Six Days of War
Though it lasted for only six tense days in June, the 1967 Arab-Israeli war never really ended. Every crisis that has ripped through this region in the ensuing decades, from the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to the ongoing intifada, is a direct consequence of those six days of fighting. Michael B. Oren’s magnificent Six Days of War, an internationally acclaimed bestseller, is the first comprehensive account of this epoch-making event. Writing with a novelist’s command of narrative and a historian’s grasp of fact and motive, Oren reconstructs both the lightning-fast action on the battlefields and the political shocks that electrified the world. Extraordinary personalities—Moshe Dayan and Gamal Abdul Nasser, Lyndon Johnson and Alexei Kosygin—rose and toppled from power as a result of this war; borders were redrawn; daring strategies brilliantly succeeded or disastrously failed in a matter of hours. And the balance of power changed—in the Middle East and in the world. A towering work of history and an enthralling human narrative, Six Days of War is the most important book on the Middle East conflict to appear in a generation.
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- A few more I would add ( not sure if they are "professional" enough but all very insightful and similar to the existing ones on that list ).
1. Boyd ( http://www.amazon.com/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed-ebook/d... ) - Came up with the EM theory that gave the air force the analytical framework to analyze dog fighting maneuvers and aircraft. Known for authoring the OODA loop and leading the infamous Fighter Mafia that gave us the F-16 and F/A-18
2. Warfight ( http://www.amazon.com/Warfighting-M-Gray-ebook/dp/B00DPTK4ZE... ) Boyd' OODA ideas distilled into a book
3. The American Way of War ( http://www.amazon.com/The-American-Way-War-University/dp/B00... )
4. Engineers of Victory ( http://www.amazon.com/Engineers-Victory-Problem-Solvers-Turn... ) - a decent account of how middle level officers solve problems that allowed strategies to be realized
5. Makers of Modern Strategy ( http://www.amazon.com/Makers-Modern-Strategy-Machiavelli-Nuc... )
6. The German Army ( http://www.amazon.com/German-Army-1933-1945-Matthew-Cooper/d... ) - A great account of the rise and fall of the German army, including its innovations caused by the constraints imposed on it and its fall
7. Panzer Battles ( http://www.amazon.com/Panzer-Battles-Major-General-von-Melle... ) - a great account how the various battles fought by the German army and where they excelled and where their shortcomings are and vice versa for their enemies.
8. The Second World War( http://www.amazon.com/Second-World-War-Antony-Beevor-ebook/d... ) - Great "summary" of the Second World War, including the civilian dimension.
9. Panzer Leader ( http://www.amazon.com/Panzer-Leader-Heinz-Guderian/dp/030681... ) - a history of the development and deployment of the German panzer armies by the father of tank warfare himself.
10. Six Days of War ( http://www.amazon.com/Days-June-Making-Modern-Middle/dp/B004... )
11. The Yom Kippur War ( http://www.amazon.com/Yom-Kippur-War-Encounter-Transformed-e... ) - an account of the Yom Kippur War and how the Israelis were blind to the innovations of the Egyptian army that upended its defense strategy based on tanks and aircraft and also how a near victory for the Egyptians allowed them to negotiate a peace with Israel.
- > 10. Six Days of War ( http://www.amazon.com/Days-June-Making-Modern-Middle/dp/B004.... )
If you're going to read this, the same author (Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the US) wrote a book called Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to Present. A fascinating look at America's involvement in the region since the founding fathers.
The book falls short during the post-WWII period and the author fully acknowledges that weakness but up to that point the book is fantastic.
- I'm halfway through Six Days of War by Michael Oren, and I think the most obvious thing that social media companies have done to handle the conflict is simply to exist.
[Kindles suck for skimming back though a book, and I don't have an eidetic memory. My apologies if I get any of these facts wrong.]
On the first day of the 1967 conflict, based on glowing, but false, reports from the Sinai outposts, President Nasser and Egyptian military leaders thought that they had knocked out most of the Israeli air force, when in fact the opposite was true. The cascade of misinformation not only aided Israel's efforts against Egypt, but it also lead Jordan's King Hussein to commit to the conflict in the West Bank. Similarly, news of Egypt's success is thought to have emboldened Syria and lead to the battle in the Golan Heights.
Now, 45 years later, with the social media and other communications channels available, there is less chance that the conflict could escalate due to false information. (It could still escalate for other reasons, of course.) It's just a theory, but maybe Israel's in-your-face social media strategy is a blunt retaliation to any Baghdad Bob style reporting taking place within the Arab world. Their goal might not be to provoke the enemy, but instead to dampen any groundswell that might occur due to false reporting.
