Michael Lee Lanning

The first thoroughly accurate book on the subject recounts the experiences of American snipers in Vietnam, their instructors, the founders of their program, and the generals to whom they reported. By the author of Inside the LRRPs. Reissue.

Snipers in Vietnam

Inside the Crosshairs

In war, the difference between life and death often hinges on the accuracy of gathered information. Pearl Harbor and Vietnam are notorious examples of what has been the rule rather than the exception: from Bunker Hill to Mogadishu, U.S. military intelligence has placed troops in peril with faulty prognoses and erroneous data. In Senseless Secrets, Michael Lee Lanning, a decorated U.S. Army veteran, holds military intelligence accountable for errors in every major conflict from the Revolutnioary War to Operation Desert Storm.

The Failures of U.S. Military Intelligence from George Washington to the Present

Senseless Secrets

Dan Cragg

Here is real story of North Vietnam's armed forces. Lanning served as a platoon leader and company commander in Vietnam, and as public affairs officer for General Schwartzkopf. Now he and Cragg, a sergeant-major who served five years in Vietnam, tell how the communists won that conflict by using the individual soldier.

Inside the VC and the NVA

Offers a historical retrospective on the most important battles of the past three thousand years, describing in detail one hundred key military campaigns, with commentary on the outcome of the conflict, who won and lost, the results of each war, and its impact on world history and culture, with a provocative afterword on the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. 20,000 first printing.

The Stories Behind History's Most Influential Battles

The Battle 100

From the War for Independence to the War on Terror, American military intelligence has often failed, costing needless casualties and squandering money and materiel as well as prestige – and all too often it has failed to learn from its mistakes. Senseless Secrets covers more than 200 years of intelligence breakdowns in every American war, including not only how intelligence has been wrong, but also how good intel has failed to make it to battlefield commanders, how spies and traitors have infiltrated the military intelligence community, and more. Here are stories of Benedict Arnold’s turn in the Revolution, George McClellan’s reliance on the Pinkertons’ inflated estimates of enemy strengths in the Civil War, Custer’s flawed intelligence prior to the Little Bighorn, the controversy over Pearl Harbor, the surprise German attack that started the Battle of the Bulge, the failure to convey useful intelligence to small-unit commanders in Vietnam, overestimates of Iraqi strength during Operation Desert Storm, the bad intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s supposed nuclear arsenal in 2002-03, and the chaos surrounding the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Senseless Secrets is a military history of the United States through its intelligence operations. It should be required reading inside the U.S. military and beyond.

The Failures of U.S. Military Intelligence from the Revolution to Afghanistan

Ranks the top one hundred significant events, leaders, and battles of the American Revolution and provides details about each entry.

The Battles, People, and Events of the American War for Independence, Ranked by Their Significance

American Revolution 100

Eleven years before Rosa Parks resisted going to the back of the bus, a young black second lieutenant, hungry to fight Nazis in Europe, refused to move to the back of a U.S. Army bus in Texas and found himself court-martialed. The defiant soldier was Jack Roosevelt Robinson, already in 1944 a celebrated athlete in track and football and in a few years the man who would break Major League Baseball’s color barrier. This was the pivotal moment in Jackie Robinson’s pre-MLB career. Had he been found guilty, he would not have been the man who broke baseball’s color barrier. Had the incident never happened, he would’ve gone overseas with the Black Panther tank battalion—and who knows what after that. Having survived this crucible of unjust prosecution as an American soldier, Robinson—already a talented multisport athlete—became the ideal player to integrate baseball. This is a dramatic story, deeply engaging and enraging. It’s a Jackie Robinson story and a baseball story, but it is also an army story as well as an American story.

The Baseball Legend's Battle for Civil Rights during World War II

The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson

The Battles of Peace

Eleven years before Rosa Parks resisted going to the back of the bus, a young black second lieutenant, hungry to fight Nazis in Europe, refused to move to the back of a U.S. Army bus in Texas and found himself court-martialed. The defiant soldier was Jack Roosevelt Robinson, already in 1944 a celebrated athlete in track and football and in a few years the man who would break Major League Baseball's color barrier. This was the pivotal moment in Jackie Robinson's pre-MLB career. Had he been found guilty, he would not have been the man who broke baseball's color barrier. Had the incident never happened, he would've gone overseas with the Black Panther tank battalion--and who knows what after that. Having survived this crucible of unjust prosecution as an American soldier, Robinson--already a talented multisport athlete--became the ideal player to integrate baseball.This is a dramatic story, deeply engaging and enraging. It's a Jackie Robinson story and a baseball story, but it is also an army story as well as an American story.

The Baseball Legend's Battle for Civil Rights During World War II

Narrates the story of the six-man Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols (LRRPs) in Vietnam, explains how they were staffed and trained, discusses their missions and tactics, and details their dangerous sorties deep behind enemy lines. Reissue.

Rangers in Vietnam

Inside the LRRPs

The Civil War was the defining event in American history. The Civil War 100 uses a truly novel approach to analyze the respective importance of the events, leaders and battles of America's most important war. "Across this easily accessible reference, readers meet not only such icons as Lincoln and Lee, but also chronic fumblers whose tarnished reputations have most often sunk beneath the notice of the endless waves of Civil War histories...A recommended reference for the aficionado and the uninitiated alike. Those well-versed in Civil War lore will enjoy the intellectual challenge of supporting or debunking Lanning's rankings, while the merely curious will be exposed to an insightful world of detail that they may have otherwise missed." -ForeWord Magazine

Michael Lee Lanning

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