Book Review: Failure of a Mission

Neville Henderson shaking hands with Joseph Goebbels

Title: Failure Of A Mission: Berlin, 1937-1939
Author: Sir Neville Henderson
Genre: World War II History

From the final chapter of the book, Sir Neville Henderson states: "In the early hours of September 1st without any declaration of war the German Army crossed the frontier, and the German Air Force proceeded to bomb the Polish airdromes and lines of communication...The German Representative in London was informed in due course at that hour that a state of war existed between Britain and Germany."

Henderson was England's Ambassador to Germany for the two years leading up to the war.  Tirelessly he worked to divert the aggression that Germany showed towards its neighbors.  He met often with Herr Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Goering and many other men of influence in the Third Reich.  Henderson respected the Germans, but hated their game. On most occasions, the Englishman was graciously treated, but the context of his meetings seemed to most often be smoke and mirrors. From the beginning, Hitler's intention was war.  There was nothing Neville Henderson could have done to stop the Nazi war machine.

The book on the whole is a bit dull.  The descriptions of the demeanor and personalities of the notorious German leaders is interesting.  It is a small look into Germany leading up to the war.  I would not recommend this book to anyone unless they are interested in Nazi, German, European, or World War II history.

Book Review: Pol Pot Anatomy of a Nightmare

Book: Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare
Author: Philip Short
Genre: non-fiction, World History, Cambodian History

Pol Pot was responsible for the death of approximately two million people during the Kmher Rouge rule from 1975 to 1978. In these three years, the agrarian communists annihilated 25% of the Cambodian population. Pol Pot and the Kmher Rouge leadership eliminated cities, money, emotions, cooking, family, private property, smiling, and any type of individualism. Smiling? How can you eliminate smiling?  It can be eliminated by killing anybody who smiles.  Everyone was to be an extension of the state.  The state was a body.  The body worked to grow in power. When someone worked against this body, they were disposed of much like a weed in a garden is pulled up and tossed into the trash.


From his birth in 1925, to his death in 1998, the biography, Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare follows the unlikely and incompetent Pol Pot. His life is detailed as he ages from failing student to revolutionary uprising to Cambodian communist leader to dying jungle outlaw.  He is remembered in history primarily for the killing fields and the torture camps and the genocide-like massive destruction imposed on Cambodia.  This book digs much deeper into the politics of the times, the connections between the Kmher Rouge, the Chinese, and the Vietnamese, and the philosophy of the communists.




The book was long and dragged on with inscrutable detail. The number of players in the book was endless and the foreign names created an easy route into confusion.  The book contains an index of names with description, which helped, but slowed the reading down even more. Unless one is very interested in southeast Asian history, I would not recommend this book, but instead recommend this blog post which offers a shorter, but thorough glimpse into Pol Pot and the Kmher Rouge.  An excellent book that is more specific to the suffering under Pol Pot that I recommend is: To Destroy You Is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian Family.

            


                                                   

Book Review: 1421 The Year China Discovered America

Title: 1421 The Year China Discovered America
Author: Gavin Menzies
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Genre: World History

Chinese Junk compared to the Santa Maria

After 30 long years of war, Chinese forces succeeded in ousting the Mongol Empire in 1387 leading into the Ming Dynasty.  The early Ming Dynasty was a period of growth, expansion, and prosperity. Coupled with the Chinese knowledge of navigation, astronomy, shipbuilding, and written language, the Chinese built the greatest, wealthiest, most advanced Kingdom on earth. With this wealth and abundance came the ability to build and support a exploratory seafaring fleet.

The ships were built of teak.  In order to provide the wood, teak forests were decimated for hundreds of miles in each direction from Beijing. There were nearly 2,000 ships in all. The greatest of these ships could hold 3 months worth of food and travel 4,500 miles without stopping. The larger ships were built with compartments in the bowels. These compartments could be filled with water where trained dolphins provided the men with fresh fish. With a rich, peaceful, powerful Kingdom supporting it, this fleet divided into four expeditions, setting sail in early 1421.

These four fleets set out for four different parts of the world.  Captain Hong Bao, set sail for and explored the continent of Africa and the Atlantic side of South America, sailing thru what is now known as the Strait of Magellan. Captain Zhou Man explored Australia and the Pacific side of North and South America. Captain Zhou Wen explored the North Pole, Greenland, and the Atlantic coast of North America. And Captain Yang Qing traveled India, the Indian Ocean side of Africa, and the Middle East. During their epic expedition, China fell into a destructive civil war.

In May of 1421, disaster struck in the form of lightening.  Much of Beijing burned.  Believing it was divine disapproval of imperialist expansion and decimation of the forests, China's Ruler Zhu Di took his own life. Following was a dark and war ridden period of struggle. The explorers and their fleets returned to a land that was unrecognizable to them. Their voyage was not celebrated and documented.

The thesis of this book seems far stretched. Gavin cites a lot of evidence: Chinese DNA among Native Americans and Africans, Asiatic animals and fauna spread across the continents, unidentified wreckage strewn across the globe, mysterious rock memorials along coasts of each great land mass, and even documentation of European explorers. However, all evidence cited is not always evidence proven. There is a lot of dissent directed at the evidence provided. The possibility of such an undertaking is not impossible.