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America’s Wars: Interventions, Regime

Change, and Insurgences after the Cold War by Thomas H. Henriksen ’62. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2022. ISBN: 978-1-009-05508-6. Available via Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The United States recently passed through a unique international era. The years from the collapse of the Soviet Union until the present ushered in an unpreceded period of American global hegemony. Never in its history has America been so dominant politically, economically, and militarily in world affairs. Now the Pentagon must take cognizance of China’s and Russia’s ascending to great power status, their threats, and their feints because these adversaries are locked in a struggle with Washington for primacy. After the Soviet Union’s disintegration, things were different.

Freed from the constraints of a dangerous competitor, America tried to remake the world into a better place by militarily intervening in a host of nations beset with civil wars, ethnic cleansing, brutal dictators, or devastating humanitarian conditions. “America’s Wars: Interventions, Regime Change, and Insurgencies after the Cold War” chronicles and analyzes the spate of U.S. deployments in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and even the edge of the Pacific. The book also traces the modes of warfare employed during the three decades—among them paratrooper drops, revolution in military affairs, peacekeeping, exclusive airpower campaign, proxy fighters, and small direct-action battles in its anti-terrorism counterinsurgencies.

Inspired in part by the ideals expressed by Woodrow Wilson at the end of World War I, Republican and Democratic administrations organized coalitions of partners and deployed American troops to make the world peaceful and safe for democracy. Thus, the post-Cold War era witnessed military interventions, regime change, and insurgencies. At first, things went well with smooth-running incursions into Panama, Kuwait-Iraq, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo to topple autocrats, rescue embattled ethnic communities, and install democratic governments. The 9/11 terrorist attack and the subsequent war on terrorism led the United States at first into large-scale invasions to secure its safety from further assaults by al-Qaida in Afghanistan and phantom nuclear weapons in Iraq.

The Afghan and Iraqi resistance bogged the Pentagon down in complex and bloody insurgencies that taxed U.S. governments for two decades. Around the globe, U.S. special operations forces also marched in a score of small-footprint operations against Islamist insurgents bent on striking America and the West. These brushfire wars include the Philippines, Somalia, Yemen, and Syria, plus a string of nations in Africa’s Sahel region. With the resurgence of China and Russia, America today faces hostile major-power rivals while it must also combat persistent terrorist threats from the world’s periphery.

About the Author: Thomas Henriksen is a senior fellow, emeritus, at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from VMI and served as a U.S. Army infantry officer from 1963–65. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in history from Michigan State University and received appointments on the White House Fellows Commission and the U.S. Army Science Board.

Strabo: Book One: The Unwilling Legionnaire by Preston Holtry ’63. Moonshine Cove Publishing, LLC, 2021. ISBN: 978-1-952439-223. Available via Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Marcellus Strabo is rudely awakened from a drunken stupor to find himself conscripted into the training camp of the XI Claudia Legion. The legion is one of six under the command of Julius Caesar, bound for Celtic Gaul. Until now, Strabo has known only privilege and a preference to spend his time in brothels and on the back of a fast horse. Now he’s faced with the harsh training of a legionnaire, made worse by the tattoos he wears reflecting his mother’s Celtic heritage. Repeated attempts on his life for reasons he doesn’t know prove equally as perilous as the risks he soon faces on the battlefield. Caught between two worlds and feeling a part of neither, Strabo is faced with conflicts he never anticipated, including the costs of falling in love with Raven, a member of his mother’s tribe. Her resistance to the growing Roman influence in Gaul, coupled with his growing reputation as a fighter and leader, leaves Strabo wondering if he is more Roman or Gallic. He hopes Fortuna will one day answer the question. Until the goddess does, he will remain caught between two conflicting worlds.

About the Author: Preston Holtry earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from VMI in 1963 and a graduate degree from Boston University. A career U.S. Army officer, he served twice in Vietnam, in addition to a variety of infantry and intelligence-related assignments in Germany, England, and the United States. Retired from the Army with the rank of colonel, he lives with his wife, Judith, and Max, a rescued retriever, in Oro Valley, Arizona.

Danger Close! A Vietnam Memoir by Phil Gioia ’67. Stackpole Books, 2022. ISBN: 978-0811771-20-7 (cloth). ISBN: 978-0-811771-21-4 (e-book). Available via Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Rowman.com.

