The President's letter was released at San Antonio, Texas. As here men parade and proud bugles sound, let us remember the place where the parade is a careful march across a mined field, and the sounds are of fearful battle. These bitter contrasts-and their meaning-should be in the mind of every American this day.
For the freedom we celebrate is ours only because of the valor of brave Americans who were-and are-willing to die for it. We owe freedom not only our celebration, but our commitment. It is a necessary burden-as well as a national birthright. Freedom is a gift to be cherished, yes, but it is also a gift to be shared; and in sharing it, we strengthen it everywhere, at home and abroad. The efforts we have made in this century to help others win or regain their freedom have been indispensable to preserving our own.
Finally, let us, in our celebration today, offer a prayer of thanks for freedom and the blessings it has brought us. Let us look again to the divine providence, to whom Jefferson appealed. Let us ask Him to help us find the courage, the wisdom, and the commitment that will make the future of our freedom as bright as its past.
During this period, the Eighth Airborne Battalion conducted several successful assaults against strongly fortified insurgent positions after other friendly units had failed in their attempts to defeat the hostile forces. In the first engagement, the hostile forces had repulsed a coordinated attack by two ARVN battalions. After the friendly battalions withdrew, the Eighth Airborne Battalion advanced in the face of heavy small arms, machine gun, and mortar fire across 8oo meters of open rice paddy in an assault against the fortified hostile positions.
In heavy fighting at extremely close quarters, the Battalion routed the insurgents and forced them to retreat in disorder from their fortified positions, leaving many dead and wounded personnel and a significant amount of equipment on the battlefield. Two days later, in a second engagement at another location, the enemy, in dug-in and heavily fortified positions, again repulsed an attack by ARVN battalions. The Eighth Airborne Battalion was again ordered to attack across 2, meters of open rice paddy through heavy flanking fire to seize the enemy position.
In spite of heavy casualties, the gallant and determined paratroopers swept into the enemy positions and, in close combat, again defeated the enemy and forced him into a disorderly retreat. The next day an enemy force was located in well-entrenched positions along a tree line adjacent to a small village. When the friendly main attack was repulsed, the Eighth Airborne Battalion, initially in reserve, was committed to the attack.
The Battalion advanced across meters of open rice paddy against intense enemy machine gun and mortar fire to assault the positions. After reaching the tree line, the Battalion closed with the enemy and, employing small arms, hand grenades, and bayonets, forced the enemy to withdraw from his prepared positions, leaving behind many casualties and weapons. In each engagement, the Eighth Airborne Battalion was supported by minimal artillery and air support and had to rely almost entirely upon its light organic weapons and the valor, skill, and determination of the individual soldier and small unit leaders to accomplish its mission.
The exemplary actions of the Eighth Airborne Battalion under these extremely difficult and hazardous conditions are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military profession and reflect great credit upon itself and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. The citation was released at San Antonio, Texas. Agreement was reached through the International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico, which will now proceed to supervise joint design and construction of the project. Once again we join with our sister Republic of Mexico for the solution of a border problem.
By channelizing the river, the two countries can confine its flood waters in those cities to a narrow, concrete-lined waterway. These cities will be able to develop the river's flood plains without a continual threat to lives, homes, and businesses. Since the new river channel in the United States will be moved southward to a location just north and generally parallel to the international boundary, the United States cities will not have to contend with this river running through their developed areas. Each country will pay for that part of the Statements by the President College Students.
This arrangement for local participation is the same as though the project were domestic instead of international. I want to thank the many Members of Congress who supported the legislation last year to authorize this project, and particularly Senator Kuchel and Representative Van Deerlin for their valuable leadership. At three widely separated points along our almost 2,mile boundary with Mexico, in the lower Rio Grande Valley, at El Paso, and now in California, we have new projects under way designed to improve the border region where so many of the citizens of both countries live and share common aspirations.
Legislation authorizing the agreement and providing funds for construction was approved by the President on October io, i Public Law 89 ; 8o Stat. The statistics suggest that in only one generation we can attain a once impossible goal: Johnson, i July I I [] ladder as far as individual desire and ability permit. But we do know that thousands are in college right now as a result of it. If every American would keep an eye out for the boy next door, or the girl down the road, more of our Nation's talent would be uncovered and developed.
The President's statements were made public as part of a White House release announcing that at least goo,ooo young people had received help from four federally-supported programs during the school year. The announcement, based on a report to the President by Secretary Gardner, added that it was estimated that 1,, undergraduate and graduate students would be aided in the next academic year.
The release listed the four programs, as follows: The release also stated that the President had called attention to the Talent Search program which began in I Under this program the Office of Education, working with the colleges and universities, departments of education, and organizations of social concern, was conducting a nationwide search for talented young people, telling them of new opportunities for higher education and training, and of the larger role they could play in the American future. A summary of the report, including statistics on the various programs, is printed in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents vol.
The statements were released at San Antonio, Texas. July i i, To the Congress of the United States: This Report shows clearly the progress that is being made toward our goal of economic equality for rural America. Farm surpluses have virtually been eliminated. With the removal of this threat to farm prices, farm income has been strengthened.
Yet the elimination of surpluses poses a new dilemma: With populations soaring and the margin of food supplies growing thinner in many areas of the world, we cannot gamble on the possibility of inadequate stocks. To increase price protection for farmers in these new circumstances, the Commodity Credit Corporation has recently expanded its price-support loan program. The price-support loan program has long provided farmers protection against commodity price reductions.
Under the program, farmers are able to obtain loans at harvest time, enabling them to withhold their products from the markets until later The expansion of the price-support loan program will permit more farmers to keep commodities off the market beyond the current crop season. The commodities will continue to be owned by the farmers, with the government paying the storage costs as part of the Nation's price for maintaining adequate reserves.
By thus drawing further upon the resources of the Commodity Credit Corporation to meet changing conditions, this Nation will be taking another important step toward economic equality for the American farmer. July ii, Dr. It is always a pleasure to welcome old friends to Washington, but this is a very special day for us, to welcome Chancellor Erhard back to this house. Erhard is known to the world as the architect of the German economic miracle, and the distinguished leader of a great nation at a very critical period in our history.
But to all Americans he is much more. He is an old and very trusted friend. I am reminded of the words of George Eliot who wrote, "Friendships begin with liking or gratitude. It is a friendship that outlasts official position and special responsibilities, and one that will live as long as the men who hold it. Chancellor, we are all indebted to Wartburg College and the University of Michigan for bringing you back to our shores.
