The Imperial Cruise

[John Odom]

I just got this book by James Brady. It tells of the US diplomacy in the far east under Theodore Roosevelt, and supposedly explores the relationship to WWII. I can't wait to read it.

[Don Boyer]

John: I would bet it's a great read. Assume it is about the cruise of the Great White Fleet and all that surrounded it.

I have the "cruise book" for that deployment, put together by the US Naval Institute quite a few years after the event from photos donated to the USNI library. If you need illustrations or the like, I can post or scan and PM.

Regards.

[John Odom]

Don, I too, thought it would be about the "great white Fleet," it is not. It is about the trip by Secretary of War William Howard Taft and Alice Roosevelt to the far east, com missioned by Teddy Roosevelt and the secret diplomacy conducted from the 1890-s to the first world war. It includes background information on the Spanish=American war, including the annexation of Hawaii and the Philippines and the Philippine-American war. It also covers the Opium wars and the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars. The subject is really the mental state of Teddy Roosevelt and other influential people of that time.

It explains a lot of things I knew but did not understand or want to admit, from my Philippine History classes. Remember that as a kid in the Philippines I knew many old-timers who remembered the Philippine American war. WWII was the big news, but they would talk about the P-A war when asked. When I came to the US and went to the National Archives, I found the stories were true. I assumed the atrocity stories were because we had some "bad apples" in our forces. This book strongly supports the conclusion that it was a matter of Policy of our government at the highest levels. Whether or not these are the correct conclusions, this book should be required reading!

I got my copy for $10 from Amazon.com

[Don Boyer]

Sadly, John living here in Hawaii amongst the large Filipino community, I have to say that many of the stories about our military conduct in the Philippines in those days were true, and the senior government officials could have cared less. I have talked to "oldtimers" here whose families have all the stories from Samar and other places that make you think our boys had joined the Japanese army. They of course, remember what there fathers and mothers told them of those days. A sad commentary on the American military and politicians of the day.

The book must be a great read if the author is not on some axe-grinding crusade, which is usually the only thing that ruins books like that.

Let me know what you think of it. And I know I owe you a response on the Chinese navy too, and haven't been able to get to it!

[scjon]

I am about a hundred pages in right now, I loved his previous two books, especially "Flyboys". So far I am just in the back history on Theodore Roosevelt himself. I will post again when I finish it up!