Summers' book is primarily concerned with celebrating Operations Desert Shield and Storm. This is hardly, as the title might lead one to believe, a "critical" analysis of the Gulf War. Instead it is the saga of how the Americans licked the "Vietnam Syndrome." As a conservative revisionist on Vietnam, the lessons Summers draws from that experience were also shared by the U.S. military establishment. That is, the failure to mobilize the American population for an all-out war with clearly defined objectives "caused" American defeat in Vietnam. Summers sees the victory in the Gulf as the consequence of having learned from our mistakes in Vietnam. For Desert Shield/Storm the reserves were called up, strategic objectives were clearly defined, and the military was given the support it needed from the civilians to win. This victory was also the first engagement in the new world order, where America's status as the one lone superpower will enable it to punish aggression and maintain international peace. Unless, of course, the Americans forget the "lessons of the Munich," which guided America's successful Cold War strategy, and retreat instead to "isolation." ( )