As a Tunnel Rat that spent time in the tunnels in the Iron Triangle, the "Tunnels of Cu Chi" recounts many of the episodes that happened in the area.

I used this book to explain the what part of my duties in VietNam was like. It tells the tale with out embelishment nor as a typical war story. I recommend it to all "Rats" familys to give them better understanding of what being a "Tunnel Rat" was like in VietNam.

This book gives the best account I've read of the tenacity, ingenuity and willingness to sacrifice that typified hard-core Viet Cong cadre. It gives a clear and detailed account of the tunnels; but even more, it offers us the personal, often emotional, stories of the men and women who built, lived in and fought from the tunnels, as well as the Americans who struggled against them. The unflinching accounts of our tunnel rats -- soldiers who had the supremely dangerous job of crawling into these tunnels, alone and armed only with a flashlight and a pistol -- are the most rivetting stories about the war I have seen. As an infantry medic in '68-'69, I never liked going into that area. Now the Tunnels of Cu Chi are preserved as a Vietnamese National Park, celebrated as a monument to both engineering and the human spirit. This book explains why.

I fought the war the authors describe and can tell readers and historians that this book is a watershed event. It is accurate, unbiased, and detailed. Mangold and Pennycate have brought history to life. Many of the events I experienced as a medevac pilot are captured from both sides (US and Vietnamese) in incredibly accurate detail. It explains details and causes of events that we experienced in a way we could never have known. I flew each of the helicopter missions they describe and I can say I did not know many of the explanations of events they have recorded here. This is a major historical document that will move us all in the direction of reconciliation. I am awed at the amount of research that went into the Tunnels of Cu Chi. It is a powerful piece of work. Joe Finch LTC USA (Ret.)

Plague Wars is a fascinating book that has become extremely topical in the wake of the terrorism that the US has been facing since September 11. The book is uneven, however, and certain sections are much stronger than others in the book.

The first third of the book is about the ex-Soviet and Russian programs and the information is very worrisome. The Russians created a massive biological warfare program that continues to threaten the lives of everyone in the world. Their efforts are so frightening both because of the size of their BW establishment, but also because of the artificial forms of viral agents they created for which there are no known antidotes. They spent fifty years using all of the strength of their scientific establishment to create the ultimate biological killing machines

The section about South Africa and Rhodesia was interesting since these regimes have used BW agents in the field against their enemies, but the detail is not as vivid as in the Russian section. The section on Iraq was much too short given the threat Iraq continues to pose to the West and especially given the Iraqi use of these agents against the Iranians and the Southern Shiites in Iraq as well as the gassing of the Kurds in the north of Iraq.

The most interesting sections in light of current events are about biological terrorism. The actions of the Japanese Aum Shiriko cult are evidence that the true risk of biological weapons is that they can be produced by well-financed groups rather than sovereign governments. Their failures in Japan are also evidence, however, of the difficulty of using BW agents in killing people and give us some comfort that doom is not around the corner. These chapters were obviously written prior to recent events, but chillingly predict what has come to pass in the US recently.

This book provides a brief history of modern biological warfare from its creation by Japanese Unit 731 during WWII through the BWC and Russia's subsequent violation of that treaty. Deals with the programs used by South Africa, Iraq, and others, giving a political background into the programs as well as the chronology.

Includes the text of the biological weapons convention (BWC), as well as brief descriptions of some of the main bacteria, viruses and toxins employed in this form of warfare.

Overall a good read for anyone looking for basic knowledge on the subject. For detail on the history of the US program, read "the Biology of Doom", and for the Russian program, "Biohazard" by Ken Alibek.

...

Modern biological warfare began during the 1930s, when the Japanese Army conducted atrocious experiments on Chinese prisoners using lethal bacteria. During the Cold War, both the Soviet Union and the U.S. rushed to build biological weapons programs. In 1972, the Biological Weapons Convention banned the development of bioweapons, supposedly ending the threat. But the threat was only beginning.

Plague Wars tells the stories of the secret battles that are still being waged in many nations, stories filled with international espionage, deceptions, and treachery. Recently, defectors and covert sources from third-world governments such as Iraq have revealed active biological weapons programs, despite international arms inspectors' attempts to eradicate them. A U.S. war game to prepare for a North Korean biological attack went so horribly wrong that the results are still classified. In South Africa, the use of bioweapons represents one of the last untold secrets of the apartheid battles, while in Zimbabwe, people are still dying of anthrax from the dirty wars of independence fought two decades ago. Fringe cults, apocalyptic madmen, and terrorists groups everywhere claim to own bioweapons, and are threatening to use them. Major Western cities are busily planning defenses against such an attack. ...

Researched across four continents with exceptional access to many sources from the United Nations, U.S. Department of Defense, and various civilian and military intelligence agencies, and using previously classified government documents, Tom Mangold and Jeff Goldberg have written the definitive account of the state of biological warfare in the world today. Never before has the complete scope of these terrifying weapons been so thoroughly examined.

A startling look into hidden facets of history, dark secrets of the present, and the anticipated horrors of a none-too-distant future, Plague Wars will make you reconsider your safety in a world where death is just a breath away.

I read this book several years ago, and found it to be very interesting and worthwhile. James Jesus Angleton was one of the early members of the CIA - a graduate of Yale which, at one time, was one of the primary recruiting grounds for the CIA. Angleton, according to the author, cut a very shadowy figure in an already shadowy world. Some of Mangold's text seems biased against Angleton, such as references to "The Trust" - an early counter intelligence operation created by Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Cheka. Angleton placed great emphasis on understanding this old operation. Mangold seems to deride this practice of Angelton's, which I felt was unfairly judgemental. Mangold, however, also describes an operation headed up my Angleton which caused the ruin of some productive CIA officers. All in all, though, the book is very interesting, and manages to submerge the reader into the world of counter intelligence during the cold war era. Counter Intelligence has been described by those who have practiced it as a "Wilderness of mirrors". After reading this book the reader will gain an appreciation, even if only superficial, of how nerve-racking the job could be - not knowing whom you can trust.

File on the Tsar is interesting as a compilation of escape theories popular in the 1970's, most of which have since been proven to be false, particularly in Radzinsky's The Last Tsar (which would be a good book to read after this one). Still, the writing style is engaging and the photos are well chosen. Take it's theories with a grain of salt and it is a fun read.

Sadly, with the advent of DNA and the fall of the iron curtain there is less and less mystery in history.

This book is a fine example of the fog and questions which surronunded the death (or disappereance) of the russian imperial family. However, as time has moved along, we now know that most of the ideas the authors suggest never occured.

That said I liked the book and felt that it gave a good treatmeant of the context within which the last Tsar and his family met their tragic end. The reader must always exercise caution about the conclusions even as you enjoy the text.