Best Defense: Gen. Gorman's papers: Interesting, and a model for how to present documents Gen. Gorman's papers: Interestin...
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Gen. Gorman's papers: Interesting, and a model for how to present documents
The papers of retired Gen. Paul Gorman have been placed online. Recently I spent close to half a day looking through them. Gorman is an interesting figure, in the middle of things in Korea, in Vietnam and in the post-Vietnam rebuilding of the Army. I'd never before seen his speech proposing a kind of National ...
By Thomas E. Ricks
The papers of retired Gen. Paul Gorman have been placed online. Recently I spent close to half a day looking through them. Gorman is an interesting figure, in the middle of things in Korea, in Vietnam and in the post-Vietnam rebuilding of the Army. I'd never before seen his speech proposing a kind of National Training Center.
I found the papers intrinsically interesting, and his oral history, covering his time in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, as well as his role in the post-Vietnam rebuilding of the Army, is one of the best I've read. I'd recommend it especially to anyone interesting in learning about how to train soldiers.
But I also think this sort of presentation is a model for presenting the papers of significant figures. It was like a visit to the Army's Military History Institute -- without having to drive to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and eat lunch down the road at Sheetz's gas station.
The papers of retired Gen. Paul Gorman have been placed online. Recently I spent close to half a day looking through them. Gorman is an interesting figure, in the middle of things in Korea, in Vietnam and in the post-Vietnam rebuilding of the Army. I'd never before seen his speech proposing a kind of National Training Center.
I found the papers intrinsically interesting, and his oral history, covering his time in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, as well as his role in the post-Vietnam rebuilding of the Army, is one of the best I've read. I'd recommend it especially to anyone interesting in learning about how to train soldiers.
But I also think this sort of presentation is a model for presenting the papers of significant figures. It was like a visit to the Army's Military History Institute — without having to drive to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and eat lunch down the road at Sheetz's gas station.
Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1
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