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Paperback Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger Book

ISBN: 0817312927

ISBN13: 9780817312923

Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger

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Format: Paperback

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Book Overview

A balanced, well-documented portrait of a brave and controversial airman who commanded a training air force for Nationalist China.

Born in rural Louisiana in 1893, Claire Lee Chennault worked as a teacher before joining the army and becoming a commissioned officer. Although he was initially rejected for flight school, he continued to apply and was finally accepted in 1918. He eventually became the lead pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps' precision flying team.

During this time, Chennault developed air-to-air combat techniques that he believed should play a decisive role in warfare. However, his opinion contradicted the official Air Corps policy that military aircraft be used primarily for strategic bombing. Chennault's frustration and dissatisfaction with this stance was so great that when Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek offered him the opportunity to lead advanced fighter pilot training in China, he quickly left the American military and accepted the position in 1937. There he played a key role in the formation of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), popularly known as "the Flying Tigers."

The aviators of the Flying Tigers fought against Japan on behalf of China before and during World War II. Early war newsreels showing them defending Burma mythologized the fighter pilots, and Chennault became a romantic hero to the American public. In 1942, the AVG was deactivated and Chennault returned to active duty with the Air Corps, but his disregard for traditional military procedure earned him many enemies among his peers and superiors and he eventually retired.

This book was originally published in hardcover in 1987 by The University of Alabama Press. It was hailed as the best of several biographies of Chennault. Reference and Research Book News stated, "This book is of far better quality than the others previously released. The research employed by the author and the depth of detail give the reader an accurate picture of this controversial and charismatic man."


Customer Reviews

1 rating

the definitive biography

Martha Byrd was a good historian, and she wrote a good biography of Claire Chennault--leader of the AVG Flying Tigers, commander of the 14th Air Force, and founder of the airline that became the CIA's Air America. Writing about Chennault isn't an easy job (I know, because I wrote a history of the AVG) because he was part genius, part crackpot, and all-over trouble for his superiors. Byrd did a superlative job of sorting myth from fact, and of telling the unvarnished truth about Chennault without ever losing sight of his great humanity and his tactical brilliance. Seek out this book, second-hand or in a library, and hope that it will be republished.
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