Mark Bowden (1)Rezensionen

Mark Bowden’s choice of title The Last Stone is apt for indeed no stone was left unturned until a 38-year-old cold case was finally solved. Over the last years there has been a massive amount of true crime publications of recently solved cold cases. Bowden’s work stands out. The author provides hours of original interrogation records of suspects and perpetrators which are gems on their own. Listening to the skillful interrogators and how they finally got what was needed to solve the case is fascinating,the insights this provides on human nature, an eye-opener. The case itself is no less fascinating, if horrendous. In 1975 two girls aged 10 and 12 disappeared without a trace. Last seen in a shopping mall, the disappearance of the two young girls, coming from a loving suburban home produced an uproar. The parents were devastated and despite the media attention it received, the tireless efforts invested by the police, the case remained unsolved until 2012. Then the case was reviewed and a trail already having become cold got hot again. What the parents had to endure gets little mention in this book but perhaps it was just as well. Their terror must have been unimaginable. I have listeners to Bowden’s audiobook and the reader did a fantastic job in covering a range of accents, especially the hillbilly Virginian. On the objective side,the book is extremely well-researched. The prose is objective and straightforward, suitable for the genre. Yet, courtesy of the realism conveyed so well, the unadulterated interviews we follow, and the serpentine, heroic struggle of a few untiring detectives, one gets emotionally involved quickly, and when towards the end it all comes to a head and the sky falls in on the perpetrators, we get great great satisfaction from justice served, well and from a cold platter.

I really love Bowden’s writing style. I’m a huge fan of [b:Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War|55403|Black Hawk Down A Story of Modern War|Mark Bowden|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442149156s/55403.jpg|1041952] and I wasn’t disappointed by this one either. Bowden tells the story of one of the pivotal battles of the Vietnam war utilizing eye witness account, news stories and primary source information from archives and libraries. It was the first urban battle fought by the US military since the Korean War over 15 years prior. The story is told from both sides and also has some insight from the civilian perspective. There are stories of incredible individual bravery and also just plain luck, leaving the reader with the wonder how anyone survived this battle.

Bowden does a good job of summarizing the political environment surrounding the battle and the attitude in general of the American public to the war in late ’67/early ’68. The Tet offensive caught the American leadership completely by surprise and a week into the battle were still in denial as to the scale of the attack on Hue. Wesmoreland isn’t portrayed in a particularly good light, his repeated and blatant denials of what was really going on somewhat unbelievable but plainly reflected in the TV interviews and declassified communiques of the time. One of Bowden’s conclusions and main points is that the Tet offensive and its aftermath would forever change America’s attitude toward her leaders - they would never again be blindly trusted.

I highly recommend this book. If one is interested in the entire conflict, watch the excellent eighteen or so hour PBS documentary series on the Vietnam War produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. A whole episode is spent on Tet, with pretty much the same conclusions as Bowden.

History at its best. Bowden puts you on the bridge, dodging bullets. And you know why you're on that bridge and who screwed up to make it so.

Some great stories and some okay stories...

An intriguing, beguiling, fascinating, daunting, and sobering story for the wonk in the deepest part of me. Years from now this may be seen as the first of many books about digital warfare. And the question may linger: why didn't we do more back then?

An engrossing story centered around the 66 hostages kept for over 400 days after the Iranians overtook the U.S. embassy in Teheran. Bowden interviewed the hostages, the Iranian revolutionaries, the special forces sent on the failed recovery mission, and had access to White House decision making.

As a former Air Force rescue pilot, I intently followed the execution of the daring and doomed rescue attempt. I also developed new respect for the agonizing decisions of President Carter.

This is well worth the time to plow through over 600 pages of details and gain insight into the Iranian mind.

Fascinating account that shows the ingenuity and courage of spec ops forces. Closes a long and terrible chapter in our history.

A gripping recounting of a real-life modern military operation that went sideways, where a small, elite force of US soldiers fought a large number of Somali militia and civilians on urban terrain. There is bravery and brutality, professionalism and incompetence. The book was better than the movie, filling in details of the background and feelings of individual soldiers making their stories more powerful. The difference in culture between the Rangers and Delta Force and how it affected their ability to work together was really interesting, and having several Somali points-of-view made for a good contrast. The last-ditch defense of a downed helicopter, and the terrible gauntlet run by vehicles trying to drive through the city stick in my mind.

