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32+ Works 1,238 Members 14 Reviews 2 Favorited

About the Author

John Prados is a senior fellow of the National Security Archive in Washington, DC, where he helps bring newly declassified government records to public attention. He is the award-winning author of twenty-one books. including Islands of Destiny: The Solomons Campaign and the Eclipse of the Rising show more Sun. He also lectures widely on security, freedom of information, and other issues analyzes combat processes, serves as a historical advisor to filmmakers; and designs strategy board games, including the well-known Third Reich and new award-winning titles. show less
Image credit: By Ching Wah Chin - www.NYMAS.org, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40190233

Works by John Prados

Associated Works

MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 1996 (1996) — Author "The Strategic View: The Prophet of Bomber War" — 26 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Autumn 1995 (1995) — Author "Mindoro's Desperate Hours" — 18 copies
A Companion to the Vietnam War (2002) — Contributor — 15 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Autumn 1998 (1998) — Author "Letter From Hanoi" — 13 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 1997 (1997) — Author "The Hottest Spots" and "The War Scare of 1983" — 12 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Autumn 2007 (2007) — Author "The Smaller Dragon Strikes" and "In Review: The United States Army in Vietnam: MACV" — 11 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Autumn 2008 (2008) — Author "In the Dark and Out of Luck" — 11 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Winter 1994 (1993) — Author "The Spies at the Bottom of the Sea" — 9 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Winter 2000 (1999) — Author "Most Significant Intelligence Breakthrough: Cryptanalysis" and "How Many Road to Richmond?" — 9 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Summer 2007 (2007) — Author "In Review: Power at Sea (three volumes)8 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Autumn 2001 (2001) — Author "First Freeze of the Cold War" — 8 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Summer 2006 (2006) — Author "In Review: In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War8 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 2007 (2007) — Author "The Perfect Failure" — 7 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Summer 2009 (2009) — Author "Laos: The Road to Vietnam" and "In Review: Weller's War" — 7 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Summer 2005 (2005) — Author "Ike, Ridgway, and Dien Bien Phu" — 6 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Autumn 2009 (2009) — Author "The Emperor's Tipping Point" — 5 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 2013 (2013) — Author "What World War I Generals Got Wrong", some editions — 2 copies

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Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

I finished John Prados' Normandy Crucible: The Decisive Battle That Shaped World War II in Europe. A concise 4 star read, that delved into the early days of the planning, the invasion and the assortment of leadership and personalities.

The meat and potatoes though is on the attempts to break out of the Bocage culminating in the Cobra Breakout and Falaise Pocket. An interesting detail was Prados' incorporation Ultra intelligence and it's value and limitations. Prados see's the Ultra intelligence more in its tactical than strategic value.

Prados discusses the various operations highlighting Operation Goodwood and Cobra but also discusses other breakout attempts and the various mechanical innovations especially on the Sherman Tanks to overcome the Bocage.

The book then winds up discussing the operations around the closing of the Falaise Gap, the mistakes and successes made by both the Germans and the Allies. The Germans failure to achieve breakout of the pocket sooner but ultimately having enough core leadership and troops escape to be able to reforge their forces albeit more thinly manned and armed and more brittle than earlier renditions of the Whermact. The same lack of commitment in closing the gap and better and clearer communication between Monty. Bradley and SHAEF, which contributed to a successful entrapment of but not a complete entrapment of the Wehrmact. In the end Prados distributes blame and credit fairly equally among all parties.

A worthy addition to the literature.
… (more)
 
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dsha67 | 2 other reviews | Oct 22, 2022 |
Useful to a reader already familiar with the campaign and interested in Japanese perspective contrasted with US perspective. Not a good overview for the casual reader, though.
 
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liagiba | 3 other reviews | Dec 15, 2021 |
Prados argues that the USA acted within the context of political, military, social, economic, foreign policy. He refers to this as an envelope. As events progressed from 1945 forward, that enveloped narrowed. This greatly reduced American flexibility and latitude for action. Prados believes that the war was unwinable. This account is somewhat influenced by the Iraq war. His objective is to create a large narrative account that incorporates recently (at least in late 1990s and early 2000s) released primary sources and synthesizes the latest secondary histories. Prados writes South Vietnam back into the story. I liked his personal accounts of his experience as a student at Columbia University. And I like how he fact-checked numerous memoirs. Unsurprisingly, they are chockfull of errors, omissions, and misstatements. It is a little long. It is an excellent analytical account of policy and decision-making at the highest levels. Very little is said of military history and battles. There are photos but I don't recall any maps at all.… (more)
 
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gregdehler | Apr 1, 2021 |

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Works
32
Also by
19
Members
1,238
Popularity
#20,731
Rating
3.9
Reviews
14
ISBNs
78
Languages
1
Favorited
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