John M. Shaw

While very interesting, this book is definitely dry and mostly of interest to those who practice and those who wish to learn more about Indigenous history. This book outlines the struggles that the Turtle Mountain band of Pembina Chippewa faced over nearly one hundred years, all while trying to follow the letter of the law (American law) and remain peaceful. It's no surprise that the United States government screwed them over not only once, but pretty much at every turn. They did everything right, kept paperwork, attended delegations in good faith and constantly got ripped off. It was really disheartening to read about, although not at all surprising. Extremely well researched, but again, not light leisure reading.… (more)

The author is at his best when writing about the conduct of the campaign at the divisional and brigade levels of command, and has a great deal of material on the logistical side of the ledger. As for buying his argument that this spoiling campaign was necessary to allow the final disengagement of American ground forces from Vietnam, well, it's an argument. Maybe even a reasonable counterfactual. I still tend to buy the mainstream assessment that whatever the virtues of going into Cambodia it wasn't worth the souring of public opinion on Nixon's conduct of the war. The negative reviews over at Amazon also tend to give me a bit of pause.… (more)