Rating: 
Summary: 85,000
Review: In this book Dallaire remembers an official from a Western nation remarking that 85,000 Rwandans would have to die to justify the death of one soldier from his country.Dallaire conveys the crushing sense of responsibility he continues to feel for failing to protect the 800,000 who died in Rwanda, but that weight flows through him to the reader as each of us bears blame in the failure of humanity he describes. This book forces a wrenching change of world view. Dallaire's writing is natural and simple. Though some scenes are disturbing, he doesn't rely on gore to exact an emotional response. It's important to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book by a Great Canadian
Review: Reading Shake Hands with the Devil was an interesting experience for me, because I know the authour - General Dallaire was the Commendant of Le College Militaire Royale de St-Jean (think the Quebequois version of West Point) while I was a student there.
In fact, I had the rare opportunity of celebrating the occasion of my 21st birthday well into the night in the company of the General, when my squadron mess dinner happened to coincide with my anniversaire.
I can say from personal experience that General Dallaire was not only the most professional officer I ever met, but also one of the best people. His sense of personal duty, honour, and most importantly, his deep-rooted humanity absolutely embody the essence of being Canadian. In a school where the golden rule was "lead by example" General Dallaire both talked the talk and walked the walk.
Which is what makes this book even the more tragic.
This is the story of a great man in an impossible circumstance, who does all in his power to avert catastophe, and who never gives up trying to win the battle for the side of good and civilization. That he was thwarted is a comment on us, not on him.
Read this book. Learn the lessons the General has to teach.
Rating:
Summary: A Call for Reform
Review: Romeo Dallaire's account of his tour of command of the UN Peacekeeping force during the Rwandan civil war and genocide of 1994 is an incredibly detailed document of the failure of the UN's ability to function in this capacity. In charge of troops from Belgium, Ghana, Bangladesh, Senegal and Tunisia, Dallaire found himself working with varying levels of
training, committment, loyalty, and vast communication problems brought on by language barriers.
In addition to struggling with UN red tape to get adequate food and water for his troops, let alone the refugees he attempted to shelter, Dallaire's ability to react to the slaughter around him was tied to committee meetings back in New York. He was told not to take sides, and his patient attempts to negotiate with Tutsi and Hutu leaders while driving back and forth through an ever deepening sea of blood and bodies,
speaks of his bravery and self-control. At one point he gets out of his vehicle and walks through a roadblock to find a Hutu leader in an attempt to stop the violence, and describes hearing guns being cocked all around him.
Hopefully this momentous book will cause the UN to examine its peacekeeping capacities. Currently countries in need, such as Haiti, wait while governments around the world debate who is to take responsibility and whether or not they wish to get involved. Could not the UN develop its own peacekeeping force; multi-national troops that are trained and outfitted together; taught to communicate and on the same page with their current mission? Rwanda is but one extreme example of a system that is not working, as Dallaire sub-titles his book: "A Failure of Humanity."
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant work that will do nothing but compell you
Review: This work, although I read it in French and thus lost a bit of the details, nonetheless has left a profound impact. Originally I heard of the general's experiences on the Frontline documentary regarding rwanda, which i also recommend. Although after reading this book and learning of the first hand accounts of the tragedy that one man could onyl so helplessly watch compells one to remorse, but also perhaps to bang down the alabaster doors of the UN, or perhaps those of the white house and demand why this was not halted. This begs the question that if the United States and civil society has taken a vow against genocide following the holocaust, how was this genocide allowed to occure? This book rather documenting in a political method, the failures of civil society, it documents the psychological vantage of Dallaire as he could only watch in horror, agast of the spectacle, the hades before him. perhaps it is also a less analytical, an rather subversive depiction of the darkness within the spirit of the human psyche, and how when unleashed, creates a destruction tantamount to a Bosch painting. Perhaps those that read this rather profound personal account will regard with more heed, the evnts occuring in Sudan that seem to be unfolding into yet another Rwanda, as the world looks away and refuses to listen to teh cries of genocide victims, only to the content of the murderous genocidaires. Perhaps it is valuable to emntion that Gen. Dallaire was placed in a psychiatric facility and found sleeping on a park bench, intoxicated, surely indicating the tremendous events he witnessed, which certainly are well accounted in his work. This should be a necessary piece in any course exploring contemporary history, diplomacy, politics or genocide.
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