Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Brute: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine
    Brute: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine
    Brute: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine
    Audiobook12 hours

    Brute: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine

    Written by Robert Coram

    Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From the earliest days of his thirty-four-year military career, Victor "Brute" Krulak displayed a remarkable facility for applying creative ways of fighting to the Marine Corps. He went on daring spy missions, was badly wounded, pioneered the use of amphibious vehicles, and masterminded the invasion of Okinawa. In Korea, he was a combat hero and invented the use of helicopters in warfare. In Vietnam, he developed a holistic strategy in stark contrast to the Army's "Search and Destroy" methods-but when he stood up to LBJ to protest, he was punished. And yet it can be argued that all of these accomplishments pale in comparison to what he did after World War II and again after Korea: Krulak almost single-handedly stopped the U.S. government from abolishing the Marine Corps.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateNov 10, 2010
    ISBN9781400188963
    Brute: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine

    More audiobooks from Robert Coram

    Related to Brute

    Related audiobooks

    Military Biographies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      David H. Hackworth

      Jun 4, 2019

      David H. Hackworth
      2 min read

    • Article

      Why Trump’s Generals Abandoned Ship

      Jan 14, 2019

      AFTER A COUPLE OF TUMULTUOUS years, President Donald Trump seems to have reached the conclusion that he has had quite enough of generals. Now, as a retired admiral, I have certainly been annoyed over the years by a number of generals. Yet by and larg

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Q&A with Mike Schmidt:

      Jan 17, 2020

      Fan: Mike, even though you’re one of the Top 10 players in baseball history, I think you were underappreciated in Philadelphia, probably because you made it look so easy. I know it wasn’t easy and that you worked hard. Is that how you see it? Schmidt

      4 min read

    • Article

      Carlos Hathcock 1942-1999

      Jun 27, 2019

      One of the things I feel most fortunate about when travelling the places I do is meeting extraordinary people along the way. It never ceases to amaze me just how small the world of hunting and conservation is, and it normally doesn’t take much to mak

      2 min read

    • Article

      Reviews

      Sep 28, 2021

      Reviews
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Lesson of the Great War

      Jul 9, 2018

      The Lesson of the Great War
      5 min read

    • Article

      Assault On The Citadel

      May 7, 2019

      Assault On The Citadel
      17 min read

    • Article

      Storm of Victory

      Oct 30, 2018

      Storm of Victory
      3 min read

    • Article

      Another Contemptible Little Army?

      Feb 23, 2018

      Another Contemptible Little Army?
      12 min read

    • Article

      De Gaulle’s 1941 Coup

      Apr 12, 2022

      De Gaulle’s 1941 Coup
      20 min read

    • Article

      The Final Slog

      May 12, 2022

      The Final Slog
      4 min read

    • Article

      'In The Hurricane's Eye' Puts Revolutionary War Conflict The Battle Of The Chesapeake Back In Its Deserved Spotlight

      Oct 17, 2018

      'Hurricane' is the newest book from bestselling author of 'In the Heart of the Sea' and 'Valiant Ambition' Nathaniel Philbrick.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Battle Of Lake George

      Jan 25, 2024

      Battle Of Lake George
      9 min read

    • Article

      Great Battles YORKTOWN

      Apr 14, 2018

      Great Battles YORKTOWN
      13 min read

    • Article

      Churchill’s ‘landships’

      Jul 25, 2023

      Churchill’s ‘landships’
      10 min read

    • Article

      PATTON “OLD BLOOD & GUTS”

      Jan 20, 2022

      PATTON “OLD BLOOD & GUTS”
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Commanders

      Mar 14, 2024

      The Commanders
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Dunkirk Evacuation Had Failed?

