Phony War

At the beginning of World War II the French faced the German invasion with 4,360 modern combat aircraft and 790 new machines currently arriving from French and American factories each month.

Bradley could have used a stronger editor. Sometimes this book becomes too personal, veers from history into polemic, and loses a professional tone. He gets carried away with his apparent anger at Theodore Roosevelt's phony PR image and racist world view. I appreciated his exposing many facts about the US actions in the Pacific, and it clarifies the motives behind them which I had not understood before.

The war in Iraq may be remembered as the point at which the propaganda model perfected in the twentieth century stopped working: the world is too complex, information is too plentiful, and-as events in Iraq reveal- propaganda makes bad policy.

The mere mention of Vera Lynn's name evokes images of London skies filled with a barrage of balloons, and Britons riding out the German blitz in shelters and underground stations. England's sweetheart during the trying times of World War II, Lynn was still in her twenties when she took on that role. She was born Vera Margaret Welch in London's East Ham, to Bertram and Annie Welch, one year before the close of the First World War. She began singing as a girl of seven, also studying dance as a child. She later took her maternal grandmother's maiden name as her stage name, and her natural, unaffected vocal style and charm brought Lynn early success on the radio. At age 18, she was singing with Joe Loss' orchestra, and she'd also begun recording for the Crown label.