Where he is also the founding director of the dale center forr the study of war. And society. Hey has several major publications including vietnams forgotten her with them and betrayal for which he won the society for military history, distinguished book award. So dr. Weiss i know i mispronounce part of that would take it away. [applause] good afternoon. I have the honor today of hosting the america war panel here at the book vessel would to thank the organizers especially ellen Rogers Daniels we talked earlier butterflies on it. What to think the audience membersin here and a person andn cspan for joining us today. You are all in for a treat. We get to talk about for a book that cover the entire span of history all the way from how the creeks were set up as a nation all the way up to Operation Iraqi freedom. Arent be onke in 2003 but first like to introduce our panelists. In the order that they appear in your program which will also be the order in which i throw questions their way. My first of the far right is emily who worked as a family physician on the Navajo Nation for many years and taught in rural colorado. Poetry of mathematics i dont understand poetry or mathematics teacher i would be impressed read that at some point. I was here to discuss her book o1000 pages left behind one childrens account of jungle war for and burma. Next is a colleague of mine at the university of southern mississippi a senior fellow in the center for word society. Shes the author of many books. I will mention to hear saigon at war South Vietnam in the global 60s should be on combat women and gender in the era today is here to discuss her new book titled 21 days to baghdad theral buford and blunt Third Infantry Division in the iraq war. Up to my far left is Peter Cozzens the author or editor of 18 acclaimed books on the American Civil War member of the advisory country for the lincoln prize the Foreign Service association that william r rifkin award given annually one Service Officer for their moral courage, integrity and creative dissents. A brutal reckoning the ethic or for the American South for ath final panelist today is chris is the creator and lead writer legendsm of the old west a longform narrative podcast that tells two stories of the American West. Arizona State University and has won numerous local, state, National Awards for his writing for today chris is here to discuss his first book until december of 1876 now it was to begin a discussion the books in order the authors were just introduced which means i will throw a couple questions to emily first. For those who have not had chance to read her book on millies 1000 paces left behind is detachment 101 of the u. S. Army that operated behind japanese lines in the burma theater of world war ii. A unit which her father served. The japanese had rolled victories against both us and the british in Southeast Asia ever since pearl harbor leaving us in the military. One prefers local counterattacks most of use of special operators put the daunting task of penetrating behind japanese lines and selling sales and jungles of burma for the story of 1000 paces left behind is one of Great Success operating against all odds in fearful terrain alongside a local Indigenous Group called the kachin people. There is one get that wrong. My first question for emily today is why do you think your fathers unit was so successful against such long odds . What did they do right . As you mention it is sort of a memoir that was a long time coming. As dictated into a tape recorder six years after the fact. He was for the majority of time but for the purposesof of the bk we say burma that is what all that t literature at the time. Were in the northern part of burma and the oss and other intelligence Gathering Services oss stands for office of Strategic Services for anyone who doesnt hubei not know. It was sort of the military intelligence group. You have the mandate to cause trouble in addition to just getting information for their very successful in that. The underlying thread through his book was learned the language of the local people, ask for their advice and others in oss 101 were respectful of the culture of the people. And he, as a 21yearold figured out the way to survive is any village or town that he went to he wouldul ask elders that they would consider going with advisors. In all of his adventures there. Its very key to the had irdinary success they think the oss as a whole had probably less than thousand casualties. Part of that is because for most of that was because of the people and the help they gave us for a lot of us do not know about that. Thats a part of the reason we wanted to get the book out there. The best question i want to ask is the china burma india theater isbl probably the least research especially in the theater of world war ii. I teach a class on world war ii and the people are even more underresearched. I had never even heard of them and i hate to admit as somebody who gives a final exams on world war ii. Who were they and why are they so understudied as well . There a lot of ethnic groups as people probably know. There are many different people even in northern burma. This group is the Largest Group in the area where the americans were which was very north of burma the british were a little south. They were a good group to affiliate with because theydi dd not want anyone invading their countrymen the japanese had already started to do this. They were already fighting at that point when we arrived. They were a natural ally. They did a lot for us. Doctor wrote under song heroes of that war. Now your dad actually have this wonderful chance to go back to burma to reconnect with some of these people. How long ago after the war was that . What was it like for your dad to go back . Did he meet anybody hed actually served with . Yes. Oss veterans wanted to do something for a long time. There were able to for lots of