Cole C. Kingseed

Major Dick Winters, one of the major characters in the HBO miniseries 'Band of Brothers' tells his story of World War II from the pages of his wartime diary. He also gives detailed accounts of what happened to many of the men of Easy Company after the war. Combat can serve to bring out the best in men and Winters tells exactly how good, well-trained men reacted to rapidly changing situations and environments under remarkably difficult circumstances. His summation, a discourse on leadership, is well worth serious study. Few men have had the privilege of serving in as many major engagements with as much success as Dick Winters and fewer still can communicate what they learned as well as he does in this book.

Historian Cole C. Kingseed reinforces the revisionist perspective on Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency in this study of one of the major foreign policy challenges of Eisenhower's administration: the Suez crisis of 1956. Kingseed's principal focus is on the president - what he did and why and how he did it. Discussion of the Middle East situation forms the backdrop against which to analyze Eisenhower as chief executive. Forgoing late-twentieth-century hindsight, Kingseed evaluates Eisenhower's managerial performance according to what the president knew at the time. As much as possible, he relies on the president's own diary, his private letters and memoranda, his official correspondence, Department of State records, minutes of the National Security Council and cabinet meetings, presidential secretary Ann C. Whitman's diary and journals, written records and personal correspondence of staff secretary Andrew J. Goodpaster, and a wide array of oral histories. What Kingseed reveals about Eisenhower's command of the White House during the Suez crisis reflects his executive abilities generally: Eisenhower was at the center of events, organizing the security departments within the federal government in such a manner that it was only at the presidential level that all aspects of strategy and policy coalesced. In devising and implementing long-term policy, he utilized more formal bodies, such as the National Security Council, but for matters that required personal and immediate attention, he convened an ad hoc group of special advisers. A major premise of Kingseed's analysis is that the method in which a president organizes and supervises the decision-making apparatus has a profound impact on the attainment of political goals. That Eisenhower, in responding to the Suez crisis, achieved his policy objectives amid dissenting allies, contentious military chiefs, and political opposition in a presidential election year clearly demonstrates, according to Kingseed, the unique, flexible leadership style of an extraordinarily active - and effective - chief executive.

"Rather than presenting a history of battles and campaigns, the author offers here an analysis of leadership in combat over three continents and across two oceans. He looks at how sergeants, lieutenants, captains, and generals direct soldiers in the most intense of all human dramas - and how those soldiers react."--Jacket.

"An infantry company commander in the U.S. Army's heralded 1st Infantry Division, Captain Joseph Turner Dawson led his men through some of the most brutal battles of World War II. From the invasion of North Africa in late 1942 through Sicily and the assault on Normandy to the push toward the German frontier late in 1944, Dawson's length of service on the front lines was extraordinary, and his heroism while holding off the Germans on a ridge near Aachen, Germany, is legendary. Based on Dawson's own combat journal, this book focuses on leadership in combat during the greatest human drama of the twentieth century." "Dawson is at the heart of the drama as he describes the strain of constant combat and its effect on the combat infantryman. His writings have been edited by the former chief military historian at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Colonel Cole C. Kingseed, who succeeds masterfully in capturing the essence of combat leadership through the actions of this citizen-warrior. Although Dawson was an Army officer, the lessons his journal offers cut across service lines to help readers understand what makes a good frontline commander."--Jacket.

"The Civil War is the central event in American history. More than any other event, the war defined the American people and nation." "Following a narrative history, Kingseed offers six stimulating topical chapters covering such issues as the transformation of Abraham Lincoln, why Lee lost the battle of Gettysburg, and the consequences of the War from a contemporary perspective. Eighteen biographical sketches of key civilian, military and political figures such as Clara Barton, Matthew Brady, J.E.B. Stuart, Ulysses S. Grant, and Frederick Douglass personalize the momentous events of the Civil War, while 16 keenly annotated primary documents, ranging from Lincoln's "House Divided against Itself" speech to Jefferson Davis's Inaugural speech to a bluejacket's remembrances of the horrors witnessed during and after the Battle of Antietam. Ten illustrations, a map of the major campaigns, chronology of events, glossary, annotated bibliography, and index complete this one-stop research resource on the American Civil War."--Jacket.