What was it like to grow up in an Army family, at home and overseas, during the Cold War? To belong to an extended military tribe with a carefully guarded culture, handed-down myths, legends, and rituals? What was it like to live in then-occupied Japan, in Italy, at West Point, and in two segregated Southern states before going to high school? How did the author meet Gen. Douglas MacArthur, President Dwight Eisenhower, Queen Frederika of Greece, Roy Rogers, Hollywood director John Ford, and his father’s colleagues from World War II’s secretive OSS, forerunner of today’s CIA?

What were four Spartan years like at Virginia Military Institute, renowned for alumni like Gen. George C. Marshall, VMI Class of 1901; its contribution to our nation’s armed forces; and its unique student culture derived from that of exclusive “public” schools of Victorian England like Rugby and Eton?

What did it take to endure and excel in the Army’s rigorous Airborne and Ranger courses? To lead paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division in combat? To command two infantry companies: One of the 82nd’s paratroopers; the

other a “rucksack” airmobile infantry unit in the First Air Cavalry Division in War Zone C and along the Cambodian border in Vietnam?

During the 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam, what did he see as his soldiers discovered and unearthed the first of the grim mass graves where communists buried their murdered victims during their occupation of the imperial city of Hué?

How and why did America originally become involved in Vietnam? Did President John Kennedy actually intend to withdraw U.S. troops? After his murder, why and how did President Lyndon Johnson pursue a completely different strategy that ultimately failed?

These adventures, and many questions, are addressed in this rare, upfront look at the way it was in those decades of challenge and fast-moving events.

About the Author: Phil Gioia served two combat tours in Vietnam. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from VMI, a Master of Science degree in foreign service from Georgetown University, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford. He has been an investment banker, venture capitalist, and entrepreneur. He is an Eagle Scout, as well as a published military historian who has appeared as a commentator on numerous television documentaries and appears several times in Ken Burns’ Public Broadcasting Service documentary on the Vietnam War. He has served twice as mayor of his town in Marin County, California.

Imperfect Past: Volume II, More History in

a New Light by Charles F. Bryan Jr. ’69, Ph.D. Dementi Milestone Publishing, 2021. ISBN: 9781-7368989-8-7. Available via Amazon.

The late Southern writer John Egerton once observed that there are three kinds of history: What actually happened, what we are told happened, and what we finally come to believe happened. It is that third type that author Charles F. Bryan Jr. addresses in many of the essays in Volume II of “Imperfect Past: History in a New Light.” As he did in Volume I, Bryan challenges many assumptions about the past that he and his generation were taught in school some 60 years ago. A once-simplistic story has become more complex but, at the same time, more compelling and provocative.

Volume II of “Imperfect Past” is a compilation of some 80 essays he wrote as regular columns for the Richmond Times-Dispatch from 2016 until mid-2021. As Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Rick Atkinson has noted: “Few historians write about the past with greater insights than Charles Bryan. His essays are personal, accessible, provocative, and always compelling.”

About the Author: Charles F. Bryan Jr. earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from VMI, a Master of Arts degree from the University of Georgia, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Tennessee. He is an American historian who spent most of his career in the museum field, including 20 years as president of the Virginia Historical Society. He began writing essays for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in the 1990s that have reached a large and enthusiastic audience. He lives with his wife in Richmond, Virginia.

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The Washington Arch Society

Thank you to the loyal members of the Washington Arch Society who have designated VMI in their estate plans.The generosity of new members resulted in a record year for planned gifts in Fiscal Year 2022.

Join the Society: The Time is Ripe for Charitable Gift Annuities

The current market provides favorable conditions for Charitable Gift Annuities with the VMI Alumni Agencies to benefit VMI. Our strong credit rating, the market rates for return, tax deduction, and guaranteed lifetime income at a fixed interest rate for you and/or your spouse are all reasons to consider this option for planned giving.

If you are over age 60 and considering a gift of $25,000 or more, now is a great time to join the Washington Arch Society via Charitable Gift Annuities.

The next generation of citizen-soldiers will benefit from your thoughtfulness.

For more information, go to vmilegacy.org or contact Terrie Conrad at tconrad@vmiaa.org or by phone at 800-444-1839 Ext. 238