We all know that you richly deserve the honors that they are about to bestow. We know that you will receive a warm welcome wherever you go. You are visiting a particularly interesting part of our country, one that I always enjoy. Today, as so often in the past, you and I talked over the state of the world and we exchanged views on the major issues of the day. I am grateful, as I have been many times before, for your wise counsel, and I am always strengthened by your understanding and your support.
In this room today from the Government, the executive department, the Congress, and from private life, men have come here who are your friends. They all join me in welcoming you back to America. The President proposed the toast at 2: As printed this item follows the text released by the White House Press Office. Former Chancellor Ludwig Erhard responded as follows: I am very happy indeed to again be here in the United States, and in particular to be in this circle that I see around me.
I would like to emphasize that this friendship and these ties with you are genuine. They do not just spring from official positions and official contacts. I want to emphasize that the roots are deep. Johnson, i July I I [] I have not fallen into a vacuum after leaving my office as Chancellor, and the convictions that I have held for 20 years, and longer, are just as much with me, and with me in my political activity today as they have been in the past. These I see reemphasized by the people that I see around me here. The faces I have seen there and I am seeing here are not just old acquaintances; they are the faces of friends, the faces of people that share the same convictions.
These are not just the diplomatic niceties that I am telling you, but it is a genuine expression of my feelings. I was very glad to hear that the President expressed a similar thought, that it was not the official connection between us but that there are human ties that bind us together. I realize that there are many problems to be solved between the countries, that there are many problems that will require much further discussion. Among them are, I believe, the question of the reduction of the military budget in the Federal Republic.
Among them is definitely the current insecurity about the status and future of NATO. How Europe will shape up in the future should be added to this list as a particular concern also. I have always said in the past, and I am still saying so today, that in this modern world, no country, no matter how strong or how weak, can stand alone and can presume to decide its own destiny alone and on its own terms. I believe if our countries stand together on the basis of that inner conviction, not together in order to plot something that would be beneficial for both of us, but stand together for the peace in the world and for the sake of freedom, I believe that then we need not have much concern about the future of Europe or the future of other countries.
I have always been convinced and I have always emphasized that in particular the friendship between our country and the United States-and I mean here not just the personal friendship between us, Mr. President, but the genuine friendship that exists between the people of the United States and the German people-will have to continue and will have to be the foundation for the future benefit of both countries. This has been the case, this friendship has existed, since the very beginning of our meetings.
I would be a bad German if I would have any desire but to see this friendship continue just as deeply and just as firmly under the present administration in my country. I believe that this will be the case. I will always, during my trip in this country, do everything in my power to emphasize the necessity of cooperation between our two countries. I hope that my visit here will be able to make a small contribution towards this end. I always have held the conviction, and I have stated this quite often, that the basis of what has developed positively in Europe has very much been found not so much in other events as in the Marshall Plan for one thing, which was the big stimulating factor that has sustained Europe and that has brought us in the direction of European unity.
European unity is what is necessary, what I firmly believe in, and everything in my power, in my present political surroundings, I will do in order to further this aim and to prevent dissension and disunity to take over in Europe. The Marshall Plan has shown not just the political strategy but the genuine desire on the part of the American people to help another people attain life and freedom, to step across the shadows of the past, extending the hand of genuine friendship.
This shall never be forgotten. The Marshall Plan, then, and this policy of European unity, have been the factors that have been motivating everything that has moved in a positive direction. What has happened in between more or less have been alternative solutions that were dictated by the moment, but they will not alter the fact that without this spirit as represented by the Marshall Plan, as represented by the OECD, without this friendship and cooperation between our people real progress cannot be made.
I am very happy indeed, Mr. President, to be here again and to be your guest, and very grateful for your hospitality. I would hope that the ties that have connected us in the past will continue in the future, despite the fact that I find myself in different surroundings now. I can assure you that my personal affection and friendship for you are just as deep as ever. Capital must be reorganized.
It is high time to move it out of horse-and-buggy days and Washington is America's fastest growing metropolitan area. Yet its people are bur vol. Today our Capital stumbles along, hobbled by wasteful and inefficient practices installed as a temporary solution 93 years ago-just after the Civil War. The people of the District must be allowed to take their proper place in a progressive America. The reorganization plan I sent to Congress offers that bright promise. I urge the Congress to support and approve this sensible and timely plan. I ask the people of the District to waken to their grave responsibilities-and the great opportunity now before them.
Here in our hands is the long-awaited chance to replace a jerry-built government of the i's with a new government for the new problems of the 's. Time and opportunity will not wait. We dare not lose the chance they give us now. Government at the Crossroads. We have come here today to honor America's Chief of Naval Operations. He is a great sailor who has given 43 years of service to the Nation that he loves. He has earned our country's highest military award for service "other than combat. War is not the only business of the United States Navy.
Peace-and the guarding of peace-is a constant and a primary duty of all who serve beneath our flag. The American Navy is an awesome force. A succession of fine commanders like Admiral McDonald have fashioned and maintained it as a superb weapon in times of war. But our Navy is also a very subtle instrument for peace. The peacemaking efforts of our Navy make few headlines, even in a place as closely watched as Vietnam. Too few people remember that one of the Navy's earliest missions in Vietnam was in the troubled summer of I The country had been divided along the I7th parallel, into North and South.
It was the last time that the people of North Vietnam had a free choice between communism and democracy. Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese elected freedom. They voted for liberty with Johnson, July 13 [] their feet. With the few possessions they could carry, they gathered in the now famous harbor of Haiphong. From there the American Navy gave them their historic passage to freedom, carrying them, their families, and their meager goods south, away from Communist rule.
American transports, American landing craft, and other American ships moved , refugees to freedom. And it was one of the most remarkable humanitarian operations in history. How many people remember that? How many remember the journey of these ,ooo-or the other 6oo,ooo who made their own way south-when they ask if the Vietnamese really desire to be free?
Today in South Vietnam, the men of the Navy still work for peace, in "service other than combat. Throughout South Vietnam, more than 2, Navy doctors, dentists, and corpsmen help the Marine units in this vital "other war. So today we dream of that peace even as we engage in war. We are proud to honor this great commander of a proud service, a brave legion of Americans who have gone to sea. The distinguished Secretary of the NavyMr. Nitze-will read the citation for this award that a grateful Nation bestows upon its great sailor.
