Visions of World War III
Back in the ‘80s I read a couple of World War III novels. The Third World War: August 1985 (published 1978) was written by a group of retired British general and flag officers. Red Storm Rising (1986) was written by Tom Clancy, who developed close ties with the military after the surprise success of The Hunt for Red October (1984). In both books, a numerically superior Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe is stymied by a technically superior NATO. Both books were implicitly pleas to continue the development and procurement of high-tech weapons. That message was received in high places: Margaret Thatcher gave a copy of August 1985 to Ronald Reagan. And in both books, the war ends with the political collapse of the Soviet Union. My reaction at the time was, “Nah! That’ll never happen.” And then it did. Which led me to think that I should pay more attention to military thinkers. Thus it was that Elliot Ackerman...