I suspect this book will be most interesting to people from Maryland, like myself, and the author. It centers on the west Baltimore neighborhood called "Sandtown" near Mondawmin Mall. If asked, friends and family probably never heard of Sandtown because it's not the place anyone goes, yet it's only 10 miles from my lifelong home, 3 miles from where I was born. It is one of the deadliest places in Maryland, if not the country. Out of curiosity I drove through it in the 1990s and was scared. There were few functioning cars, burned out wrecks lined the streets. Homes had no windows and litter was everywhere. Kids stopped and stared, with a surprised then menacing look. The only reason someone like me would be there would be to buy drugs. I got out feeling as though I was in another country, another world. This book concerns one such street kid who was more "successful" then the rest, he killed his way to the top, and kept killing because why not.

There is a lot of incidental detail about killings. The relationships, motivations, methods. It's not always about money or drugs, someone said the wrong thing, looked the wrong way, or even it was a mistake. It's a war zone, they know it, they call outsiders "civilians" because they are not in the "game" with the rules. Mostly it's kids trying to be "real" (gangsters). Bowden does a good job keeping it real, not romanticizing like we might see in The Wire. The main character is no tough guy, rather someone who knows how to act the part.

Street kids, like stray dogs, are a phenomenon all over the world. Every country has them. I've read a number of books on this topic and it's not pretty. However bad Baltimore is, it's nothing as bad as cities in Africa or Latin America. In the USA at least some unmentionable thing don't happen that occurs elsewhere. The degree of violence and callousness is quite serious though.

“But there was blame enough for both sides. The storm of war blew flat all semblance of law, logic, and decency. To soldiers there was a kind of order - causes and lines to be defended, soldiers who were either friend or enemy - but to civilians it was just savagery”

You know, as a real deal principled Marxist (wink wink), I should be staunchly and vehemently against this sort of thing. The American War in Vietnam was a reprehensible blot on the already blot-ridden history of “Western Civilisation” (bearing in mind that nearly all of history is, of course, constituted almost wholly by blots - but we have been particularly naughty in this regard). Bowden does try his hand at bipartisanship, although it does seem that for large swathes of the narrative the soldiers from the Front are just portrayed as cannon fodder for our good ol’ boys (admittedly the battle scenes, the descriptions of clearing houses and city tactics were enthralling each and every time - whenever a Zippo or an Onto is whipped out you kinda go ‘oh shit it’s go time fellas’) . I’m amazed that in the postscript he has to mention that he has received a fair amount of criticism for trying to don such a perspective, as a great deal of emphasis is placed on the North Vietnamese’s barbarity and skill - there’s no justification for anything they do, aside from showing how they wanted to stretch out the battle to drain the US’ motivation to fight (attrition of the national will). Bowden goes with the age old ‘lions led by donkeys’ approach, with General Westmoreland being portrayed as the biggest, most negligent dipshit in the armed forces at that time (Khe Sanh forever à venir).

Taking a critical stance toward the American War as an established prerequisite (unjustified shitshow, as one source has it the US were ‘effective heirs to colonial authority’), you still have to take your hats off to the heroism shown by some of the American troops out there, at least within the context of Hue provided here. Medics and amateur teenage soldiers alike threw themselves down to retrieve their wounded and dying fellow men, often catching stray rounds to the head and neck and dying where they stood. Their sheer balls-to-the-wall will to dig in their heels and not retreat when faced with incredibly unfavourable odds, surrounded on all sides by overwhelming enemy forces, is truly admirable. I do think that particularity can transcend the universal, the universal here being an ideological lens through which to perceive and sift events (not to ascertain some always-already preformed, holistic meaning, but instead a principled method of analysis/organon that provides valid formulations which are authentically wrought from events as and when they unfold). What am I saying here in concrete terms? American soldiers participating in an unjust war did good things, and can indeed be worthy of veneration and respect. Barbarism abounded, but the good stood as an undercurrent, the wellspring of the ethical came up, as it always does. We do not denigrate our ideological commitments by recognising valour, or perhaps we do, and the particular, the concrete situation, easily trumps the importance of ideological consistency (hell I've been reading Levinas, give me a break).