For exceptionally meritorious service to the Government of the United States in a duty of great responsibility as the Chief of Naval Operations from i August i to i August i Throughout four years of unprecedented military demands in a peacetime environment, Admiral McDonald's superb leadership, judgment and professional skill have guided the operating forces of the Navy to ever-increasing standards of operational readiness and combat effectiveness.
In periods of extreme tension, and of combat itself, naval forces have repeatedly proven ready and responsive in support of United States interests beyond our shores. Under Admiral McDonald's executive direction, these forces have responded so superbly, and new capabilities and concepts have been fostered so effectively, as to markedly increase not only the readiness of the Navy itself, but also the national appreciation and respect for naval forces as a vital, responsive factor in the protection of the United States and its citizens, and in the defense of the free world.
By his professional leadership and devotion to duty as the Chief of Naval Operations during this most difficult and challenging period, Admiral McDonald has rendered exceptionally valuable and distinguished service and has contributed greatly to the success of the United States and friendly forces engaged in combat, and to the protection of citizens of free nations around The President spoke at I: In his opening words he referred to Adm.
Nitze, Secretary of the Navy. McNamara, Secretary of Defense, Gen. The General came in a little after io p. We have just concluded them at the luncheon table. The General will be returning to pick up Mrs. Westmoreland this afternoon and he is going back to his post in the morning. I have, in the last few days, received detailed reports on the Vietnam theater from Ambassador Bunker, Mr. Komer, Secretary McNamara, Mr. Katzenbach, and General Wheeler. I have exchanged messages with Ambassador Bunker and Ambassador Lodge. I have talked about the various subjects involved in those reports in some detail with General Westmoreland: I think that it is fair to say that at no time during my Presidency have I been more pleased with the quality of leadership, namely, the leadership being provided by General Westmoreland and the leadership being provided by Ambassador Bunker, there than I am now.
We have tried to evaluate our successesthey are many. And our problems-and they are many. We have tried to find solutions and resolutions to some of the unanswered questions-and we have. I know that you will want to explore some of those on your own. Suffice it for me to say that we are generally pleased with the progress we have made militarily.
We are very sure that we are on the right track. We realize that some additional troops are going to be needed and are going to be supplied. In consultation with our allies, we will meet those needs as they arise. We still have 20, or 30, under our previous authorization to be fitted into Vietnam. Johnson, Muy 13 [] have others to follow them. The exact time, the exact number, the exact type, the exact country, we will work on back in Vietnam-following General Westmoreland's return-and also in our discussions with the services here, and the other allies involved.
We cannot, today, give you any specific figure other than to say what Secretary McNamara said yesterday: We can foresee, at this time, no necessity to call up the Reserves. Secretary McNamara, do you want to observe anything? No, other than to say, Mr.
President, because of General Westmoreland's unexpected departure from South Vietnam, General Wheeler and I did not have an opportunity to complete our discussions with him while we were there. We have done so today. I was very happy to have this chance to draw to a conclusion the discussions of potential troop requirements that we had begun there. General Wheeler, do you have anything you want to say? No, sir; except to say that, as you said, Mr. President, we are in accord. The problem now is to settle upon the resources and how we are going to meet the requirements.
Despite many speculations as to the number of troops that I have asked for, the fact is that I have not asked for any specific number of troops. I have recommended a deployment to Vietnam of a certain number of combat units that would comprise a part of a balanced force. I am being provided the forces, as I have recommended. Over the period of the last 2 years, we have built up in South Vietnam a large logistical base which is well organized and is flexible.
It is one of our real strengths. We are now in a position where for every man that is deployed we will get a double return in combat power. Or, to put my thought in other words, we have already written off the logistic support. We will get greater return in combat power for the forces that are henceforth deployed. Logistic forces can be provided by military personnel, by contract, or by indigenous hire. We are using all of these methods at the moment to provide this logistical support. We will continue to do this in the future. Secretary, could you clarify for us what seems to be a discrepancy between the figure announced at the Pentagon of , troops in Vietnam and your explanation yesterday that there were still 20, or 30, to come to make ,?
I think you are talking about ,ooo and ,ooo. The figure I said yesterday was ,ooo. We have there ,ooo or ,ooo and we have on the order Of 20, or 30, to go. They will be supplied within the next few weeks. Secretary, will these consultations with the allies in the future involve a pro.
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We don't request troops from our allies for use in Vietnam. I think we must engage in joint discussions of the requirements. We will counsel with them as to their views as to what the requirements are and how we might jointly fulfill those. General Westmoreland, could you comment for us, from your viewpoint in Saigon, on the adequacy of the mobilization and effort by the South Vietnamese? During the last 3 years the South Vietnamese Armed Forces have more than doubled in strength.
This includes the three major components, namely, the regular ground forces-the ARVN, the regional forces, and the popular forces. This has involved quite a strain on their leadership resources. During the past year there was a slowdown in the creation of new units because we realized about a year ago they were overextending themselves. They have made tremendous strides during the past year in improving their quality and their general proficiency. They are now in a position where they can, again, expand. It is implied that during the coming year, there will be an increase in the strength of their forces.
I cannot give you the specific numbers, but the increase will be fairly substantial. General Westmoreland, could you tell us, to help us understand both the present situation and, as these periods are repeated of troop requests, just how you do recommend, how you frame your recommendations, without necessarily giving away any specific numbers? This matter is under constant study. It is a function of the enemy strength, the Vietcong strongholds that must be cleared and pacified, the objectives that we set for ourselves in connection with clearing areas, holding areas, opening up lines of communication, invading well established VC base areas, containing North Vietnamese forces-such as along the demilitarized zone in western Pleiku and Kontum.
Needless to say, our requirement for U. Our plans are based on integration of all of these type forces into a single military force and a great deal of study is given to it. Secretary, could I ask you, quite apart from the figures that may be involved, what will be the impact of the additional personnel needed on the draft calls? There won't be any significant impact on current draft calls.
The statements I made at the President's ranch last November will still hold. The draft calls for I will be significantly lower than for i in total. Secretary, along that line, will there be any need to increase that I-year tour of duty? I am glad you asked that question. None of the plans that we are considering involves any change in the basic program of a I-year tour of duty in South Vietnam, except for those who volunteer to extend their tours beyond that.
