Page 60 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2022

60 BOOKS OF INTEREST
NOVEMBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
COMPILED BY PETER MASTERS | BRISBANE
RUSSIA
REVOLUTION AND CIVIL WAR 1917-1921
By Antony Beevor
Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson; Dist. by Hachette
RRP $55.00 in hardback ISBN 9781474610148
Antony Beevor, the bestselling author of the classic Stalingrad, has turned his considerable talents to the dramatic story
of Russia’s revolution and civil war. Between 1917 and 1921 a devastating struggle took place in Russia following the
VEILED VALOUR
AUSTRALIAN SPECIAL FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN AND WAR CRIMES ALLEGATIONS
By Tom Frame
Published by UNSW Press RRP $49.99 in paperback ISBN 9781742237633
This book examines the context, explores the operations, and traces the events that led to Australian soldiers being accused of war crimes in Afghanistan against the backdrop of the rapidly changing strategic situation that confronted the Australians in responding to
collapse of the Tsarist empire.
An incompatible White alliance
of moderate socialists and reactionary monarchists stood little chance against Trotsky’s Red Army and Lenin’s single- minded Communist dictatorship. The struggle became a world war by proxy as Winston Churchill deployed weaponry and troops from the British empire, while armed forces from the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Poland and Czechoslovakia played rival parts. Beevor has assembled the complete picture in a highly readable narrative that conveys the conflict through the eyes of everyone from the worker on the streets of Petrograd to the cavalry officer on the battlefield. His final assessment:
‘For ruthless inhumanity, however, the Bolsheviks were unbeatable.’ A hundred years on, are we asking ourselves if anything has changed?
‘Afghanistan’s intricate human terrain’. He explores the background to the allegations – the gradual demise of the Afghan state and society, the decision to deploy Special Forces personnel to Central Asia after 2001, the inquiries into apparent mistakes and alleged misconduct, and
the shocking rumours that led to a formal inquiry, culminating with the release of the findings into war crimes allegations on 19 November 2020. Concluding the day before the Brereton report’s public release, this book sheds light on why the inquiry was necessary, how its investigations were conducted, where the media influenced its direction, and what the public expect to be told about its military elite. And where and how the failures of leadership and discipline occurred. Not
to mention the importance of restoring a nation’s belief in a revered institution.
THE WAR GAME
AUSTRALIAN WAR LEADERSHIP FROM GALLIPOLI TO IRAQ
by David Horner
Published by Allen & Unwin
RRP $45.00 in paperback ISBN 9781761065958
So why has Australia gone to
war nine times in a century?
And how has its political and defence force leaders handled the challenge? Committing the nation to war is the gravest decision
its leaders can make. David Horner, Australia’s preeminent military historian, explores the
THE SECRET OF EMU FIELD
BRITAIN’S FORGOTTEN ATOMIC TESTS IN AUSTRALIA
By Elizabeth Tynan
Published by NewSouth
RRP $34.99 in paperback ISBN 9781742236957
Is what happened with atomic tests in Australia in the 1950s
the worst example of Britain’s contempt for Australia as a colonial outpost? Elizabeth Tynan reveals the story of a cataclysmic collision between an ancient Aboriginal land, a sycophantic Australian government led by Robert Menzies and the post-war
relationships between some of the most dominant political leaders
in Australian history and their top military commanders. He also raises important questions about the process of war leadership. Should political leaders leave the conduct of the war to their top military commanders or should they interfere? Have Australia’s war leaders always made wise decisions? Given that Australia has always fought as a junior partner, either within the British Empire or as part of the US alliance, how should Australia’s leaders manage these alliance arrangements? And how should Australia’s future war leaders prepare for the tasks ahead? In declaring that the lessons drawn from the past century are still relevant today, Horner finishes with a timely word of warning: ‘... Australia would be wise to treat any US plan for war with deep suspicion ...’
Britain of Winston Churchill intent on an atomic testing program. Emu Field, overshadowed by Maralinga, the larger atomic test site to the south, has secrets which the British Government
is keen to keep to this day, having withdrawn UK MOD files previously accessible. The British undertook Operation Totem at Emu Field under cover of extreme secrecy
with scant regard for the local indigenous population, which Tynan describes as ‘beneath contempt’. It was, as Tynan writes, ‘a largely useless
dead end that had the worst consequences for those with the least power ...’ aided and abetted by a government in thrall to the British establishment. Nearly seventy years on, it’s hard not to be moved to anger by this story, followed by dismay at an Australian government so ready to expose its citizens to such appalling treatment. ■
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