The book is very good in the earliest chapters at detailing the history of the evolution of war games and how they began to be integrated into military planning through World War II. The following section, about the early history of computers as applied to war-gaming, is to a certain extent now technologically obsolete, though there are some interesting discussions about how "game theory" works. The last chapter, about Vietnam, seems to have been tacked on for no particular reason other than to appeal to anti-Vietnam sentiment (this edition came out in 1970). ( )

We have here an account tracing the history of the Academic simulation from the Prussian General staff of 1780 to the Rand corporation computer monsters of the sixties. The book has great emphasis on the exercises that were responsible for some of the odder moments in the Cold and early Vietnam Wars. The prose is clear and workmanlike. ( )