Johnson, July I3 [] I should say in passing-and General Westmoreland can add to this-a substantial percentage of the men have volunteered for an extended tour, but the basic tour is i2 months. Sir, what is your outlook? What can we expect in the next year or so in military terms in Vietnam? I wonder if you could tell us what we have done in the last year and expect in the next year, very briefly. Touch on this "stalemate" creature.
The statement that we are in a stalemate is complete fiction. It is completely unrealistic. During the past year tremendous progress has been made. I think the Secretary noted this during his recent trip. The Secretary was there about 9 months ago and I am sure that the progress was evident to him. I live it from day to day and it is not as evident to me as it is to visitors who come in periodically.
It is like watching your children grow up. The grandmother comes and sees them once a year. She is always surprised at the extent to which they have grown. I am living with the situation day to day and it is more evident to visitors than it is to me, but when I research my memory, go back into the records, it becomes quite evident that we have made tremendous progress. We have opened up roads. They are now being used not only for military purposes but for commercial purposes. We have invaded long-established base areas representing tremendous investment value such as in the vicinity of Saigon.
We have pushed the enemy further and further back into the jungles. The enemy had planned to take control of the two northern provinces, Quang Tri and Thua Thien. He has been stopped. He has suffered large casualties. The enemy had planned to take over domination of the highlands. Again, he has been defeated and great casualties have been suffered. Greater population has been secured and taken away from Communist domination. The revolutionary development program has made encouraging progress.
It has a long ways to go, I admit, but the Government's program is off to a good start. The ARVN troops are fighting much better than they were a year ago. They are showing greater professionalism. We have paramilitary units that are defeating North Vietnamese regular forces and Vietcong main forces. A year ago this was unheard of. The number of defectors coming into the Government has substantially increased. The ratio of friendly troops killed to those killed of the enemy continues to increase. It has doubled during the past year. The number of weapons lost by the Government forces, compared with those captured from the enemy, has turned in favor of the Vietnamese forces.
Two years ago they were losing two weapons for every one captured. Now they are capturing two to three weapons for every one they lose. These are all very favorable trends. I think to measure progress, one has to think in terms of objectives. Our objective in South Vietnam is to give the people freedom of choice, to resist the aggression from the North, to try to give the people protection from the terror and intimidation of the Vietcong.
On the contrary, the enemy's objectives have been to terrorize the people, to disrupt the revolutionary development program, to He has failed in achieving his objectives. We have succeeded in attaining our objectives. Despite the fact that North Vietnam has now apparently fully mobilized, sending her best troops and leadership to the South, developed a very large air defense system, and having her physical infrastructure progressively destroyed by our offensive strategy, our air war, she has nothing to show for it.
The enemy has not won a single significant victory during the past year, despite the tremendous effort that she has put forth. General, could you explain in connection with that why the South Vietnamese have not fully mobilized? The South Vietnamese have a very large force under arms now, over , men. This is a considerable military force for a country of IS million, approximately. True enough, they are capable of organizing additional military forces. As I stated a moment ago, they will increase their regular and paramilitary structure during the coming year.
Leadership has been a problem and a major problem. Their leadership potential has been stretched almost to the elastic limit. Training facilities, budgetary considerations, demands of the local economy and the local government have, too. It makes no sense at all to increase a military force if you are going to degrade the quality. One has to always strike a balance between quality and quantity. I feel that during the past year, we struck a pretty good balancethe Vietnamese Armed Forces-between the quality considerations and the quantity involved. But now that they have had a chance to settle down to improve the quality of their force, with emphasis on their leadership, they are now in a position to continue to expand.
General, was your request for additional units primarily for American units? Frankly, I did not specify. I wonder if I could ask you about some stories we have been reading and hearing about based on intelligence reports from the North. There seems to be a division in the North about their judgment on our staying power. Is the North weakening now? Do they feel we are going to stay there as long as we have to? Are they weakening their position? What is your view of that? Frankly, my intelligence I don't believe is any better than yours in this regard.
The leadership in Hanoi continues to send the regular troops to the South. They are continuing to move supplies to the extent that weather and the disruptive effect of our air strikes permit to the South. As I mentioned a minute ago, their national effort has been enormous, almost to the capacity of the country. It must be a bit discouraging when they realize the-, have nothing to show for it. The coming year-what would be your view of what is going to happen? I am in no position to speculate on that. General Westmoreland, without going into numbers, could you say, using your phrase "units," about how many units have been agreed upon?
I am not privileged to discuss that. Spivak, United Press International. Will this increase, Mr. President, in whatever form it takes, fully meet the request that General Westmoreland has made? The General can answer that as well as I can. But we have both answered it before. Yes, we have reached a meeting of the minds. The troops that General Westmoreland needs and requests, as we feel it necessary, will be supplied. General Westmoreland feels that is acceptable, General Wheeler thinks that is acceptable, and Secretary McNamara thinks that is acceptable.
It is acceptable to me and we hope it is acceptable to you. Is that not true, General Westmoreland? That is correct, Mr. General, could I ask, sir, how much of the main Vietnamese force has been committed to the struggle, percentage and otherwise, and are we prepared, in case the North Vietnamese decide to put the bulk of their army against the forces? There are over 50, regular North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam right now. There are other troops north of the demilitarized zone, and there are additional troops in the so-called "panhandle" of Laos.
As to the total number involved, frankly we are not sure. It is certainly far in excess of those that we are in contact with in the South. Now the enemy has a substantial number of forces tied up in their air defense system in order to counter our air offensive actions to the north. There is a substantial number of people involved in maintaining their lines of communication.
No doubt they could send additional troops to the South and they may do so. But they will do so at great risk. As long as we continue our air interdiction program, I believe they will be hard pressed to properly support them. Sir, will the majority of additional troops or units be other than American? As Secretary McNamara pointed out, discussions will be taking place with our allies. As to the number of Americans, I think it is impossible to say at this time. I am confident that we will welcome contributions from the free world forces.
As the General pointed out, there will be significant increases in the Vietnamese forces. I believe the other allies will add to their forces as well. Thank you very much.
President Johnson's one hundred and fourth news conference was held in the living quarters at the White House at 2: As printed above, this item follows the text of the Official White House Transcript. The prospect of besieging Japan into surrender was considered and rejected on many grounds. The Soviet Union would nibble away at Japanese weaknesses, while leaving the hard work to the United States.
