“Proverbially, no military plan survives contact with the enemy. That is never truer than when there is no plan to begin with.” — Rick Atkinson Strategy Copy Share Image
“The more stars you have, the higher you climb the flagpole, the more of your ass is exposed,” — Rick Atkinson Fall Copy Share Image
I think the Bush Administration had basically inherited a policy toward Iraq from the Reagan/Bush Administration that saw Iraq as a kind… — Rick Atkinson Administration Copy Share Image
“They believed that overpowering the feeble French meant something. They believed in the righteousness of their cause, the inevitability of their victory,… — Rick Atkinson Justice Copy Share Image
I was with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq, really in the middle of nowhere, about 80 miles south of Baghdad. And… — Rick Atkinson About Copy Share Image
The people who write official histories for the Army believe that a generation needs to pass before you can tackle the official… — Rick Atkinson About Copy Share Image
There were almost 11,000 American soldiers killed in Germany in April of 1945, the last full month of the war. That's almost… — Rick Atkinson Absolutely Copy Share Image
“A popular aphorism soon circulated among frontline troops: “Never were so few commanded by so many from so far.” Asked why the… — Rick Atkinson Germans Failed Copy Share Image
“Sergeant Samuel Allen, Jr., a former college student who had led his own swing band in the palmy days of peace, tried… — Rick Atkinson College student Copy Share Image
In searching for a rationale to go to war, Bush settled on the notion of Saddam as an incarnation of evil, basically,… — Rick Atkinson Acting Copy Share Image
“Ernie Pyle, who was with them as usual, wrote: “They were dead weary, as a person could tell even when looking at… — Rick Atkinson Exhaustion Copy Share Image
“Derrien had issued his battle cry, he annulled it by order of Vichy. “November 8, we fight everybody,” he wrote privately. “November… — Rick Atkinson Battle cry Copy Share Image
“In the first half of 1944, battle casualty rates for every 1,000 bomber crewmen serving six months in combat included 712 killed… — Rick Atkinson Japanese Copy Share Image
“TWO hundred and thirty nautical miles southeast of Gibraltar, Oran perched above the sea, a splinter of Europe cast onto the African… — Rick Atkinson Red wine Copy Share Image
“Terry Allen and a larger portion of his 1st Division descended on Oran from the sandstone hills above St. Cloud, a key… — Rick Atkinson Troops African Copy Share Image
“Allen left the academy, graduated from Catholic University, and took a commission in 1912. Wounded at Saint-Mihiel in 1918 and carried from… — Rick Atkinson Allen Copy Share Image
“Even Colonel Lang, watching the Americans from the other side of Djebel Naemia, had been surprised by their timid initial approach to… — Rick Atkinson Decisive Battle Copy Share Image
“TWENTY-SEVEN acres of headstones fill the American military cemetery at Carthage, Tunisia. There are no obelisks, no tombs, no ostentatious monuments, just… — Rick Atkinson American military Copy Share Image
“If you don’t succeed, I don’t want to see you alive,” he advised. “I see no point in surviving defeat, and I… — Rick Atkinson Defeat Copy Share Image
“A soldier doesn’t fight to save suffering humanity or any other nonsense. He fights to prove that his unit is the best… — Rick Atkinson Peace Copy Share Image
I conduct very few interviews with veterans. The contemporaneous, or near-contemporaneous, record for WWII is so spectacularly deep that latter-day recollections are… — Rick Atkinson Account Copy Share Image
“A soldier would snake his way painfully through rocks and rubble to set up a light machine gun, raise his head cautiously… — Rick Atkinson Computers Copy Share Image
Hitler had a police state of the first order. And those who showed any sign of being weak-kneed faced prison or often… — Rick Atkinson Any Copy Share Image
“Like any army moving from war to peace, this Army was entering a period in which it would search high and low… — Rick Atkinson Peace Copy Share Image
That was a pretty fine Army that we had in 1965. By 1973, it was in tatters. It was a disgrace to… — Rick Atkinson Army Copy Share Image
“To his brother Edgar he confided, “I suffer from the usual difficulty that besets the higher commander—things can be ordered and started,… — Rick Atkinson Brother Copy Share Image
“Tanks beached at X and Z were to race inland before dawn in a pincer movement to help capture two airfields south… — Rick Atkinson Oran Operation Copy Share Image
“All the confusion that characterized the cargo loading now attended the convergence of 34,000 soldiers on Hampton Roads. Troop trains with blinds… — Rick Atkinson Soldiers Copy Share Image
Almost everything about American society is affected by World War II: our feelings about race; our feelings about gender and the empowerment… — Rick Atkinson About Copy Share Image
“Brooke’s deputy, General Sir John Kennedy, observed of Churchill: “He is difficult enough when things are going badly, more difficult when nothing… — Rick Atkinson Churchill Difficult Copy Share Image
“more than 300 other ships bound for Algeria steamed from anchorages on the Clyde and along England’s west coast. For all these… — Rick Atkinson West coast Copy Share Image
The spring of 1942 was given over to a very impassioned, strategic debate about where we should first attack in counterpunching against… — Rick Atkinson About Copy Share Image
“an infantry captain addressed his men: “We do not pray for victory, nor even for our individual safety. But we pray for… — Rick Atkinson Eisenhower Copy Share Image
“On October 14, Patton sent identical letters to all his senior commanders: “If you don’t succeed, I don’t want to see you… — Rick Atkinson Defeat Copy Share Image
I was born in Munich, and my father was stationed in Salzburg. For the first three years of my life, I lived… — Rick Atkinson American army Copy Share Image
“Some fired, others balked. Decanted onto a strange, dark shore, many men feared shooting their own. The hillsides hissed with the night’s… — Rick Atkinson Men Feared Copy Share Image
“In a phone call one evening the corps commander grew incensed when Ward mentioned his good fortune in losing no officers in… — Rick Atkinson Peace Copy Share Image
“The largest contingent of invaders—drawn from the U.S. 1st Infantry and 1st Armored divisions aboard thirty-four transport ships—would storm ashore at Beach… — Rick Atkinson Invaders Copy Share Image
“To make it perfectly clear to you: suppose you lose a hand or an ear is shot off, or perhaps a piece… — Rick Atkinson Shot Copy Share Image
“As a battalion commander in France, it was said, he had once pulled a pistol on a hesitant junior officer and shot… — Rick Atkinson Bullet Copy Share Image
