Robert A. Kapp
"Harmsen’s highly compressed, readable, narrative of the cascade to conflict is highly recommended reading for contemporary world citizens."
Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs
"Beginning with the second chapter, Harmsen provides the reader with a readable and reliable narrative of this war before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor....he effortlessly shifts his focus from high politics and strategy in China and Japan to individual stories of foreign witnesses as well as ordinary Chinese and Japanese."
New York Journal of Books - Benjamin Welton
Storm Clouds Over the Pacific is an excellent primer about World War II in Asia prior to the involvement of the United States, . . . an excellent resource for understanding the relationship between China and Japan, past and present.“
The NYMAS Review
"He shifts easily from cabinet rooms to battlefields, and gives us profiles of many persons, high and low, who played interesting roles in these events. A very good work about a very neglected subject."
Marc Gallicchio
Peter Harmsen uses a reporter’s lean prose and sharp eye for detail to expertly tell the story of Japan’s war with China before Pearl Harbor. Among the highlights of this valuable book is Harmsen’s ability to effortlessly place Asian political and military developments in a global setting. The result is a masterful narrative account of the traumatic decade before Japan’s war in Asia merged into World War II.
Stephen R. MacKinnon
Harmsen has managed to craft into a single accessible narrative the complex military history of the early years of the Chinese–Japanese conflict. The great strength of the book is the equal attention given to both Japanese and Chinese sides in terms of military strategies and outcomes on the battlefield.
Military History
The author studies the origins of World War II in the Pacific through the vast war fought between China and Japan. It is a balanced book providing the perspectives of both sides and explains the motives and goals of each. The narrative is clear and engaging, and the level of detail is impressive.
Bairdmaritime.com
"It is to be hoped that this book might provide a wake up call to modern readers about the dangers of military dictators. They cannot be trusted."
Leatherneck
Also gratifying, “Storm Clouds Over the Pacific” tackles via a smooth, easy-to-digest narrative the generations of animosities that drove the immensely destructive war in the Pacific, costing the lives of millions of people, soldiers and civilians alike."
Midwest Book Review
Other Vietnam histories provide dates and events or trace personal experience alone. Followers of Vietnam War history would do well to consult Autopsy of an Unwinnable War above most others: its ability to synthesize the extent of political, social, military, and personal experience for a clearer, bigger picture of why Vietnam was an impossible conflict all along makes it a winning, engrossing study that should be on the shelves of any definitive Vietnam War collection.
