American Gunfight: The Plot to Kill Harry Truman--and the Shoot-out That Stopped It

Awesome, A look into the American Forgotten

American Gunfight is an amazing story of a part of history slipped from the minds of Americans. The story features the attempted assassination on President Harry Truman November 1, 1950. Two Puerto Rican Nationalists stalk the president in his temporary home across the street from the White House while it was being remodeled when even days before it the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico is discovered to be planning an attack on American outposts in Puerto Rico. Two desperate yet practical men try to strike a blow at the heart of what they see as a great oppressor, led by the words of Albizo Campos they lay Blair House under siege fro a grueling 38.5 seconds of testosterone and precision shooting. American Gunfight analyzes not only the event itself, but events leading up to it and the people involved, their lives, intentions, and reasons. The overall story does seem a bit cynical but an open mind must be kept, and the authors do a wonderful job of showing both sides of the story and including history that has determined American policies of the era. The novelist style of Hunter and the technical knowledge of he and Bainbridge make this a wonderful, easy to understand story that doesn't stray from facts and still builds towards an exciting shootout between two Puerto Ricans and the United States Secret Service. The story is broken up however, it goes chapter to chapter through different people's lives, and it can break up the climax of the action; the reader also needs to understand a bit about munitions, it enhances the story to have prior knowledge to German WWII arms and to the world of competitive shooting in the 1950's. If you like the style of this tale I suggest the novels written by Stephen Hunter in the Bob Lee Swagger Series, which includes Point Of Impact- the movie Shooter was based off this, and Earl Swagger Series. If you are squeamish or faint-of-heart none of these books are for you, not even American Gunfight. This is a read for the person, who likes history, a bit of action, and a bit of science /tactical knowledge; because not only does it talk about the event, but the tactics of the 1950 attack of Puerto Rican nationalists on American bases and the strategy behind both attacks. Overall it is the story of "good" conquering "evil", if you are American, if you are Puerto Rican it is a story of the powerful governments imperialism of a small nation that only wanted freedom.

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History, written in the style of New Journalism

Those who have critizised this book are usually missing one point: this is not a work of history in the traditional sense, it is an example of New Journalism. Those who don't know this movement would do well to research on it now. It is a mixture of journalism with the tools formerly reserved for literary works, especially fiction. Two examples of the genre are In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote and The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe. I have not met Mr. Hunter, but having met Mr. Bainbridge and talked with him at length about this work, I know firsthand the troubles he went thru in trying to represent fairly the viewpoints of the Puerto Rican Nationalist movement. He is as honest and fair a researcher as he is a writer and a person.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

I recommend this book.

Not finished yet. Great read so far. It's a Hunter, they don't get to much better.

A little-known event brought to light

Like most people, I'd heard about the assassination attempt on Harry Truman. Also like most people, most of what I'd heard was wrong. This book brings to light many facts about this event that were mostly unknown or unpublished in past versions of the story. It is extremely well researched and very well written. But, to me, the author almost wants the reader to agree with the motives of and justify the actions of the two assassins because of their upbringing and strong nationalism. In some ways, this could be compared to saying the Nazis were justified in some of their actions because of their strong nationalism. In light of today's terrorism & omnipresent violence, no single person or group can ever be justified in using violence to make a point. Even if violence is an everyday thing in some cultures, it's never the right thing to do. It may be true that actions speak louder than words, but I don't think any civilized person would agree that unmanaged violence is ever a good way to correct problems. In this book, I understand the author wishes to be unbiased, and he is. He remains mostly neutral in telling the story, but I still came away feeling as though I should feel sorry for the "bad guys". In truth, I did feel somewhat sorry for them, but not because they failed. I feel sorry that they wasted their lives in a tragic way.

True facts that all Americans should know about the issues concerning Puerto Rico and its independence views. Puerto Ricans in particular should know how this event and others has molded its politcal statues.

This book is so well documented it cannot be undisputed. The author has presented many facts not known by many ( not including serious students of Puerto Ricans History ). Do you know how long this battle lasted? The author will tell you AND he will prove it. Do you know the players involved? How they planned this deed? Whose idea was it to commit this crime? Why would anyone in there right mind commit such a crime? How many participated in this crime? Who did not and why not? How does this event relate to present day Puerto Rico? Why is this book necessary now? It was written in 2007. The event took place 58 years ago. Who cares about these facts now. Don't let this book pass you by and ask Geraldo Rivera if he knows anything about these events? If he does, you should know too. This event relates to the Civil Rights era of the 1960's. The Yound Lords knew about these events. If you were around at that time, this book you must read. Enjoy.

A frustrating read

When I first picked up this book I was excited to find what appeared to be a well written report on a part of American history that has been essentially ignored. However, it did not take me very long to decide that the authors should go back to writing novels and such. Most historical facts contained in this book are literally BURIED underneath hyperbole, cliches and rhetoric. The tedious minutia like, '... the P-38 magazine emptied 1/13th at a time...' Detracted even more from what appeared to be a feeble attempt at scholarly research. I regret that I bought this book and encourage anyone with an interest in the attempted assassination of Harry Truman to check this book out of the library and not waste their money on it.

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