Category: interview

Russian and modern war history book – “Russian Hybrid Warfare” (Oxford University Press, 2018) – Ofer Fridman interview

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Ofer Fridman is an academic who has studied Russian military thinking for many years. We discussed his latest book on the concept of Russian Hybrid Warfare.

1:45 – Ofer talks about how he got into studying this topic of Hybrid Warfare. He found that Russia and the West saw hybrid warfare in two different ways.

7:39 – The term hybrid warfare is relatively new, maybe ten years old. The word is new but the phenomena is not.

10:02 – Ofer doesn’t like the term the term hybrid warfare. Three different concepts fall uner the term hybrid warfare.

12:20 – Partisans used to have access to the same weapons the armies had. But now the technology used by each is very different.

17:10 – In WWII, Russian partisans were fighting in different spaces than the regular Army.

20:35 – Ofer talks about the problem with the term in that it covers everything and thus nothing.

24:00 – War is a very definite concept. To call economic sanctions a war helps with politics but it confuses people as far as what a military can do.

25:45 – Ofer discusses the Ukraine example.

32:20 – Ofer talks about how he did his research.

34:30 – Russians believe they lost the Cold War in a very non-military way. The best students of the last war are those who were defeated but not conquered as the Russians experienced and the Germans after WWI.

40:30 – Ofer discusses a funny story about an early NATO documentary on hybrid warfare.

43:00 – Ofer discusses an interesting person named Yevgeny Messner. He was born in the late 19th century and did a lot of research on military matters. He was a Russian who fought the communists and then joined the Nazis in WWII. He then escaped to Argentina. Ofer talks about how his writings led to formal thinking about hybrid warfare.

50:30 – The purpose of war has become an undermining the adversary’s society since nuclear war has limited other military options.

58:07 – Putin is very clear as to what he plans to do. The West seems to miss his messages.

1:03:46 – Russians have their own version of Clausewitz. Western analysis of Russia often doesn’t look before the Soviet Union. The Russians have three ways of thinking about war. Soviet, Russian Imperial and Russian exiles way of thinking. Many Westerners are unaware of lots of this writing.

1:08:55 – He has a page on academia.edu.

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Ofer Fridman

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, hybrid warfare, Russia, the West, Ukraine, 2014, WWII, partisans, Hoffman, Cold War, Russian Revolution

Vietnam War history book – “Uncommon Valor” (Naval Institute Press, 2018) – Stephen L. Moore interview

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Stephen Moore is a marketing executive and journalist. He’s written numerous books and given lectures on Texas history and WWII. He’s written a new book on heroes of the Vietnam War and I spoke to him about this book.

1:34 – Stephen talks about how he got into this project through a family connection.

2:45 – Stephen talks about the book and how he interviewed the men the book is about. He attended their reunions to meet them. he interviewed Green Berets and also the pilots who flew them around in Vietnam.

4:51 – The book starts in Spring 1966 in Vietnam and goes into 1970. The area covers an area near Laos and Cambodia in North Vietnam.

8:40 – Stephen talks about their training and their rotations.

10:45 – Stephen talks about the Green Beret work with the Montagnards and how they earned their awards.

15:55 – Stephen also attended a 57th Helicopter Assault Company reunion too.

18:45 – Stephen talks about the helicopters would get the teams into the mission target area.

22:09 – Stephen talks about what information he gathered and used to do his research.

26:07 – Stephen talks how he reconciled differing stories.

28:46 – Stephen’s favorite part of the research was talking to the guys. He talks about prisoner snatch missions.

40:00 – Stephen was able to track down who was flying a plane that crashed during a Vietnam War mission. This information was unknown for 40 years.

42:50 – Stephen talks about some funny things that happened during the missions.

47:00 – Stephen talks about some of the stuff the Green Berets learned from the Montagnards.

53:10 – His website is StephenLMoore.com.

Links of interest

http://stephenlmoore.com/

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Stephen L. Moore

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, vietnam war, green berets, special forces, Navy SEALs, Helicopter assault, air force commandos, MACV-SOG, vietcong, medal of honor, purple heart, sacrifice, veterans, WWII

Cold War and modern naval history book – “U.S. Submarines Since 1945, Revised Edition” (Naval Institute Press, 2018) – Norman Friedman interview

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This is my second interview with naval historian Norman Friedman. He’s written extensively on US and British naval forces and in this episode I spoke to him about his latest book, a revised edition of his book on US submarines since 1945.

2:05 – Norman first talks about why he wrote on submarines.

3:45 – Since the end of the Cold War, the US has dealt more with rogue states and subs aren’t engaged much in that. However, subs are good at collecting intelligence and moving special forces.

6:33 – Submarines have installed much stronger computers to process information.

9:30 – We discuss computer systems aboard submarines.

11:51 – We talk about how German experiences in WWII affected how the US approached subs.

13:30 – The Navy had heavy bombing aircraft originally to bomb enemy sub bases.

16:37 – The US was trying many different engines before designing nuclear propulsion.

20:05 – Norman talks about the Scorpion accident. He also talks about the Thresher accident.

25:00 – Some sub related documents disappear because of the sheer amount of documents out there.

30:45 – Norman talks about sub deep-sea operations.

41:36 – In the book, Norman also talks about why things were used or changed on the subs.

51:15 – The conference in the 1950s to build a new kind of sub was unique.

 

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Norman Friedman

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, US, Navy, submarines, British Navy, Scorpion, Thresher, attack subs, WWII, world war two