      Dec 2, 2021

      Joshua Levine practised as a barrister before becoming an actor and writer. He has written several books on the subject of the two World Wars and served as the historical consultant on the 2017 film Dunkirk. Between 26 May and 4 June 1940, a vast ope

      5 min read

    • Article

      Operation Torch

      Aug 5, 2021

      Operation Torch
      3 min read

    • Article

      Command Performance

      Oct 24, 2023

      Command Performance
      10 min read

    • Article

      “Churchill Was Determined To Show That The British Could Fight”

      May 13, 2021

      In August 1942, a huge British fleet entered the Mediterranean. It was heading to the island of Malta, which had been enduring relentless air attacks from German and Italian forces and was running desperately short of food, fuel and ammunition. Fourt

      10 min read

    • Article

      The Torch Is Lit

      Nov 2, 2022

      The Torch Is Lit
      8 min read

    • Article

      Hitler’s Wolfpacks

      Nov 27, 2017

      Hitler’s Wolfpacks
      15 min read

    • Article

      Horror in Manila

      Sep 3, 2019

      Horror in Manila
      11 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Brute

    4/5

    44 ratings16 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Coram's book Boyd was one of the most brilliant biographies I had ever read at the time. With his new book Brute, Coram keeps doing what he does best - describing men whose contribution to our military strategy is often overlooked by the general public. IT is fitting that this biography come out when it does, given Coram's health and the situation facing the Marine corps. Time will tell if 'Brute' and Coram, like Krulak and Boyd, receive the attention they all deserve.
    • 5/5
      Behind the scenes look at a key figure in preserving the Corps who ended his meteoric career in doing his duty to the president. Compelling portrait of the very human side of this legendary general.
    • 5/5
      Coram begins the begins his hagiography with an explanation of why Americans have an almost mythic view of the Marine Corps, a service that was close to extinction by the turn of the 20th century -- before Belleau Woods. The American Expeditionary Force under General Pershing was sent quickly to France to bail out the exhausted British and French. Ludendorf, the German General, was about to deliver a hammer blow in an attempt to break through the trench lines and reach Paris. Pershing had forbidden war correspondents from identifying individual Army units, but left an inadvertent loophole with the Marines. The Army despised the Marines, wondering why they even existed as a separate command. At Belleau Woods, however, the Marines, identified as such by Floyd Gibbons, the only correspondent, to go with them, magnificently held off and beat a substantially larger force of Germans, and soon all anyone could talk about was the glorious Marines. Krulak was a Marine. How he got there was quite interesting, but inauspicious. He was a Jew (non-practicing who lied about his background--antisemitism was rife with signs on establishments reading, "no dogs or jews"), short (5'4"), been married (it lasted but 16 days before being annulled as both he and the bride lied about their names), lied about his age, and failed the entrance exam the first time. So why Annapolis? One reason was that his father realized that graduating from the Naval Academy would open many doors for his son. At the academy, because of some "commercial" activity, expressly forbidden by Academy rules, he racked up a huge number of demerits, but thanks to his friendship and mentor, an instructor (and unrequited racist and anti-semite, but then that was the Marine ethos of the time), made it through. Krulak had invented an entire backstory for his biography wholly at odds with his Cheyenne, WY and Jewish reality. Had the Navy known of that fiction he probably would not have made it. Ever since the British debacle at Gallipoli, it had become standard doctrine that amphibious landings were obsolete and would never be part of future actions. The Ellis Report, part of War Plan Orange, presciently predicted the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the island hopping strategy that made winning the war in the Pacific possible. That strategy required a multitude of amphibious landings but the Navy had no craft that would work. Krulak was to be instrumental in fixing that. He and his pregnant wife had been posted to Shanghai, where, in 1937, he took the initiative to watch the Japanese amphibious landings in their conquest of the Chinese mainland. He was stunned to see the radical design of their landing craft and realized the flat-bottomed, ramp-equipped boats were just what the Navy needed. He whipped off a report (he was still a lowly 1st Lieutenant) to Washington anticipating swift action on their designing and building similar craft. The optimism of youth. The story of the development of the famous landing craft and the role played by Krulak and, in particular, by a Louisiana boat builder named Higgins, is fascinating. Both Higgins