Little material support would come from a depleted England. The Chinese would turn full-time to fighting among themselves. During a prolonged siege the young, the women, and the civilians would suffer most as scarce resources would go to the defence forces. The result would be to cripple Japan for a generation or more without discrediting or displacing the war party. Douglas McArthur always preferred manoeuvre and surprise to direct attacks, but he saw no other way in The zealots in Japan were ready to fight on, and the example of Okinawa frightened everyone in the Pentagon.
They would fight to the death unless the Emperor ordered them not to do so. To get to that order, the zealots had to be completely undermined. Hence the first big bang. It was made all the more dramatic for being a single aircraft. Japanese air defence spotted it but did not respond to its approach, assuming it was photographic reconnaissance.
In the two-day interval allowed for the Japanese to assess the destruction of Hiroshima, we now know what was unknown in D. The second bomb, by the way, was not targeted on Nagasaki but bad weather took it there. Back to the book in hand, the author seems to relish name dropping, as if everyone associated with a notable university is somehow a superior person. I could only put this down to an ingrained snobbery. This attitude shows also in the way those who were not blessed with such illustrious associations are portrayed.
General Lesley Groves is one example. He, more often than not, is portrayed just one step away from Groucho Marx. Yet he oversaw an unprecedented and wide-spread effort of which Los Alamos was only a part, but he gets barely any credit, until, perhaps at the urging of editor, some condescending good words are applied toward the end.
But overall the tone is, how could this nobody criticise these men from prestigious universities. Yet the text shows he was right about many things, like the irresponsibility of some of the scientists, about the need for secrecy, about the dubious nature of the undertaking, about the subsequent need to explain and justify everything done, and even the spies. More importantly, that he stuck by Oppenheimer as the right man for the job even though he did not like him.
Reading this book but confirms my cynicism about the world of New York City publishing. The Greek world is full of gods in a bewildering array of statuses, ranks, powers, egos, and so on. Zeus defeated the Titans and most were destroyed in the Divine War. Only the most essential, like Helios, survived.
He is one of the most important remaining Titans but no Titan is important among the Olympians. Over the eons he has sired many children. Every deity is important to mortals. Some are gods, some are demi-gods, some are titans, some are nymphs, some are mortals, some are half-animal, and so on and on. This is a family tree for the LDS to sort out. The book is a biography of one such child, Circe. She and Flavia, whose books are reviewed elsewhere on this blog, would make quite a pair. For this sin she was exiled to an island dot far away to pass eternity alone with pigs.
Later clever Circe finds a way to blackmail Helios with her sin. Over the centuries in this insular retreat she meets passers-by, and she learns of the mortal world from these experiences. For a time she is befriended by Hermes, though he does so only for his own amusement and when no longer amused he is no longer friend. None of the echelons of the immortals will have anything to do with this outcast, apart from Hermes who is partly spying on her for Helios, and so she takes an interest in the mortals who find the shore.
She welcomes some, careful to keep her yellow eyes concealed for they declare the godhead, and regrets it. One betrays her trust. Another rapes her before she can utter a spell, but she takes revenge by increasing the population of the sty. Thereafter, she is much more cautious. Then one day wily Odysseus comes and she finds she cannot, nor does she want to deceive this deceiver. What a fresh and vivid portrait of this marriage springs from the pages. Yes, the story is well known but this is a telling Homer would envy. Finally he leaves, not knowing that she is bearing his child, a son. This is a circle that closes in the remainder of the book.
With the great learning that underlies the book, the author explains much. One example will suffice. Why are the gods so capricious with mortals? If mortal life was easy, then mortals would have no reason to pray to the gods and make sacrifices. While the gods do not need these prayers and sacrifices in any material way, together these offerings are how the divinities establish status along with their powers among themselves.
They are counters in the social snobbery of the Olympians, nothing more. But since the gods have no other pastime but that snobbery, it is the only game in town. The worse the harvest, it follows there will be more the prayers and sacrifices. The more children and women who die in childbirth, the more the prayers and sacrifices. Of course, to keep the wheel spinning the gods must occasionally allow a good harvest, and for child and mother to survive birth. But only now and then when it pleases them. Sounds about how casinos work, come to think of it.
Odysseus did in time return to rocky Ithaca, but as with many a war veteran, the man who came back was not the one who went away. That change is the dynamic of the latter part of the book. He returns short-tempered, easily bored, lustful, violent, and voting Republican. Yet in some ways he is what he always was. This schizoid duality makes sense in these pages.
Penelope plays her part, too. The author brings this world of the gods to life with razor sharp insights, exhilarating prose, penetrating details, and a profound compassion. Yet no punches are pulled. The violence rips the page. The arrogance of the gods burns the eye of the reader. The duplicity of mortals in this world is bottomless.
All this is true, yet Circe delights in spring flowers and warm sand underfoot. Telemachus is straight as an oak. Her earlier book 'The Song of Achilles' is reviewed elsewhere on this blog with the same acclaim. While pulling these remarks together I noticed a number of deprecating reviews, many of them video, by mouth-breathers in Jim Rockford's phrase.
It was amusing to watch a couple of these pygmies. A self-indulgent memoir of time spent in Barcelona by the man with shag carpet for a typewriter, the rich, soft, deep pile of his prose remains but in this instance it is largely devoid of substance. Well, unless a reader must know where Hughes drank sangria in For that information, this is the book. Ostensibly a guide to the city, it a scrap book to selective memory mainly confined to his personal experiences. However, to his credit, and unlike some, he does note in passing the deep and murderous divisions among Spaniards.
Their many failed attempts to find a modus vivendi and Hughes labours under no illusions about the future. But all in all, it is a very short and lazy book that seems to have been spoken into a recorder and then typed. I chose it prior to a trip to Spain and to Barcelona but found it offered little of interest.
The momentous five days are May 24 to May 28 when Winston Churchill became Prime Minister and overcame the resistance to his leadership within the War Cabinet and stiffened British resolve to resist Hitler and Naziism. In so doing Churchill felt the pulse of the British people far more accurately than his many opponents, most gathered behind him in the Conservative Party. British resistance at the time of Dunkirk prevented Hitler from winning the war so that later American gold and Soviet corpses would win it.
