Watchman at the Gates
A Soldier's Journey from Berlin to Bosnia
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Narrated by:
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Malcolm Hillgartner
About this listen
General George Joulwan played a role in many pivotal world events during his long and exceptional career. Present at both the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, he served multiple tours in Germany during the Cold War and two tours in Vietnam. By chance, he was recruited as Nixon's White House deputy chief of staff and witnessed the last acts of the Watergate drama first-hand.
Joulwan chronicles his career in the upper echelons of the armed forces. He shares his experiences working with major military and political figures, including generals William E. DePuy, Alexander Haig, John Vessey, and Colin Powell, US ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Beyond the battlefield, Joulwan became an advocate for military and civilian relations during the Vietnam War, deescalating several high-intensity situations while studying at Loyola University as part of the US Army's Option C program.
Watchman at the Gates merges memory and lessons in leadership as Joulwan pays tribute to his teachers and colleagues and explains the significance of their influence on his personal approach to command. He also reveals how similar relationships of mutual understanding were crucial in his peaceful and productive dealings with both allies and enemies.
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Story
In 2002, Sam Faddis was named to head a CIA team that would enter Iraq to facilitate the deployment of follow-on conventional military forces numbering more than 40,000 American soldiers. This force, built around the 4th Infantry Division, would, in partnership with Kurdish forces and with the assistance of Turkey, engage Saddam's army in the North as part of a coming invasion. Faddis expected to be on the ground in Iraq within weeks, the entire campaign likely to be over by summer. The 4th Infantry Division never arrived, nor did any other conventional forces in substantial number.
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Highly Recommended Read
- By Bill Brown on 11-11-21
By: Sam Faddis
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A Better War
- The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam
- By: Lewis Sorley
- Narrated by: Basil Sands
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Neglected by scholars and journalists alike, the years of conflict in Vietnam from 1968 to 1975 offer surprises not only about how the war was fought, but about what was achieved. Drawing on authoritative materials not previously available, including thousands of hours of tape-recorded allied councils of war, award-winning military historian Lewis Sorley has given us what has long been needed - an insightful, factual, and superbly documented history of these important years.
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A thought-provoking history of the war 68-75
- By Rodney W. Schmisseur on 02-05-14
By: Lewis Sorley
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One Hundred Victories
- Special Ops and the Future of American Warfare
- By: Linda Robinson
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In One Hundred Victories, acclaimed military expert Linda Robinson shows how the special operations forces are - after a decade of intensive combat operations - evolving to become the go-to force for operations worldwide.
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Great book very informative.
- By Ashley Cooper on 10-16-13
By: Linda Robinson
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Knife Fights
- A Memoir of Modern War in Theory and Practice
- By: John Nagl
- Narrated by: Brian Hutchison
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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From one of the most important army officers of his generation, a memoir of the revolution in warfare he helped lead, in combat and in Washington. When John Nagl was an army tank commander in the first Gulf War of 1991, fresh out of West Point and Oxford, he could already see that America’s military superiority meant that the age of conventional combat was nearing an end.
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There's so much I didn't know.
- By Lori James on 12-07-22
By: John Nagl
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The Coldest Winter
- America and the Korean War
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins
- Abridged
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Up until now, the Korean War has been the black hole of modern American history. The Coldest Winter changes that. Halberstam gives us a masterful narrative of the political decisions and miscalculations on both sides. He charts the disastrous path that led to the massive entry of Chinese forces near the Yalu, and that caught Douglas MacArthur and his soldiers by surprise. He provides astonishingly vivid and nuanced portraits of all the major figures.
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Almost as good as The Best and the Brightest
- By Doug on 10-02-07
By: David Halberstam
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My Share of the Task
- A Memoir
- By: General Stanley McChrystal
- Narrated by: Kevin Collins
- Length: 19 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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In this illuminating memoir, McChrystal frankly explores the major episodes and controversies of his eventful career. He delves candidly into the intersection of history, leadership, and his own experience to produce a book of enduring value. Joining the troubled post-Vietnam army as a young officer, McChrystal witnessed and participated in some of our military’s most difficult struggles. He describes the many outstanding leaders he served with and the handful of bad leaders he learned not to emulate.
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Incomplete ending
- By Jfadams on 04-23-13
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The Hardest Place
- The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan's Pech Valley
- By: Wesley Morgan
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 21 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Of the many battlefields on which U.S. troops and intelligence operatives fought in Afghanistan, one remote corner of the country stands as a microcosm of the American campaign: the Pech and its tributary valleys in Kunar and Nuristan. The area’s rugged, steep terrain and thick forests made it a natural hiding spot for local insurgents and international terrorists alike, and it came to represent both the valor and futility of America’s two-decade-long Afghan war.
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A walk through time
- By Brandon Kennedy on 04-12-21
By: Wesley Morgan
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The Fourth Star
- Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army
- By: David Cloud, Greg Jaffe
- Narrated by: Richard McGonagle
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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They were four exceptional soldiers, a new generation asked to save an army that had been hollowed out after Vietnam. They survived the military's brutal winnowing to reach its top echelon. They became the Army's most influential generals in the crucible of Iraq. Collectively, their lives tell the story of the Army over the last four decades and illuminate the path it must travel to protect the nation over the next century.
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Learning from the Military
- By Joshua Kim on 06-10-12
By: David Cloud, and others
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Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 29 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In this Pulitzer Prize - winning biography, Barbara Tuchman explores American relations with China through the experiences of one of our men on the ground. In the cantankerous but level-headed "Vinegar Joe", Tuchman found a subject who allowed her to perform, in the words of the National Review, "one of the historian's most envied magic acts: conjoining a fine biography of a man with a fascinating epic story."
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A period that directly affected our world today
- By Charlotte on 08-29-12
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Why We Lost
- A General's Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
- By: Daniel Bolger
- Narrated by: Steve Coulter
- Length: 20 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Over a 35-year career, Daniel Bolger rose through the army infantry to become a three-star general, commanding in both theaters of the U.S. campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. He participated in meetings with top-level military and civilian players, where strategy was made and managed. At the same time, he regularly carried a rifle alongside rank-and-file soldiers in combat actions - unusual for a general.
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An apolitical account of our recent wars.
- By DMgraphicGlass on 04-07-15
By: Daniel Bolger
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Putin's Wars
- From Chechnya to Ukraine
- By: Mark Galeotti
- Narrated by: David Sibley
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Putin's Wars is a timely overview of the conflicts in which Russia has been involved since Vladimir Putin became prime minister and then president of Russia, from the First Chechen War to the two military incursions into Georgia, the annexation of Crimea and the eventual invasion of Ukraine itself. But it also looks more broadly at Putin's recreation of Russian military power and its expansion to include a range of new capabilities, from mercenaries to operatives in a relentless information war against Western powers.
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Botched Attempt on Russian Stress
- By Alexey B. on 12-20-22
By: Mark Galeotti