and Krulak had to overcome Navy inertia and bureaucracy to get the boats built and approved. ( seeThe Boat That Won the War: An Illustrated History of the Higgins LCVP by Charles Roberts, Jr.) Inter-service rivalry also played a part and the Navy never did adopt the design. It was all Marines. Without the mentorship of General Holland Smith, whom Krulak knew from the Academy, however, he probably would have been drummed out of the Corps years before. He was later instrumental in developing tactics for the nascent Marine helicopter program. Krulak was prominent participant in the inter-service rivalries following WW II and I was surprised at the vicious enmity that existed between the Army, which tried to get the Marines disbanded and molded into the Army, and even the Navy, envious of their reputation. The Marines never forgave the Navy for deserting them at Guadacanal. One might make a case that some of the "Chowder Gang's" (the name given to the Krulak led opposition to unifying the services) actions bordered on insubordination in their efforts to thwart Truman's wishes. He was, after all, the Commander -in-Chief. Krulak's certitude in himself spilled over into his treatment of their children, the eldest of whom described their childhood as resembling that of the Great Santini. Reading this book, it's impossible not to come away with the feeling that the Marines won WW I, the Pacific in WW II, and Korea and that Krulak personally saved the Marines from the Marine-hating Army. Then again, Truman, got into a lot of trouble for complaining that the Marines had a propaganda campaign to rival Stalin's. Perhaps he was right.P.S. My granddaughter was a Marine M.P. as was her husband.
    • 4/5
      Sometimes it gets monotonous reading biographies of military men - they're just ever-so-perfect, brilliant tacticians, ethical, creative, blah blah blah (and many times untrue). This is a *real* story of a not-so-perfect guy - in fact, practically a juvenile delinquent - who lied and cheated and drank and hid his past and had a zillion ordinary foibles, and made things happen in his life sometimes by ingratiating himself to some higher up or getting his way just because he knows the right guy. This is a believable story and, other than the fact that it was a little hard to hear about yet another unethical, borderline illegal, activity that Brute participated in, I'm glad I read (listened, actually) it and I highly recommend it to war/military buffs. The author clearly is biased towards Crulak (spelling?) and clearly was biased towards the Marines, so read it with that in mind, but it still was overall a great book.
    • 4/5
      I received this through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.The story of one of the legends of the USMC, if this book has a down fall, it is that the author treats his subject with a little too much regard. Reading a biography of any person, where very little of the negative aspects of a person are presented is a little lacking.With that said, it is an enjoyable and quick read. If anything it would serve as a good introduction of how the USMC views its own history and legend. From Belleau Wood to Vietnam to the Marines fight for survival after the Second World War.
    • 2/5
      If the U.S. Marine Corps is looking for a method of inculcating corps d’esprit in its ranks, Brute may be an effective tactic. But it is improbable that inquisitive officers or the learned public can derive much intellectual value from it. Robert Coram’s entertaining narrative of the life of General Victor “Brute” Krulak is not so much an objective biography as it is an unabashedly sentimental ode to the Marine Corps. The book is saturated with obsequiousness. The first 16 pages are an homage to the Corps and Belleau Wood, a campaign fought when Krulak was but a child. The extended laudatory introduction is accompanied by a liberal distribution of acclamation throughout the story, and some, such as the first four pages of the chapter “Chowder,” are more tedious than others. Not only does Coram turn Brute into prodigious eulogy to the Marines, but he goes out of his way on countless pages to besmirch the U.S. Army. To the author, the Marines can do no wrong; they are a victim of bureaucratic parsimony and the Army’s clumsy lust for monopolistic power. It is hard to take this biography seriously when Coram’s principle goal appears to be the ego inflation of one branch of the American military. Sadly, there is little substance to make up for the afore-mentioned malady. The author apparently based much of the narrative upon interviews conducted with Krulak in his extremely advanced age. Coram gently discounts the authenticity of some of Krulak’s recollections, but not too greatly. That would undermine the veracity of the entire biography. Coram does well explaining Krulak’s role in integrating Higgins boats and helicopters into the Corps’ arsenal. But it is more likely that there are more valuable and detailed treatments in other works.If you want a bit of light reading on a military theme, Brute may satisfy your desires. But there is nothing scholarly about this missed opportunity to properly profile an influential commander.
