On this date, at 7:55 a.m., Dec. 7, 1941, Imperial Japan launched its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Their goal was to keep the U.S. military from supporting American possessions like the Philippines and Guam or British outposts like…
Writing in The Atlantic, George Packer lectures Israelis to avoid reacting “stupidly” to the war that Hamas (backed by Iran) is waging against them. More than a thousand Israelis (including women, children, and babies) have been killed, and an unknown…
On Labor Day, Tokyo’s highest court ordered Okinawan leaders to approve land reclamation needed to move an American airstrip to a new site on the strategically located island. Despite Chinese expansion in the Pacific looming in the background, local Okinawan…
China’s economy is struggling post–COVID-19. Growth is slower than expected, demographic trends are negative, youth unemployment is high, overbuilding has created a housing crisis, and government indebtedness is ballooning. These are only a few of the symptoms ailing the country,…
On June 6, Tokyo announced it will join Australia and the United States in building a $95 million undersea cable to counter China, according to ABC News. This development follows a string of American actions extending influence in the Pacific…
To the End of the Earth: The US Army and the Downfall of Japan, 1945 John C. McManus (Dutton Caliber, 448 pages, $35) The best historians use hindsight to place events in a clearer perspective than heretofore understood. Military historian…
For the fourth time in less than 10 days, U.S. fighters have shot down a balloon, at least one of which was a Chinese spy balloon. One traversed the entire country before being shot down. Another entered Alaskan air space…
America’s extended nuclear deterrent has always rested on credibility. Credibility is one of those intangible factors in international relations that can mean the difference between peace and war and victory or defeat. Credibility is sort of like obscenity — it…
Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay By Craig L. Symonds (Oxford University Press, 496 pages, $29.95) We have no dearth of Political Generals, that is, with a capital “P.” Gen. Mark Milley, for example, claimed…
