Goldstein, Donald M.

Vego, Milan

English

U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons

Naval War College ReviewVolume 60Number 2 Spring Article 162007The Battle for Leyte, 1944: Allied and JapanesePlans, Preparations, and ExecutionDonald M. GoldsteinMilan VegoFollow this and additional works at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-reviewThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contactrepository.inquiries@usnwc.edu.Recommended CitationGoldstein, Donald M. and Vego, Milan (2007) "The Battle for Leyte, 1944: Allied and Japanese Plans, Preparations, and Execution,"Naval War College Review: Vol. 60 : No. 2 , Article 16.Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol60/iss2/16welfare, and this extends even to themoral authority of the military to en-force its regulations regarding adminis-tration of such agents as Anthrax vaccineto military forces, or to new but not yetfully recognized scientific discoveries.Equally provocative is the thesis thatmedical contributions to interrogationaltorture may be morally defensible underconditions that offer the possibility ofpreventing egregious harm to others.As a treatise addressing contemporaryethical issues in military medicine, thisis a useful contribution. Unfortunately,the writer’s style at times intermixes el-ements of the arcane phraseology of theprofessional academic ethics commu-nity. “The uninitiated” must read andreread some passages if they are moti-vated to comprehend fully the ethicaldilemmas being debated and dissected.ARTHUR M. SMITH, MDCaptain, Medical CorpsU.S. Navy Reserve (Retired)Vego, Milan. The Battle for Leyte, 1944: Alliedand Japanese Plans, Preparations, and Execution.Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2006.479pp. $55There have been many books publishedabout the battle for Leyte Gulf. Thisbook, however, is unique, because it isnot only a narrative but also a criticalanalysis of the planning, preparation,and execution of that famous battle asviewed by both the Americans and theJapanese. Milan Vego, professor of mil-itary operations at the Naval War Col-lege and author of a textbook onoperational warfare, is also a formermerchant marine officer. He has tack-led the subject of this work with muchvigor and depicts the battle with clarityand in great depth.The book is organized into eleven chap-ters. Chapters 1 through 5 show howboth sides planned and organized forthe battle, and chapter 6 discusses thebackground and operations just beforethe engagement. However, the heartand soul of the book are in the final sec-tion that depicts the battle itself.Vego begins by noting that in the earlydays of the Pacific War the Americanssplit their command arrangements,with General Douglas MacArthur incharge of the South West Pacific Area(SWPA) and Admiral Chester Nimitzcommanding the Pacific Ocean Area(POA). This scheme worked wellenough until the Leyte operation, whenit produced much confusion over com-mand relationships, leading to prob-lems between Fleet Admiral William F.Halsey and Vice Admiral ThomasKinkaid, Commander Allied NavalForces that almost lost them the battle.Vego is critical of the delays in commu-nications between various Americancomponents. He concludes that theAmericans relied too much on Japaneseintentions—as interpreted via informa-tion gleaned from the MAGIC intercepts—and less on actual capability. He be-lieves that the Americans’ strength wasin their operational-logistic plans andprograms.However, Vego argues, the Japanesewere even worse in comparable ways.Parochial competition between thearmy and navy cost them dearly. TheJapanese had little intelligence thatcould compare with that of the Ameri-cans, and they had serious logisticalproblems that were never properlyresolved.1 5 8 N A V A L W A R C O L L E G E R E V I E WC:\WIP\NWCR\NWC Review Spring 2007.vpMonday, May 14, 2007 3:57:50 PMColor profile: DisabledComposite  Default screen1Goldstein and Vego: The Battle for Leyte, 1944: Allied and Japanese Plans, PreparatioPublished by U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons, 2007Among the book’s strengths are thesubheadings of each chapter, which al-low the reader to skip around. Vego’ssixty-seven pages of notes are excellent,enabling the reader to delve deeper intothe battle, and his bibliography is out-standing. There are sixteen appendixesshowing the order of battle of the ad-versaries, as well as six excellent maps.Vego’s conclusion, while offering noth-ing new, does an outstanding job ofsummarizing the battle. Also, his sum-mary of Halsey’s failure in the battle issuperior. Professor Vego concludes that“the Japanese came close to accom-plishing their mission not because oftheir skills but because of the mistakesthat Halsey made.”DONALD M. GOLDSTEINUniversity of PittsburghTyerman, Christopher. God’s War: A New Historyof the Crusades. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ.Press, 2006. 1,024pp. $35Christopher Tyerman, a lecturer in me-dieval history at Oxford University, of-fers this work at a crucial moment. Withworld attention focused as it is on theMiddle East and on the social, political,religious, and military interactions be-tween the Muslim East and ChristianWest, God’s War could not have come ata more opportune time, especially forthose who wish to have a better under-standing of this exotic and violent pe-riod. Over the past decade, the subject ofthe Crusades has become a popular onefor writers, but Steven Runciman’sthree-volume History of the Crusades re-mains the primary standard of compari-son. Tyerman accurately, if perhaps witha bit of hubris, notes that Runciman’swork is now outdated and seriouslyflawed. What makes Tyerman’s workstand out is the extent of his knowledgeof the entire crusading era and his abil-ity to deploy that knowledge in a clear,concise, and generally readable mannerin the course of a single (if massive)volume.God’s War is reasonably if not totallycomprehensive. The first four Crusadesare covered in minute detail, the laterCrusades less so. Tyerman, however,also discusses many related movementsnot normally considered as crusades,such as the Reconquista in Spain andTeutonic campaigns in the Baltic, andeven the expansion of the concept ofholy war to the conquest of the NewWorld. This breadth of coverage makesup for an occasional lack of depth. Attimes the book does suffer from anoverreliance on name-dropping, someof which is repetitive and, for the nov-ice, confusing.Tyerman stresses that one cannot knowhow the Crusaders thought or felt—making it ironic when he comments, ashe frequently does, on what did or didnot motivate them. This is peculiar, asone of the strongest points of the book isits explanation of how the movementoriginated and the ways in which theCrusades were products of the sometimesparadoxical social, religious, and politicalforces of the Middle Ages. Another strongpoint is his descriptions of the personali-ties of the Crusaders. Tyerman fleshes outthe leaders, men like the ChristiansGodfrey of Bullion and Bohemond,Frederick Barbarossa, or Richard ofAnjou, and the Muslim leaders Saladinand Baybars. These people are describedfrom the standpoint both of their apol-ogists and their critics and enemies,and thus as true three-dimensionalB O O K R E V I E W S 1 5 9C:\WIP\NWCR\NWC Review Spring 2007.vpMonday, May 14, 2007 3:57:51 PMColor profile: DisabledComposite  Default screen2Naval War College Review, Vol. 60 [2007], No. 2, Art. 16https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol60/iss2/16

The Battle for Leyte, 1944: Allied and Japanese Plans, Preparations, and Execution

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The Battle for Leyte, 1944: Allied and Japanese Plans, Preparations, and Execution

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