    • 5/5
      Although I knew the subject of this biography would be interesting, I wasn’t expecting the book itself to be quite as well-written and highly readable as it is. I was honestly disappointed to finish reading it and to part company with one of the most important, and also thought-provoking, men in Marine Corps -- and maybe even American -- history.“Brute” is a partisan biography, in that author Robert Coram is not afraid to say that Victor “Brute” Krulak was right, and the people opposing him were wrong, in many of the tactical, strategic, or political controversies in which he found himself embroiled. At the same time, though, Coram is a skilled military historian whose partisanship is arrived at objectively, you might say, through what struck me as a fair and honest review of the issues involved. In other words, while Coram makes it clear that he considers Krulak perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most significant, Marine ever, “Brute” is not a hagiography but an important work of analysis.As the son of a Navy family myself (and I should probably note in the interest of full disclosure that I knew one of Brute’s grandsons pretty well in high school and had opportunity to meet other members of the family on a few occasions), the parts of “Brute” I found most thought-provoking were those involving, not his professional advance, but his relationship with his family, particularly his three sons. This forms a big part of Coram’s analysis, and rightly so. Krulak has been criticized for downplaying -- outright denying, actually -- his Jewish heritage in order to avoid harassment, ostracism, or worse at Annapolis and in the Corps. Coram makes it clear that feelings of inferiority about his Russian Jewish family, or fear of having his secret discovered, were along with his small stature and lack of “military bearing” were a big part of what gave Brute his intensity and single-mindedness. But Brute also kept that secret from his own sons (Coram describes how eldest son Vic, by that time an ordained Episcopal priest, “reeled as if he had been struck a heavy blow” when a member of his father’s extended family, visiting Vic’s church, asked “What is a Jewish boy doing in this place?”), and brusquely discouraged various relatives from joining the Corps for fear they would “out” him. The Marine Corps, Coram often notes, is the Krulak “family business,” and this book makes it clear not only how all members of military families (particularly senior officers’) are expected to sublimate themselves to “the needs of the service” and the advancement of careers, but also how, and to what extent, the family is viewed and “run” as yet another military unit. It’s a legacy all three of Brute’s sons have had to deal with one way or another, and it’s one of the many questions I think even non-military readers would find worth pondering.Brute Krulak seems to have been the Indispensable Marine, present at so many key points in Marine Corps history, from the development of amphibious warfare, helicopter, and counterinsurgency doctrine to fights for the Corps’ very survival against Army efforts to expunge it. That level of significance alone makes “Brute” worth reading for the military historian or military-history enthusiast. It’s that combined with the portrait of a man and his family within the Corps context that makes “Brute,” as a Marine might say, an “outSTANDing!” book.
    • 4/5
      Coram's book Boyd was one of the most brilliant biographies I had ever read at the time. With his new book Brute, Coram keeps doing what he does best - describing men whose contribution to our military strategy is often overlooked by the general public. IT is fitting that this biography come out when it does, given Coram's health and the situation facing the Marine corps. Time will tell if 'Brute' and Coram, like Krulak and Boyd, receive the attention they all deserve.
    • 4/5
      I came to Robert Coram's biography of Victor "Brute" Krulak with a minor familiarity with the famous Marine's name and came away with a good appreciation of the man's life and his incredible influence on the Marine Corps. Coram's writing style is engaging and Brute's life is fascinating to say the least, making for a quite readable biography. While Coram sings Brute's praises, he does not hesitate to point out a few character flaws here and there, which is a welcome thing indeed.
    • 4/5
      The author's straightforward, almost folksy writing style made this story of an important figure in Marine history accessible to readers not well versed in Marine Corp or military history. Although I had never heard of Victor Krulak, I found the story of this short statured, atypical Marine very informative. Krulak had a fascinating career set against the backdrop of Singpore before and during the Japanese war with China, WWII in the Pacific arena, Korea and Vietnam. From this book, I learned about the development of amphibious landing boats and their importance during WWII. Krulak played a significant role in the design of these boats. He also led the movement to use helicopters to deliver troops during the Korean War and Vietnam. The book delved into the attempts by Army generals and Congress to merge the Marine Corp into the Army and Krulak's efforts to prevent this from happening. Brute is an interesting biograpy of a flawed but very bright and wily Marine. [I won this book from a giveaway drawing at Goodreads.]
