Washoe County Library System

During World War II, Iwo Jima, a tiny island 660 miles from Tokyo, was defended by 21,000 Japanese soldiers determined to fight to the death. The U.S. campaign, which began on February 19, 1945, was expected to last only a few days. Instead it claimed the lives of nearly 7,000 Marines and lasted for over a month. Features interviews with twenty-one veterans of the 1945 battle and rare combat footage.

Award-winning journalist Douglas A. Wissing's poignant and eye-opening journey across insurgency-wracked Afghanistan casts an unyielding spotlight on greed, dysfunction, and predictable disaster while celebrating the everyday courage and wisdom of frontline soldiers, idealistic humanitarians, and resilient Afghans. As Wissing hauls a hundred pounds of body armor and pack across the Afghan warzone in search of the ground truth, US officials frantically...

"In 1984, Michael Vickers took charge of the CIA’s secret war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. After inheriting a strategy aimed at imposing costs on the Soviets for their invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Vickers transformed the covert campaign into an all-out effort to help the Afghan resistance win their war. More than any other American, he was responsible for the outcome in Afghanistan that led to the end of the Cold War. In By All...