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The Ghosts of Iwo Jima. By Robert S. Burrell. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-1-58544-483-0. Maps. Photographs. Tables. Diagrams. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xvii, 262. $29.95.
This monograph actually becomes two books in one: first debunking the conventional justifications of the bloodiest battle in U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) history, and then detailing the mythology and attendant cult created from the flag-raising on Mt. Suribachi within the overall culture of the USMC and, in no small measure, the United States itself. Both of these themes have merit and the reader will find no disappointment in the coverage.
SMH members will recall a lively exchange Burrell had after the publication of his Moncado Award winning article in 2004, when an air force officer on the Joint Staff College faculty took issue with general and specific aspects of his thesis. (see Robert S. Burrell, "Breaking the Cycle of the Iwo Jima Mythology: A Strategic Study of Operation Detachment," Journal of Military History 68 (October 2004): 1143-86; Brian Hadley, "The Myth of Iwo Jima: A Rebuttal" Journal of Military History 69 (July 2005): 801- 809, including Burrell's response.) Burrell apparently found no value in the critique and his book-length version remains vulnerable to the same charges. Although he cites many an archival collection, it appears from the footnotes that his "extensive primary source research" centers upon the microfilmed Records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: 1941-1945, the Nimitz papers held at the Naval Historical Center, the V Amphibious Corps after action...