    • 4/5
      Brute is is a very readable account of a remarkable Marine Corps officer. Krulak seemed to be anywhere there was an important event in Marine Corps history: observing amphibious Japanese landings in China, which lead to the development of the amphibious doctrine during WW 2; development of helicopter use in combat; and the pacification program used by the Corps in Vietnam. Krulak was not the kind to pull punches when talking to superiors, a trait that lost him when he went up against President Johnson about Vietnam policy. This is a great book for anyone interested in military history.
    • 5/5
      Brute is a fair handed biography of Victor H. Krulak. He was a major figure in the American Military pantheon. He rose from working class roots to be a single step from the Commandant of the Marine Corps. This position was later achieved by his son Charles who fallowed his father’s trade. He is considered to be a seminal thinker in military problems. Through the course of three wars he advocated, explored, and did much to bring about the use of landing craft, the military use of helicopters, and current thinking of counter insurgency warfare. Robert Coram traces his life from his birth in Denver through his Graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy. He moves his subject smartly through his early days as an “old china hand” to active service in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.Krulak, himself, was the author of First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps, a work that remains on the professional reading list of the Marine Corps. He lived a full life and died at the age of 95 in 2008. The author outlines the many conflicts within the US force structure that Krulak was a participant in or an observer off. In this his opinions will differ with other writers. However, It is my feeling that a fair accounting is given.I found this to be a most enjoyable book and would recommend it to any lover of military history or biography in general.A copy of this book was provided free for the purposes of this review.
    • 5/5
      I enjoy biographic works and read extensively; BRUTE, by Robert Coram is probably the best military biography I've read.This is a well-written, excellently researched, and (in my opinion) unvarnished look at an icon of the USMC. I appreciate that Coram doesn't gloss over Krulak's inconsistencies, untruths, and less-than-stellar personal anecdotes to attempt presenting a "perfect" picture of the man.I do know a few Marines, but my immediate family has Air Force and Army roots, so I am a lot less familiar with the USMC and it's history. BRUTE includes just enough of the history of the Marine Corps (and snapshots of world events) without distracting from a clear picture of Krulak's wide-ranging influence. Several times, while reading BRUTE, I was struck by the detail with which this book was researched; one example that stands out: Coram's comparison of discrepancies between Krulak's explanation of his heritage at different times of his life, and when speaking to different individuals.Lastly, BRUTE is extremely well-paced. I didn't want to put the book down, and actually took time off from work to finish it. I'm looking forward to readng Coram's other works.
    • 5/5
      ‘Brute’ was the moniker given to freshman Victor Krulak, by an upper-class Midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1931, poking fun at the 5’ 5” plebe. Krulak liked the nickname and it stayed with him during his illustrious career as a Marine officer and throughout his 95 years as the personification of the Corps. Robert Coram’s biography, Brute, The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine (New York: Little, Brown, 2010) opens with a history lesson about the birth of the modern U.S. Marine Corps during the Second Battle of the Marne (June 1918) specifically at Belleau Wood where the Marines, attached to the U.S. 2d Infantry Division, attacked the Germans thereby stopping their advance on Paris less than sixty kilometers away. In honor of the U.S. Marines, the French military, disregarding the objections of General John J. Pershing, Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, changed Bois de Belleau to Bois de la Brigade de Marine! The legacy of the U.S. Marine Corps is indelibly engraved in American military history with valorous mention of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Inchon, Chosin, Khe Sahn. Krulak was involved in all -- in planning, intelligence, logistics, and training. Coram tells the story of Marine Krulak’s observation of Japanese landing craft while assigned to the 4th Marines, the “China Marines” stationed in Shanghai in the late 1930s. The result was the design that later became a landing craft better known as the