Different Reasons political reasons and things going on. But when they all reach retirement age most other family obligations were out of the way, they started and there is a little window and burma also. They started some projects to help. Three different projects owns brickandmortar schools, they translated the book where there is no doctor period which is a david warner book thats been around for a while. They distributed those. The main thing they did was project old soldier which is a farm promoting thing. They got seeds and expertise for agricultural people in the United States. And they went over. This was in the mid 90s from 96 until the last veteran who was involved died in 2017 they kept the program work and they met a lot of people who were in his battalion but most of the ones that had been in position had already died. Hethere a lot of people had serd with him and its very wonderful experience. If youve had a chance to read the book you will understand the genesis of it dates back to your father telling you stories when you are young. What is it like to write a book about your father . What processes you have to go through to collect those stories . No doubt your memory us on this campfire stories had to be perishable. How did you go back and get them all . Soon it became apparent i dad was not going to write his book my youngest brother sat hima dn the tape recorder and a map of burma. It was very detailed. We just went through where he went and he told all of the stories. And we had that 17 tapes transcribed their 800 pages of stories mom youre still alive started working on editing. Even after he died some of the stories did not include any secondhand stories really. Anything he told happened to somebody else it was what had happened to him. Then we tried as best we could to fact check. Most of the people by that time had gone so it was hard to do that. Theres some books referred to was his Commanding Officer called behind the burma road there were some otherom books. There is a history he wrote a book. Wewe use those to touch base. But it wasnt difficultlt we trd to do the best we could. If you read it you will know what it is it is an oral history told by an old guy who had a lot of great war stories. The really good insights into war on foreign soil at what we canen do when we do that. Each of these books a i have0 minutes worth of questions before through onto the next one. It could last for this if you read the book has so many Great Stories to myvo favorites where your dad getting shot in the butt by a bullet ricochet and a tiger attacking people of all things. Do you have a favorite little story that stuck with you the most . My story is a story in the book called guide for general merrill. My dad sent a message that he needed to provide a guide across this thick tract of flat jungle. Real briefly he went to his elders and asked can you get me a guide . They said no we cant treat no ones been across there. They said there was one guy who hunted in their he had a son, that maybe he could guide you. He bring his son up and his son is maybe 12. Its every went over the average height used to be five four hes also very tiny. We estate here the story when we were kids. There is thisye little boy who said yes i can do this. Until my dad takes him to general merrill any kind of looks at him but he says okay. Leads into 40 miles of jungle and it is a great interesting story. It tells you a little bit about the people there. How responsible they are such an earlyth age and how they know so much about the jungle so significantly. And who she refers to is the famous merrill of merrills marauders. It is now time for heather to get in the hot seat. I was going to say nobody heres had a chance to read the book because it is not out yet. It is that one of the new first get the holter book in your hand and i got to see her hold her book for her first time in her hand today. That is 21 days to baghdad focuses on Operation Iraqi freedom through the career in the eyes of general buford blunt who led the u. S. Forces the Third Infantry Division went too baghdad in 2003. At the book thats part biography impart battle history. As a character hold that together . Because as a republican history. Versant drew me too this project was general blunt himself present fastening Family History. One of his sisters did genealogy of the family and she was able to trace their ancestry back to a couple of brothers who fought the battle of hastings. They have a long military tradition in their family. They have had ancestors who fought at almost every u. S. War since the american revolution. And so that Family History made in fastening to me as i got to know him and learn about that. Hes also an mississippi. They marked relatives in mississippi as early as the beginning of the 19th century. Eventually settled in the area. General did not grow from up inmississippi because his far was a career military. Should pesek life herself after world war ii and the cold war. And so i was interested in general blunt himself. As we talked him especially about the invasion of iraq and the drive to baghdad invasion from crossing from kuwait all into getting into baghdad. One is said to make the decision early on to split the division to take two routes from baghdad. The highway on the other is the vehicles from the western desert. His thought was of got 10,000 more than 300 kilometers. We could do that all on one paved road thats what it takes a long time. Or, we can split off in the track vehicles can handle he sant going on the desert sand. Baghde the invasion. The reason why he came up with that is because he spent several years serving with the u. S. Army in saudi arabia. He was, the advisor to the modernization of the Saudi National guard, and he talked about being in his office in riyadh and imagining desert and particularly imagining tanks as warfare. It was from that experience