The Art of War

A good translated full version of the most famous Chinese military strategy book. The book also has chapters that are commented by quotes of Sima Qian, Zhang You, Du Mu and other famous personalities from ancient China.

The Book of War : Sun-Tzu's "The Art of War"
& Karl Von Clausewitz's "On War"

This book contains both Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" and Clauswitz's "On War", along with an interesting introduction by Ralph Peters. An interesting east meets west approach in military strategy. The book also includes the original Chinese text.

Red Wings over the Yalu:
China, the Soviet Union, and the Air War in Korea

This book gives details on Chinese and Russian aircrafts and the men that flew them during the Korean War. It focus mainly on the Chinese point of view of that war with many hard to find pictures.

The Armed Forces of China

A book about the modern Chinese armed forces.

Here's the in depth review from this website.

Red Star over China

The author Edgar Snow was an American reporter in China during the 30s and 40s. He was one of the few Westerners that visit Communist-controlled enclaves (enclaves at that time) in China. So one can consider it a somewhat first hand account of the early Civil War pre-Japanese invasion period.

When Tigers Fight:
The Story of the Sino-Japanese War

An excellent book that focus on major land battles of the Sino-Japanese War. This book includes an excellent section on the China-Burma-India theater. This is a hard to find out of print book but you can check to see if Amazon.com can locate a copy for you by click on the button below.

China's Bitter Victory:
The War With Japan, 1937-1945

This book covers the spectrum of China's experience in the conflict with Japan. Somewhat critical of the KMT. It covers the military, political, diplomatic, economic, and cultural aspects of that eight-year struggle. It's still in print and available. Some said it's better than Dick Wilson's book above.

The Rape of Nanking:
The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II

A book that recounts the horrible events in that eastern Chinese city under Japanese occupation in the late 1930s.

Flying Tigers:
Claire Chennault and the American Volunteer Group

This history of the men and machines that challenged Japan in Asia before and during WWII is drawn from military records and flight logs, diaries of AVG pilots and technicians, media accounts, and participants' memories. From the Smithsonian History of Aviation, Smithsonian Institution Press.

Three Kingdoms

A historic epic novel that had significant military and social impacts on the Chinese history. Moss Robert's version is probably the best translation available currently. It has outstanding essays in addition to the main text and detail footnotes that compare all six versions of the story and the actual historical records. Those 250 pages of extras alone are well worth the money. Moss also did a wonderful translation of the poetry in the book.

"China - A Century of Revolution" PBS DVD Set

A fantastic 3 DVD documentary series from PBS. It covers the whole modern Chinese history from the end of the dynastic era in 1911 to current time. If you want to learn about modern Chinese history but don't want to read a lot of books, then get this 6 hour DVD set and watch it.

Rapid Fire: The Development of Automatic Cannon, Heavy Machine Guns and Their Ammunition for Armies, Navies and Air Forces

This is the book you needed if you want to know about how roller-assisted delay blowback or advance primer ignition operation works in a weapon. This books also has many good photos and drawings. It is easy to read too without being too technical or too dry.

Air Force One

It has over 150 pictures and the complete history of the airplane and helicopters used to fly U.S. presidents and officials. The author also provides the names of many former presidential pilots and staff and has interviewed many for their anecdotal accounts.

A War of Information

During the 1980s, the United States was at war in Central America. In this book, Michael Little attempts to place both the U.S. Central American policy and its opposition movement in context, examining the 'hearts and minds' of the U.S. public and Congress. Tactics and organization of the FMLN support networks are examined, including the peculiar role the left wing of Congress played in advancing the goals of a Marxist insurgency at war with the United States.

Against the Current

At a Left Coast fundraiser for the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front the speaker - a guerrilla commandante implicated in the massacre of US Embassy personnel in El Salvador - turns up dead. Francisco Lefevre, an Air Force Security Police officer, is caught bending over the body. Can he find the murderer before the guerrillas' sponsors - ranging from leftover Weathermen to the leading leftists of Congress - get him? The novel is set during Desert Shield, with the prospect of imminent war in the Gulf a dark presence throughout the story. To complicate matters Franco had encountered the commandante before, on a secret mission to parachute into Sandinista Nicaragua and recover the remains of his uncle, a Cuban-American flyer whose B-26 had crashed in the mountains on return from the Bay of Pigs. The action moves through other unusual locales; the Ahwanee Hotel set in the scenic splendor of Yosemite; Natchez, Mississippi, an Old Southern city founded by the French before New Orleans; and Omaha, Nebraska, in the heart of the Heartland. The plot is a whodunit with a military flavor but the theme deals with the moral and legal ambiguities of fighting the Cold War through surrogate conflicts in places like Central America, and right here on Main Street USA in the shadowy, bitter struggle for the hearts and minds of the American people. At its heart AGAINST THE CURRENT is about revenge and forgiveness, self discovery and self delusion, and the shadings between acts of war, peace, betrayal, and murder.

"Band of Brothers" DVD Box Set

An award winning HBO/BBC mini series that follows a company of airborne infantry-- Easy Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne --from boot camp through the end of the war. 10 episodes, 2 documentaries in Widescreen anamorphic format in a 6 DVD box set.

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest

The Stephen E. Ambrose book that the above HBO/BBC mini series was based on.

"Black Hawk Down" DVD

Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down conveys the raw, chaotic urgency of ground-force battle in a worst-case scenario. With exacting detail, the film re-creates the American siege of the Somalian city of Mogadishu in October 1993, when a 45-minute mission turned into a 16-hour ordeal of bloody urban warfare.

Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War

This is the book that the above movie was based on. It includes more detail background info and politic issues that the movie that didn't included. I recommend this book in addition to the DVD movie.