The story is without parallel. His energy and concentration alone are noteworthy. His hour had come and he lived up to it. He was certainly the Greatest Britain. First to the internal resistance. When Neville Chamberlain, over seventy himself stepped aside, after tumultuous scenes in parliament, he remained in the five-man War Cabinet, literally there was no one else at the starting line but Churchill.
As PM he alone, it seemed, could restore order to Parliament which was elected in in far different circumstances. And many in the Conservative Party thought it best to let him try …. That was Edward Halifax who had so many names and titles I gave up trying to keep track of them. An aristocrat to the core, Halifax could not push himself forward but would wait to be called. He was, after all, a personal friend of the King, and a vastly experienced parliamentarian, diplomat, cosmopolitan, and more.
On and on he went in the super secret discussions, which remained secret at the time. According to the author, efforts were made subsequently by weeding archives to bury the secrets. Halifax minced words, explored semantics, twisted meanings to find a way to open a mediated dialogue with Nazi Germany, anything to avoid another blood bath like World War I. He talked repeatedly with the Italian ambassador until Italy invaded France.
He sought out informal intermediaries. He lunched with the King. While nothing concrete remains on paper such an arrangement would involve leaving Europe to Nazi domination. It might also involve emasculating Britain sufficiently so as not to pose a threat in the future to German domination of Europe by reducing the British fleet, by forcing it to withdraw from the Mediterranean and sacrifice Malta, Gibraltar, even Suez.
Further it might involve disarmament, as it did for Vichy France in a few weeks. Would it also involve compliance with Nazi racial policies Churchill took the view from the start, albeit muted, that there was no point in trying to negotiate with Hitler. Either Hitler would propose impossible demands, or, if not, he would not keep his word. In either case for it to be known that Britain had begged for a separate peace on such terms would destroy British morale on the domestic front and comprise British standing on the international front with the Dominions and the United States.
The author makes a tenuous distinction between public opinion and popular sentiment in the era. The former, public opinion, was formed by the intellectual classes in newspaper articles, letters to the editor, lectures, universities, BBC interviews, essays, and the like. As a consequence many in these ranks were Defeatist to one degree or another. Some were admirers of Hitler. Popular sentiment in contrast was the silent majority of the day, largely working class, generally uneducated and unaware of the wider world, although a great many had served in World War I and the author seems to forget that.
The author makes extensive use of reports from the Mass Observation Survey, begun in , as a window on to this stratum. These reports were qualitative surveys of doorstop interviews, pub conversations, overheard remarks on buses, talk in queues at the market, or discussions exiting cinemas.
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Unsystematic to be sure, but rich in detail. Yes, that is true but it is also true they were a lot more like gossip than systematic observations in the specimens I have read. Popular sentiment was resolutely patriotic with none of the weakening cosmopolitanism of the intellectual classes. Germans were the Hun, not the progeny of Brahams, Beethoven, and Bach. It also had a rugged confidence in muddling through and took pride in that. They had once crossed the Siegfried Line and could do it again.
This was the heart beat that Churchill felt, because he shared it, and which he mobilised. He timed meetings of the cabinet of thirty where he had many supporters, War Cabinet where he had none, parliament, BBC speeches, and personal meetings to create support and momentum for his commitment to war, war, and more war, and so to undermine Halifax's position.
In part his publicity campaign was to show to the United States and the Dominions that Britain would prevail. While Dunkirk is mentioned, it is not the focus. In the foreground is the tactical conflict between Churchill and Halifax across the meeting table against the backdrop of the war. War Cabinet met two or three times a day. For Halifax what was a stake in the war was the future of Britain.
For Churchill what was at stake was Western Civilisation. Naziism was a ravening and devouring beast that could not be caged, tamed, constrained, or reduced by negotiation and treaties. To plead with this beast from a position of weakness was suicidal. In a few weeks the French example would prove that point. It would show that Britain had done everything possible to avoid war. That almost makes sense, until considering the sacrifices that would have to be offered or made to a Nazi dominated Europe and Mediterranean. The willingness to bargain away the defeated countries some of which had formal alliances with Britain, many of whose fleeing citizens had taken refuge in England and those that might follow would never be forgotten nor forgiven.
He also differed from Halifax and his ilk in another way. He saw Naziism as the greatest evil and threat to Western Civilisation. Whereas Halifax and his kind feared Communism above all else, and many had earlier seen in Naziism a bulwark against the Red Tide, as earlier had many German nationalist, liberals, monarchists, bankers, musicians, and jurists who supported or tolerated Hitler at the outset. The comparison has to be France, where nothing was ever secret and where the disputes within cabinet were blood thirsty.
Every remark in cabinet was in the boulevard press within the hour. The conflicts between cabinet members were personal, religious, regional, and racial as well as ideological. Finally, the French generals gave up before the politicians. They were ready to surrender before Paul Reynaud, the last Prime Minister.
Indeed Reynaud resigned rather than surrender. John Lukacs has a long list of impressive publications. The book does not do the events justice. It treats Dunkirk and the decision-making about that as an annoyance to the cabinet machinations rather than central to it. It is replete with asides and ruminations that lead no where. Much of it is parsed in the negative, e. A manuscript like this submitted blind to a publisher today would be unlikely to be produced.
I read it years ago and did not find it satisfactory but recent stimulation about Dunkirk brought it back to mind and I tried it again with the same result. The Desert Fox is a hundred miles away or less. No one is sure. Of that everyone is sure. Egypt is a sovereign state with its own army, but it is neutral in this struggle.
Well, that is diplomatic fiction. Nationalists in Egypt are ready to welcome a Rommel victory as the means to end British domination and the corrupt local elite that thrives on that domination. Members of the Egyptian Army plot to that end, though there are many divisions among them. British soldier Jim Ross arrives in Cairo in the custody of an MP who dies of food poisoning unexpectedly and quickly, and Ross switches places with the dead officer as a means of escape. But once in Cairo he is mistaken for that officer and soon finds himself growing into the role.
That is a nice twist, and it is well realised. Ross discovers he has a penchant for reading files and making inferences. Into the mix come many others. Throughout is the rogue Wallingford, a man of infinite charm, bottomless self-confidence, utter audacity, and who is amorally unscrupulous enough to go into politics. Even with a gun to his head, he continues to bargain. Each character has a personality, but the sharpest is certainly Sergeant-Major Ponsonby who runs the office, and much else.
