Global war is a clash of systems, not just battalions biffing one another in some godforsaken forest. — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
“A forward patrol reported capturing a French headquarters near La Sénia, five miles south of Oran, but the office safe yielded only… — Rick Atkinson 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
“Tanks beached at X and Z were to race inland before dawn in a pincer movement to help capture two airfields south… — Rick Atkinson 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
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
“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
“blared “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” clearly audible on the hillcrest, where a lieutenant who was immune to the prevailing confidence of… — Rick Atkinson Confidence Copy Share Image
“Two great armadas would carry more than 100,000 troops to the invasion beaches. One fleet would sail 2,800 miles from Britain to… — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
“Occasionally the ideals seemed more honored in the breach than in the observance, but in times of moral quandary a conscientious officer… — Rick Atkinson Time Copy Share Image
“The troops also edged toward that timeless state common to veteran armies in which the men trusted no one less wretched than… — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
“Draconian censorship was soon imposed, with correspondents advised that no dispatches would be allowed that made people at home feel unhappy. Equally… — Rick Atkinson Censorship Copy Share Image
“Matthew Ridgway to command the XVIII Airborne Corps, Gavin had taken over the 82nd in mid-August. At thirty-seven he would be not… — Rick Atkinson Civil war Copy Share Image
“fifty-six, his hour had come round. He was a paradox and would always remain one, a great tangle of calculated mannerisms and… — Rick Atkinson Paradox 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 Royal navy Copy Share Image
“If U-boats torpedoed a transport during the Atlantic passage, how many destroyers should be left behind to pick up survivors? Hewitt was… — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
“Linguists holding bullhorns hollered, “A bas les Boches! A bas les Marcon! Down with the Boches! Down with the Macaronis! Vive la… — Rick Atkinson American flag Copy Share Image
“One man who did not understand was the New Zealanders’ legendary commander, Lieutenant General Bernard C. Freyberg. English-born but raised in New… — Rick Atkinson British empire Copy Share Image
The U.S. Army records alone for World War II weigh 17,000 tons, and even the best historians have not done more than… — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
“I could hear them yell and laugh each time and there was nothing I could do about it…. I saw them do… — Rick Atkinson 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 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 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 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 people who write official histories for the Army believe that a generation needs to pass before you can tackle the official… — Rick Atkinson 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 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 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
I'm going to leave WWII. I considered and rejected doing something on the Pacific. Fourteen years is enough. I'd like to take… — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
“High-prowed fishing smacks bobbed at their moorings along the riverbank, nets draped over the gunwales to dry. Stork nests, intricately thatched and… — Rick Atkinson Fish Copy Share Image
There are a number of World War II historians I admire: Cornelius Ryan, Mark Stoler, Antony Beevor, to name a few. As… — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
There is something within our biological structure that screams out and says it is morally wrong for the old to outlive the… — Rick Atkinson Life Copy Share Image
“In less than three years he would be the most celebrated American battle captain of the twentieth century, a man whose name—like… — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
“Shortly after sunset on November 5, the convoy began to swing east, past the Pillars of Hercules. Soon the fleet would split… — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
American audiences tend to underappreciate the British, but 240 years ago they were us: They were the most powerful nation on Earth.… — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
It's my belief that by demonizing Saddam, by raising the stakes in this war to the point where we're talking about a… — Rick Atkinson 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 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
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 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
