and risks destruction from a counterattack. For the defender it is the point beyond which the defender...

Illustrated with 22 photos, maps and plans. Beginning in 2009, the U.S. and many of its NATO-ISAF partners dramatically raised their levels of effort in Afghanistan. The “Afghan Surge,” as it came to be known, was most evident in the number of additional US and allied troops that arrived in Afghanistan...

[Includes 12 maps and 4 tables] In recent years, the U.S. Army has paid increasing attention to the conduct of unconventional warfare. However, the base of historical experience available for study has been largely American and overwhelmingly Western. In Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus,...

There hadn't been a full-scale recall of the Individual Ready Reserves since the Korean War in January of 1991. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, many people believed it would take World War III to trigger a recall of the IRR. Many people were wrong.They...

This monograph examines Operation Eagle Claw, the attempt to rescue the American hostages held in Iran, for planning considerations pertinent to similar operations. It focusses specifically on the principle of war Unity of Command as a command and control imperative for a Joint Task Force composed...