In a complicated set of circumstance Ponsonby is forced to comply with the request of the arrogant women, the wife of a high ranking officer. Meekly he does so. At every stage it is misplaced, misfiled, mis-stamped, mis-signed, or mislaid. In the end Ponsonby is proved right, what she wanted was a bad mistake, and he explains the delays in action to Ross by saying 'the SMs stick together. There are also vivid portraits of Egyptians caught between the worlds of the past, the present, and the future.
Though the reaction of one Egyptian seems mistaken to this reader. His enemy was the king not the nationalists, but plots must have their devices. Though the plot device creaked here in the person of Percy, the ersatz South African. For those that must have it, there is also one skirmish as the Germans advance, and Ross is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Len Deighton ———— After false starts with some krimis I wanted something to read that I could and would read, so I turned to an old reliable.
While sure I had read this before, I remembered nothing of it, not even as I read it. In any case it lived up to my hopes, it was engaging, informative, amusing, and enlightening with a story, a plot, characters, and such that the krimis that I had aborted did not have. Moustaches, butter chicken, cricket, Pakistan, history, international intrigue, terrorism, samosas, this caper has it all! Vish Puri by name, he lives in Delhi but in this outing his travels include Mumbai and…. While at a banquet after an Indian Super League cricket match in which his nephew played, Vish is there when a visiting Pakistani falls dead, face down in a dish of butter chicken.
Vish had earlier espied this Paki skulking about in the garden, though he did admit that all Pakistanis skulk as far as he is concerned. This dramatic death throws Vish off the current case of the moustache-napper. There are contenders for the title of the longest moustache in India and they are being shaved in their sleep!
The mo disappears and a clean lip remains. Nothing is sacred in secular India! His team consists of Tubelight, Handbreak, Facecream, and assorted others contracted in when needed. Back in the office Madame coordinates. It is a smooth operation, usually, mostly, sometimes.
No tricks are missed. Along the way, much Indian cuisine is consumed, and why not. He has stuck a dowel in the bathroom scales so his weight remains constant when Madame checks him, which is all too frequently. The plot thickens with international gamblers, Scotland Yard detectives, a digital gecko, and more.
It become necessary for Vish to travel to Pakistan! He spends some time trying to avoid it, but in the end, applies for a visa, and after more delay crosses the border, where he expects to be murdered immediately. He is astonished to find he is treated civilly and respectfully. In the end what drove him to go was not the case but the chance at tasting a delicacy in Lahore.
Thinking and doing
This is not the cesspit of violence and corruption he had expected. There is much about the terrible days of the Partition, enough to put anyone off religion as Muslims hacked up Hindis who happily reciprocated. An unknown story to me. In fact the murder was part of the long fall-out of those dark days. Much to his surprise Vish finds several Pakistanis who are stalwart and amiable, and they share information.
But he also discovers that his Mummy, who has long had a penchant for interfering in his investigations, much to his annoyance, has a deep and dark past. In fact, she was a secret agent for the Indian Rescue and Recovery Commission during Partition and went on many dangerous missions, as one of his new Pakistani associates tells him with admiration. Not a word has she ever spoken of those days. Together they crack the case of the murder and also the international gambling, while the team finds the mo-napper. Much of the subject is serious, but the touch is light, and while the history is detailed, it is crucial to the plot and focussed, as well as informative.
India may have corruption and incompetence galore but it has never resorted to the rule of the gun. Another a good show. There have been so many successors that they have nearly obscured the fount. The original, by the by, is moody, understated, and terse, whereas most of the spawn are bland, bloated, and blurred. It starts with a museum of antiquities in Cambridge England among myopic bookworms and nerds, along with some shadowy figures who turn to kidnapping when Google Translate fails, and a dark prince.
In addition, far away there is a newly discovered and untouched tomb in the Egyptian desert. With these ingredients the ride should be fun! It is a mile a minute once the big gong sounds! The prize Mummy in the Cambridge Museum breaks out of the glass case that has held its year old remains. He staggers around with an ancient hangover. Woe to anyone who gets in his way. Careful, all ye who look upon Mummy! Soon the Brotherhood of Wannabe Villains appears to assist Mummy, while the Librarians rally to oppose them. Caught between are assorted Gypo nerds.
There is a demonic cat. The cast assembles in the desert where they find the requisite dusty diggers under the direction of Maggie, a fiery site manager, who scares the Mummy. In a straight-up no-holds-barred fight Maggie against the Mummy, the fraternity brothers bet on the Mags, but then changing the odds, the evil queen-pharaoh is reanimated for the showdown in a gore feast. Turns out, at the moment of truth it was the wrong Mummy!
It is so hard for evil queens to hire good help for an eternity. There are flash backs to the Lost Dynasty Egypt to explain the shrouded players: These seem to go on a little but it is all relevant at the end. The prose is expository, no flourishes, no elevation, no psychological depth, no big words, but well paced. The characters are differentiated in manner and speech. It reads like a film script to some extent, a comment that would please the author, I expect. The man has a razor tongue and a mastery of the form with few equals.
His five-minute reviews are informative, amusing, insightful, and devastating. Other reviewers on You Tube are, by comparison, self-indulgent, verbose, unfocused, and boring. Better yet, I lodged a suggestion for a film to review and he replied, and later screened the review acknowledging my suggestion. That feedback loop worked, a rarity that. I signed on as a You Tube follower, became a regular hit at his web site, donated to his cause at Paetreon, and now bought this, his first novel, does all of this make me a Bailesee?
Deep space travel is routine and many planets have been surveyed. There was nothing of interest about the planet Solaris and so it was ignored for years. An astronomer then noted that its orbit was odd. Because it circles a double star, one red and the other blue, its orbit should be erratic but it does not confirm to the laws of physics.
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The same is often said of the fraternity brothers. Solaris receives closer inspection. It is nearly completely covered by an ocean with only a few rocky outcrops like a few tufts of hair on a bald man's head. Again they wonder about the laws of physics. After years of study, the field of Solaristics concludes there is an intelligence in the ocean regulating the orbit by some means. The book is replete with a gentle satire about academic specialisation as an end-in-itself.
More studies fatten cvs and efforts to stimulate communication are made using radio waves, ion streams, pictures of Mother Teresa, neutrino bombardments, pamphlets, and an unauthorised use of intense x-rays and other more destructive means to no avail. Solaris seems immutable like reasoning with a Republican.