that he realized, we can actually do this and get all of your vehicles to baghdad more quickly. He sold it to his superiors and the division did that. Another example of something that he did that was significant to how the invasion played out is that he pushed for speed. Speed in terms of getting to baghdad. Any waiting allow it is enemy to regroup, what forces are doing and to make a plan and he always pushed speed even when others might caution we are not sure about going through this area, i dont knowhi if we can go throuh it quickly. He always pushed speed and therefore the division made it ito baghdad in 21 days, a drive that initially thought it would take six months. They did it in three weeks. The third i was not to go into baghdad, just outside the city and the 101st airborne was going to go into baghdad but one of the areas where the iraqis had success against u. S. Forces was with their antiaircraft forces. That they werera shooting down helicopters and really getting at american air power in a way that americans hadnt expected so general blunt went to his superiors and said an air assault into baghdad, iraqis are going to have a chance to get at us and get in the way of us become successful in air assault. Let the thirdul id make land assault into baghdad where we have trained for this, we are prepared for this and i know that my division can make this happen and, again, his superiors gavesi him the green light. So he it became very clear to me as i was getting to know him and talking to him that as Division Commander he actually was very significant to how the invasion of iraq and the drive to baghdad and the entry into baghdado played out. Of course, the conquest of baghdad so quickly and really y unexpectedly was an incredibly military fleet to pull off. What did blunt thinkd of the conversation . Secure the city and that is the mission. That was the mission that the division trained for and the division executed and once the division was in baghdad it became clear that there wasnt a plan for what happened next and part of the reason was for how quickly the division arrived in baghdad, planners in the pentagon were trying to figure out what the next phase was going to be because they didnt expect for baghdad to fall as quickly as they did so there wasnt a plan in place for what happened next. There really wasnt a sense of who would take over in baghdad once the Third Infantry Division and otherer elements, the 101st airborne, 82nd airborne, who was going to come in and take over. So meanwhile as conversations are being had, what is going to happen next, general blunt decided, well, the third id is here and we know that iraqi citizens have needs, so what we are going to do now is try to figure out how to meet those needs tosi the best we can since we are here and he would begin to go out and went out on his own with a couple of members of his staff andal walkthrough neighborhoods and see if there were people out that he could talk to do find out what do people need. So people needed electricity turned back on. Saddam hussein electrified parts of baghdad where he did have Political Support and did not electrify where he he had political opposition. He would send units of engineers to make that happen. Sometimes that involved having to find the person who had the key to the power plant in that neighborhood to let them in do to the do the work that needed to be done and he was on the ground doing this with his staff. Th another thing that he went around to do to see what was needed in hospitals, if hospitals were equipped and if there was anything that the division could provide to hospitals, making sure that people had propane for their cooking stoves. That was the way that most iraqi kitchens operated, they needed propane. His mindset was he want the people of baghdad to believe that what we did was good for them and so if weve here, we are still here, lets try to make their basic needs met. Now, one of the issues that there are a lot of complicating factors here one of them being that the soldiers to have Third Infantry Division understood capture baghdad, secure baghdad and once that is done someone else will come in and take care of the postcar activities. Well, the third idea achieved that mission. But they werent coming home and so soldiers began to morale of soldiers began to decline, families back home in fort stewart, georgia which is where the Third Infantry Division is headquartered began to get restless. There were some spouses who wrote newspapers to the post, wrote letters to the post newspaper expressing this, why arent our familyy members comig home. We were told that they were to get to baghdad. They did that, they should be home by now. And because of that, those discussions, those conversations concerns about soldiers morale, the division began to be withdrawn and sent back to the u. S. Now general blunt asked to stay. He said, okay, send my soldiers home, keep me here with the team. Actually elements of the second tbrigade, Infantry Division wet tolt fallujah and general blunt felt what happened in fallujah will continue. There was unrest in fallujah, antiamerican sentiment and the commander of the second brigade and some of his staff met with the mayor of fallujah and city leaders and figured out what they could do to help in fallujah and from general blunts perspective subdued the underlyingla antiamericanism and unrest that was beginning to boil up there. So he holds up fallujah in the summer of 2003 as an example of the success that could have been if that kind of local engagement had continued. Another issue that posed a problem was that the administration of george w. Bush didnt want to have a large heavy Division Like the third viinfantry, Armored Division remain in iraq. That they had done the job that they were given, they needed to come home and it would be diplomats and others that would handle what was going to hap