Higgins Boat, which General Eisenhower himself said was responsible for victory in World War II considering the amphibious landings in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Normandy, not to mention the island hopping campaigns in the Pacific. During the Korean War, it was Krulak who shaped the use of the helicopter as a combat weapons platform and not only to transport supplies and troops in rear areas. After the Japanese surrender on the USS Missouri in September 1945, the Marine Corps became embroiled in its most difficult fight ever – the Truman administration’s attempt to disestablish the Corps and instead created a unified War Department with three military Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The Marine Corps would return to its pre-Belleau Wood role as the Navy’s police force. Coram tells the story of Krulak’s role as a staff officer in crafting documents reflecting the thoughts of senior Marine Corps generals Holland M. ‘Howlin’ Mad’ Smith, Alexander A. Vandegrift, and Lemuel C. Shepherd, the latter a veteran of Belleau Wood, in the defense before Congress of their beloved Corps. The 1947 National Security Act did keep the Marine Corps intact as one of the four coequal military departments of the new Department of Defense and a Joint Chiefs of Staff.Coran’s biography details many of Brute’s accomplishments as Marine staff officer and commander. The most controversial of which is his role in the Vietnam War in which Krulak’s counterinsurgency approach was at odds with General Westmoreland’s attrition strategy. In retrospect it is ironic that hard-charging Brute Krulak, on Guadalcanal and in Korea, approached Vietnam with a long-range strategy of first providing security to the Vietnamese in their villages and then sealing off the enemy’s supply lines into the south and destroying Haiphong Harbor in the north. Westmoreland had the ear of the Commander in Chief, President Johnson, and by 1967, when Brute met with LBJ in the Oval Office to tell the President that current strategy was not working, his days in the Corps were numbered. Although Lieutenant General Victor Krulak was the odds-on favorite to become the next Commandant of the Marine Corps, circumstances now dictated otherwise and Brute retired 1 June 1968 thirty four years to the date of his commissioning in 1934 at the Naval Academy. Robert Coram has told an exemplary story of this storied Marine. Semper Fidelis!
    • 4/5
      An unblinkered look at a great American. The first General Krulak was a major force in the modern Marine Corp, serving from 1934 to 1968 on active duty and rising to the level of a 3-star. He was denied his fourth star and his rightful place as Commandant, primarily due to his unfailing propensity for speaking truth to power. In retirement, he continued to work on behalf of his beloved Corps and published his famous book, "First to Fight". He was a complicated man, and this book, "Brute", reveals a lot of the good and some of the bad in him. For anyone interested in the Marine Corps, this is an excellent book, and for anyone who simply likes to read a well-written biography, this book is also highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      I own all three of Coram's biographies and although the first two (Boyd and Day) were superb, in my opinion, this is his best work yet. Well written and crisp, the book was a comfortable and enjoyable read. Fair, balanced, and accurate summarizes the style.LtGen Krulak was one of the most important Marines ever to serve and he was involved in virtually every major issue facing the Marine Corps during his long and illustrious career (1934-68) and beyond. The development and first employment of landing craft and amphibian tractors, the unification struggle after WW II, development and introduction of helicopters, assault helicopter doctrine and initial employment, and codification of Marine Corps roles are all covered accurately. Coram not only describes the general's intimate involvement in these events but also provides valuable background and context so that those unfamiliar with them can understand their importance. Concerning the general's personal life, he presents the good and the bad but doesn't dwell on the latter aspects that are trivial compared to his monumental contributions to the Marine Corps and the nation.Although not a Marine, Coram "got it right" and captured the culture and mindset accurately, especially the unique nature of the modern Marine Air-Ground team. Additionally, inter-service relations are described and explained fully and put in proper historical context. Clearly, he has done a lot of detailed research and had access to many Marines.This book is a valuable, one-stop treatment of a "giant of the Corps" and his influence on Marine Corps doctrine, equipment, organization, history, and survival. Casual readers, historians, and especially Marines will all benefit from reading this work.This retired Marine aviator strongly recommends "Brute" to those who want to understand the United States Marine Corps and how it has evolved in the age of modern warfare and the Joint (service) environment.