Brute

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Brute [Coram, Robert] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Brute Review: Can yesterday's leadership speak today? - The United States Marine Corps has faced various institutional threats to its existence throughout its history from enemies abroad and within the American military establishment. Powerful leaders have repeatedly emerged from the Marine meritocracy to overcome these various challenges; at least thus far. In the book Brute: The life of Victor Krulak U.S. Marine, author Robert Coram uses the life of LtGen Victor H. Krulak to personify both the best, and sometimes the unsavory nature of the American military. Krulak is portrayed as a man of overwhelming dynamism, a skilled fighter and the consummate bureacratic warrior who combined proven and prophetic proactivity with an ironic self-assurance. Today the military leadership example of Victor Krulak is needed more than ever. Krulak's contributions in the last century included his tireless attempts to help implement the doctrine of the amphibious assault, the eventual codification into law of the USMC mission in the 1947 NSA, and the development of the helicopter as a platform of vertical development. Perhaps most important are the contributions to the civil-military relationship Krulak embodied during the Vietnam War when the "Tuesday Lunch Bunch" made operational decisions bypassing somewhat feckless military leaders. To the contrary, Krulak willingly sacrificed his own chances at becoming the Marine Corps commandant by speaking directly and with candor to an inexperienced and arrogant President. Today in a time of unprecedented military challenges the example of Victor H. Krulak stands out like a lighthouse through time. The author of this fine work, Robert Coram, seems to believe the modern challenges to the Marines' existence started in World War I with the large amount of press coverage of the "Devil Dog's" successes in Belleau Wood. Surviving institutional struggles and in-fighting, men with ideas still emerged like Andrew Jackson Higgins whose amphibious creations are reported to have won the war; quoted in this book as the words of none other than Ike himself! Krulak's imaginative and proactive planning achieved the implementation of the helicopter as a combat platform and its concurrent contribution to the emerging concept of vertical envelopment. This book explores the first use of the helicopter during the Korean War rescuing it from the high-flying and sometimes over shadowing image of the Vietnam War. Krulak's contributions to the recognition of the war in Vietnam as a counterinsurgency came as early as 1962 in a Naval War College Speech. Though the strategic hamlet program failed (using in many ways the successful techniques of the Phillipines Insurrection), the recognition of earlier works by the Marines-largely forgotten during WWII did not escape the brilliant mind of Krulak. While General David Petraeus has rightly received credit for the accomplishment of conducting a seemingly successful surge in the recent counterinsurgency in Iraq; Robert Coram points to Krulak's understanding of the seminal Marine document, the Small Wars Manual, published on the eve of World War II. The life of Victor Krulak additionally demonstrated the historic American propensity to reward diligence and the improtance of a proactive approach to military planning. A fascinating read. Mr. Coram's somewhat consistently slavish admiration of the Corps is balanced by his criticisms of the Marines' choice to limit the actions of Jewish worship on Iwo Jima. Likewise Mr. Coram falls into the trap of judging the past from a present perspective by pointing out the sometimes racist nature of what was essentially a "white man's Marine Corps" through World War II. Nevertheless, this well-written narrative seems to ultimately vindicate the basic fairness of a system whereby a jeweler's son could rise almost to the top of the Marines-limited only by his own professional integrity. The author struggles with Krulak's personal inconsistencies and unfortunately seems unaware of the psychological toll needed to suborn one's own desires and self-identity to accomplish essentially the superhuman, particularly over a lifetime of total service. Imperfect as it may be and has been, the American military system has allowed men and women who are willing to give their all in an inherently loyal and fair system. When the system's leaders fail to adequately plan or when civilian leadership fails to provide clear objectives, the system eventually fails its members. By this definition of leadership, Lt Gen Krulak succeeded and the Marines under his command were rewarded with victory. The question emerging today is, will current military leaders continue to speak the truth as forthrightly as LtGen Krulak did during the Vietnam War, and if so will America's political leaders possess the wisdom to listen to them when they do? Perhaps more importantly can an ultimate definition of victory be articulated by civilian leadership in a manner the military will embrace with imagination and zeal in an atmosphere conducive to honesty? The innovative legacy of Victor H. Krulak continued with his son Charles. As the thirty-first commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen Charles Krulak personified moral decency and pushed the Marine Corps into the intertwining concept of "three block warfare" whereby with a city block a Marine may be expected to engage in fighting, peacekeeping and an ability to conduct humanitarian operations. The Krulak tradition of innovation and moral courage has continued with recent statements by the Marine Corps Commandant regarding the recent revocation of "don't ask-don't tell." It is encouraging to believe current Marine Corps leadership is willing to speak with candor when asked regardless of the political consequences. This terrific book provides a wonderful insight into both the machinations of an iconic military leader and is a metaphor of both the frailties and potential strength of an American military system essentially based on integrity. This book is an excellent addition to one's personal library and serves as a ground breaking and aide to a modern military history curriculum often dominated by an Army perspective. Review: Brute: The Indispensible Marine - The United States Marine Corps arguably looks back to its past and forward to its future more than any other fighting outfit in the world. Its past envelops its present and its present is often consumed by its future. The Corps has figured out how to harness and enhance history, legend, and mythology to get buy-in from its new members, to reinforce the brotherhood, as the message of the Corps' importance to the nation, and as psychological amplification of combat prowess. The Corps' has faced many actual and perceived existential challenges throughout its history and some would say this has created an ever-present institutional paranoia about its future. Simply put, in the Marine Corps, the revered past and uncertain future are just as alive as the present and this timelessness infuses the Marine ethos. The ethos of the Few and the Proud is collective. This ethos allows for individual honors and legends but the exceptional performance of any particular Marine is absorbed into the whole. Marines expect and are expected to rise to all challenges and uphold the honor of their forebears, thus no Marine is bigger than or even very large within the Corps and there is little tolerance for internal elitisms. Recently, the current Commandant quashed the barest trace of any distinctions by declaring that Marines are Marines for all time and that even the prefix "former" does not apply. With this preamble in mind, it is surely improbable that one Marine may deserve special recognition as the Corps' most important Marine. But, Brute Krulak is arguably just that. The imprint of his mind and drive is found across the Corps. The Marine Corps' independence as a separate service and its leadership in modern warfighting innovations are in great measure products of Krulak's exceptional career. Coram is a journalist, novelist, and the acclaimed biographer of U.S. Air Force legends John Boyd and Bud Day. Coram paints a lively portrait of the unpromising, unconnected, but ambitious and talented young man who came from the early 20th century West to Annapolis and built an unparalleled career during critical times while shepherding the Corps' amphibious, heliborne, combined-arms, and counterinsurgency innovations, operational and technological innovations that were thereafter adopted and adapted by other branches and militaries worldwide. Krulak drove the debate and decisions at the heart of nearly every significant Marine Corps event, controversy, and warfighting advancement during a career that spanned the mid-1930s through the late 1960s. He remained active until his death in 2008. Brute is a scholarly biography but the book's finest attribute is its storytelling. Coram exactly captures the Marine Corps' fierce espirit through the lens of Krulak's personality and career. Brute will bring tears to the eyes and raised hairs to the arms of Marine readers and will often infuriate readers from the other services. The book is pro-Krulak and pro-Corps but is not hagiography; this is a warts and all, serious historical examination that flows like a novel in exploring Krulak's prescient, contentious, and indelible mark on the making of the expeditionary, combined-arms Marine Corps.