I also think, and this must have occurred somewhere and I just haven’t done the necessary research, that there needs to be serious thought dedicated to why the nhan dan (’the people’) didn’t rise up and support the effort on behalf of the Viet Cong? It can’t just be marked down to false consciousness, and the population of Hue can’t be branded as vulgar reactionaries, class-traitors, anti-revolutionaries etc. etc. something fundamentally wrong occurred, a massive miscalculation. Bowden asserts that it came down to pure survival instinct, and admits that the fight in Hue did show a chink in the armour when it came to the legitimacy of the South Vietnamese regime - they now had to make a choice, and then history did its thing and wrote itself (what is Saigon called nowadays, I hear you proclaim - and I’m also aware that ‘chink in the armour’ probably isn’t the most appropriate metaphor given the context… tut tut tut). Anyway, that’s enough thinking from me. Shoutout to my dawg Ernie Cheatham, that fucker was as hard as nails (the principled commie and love of Shane Gillis semper fi fuck yeah attitude within me are currently at war, who knows who will win??).

The Americans should have just listened to good old Uncle Ho - this wasn’t a question of containment and communism, it was one of national self-determination against colonial oppression, a cause the US (if it can truly say with a straight face that it rallies behind the ideals of freedom, liberty and all of its derivatives) should have been a proponent of. Pretty great book.

Compelling. Sad. Tragic. Pathetic. Gut-wrenching.

Just a few of the words I have used to describe this true crime book by Mark Bowden. What makes it even more horrific is that it is true. A sadistic monster brutally kidnaps, rapes and viciously murders two innocent little girls, ages 10 and 12.

Told from the POV of the suspects own taped interviews with detectives over the course of 2-3 years. A narrative where you find yourself shaking your head and thinking about your own kids.

Highly recommended.

A balanced account of the 1968 battles in Hué constructed in the author's style from many first person accounts on both sides and from trapped civilians. Perhaps because of the hectic nature of the battle, the multiple simultaneous areas of action, and the number of people involved, the story can get confusing. The maps are helpful, but you will need a magnifying glass to see them on the Kindle. The sometimes chaotic nature of this assemblage is brought home in chapter 13, where Bowden starts to end his story with the longer and uninterrupted story of Alvin Bert Grantham. I found it to be the best and most moving part of the book. There is also an excellent epilogue with a laudably clear view of the whole battle and its consequences. If you are interested in leadership, this account has many fine examples of the best and the worst, from a corporal thrust unexpectedly into a battlefield leadership role to Westmoreland and LBJ at the top.

Bowden's books are most entertaining when they are written like novels with dialogue. In order to do that, and have good journalism, he has to have access to reliable witnesses so he can recreate the scene. He is able to do that here from information that must have come from Eduardo Mendoza the former vice minister of Justice. The part of the story when Sr. Mendoza tells how he was sent to see Pablo Escobar in his "prison" is great. The rest of the story is more ordinary and seems a little overdone.

A well written history of the battle for Hue, during the Tet Offensive, in the Vietnamese war. It focuses on the American participation, largely ignoring the ARVN role. Well worth reading.

since they never found the bodies the whole thing is kinda untenable. the investigators come off as jerks.

Matar a Pablo Escobar es la historia del brutal ascenso y violento fin del capo del narcotráfico colombiano cuyo imperio criminal aterrorizó a un país de más de treinta millones de habitantes. Mark Bowden desvela en este intenso y muy bien documentado relato, los detalles más celosamente guardados por las personas que dirigieron, durante dieciséis meses, su persecución y muerte.

Another great book by the author, Mark Bowden! As always, it is impeccably researched, and backstopped with copious footnotes. With all his research and background information, one would expect a dry, boring book. Not at all! The story moves along rapidly, much like any good fiction crime novel. Well developed characters, an intriguing plot, and many shocks and surprises along the way.
It's the story of a "small" but extremely violent street gang leader in Baltimore, Maryland. It takes place primarily during the 2010's. Montana Barronette was the leader of the gang, named "TTG", for Trained To Go. In just a short time, they became the most violent, murdering, drug dealing group in the history of Baltimore. The book chronicles his rise in "stature", his crimes, and the eventual downfall and imprisoning of the members.
Bowden also deftly weaves in the story of Baltimore's racial history, it's problems, the problems with gangs, and with law enforcement. Being from the Baltimore area, it's an area Bowden knows well.
This is a book that you will want to set aside a good chunk of time for, because it's a promise that you will not be able to put it down! It's that good!