A research station is placed in orbit to observe with a crew of three on a three-year stint and has been there for years. Then the one day commander of this station a the time requests base to send a psychologist. Isolation in space does lead to mental problems so shrink Kris Kelvin is dispatched. The novel opens with his arrival and the preceding information emerges piecemeal. No one greets him. No one seems to be about. Moreover, there is disorder everywhere. This is no way to run a space station! He finally finds one of the scientists cowering behind a barricaded door.
The other scientist will not leave his lab and speak to Kris. The commander who asked for the visit committed suicide that very morning. Kelvin decides to examine the corpse in the best tradition of the police procedural. En route he hears barefoot steps and passes a large black woman in tribal dress.
She blankly ignores him. That is only the beginning. Cutting to the case, each member of the crew has a spectral guest. It is someone a memory of whom is found deeply etched in his psyche. This is not necessary someone he wants, but it is the deepest, most ingrained memory. These guests, the crew concludes, are from the Solaris ocean which is engaged in a Communicate with the Humans Project of its own. The Solaris guests have assumed the identities they have because of the importance of the memories to each scientist. Once embodied the guest seems to know a lot but have no memories of specifics.
Harey is sweet and clingy but has no idea how she came to be there, but strangely she knows things about Kelvin that occurred after her own death. Talk about overstaying a welcome! Various methods are tried to analyse the guests and to eject them from the station but they keep coming back. Meanwhile, Kelvin finds it easy to have Harey around. They engage in many conversations as she becomes aware that she is some kind of aberration, clone, replicant, or dream. She is a virtual reality girlfriend. In that way she is limited, and realising all of this she grows despondent.
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Of course the fraternity brothers wanted to know whether she is full functional but that is not made explicit. There are many conversations with one of the scientists about the ocean, god, creation, Amex bills, morality, metaphysics, ontology, bratwurst, on and on. We never find out about the other guests, nor is there any contact with the ocean. It is all trip and no arrival. Is the omnipresent but uncommunicative behemoth of the ocean of Solars a metaphor for Soviet Communism viewed from the observation platform of Poland?
Or just a yarn? It is a meticulously written and original work to read it today, let alone more than fifty years ago. The Grand Jury at Cannes is made of stronger stuff than am I. No, I have not seen the Yankee version either, well, except for some scenes that I came across somewhere. A bildungsroman of sorts as Gully Foyle grows and changes with his experiences, and the greatest changes occur at the instruction of women. The first is the one-way telepathic black woman whom he rapes and, in a way, sets free.
Later they form a team of convenience. The second is Jiz whose influence on him is considerable, making him grow and change. Finally is the White Icicle who attracts and repels him in equal measure. Least influential but last is Moira, the stay at home. Gully begins the story as an uneducated barely verbal spaceship hand on the Nomad. Think of the channel 7Mate demographic without the drooling and scratching and you have him. By the end he is richer than all the cynics who own Channel 7Mate put together.
The Nomad is a wreck floating in space and Gully alone has survived the attack by dumb luck and a resourcefulness he did not know he had. A friendly spaceship hoves into view and he signals it, quickly and repeatedly. Yet it passes him by, contrary to all the laws, rules, norms, and ethics of spaceflight. Thereafter he swears revenge on that ship. Driven by that desire he survives, and later prospers, and learns, and seeks the guilty ship.
The adventures are many, the plot twists are deft, the characters differentiated, the settings detailed and followed through, and the science fiction is etched into the story and the characters. The first, and as it turns out, the last key, to the narrative is that in this world of teleportation is as common as walking is today. To move from one place to another one teleports oneself, clothes included and anything one is carrying or holding.
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Distance varies with ability and practice. It is safer than walking since there are no crazed drivers on King Street to dodge. The method is a mental discipline developed by a Mr. There are three treasures in this quest. First is a vast fortune of Credits 20 billion, where a hundred credits is a great deal of money. Third is Foyle himself, much to his own surprise, and to the reader, too. There is much satire of the super rich, so much it grew tedious to read, but it is fitted to the overall plot like a jewel in a ring. Although his choice of an alias was a quick and certain give away it took the villains a long time to figure it out.
There are also a couple of surprising passages for a publication about the role of women in this wealthy society, sequestered, hidden, and rather like pets in a zoo. None of that applies to the first three women whom he encounters, though the last one is of that sort of society. Finally he returns to Moria as we all do. One is an illegal immigrant and the second a convict. Without any explicit comment, Bester also shows a society with deep, very deep class divisions so that members of the working class where Foyle started, are barely educated, civilised just enough to do a job like living machines.
Indeed he is so dense that at first the target for his vengeance is the spaceship itself. Only later does understand that the crew made the decision and then he targets them, but in time the realises that the captain gave the order. So much Sy Fy is spoiled by childish preaching by the author using the keyboard as if it were a sledgehammer to drive points home to the dense reader all too much like the morons on Fox News yelling at the camera. This title is free of that egomania. By the by, holding physical objects accountable for the consequences arising from them may seem absurd to us — we know the spaceship itself did nothing — but Athenians did not.
A building block that fell and killed some would be tried, sentenced, and smashed. The spaceship Invincible with its formidable array of technologies and a very experienced crew of space explorers arrives at Regis III to find its sister ship Condor which landed there two years before and has since failed to report. Great precautions are taken. Force fields and robots are deployed. There is a lot of science in the text about these machines and their programs. The crew numbers about eighty. They find Condor and most of its like-numbered crew are dead. Please try your request again later.
Michael Alan has been writing since second grade, when he had his first poem published. He's been encouraged by his family and teachers to continue in this hobby and now is hoping to make a go at sharing this enjoyment with a wider audience. His interests include technology and a passion for cars; both of which have a way of showing up in his work. At 21 he completed his first published novel, "Rights of Power", which was actually his second completed manuscript, the yet unreleased "Orphan Son" was the first. The story revolves around four murders, three present and one in the past and the guilt, or innocence, of Cobin.
The investigation is led by small town Sheriff, Fineas Tully, as he tries to uncover the truth without letting sentiment and emotion decide for him.
Presently the author lives in Oregon, where he's busy in volunteer work as well as working for the local Public Library. Are you an author? Help us improve our Author Pages by updating your bibliography and submitting a new or current image and biography. Learn more at Author Central. Popularity Popularity Featured Price: