GRANITE BAY, Calif., January 8, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- When is waging war necessary? Because any war involves great and unforeseeable risks, how do we know when it is still the prudent choice? In "America Under Threat: A Century of Conflict" (now available through 1stBooks Library), author and scholar Frederick H. Hartmann examines America's choices, including one very costly and (he argues) predictable mistake.
Hartmann argues that America's great military might enables the United States to do what virtually no other nation can do. With the ability to project force at great distances it can and has deployed forces anywhere in the world it considered vital national interests to be at stake. Since 1917, the U.S. has involved itself in two world wars, a protracted struggle in Koreas and in Vietnam, in the Gulf War, and now the Terror War -- quite a bit for a country that prides itself on being "peace-loving."
Many books examine one or more of these commitments, often as biography or history. Few books, however, attempt to look at all of them from a strategic-political-military point of view, weighing up the entire record on a "cost-benefit" basis. Hartmann argues that the effective use of the political instrument in using military power requires three things: a realistic view of the strengths and weaknesses of an opponent, an understanding of how to change the circumstances of an opponent to its disadvantage, and recognizing the limits of the possible, as set by the human condition.
As timely as today's news, Hartmann's "America Under Threat," delves into issues that give readers guidelines by which to judge the government's ongoing war against terror. In clear and simple prose, the book highlights recurring trends in U.S. policy that will, if continued, very surely affect the success or failure of future choices involving force.
Frederick H. Hartmann has written ten previous books on political-military-strategic problems. Among these are "World in Crisis," "The Relations of Nations," "Germany Between East and West," and "Naval Renaissance." Hartmann was appointed to the civilian post of Special Academic Advisor to the President of the Naval War College in 1966. In 1988, the Secretary of the Navy conferred on him the title, Alfred Thayer Mahan Professor Emeritus of Maritime Strategy.
Hartmann currently resides in Granite Bay, Calif.
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