Excellent account of war in Somalia against guerrilla rebels soldiers and how a convoy attempted to rescue some Black Hawk helicopter pilots who had been shot down.

Black Hawk Down, the call signal which ushered in a nightmarish fiasco for US Military forces in Somalia almost a century after Custer's deplorable mismanagement at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Similarities in both catastrophes are astounding and telling-an arrogant command staff is more lethal than sprayed fire from a frontline enemy.

What went wrong and why? Bowden answers these very uncomfortable questions in this book. It reads like a postmortem exculpation of the men on the ground while cross examining and damning the command staff on the basis of substantial evidence. 'Black Hawk Down'-a must read for all leaders wishing to avoid cataclysmic errors which can spell the end of multiple careers and lives.

Mogadiscio, Somalia, domingo 3 de octubre de 1993. Noventa y nueve soldados de élite estadounidenses están atrapados en medio de una ciudad hostil. Cae la noche y miles de enemigos armados los rodean. Los heridos mueren desangrados.brLas municiones y las provisiones se están acabando. Este es el relato de cómo y por qué llegaron allí y de su lucha por salir vivos.brLa dramática narración del periodista Mark Bowden, ganador de varios premios literarios, reproduce esta experiencia terrible a través de los ojos de los jóvenes que combatieron en aquella batalla. Bowden reúne aquí los testimonios de entrevistas, retransmisiones radiofónicas y videos considerados secretos.

I am reminded of the comment of a friend who was a parole officer in Prince Georges County, Maryland, where some of the suspects lived: "I don't know how to feel about my clients; they are simultaneously so pathetic and so vicious."

This isn't a particularly exciting read, but I think that is very educational, and both heartening and disheartening. I am moved by the dedication of the detectives, sifting the tedious lies in an attempt to solve the case. Disheartening, in that for all their labor, they cannot really get to the whole truth of this horrific 40-year-old cold case. They are left knowing that very likely Lloyd Welch, who was convicted, didn't act alone, and while they have strong suspicions about his accomplices, they can't prove their involvement.

This is an amazingly detailed account. the author posits that it may be the most accurate account of a real battle ever written, and he probably correct. Using the transcripts of the audio chatter, and hundreds of interviews of rangers, deltas, seals, and even Somalis Bowden paints one of the most realistic account of this savage operation.

This book is a warning about the dangers facing democracy in the USA. Trump's attempt to overthrow the 2020 election was only stopped by election workers, many who were Republicans who took their oaths to serve honestly to heart and the many judges, some Republicans, who refused to ignore the law and threw out the many challenges that Trump lawyers brought to their courtrooms.

It is heartbreaking to read of honest, dedicated election workers, many again Republican by party affiliation who were threaten, ridiculed and abused in some cases to the point their health was put in jeopardy. In some instances, they faced threats of injury or death and had to go into hiding all because Trump had convinced some of his followers that he had been cheated out of winning the election.

There are extensive notes at the end of the book if one wishes to follow the thread and confirm what the authors have explained. One note is telling in that it explains how TV cameras were allowed at Trump rallies if they signed an agreement not to move their view from the main speaker to the audience. Then Trump would exclaim that the media never showed the crowds at his "full capacity" rallies and then he would extol the cameras to show the crowd which they could not do since they had sign an agreement not to move. Trump would then accuse the media of not showing the truth about his large rallies.

It is remarkable how many people believe the election was stolen even when presented with much evidence, some of which they had provided themselves, that this was not the case.

I was interested in this book because some of the events took place in Montgomery county and some in Prince Georges county, Maryland.

This should be the last of book or video I’m reading or watching about the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-1980 for a while. I feel as if I’ve got a good handle on it. The reason this is the last book is because the writer is Mark Bowden. He is thorough, a good writer and has a pleasant voice. This book helped put the things I learned after reading and watching things from a few perspectives into the big picture.

When the audio book ending I had the biggest shock of all—it was an abridgement. This was the best abridgement I have ever heard. The staff at Simon & Simon Audio did an outstanding job.