Some time ago, Frank Lavin asked me to review the manuscript for a future book based on letters written by his father, Carl, a veteran of the 84th Infantry Division in World War II. Frank has served as a US ambassador, White House aide, banker, and trade negotiator. He currently works in business in China. His book has now just been published (with a foreword by Henry Kissinger) and it is worth reading by anyone with an interest in World War II and the Battle of the Bulge. What follows is the jacket blurb that I wrote for the book: “As America’s Greatest Generation fades away rapidly, Frank Lavin rescues the story of his father, Carl, a soldier in the 84th Infantry Division. In April 1945, after the Battle of the Bulge and the march through Nazi Germany, the 21-year-old in a touching letter to his mother struggled to explain what war does to a person, and failed. Seventy years later, Frank has helped his father find his voice, and he has succeeded admirably in doing so.”
