Military Power and Popular Protest: The U.S. Navy in Vieques, Puerto Rico Review

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(More customer reviews)Kate McCaffrey conducted on-site research in Vieques for about 10 years in order to present this very clear history of how the US Navy came to Vieques in the 1940's to conduct military practices and how the people of Vieques were successful in ending the bombing in 2003. I have a guest house in Vieques and keep a copy of Kate's book in each of my rooms so that visitors will know that our "island paradise" has been contaminated with 60 years of munitions and our people made sick with cancer and other illnesses from toxic military waste. I hope that everyone who reads this book will support a safe and complete clean up of Vieques and sustainable development of former navy lands that benefits our people. Kathy

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"McCaffrey's outstanding analysis movingly narrates the community's longstanding anguish and accurately situates the Vieques movement in the larger context of U.S. military policy in the Caribbean and Puerto Rico's unresolved status quandary. Those interested in understanding the Vieques crisis will find Military Power and Popular Protest an indispensible work." --Amilcar Antonio Barreto, author of Vieques, the Navy, and Puerto Rican PoliticsResidents of Vieques, a small island just off the east coast of Puerto Rico, live wedged between an ammunition depot and live bombing range for the U.S. Navy. Since the 1940s when the navy expropriated over two-thirds of the island, residents have struggled to make a life amid the thundering of bombs and the rumbling of weaponry fire. Like the army's base in Okinawa, Japan, the facility has drawn vociferous protests from residents who challenged U.S. security interests overseas. In 1999, when a local civilian employee of the base was killed by a stray bomb, Vieques again erupted in protests that have mobilized tens of thousands of individuals and have transformed this tiny Caribbean island into the setting for an international cause celebre.Katherine T. McCaffrey gives a complete analysis of the troubled relationship between the U.S. Navy and island residents. She explores such topics as the history of U.S. naval involvement in Vieques; a grassroots mobilization--led by fisherman--that began in the 1970s; how the navy promised to improve the lives of the island residents--and failed; and the present-day emergence of a revitalized political activism that has effectively challenged naval hegemony.Military bases overseas act as lightning rods for anti-American sentiment, thus threatening his country's image and interests abroad. By analyzing this particular, conflicted relationship, the book also explores important lessons about colonialism and postcolonialism and the relationship of the United States to the countries in which it maintains military bases.Katherine T. McCaffrey is an assistant professor of anthropology at Montclair State University, New Jersey.--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Sub: An Oral History of US Navy Submarines Review

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(More customer reviews)Mr. Roberts's book started out with great promise and a great premise however multiple misspellings and erroneous facts quickly dashed all hopes for the book. It is obvious that this book was not well proofread or many of these mistakes would have been caught. One example is that on page 195 he referenced Secretary of the Navy Nimitz however Fleet Admiral Nimitz was never the Secretary of the Navy and was dead at that moment in the narration. Mr. Roberts also lets his political views get in the way of his narration and attacks President Carter and any other official with whom he disagrees with and uses incorrect information by saying President Carter had commanded a submarine. Carter was qualified for command a step for him to be an officer qualified in submarines. Mr. Roberts opinions mars the purpose of an oral history collection which is to let the participants own words describe their recollections of history.
Another point of confusion is when the author makes it seem as though one of the paticipants in this oral history served from World War II on war patrols and retired in April of 2005 after participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom from active duty in the Navy. It seems obvious that this man must have been a consultant to the Navy as a civilian contractor after retiring much earlier from active duty but Mr. Roberts doesn't say that this man was a civilian employee for the Navy leaving the reader with the idea that this man had a sixty plus year career in the Navy on active duty.
Also there are many misspellings such as the Kanoupus (USS Canopus AS-9 is the correct spelling) to saying the Sailfish used to be the Whalen which in reality the Sailfish was the resurrected USS Squalus ((read Peter Mass' excellent The Terrible Hours for the Squalus' story)). A search of the "Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships" on the Naval Historical Center's website produced no record of a USS Whalen ever serving in the Navy. These two mistakes are easily found on page 8 of the book. Yet another example is the USS Toffey found on page 181 which sank due to a circular run, in reality the submarine he meant was the Tullibee SS-284. On last example of too many to count is on found on page 280 where Roberts says the hull number of the second USS Aspro was the SSBN-648 when it was the SSN-648. While this may seem nit picking it gives the reader false information and does not add to the historical record.
Roberts's book has good intentions but through obvious mistakes and inconstancies his book suffers and this book is a must avoid for submarine historians and readers.


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Crew members tell their true stories of life under the surface-from World War II to today's war on terror-in this exceptional illustrated volume. From the deadly undersea warfare of World War II through the silent Cold War stand-offs in the deep, to the cutting edge technology of the modern U.S. Navy, submarines have evolved into the front line of our nation's defense at sea. And the men who sail them have become heroes above and below the waves. These are their stories-in their own words. In Sub, author Mark Roberts has compiled insightful interviews and recollections from the submarine veterans themselves-accompanied by detailed photos and illustrations of both man and machine at work. It's a gripping chronicle of undersea warfare as told by those who know firsthand what it means to drop through the hull of a boat, to sink into the dark, freezing waters of the deep-and to have death never more than one torpedo away.

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