David Clay LargeMunich 1972: Tragedy, Terror, and Triumph at the Olympic Games

The 1972 Munich Olympics will forever be identified with the massacre of eleven members of the Israeli team by members of the Black September terrorist group. It is, understandably, the most logical icon of those Games. In fact, other than a few images or video clips of Mark Spitz, Olga Korbut or the masked Black September gunman on the dormitory balcony, there really isn't enough information available for anything else to be associated with the Munich Olympics. Thankfully, with MUNICH 1972, David Large fills that void with zeal and offers the complete story of the "most beautiful Olympics ever to have been wrecked" .Considering the author was actually in Munich during those Olympic Games (as a grad student working on a dissertation, not as a spectator), there is a sense that this book was written to satisfy his own quest for understanding the tragic event that unfolded down the road from him; as he is so thorough in his approach to the subject matter. Covering every imaginable facet of the 72 Olympics, from the controversy of Munich being awarded host-city status to the immediate and long-term aftermath of the Games and everything in-between, Large makes a case that Munich may arguably be the most important Olympics of the modern era. Rather than focusing solely on the obvious (the massacre), Large reminds us that up until the tragic event, the Games provided some astounding athletic performances that seemed destined to make Munich one of the most successful Olympics ever. This detailed, balanced and rather unbiased overview of the entire 72 Olympics proved to be a fascinating and educational read. We get the good, the bad and the very ugly facts behind this tragic event.Large dedicates the first third of the book to the build-up to the Games. Starting with the controversial decision to award host city status to the birthplace of the Nazi Party, readers are reminded of the last time Germany hosted an Olympics, under Hitler. Large details the painstaking efforts of West Germany and Munich took to prove to the world that a new Germany had arisen from the ashes of its destructive past ... the Munich Games were to be a showcase of this rebirth. Paralleling this story of Munich's herculean attempt to rebrand itself (and Germany) is the rumbling of the global political violence that existed at the time (including trouble from its estranged brother-country, East Germany). It is clear that the planners knew the likelihood of the Munich Olympics being targeted for a violent political statement was high to almost certain. I was astonished to read that months before the Games started, a security advisor pretty much laid-out a potential Palestinian terrorist attack ("scenario 21") in the exact manner in which it actually happened. And while security was important in theory it was superseded by the effort to soften reminders of Germany's Nazi past (pastel jackets and baseball hats in lieu of anything remotely militant-looking). In other words, the door was left wide open for anyone with ill intentions.The remaining two-thirds of the book are dedicated to the two weeks the Games played out. What is sometimes difficult to remember is that the athletic performances at Munich were quite stellar. Rather than a glossing overview of the athletics, Large opts to provide intimate and colorful details of a variety of events, their participants and eventual outcomes. An excellent overview that is full of interesting obscure stories and controversies. I felt that the author's thorough attention to sports at the Munich Games was integral in making the book balanced and complete. Following the the first week of events, comes the chapter dedicated to the day of the Black September attack. Again, the author provides explicit detail that puts readers at the horrific scene and takes us through the tragedy, step-by-step, from the hostage-taking to the disastrous "rescue attempt" at a nearby airfield. Reading this chapter confirms that the security for entire Munich Games was nothing more than a house-of-cards and that most of the organizers were simply crossing their fingers, hoping to ride the good fortune of the first week all the way to the closing ceremony. The West German response to the crisis is characterized as being inept and helpless. Large does hand out a heap of blame to virtually everyone ... even Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir is shown to have callously conceded the hostages' lives rather than accommodating the terrorists' demands. If there is one source of obvious bias exhibited by the author throughout the book, it is his obvious distaste for IOC President Avery Brundage, who infamously insisted the Games continue following the massacre. The final week of competition has a few bright moments, but readers will sense the Olympic spirit as being long gone as the controversy of continuing the games elicits a myriad of reactions from those athletes whose events were scheduled for that second week, after the massacre.Thorough, informational and entertaining ... a totally absorbing read. Quite simply, MUNICH 1972 left me with no unanswered questions regarding the Munich Games, but a strong desire to share the fine details with others. I believe David Large has done a magnificent job documenting an event that, for 40 years, has been steeped in darkness and mystery. This book should appeal to anyone interested in sports and/or history. Reading it as the London Olympics are playing out gave the book more special meaning and certainly puts things in perspective.

What a great topic deserving of its own volume: the fascinating 1972 Summer Olympics at Munich. I bought and started to read this book with great relish. Completing the read, I was a bit disappointed.While a credible effort, the book was mildly difficult for me to get through due to the author's writing style. He uses expressions that are sort of childish, confrontational, and out of place, particularly on NON-controversial topics, thus he often does NOT seem as if he's a college professor at all. At one point, he stated that American quarter-miler John Smith would later "eat his words" in regard to a statement he'd made contrasting an apparent lack of excitement in 1972 Munich, West Germany with a fairly explosive atmosphere in Cali, Columbia, a year earlier. Such a comment ("eat his words") by an author is appropriate to say about someone else who may be guilty of something, such as lying. Better in this case to have written merely that Smith's comparison "was later proven to be false" or some such unemotional phrasing.The author constantly appears to be an excitable, caustic sort, inserting negative opinions at many turns. He wrote in the intro: "I care about boxing, track, and swimming, for example; I don't give a fig about fencing or air-rifle shooting." I read that and wondered, WHY be so negative toward the latter sports?--and why, as an author, say "I don't give a fig" about ANYTHING??? That weirdly-harsh statement makes the author look like an angry 4-year-old, about something where anger simply seems oddly placed. A simple, non-caustic statement would do much better, such as, "I focused on the sports I care more about, such as boxing, track, and swimming," and would have read more professionally.As a "professor," he could have avoided writing an utterly stupid comment he'd paraphrased, where he was clearly, actually, trying to be balanced. He wrote that, while he chooses to use the word "terror" in regard to the murder of the innocent Israeli athletes at Munich, the Palestinian viewpoint might well be that "no Israeli is 'innocent.'" Now, that is an utterly stupid remark by Palestinians, uttered all the time, and its inclusion in this book, coming as it did with no further commentary by the author, is insane. OF COURSE not ALL Israelis are guilty of ANYTHING in regard to the Palestinians, even if some MIGHT be--and I'm not saying that any are. But for this oft-repeated Palestinian viewpoint (used to justify the murder of Israeli babies to this day), to go unchallenged by an author who otherwise clearly evaluates and opines on all sides of this topic briefly in the section where this resides, is careless. NO nation's entire people-- that is, every last one of them-- is guilty of ANYTHING. Just as not all Germans were guilty of anything, necessarily, during WWII, for example. The author critiques much throughout the book, but "lets this one go" completely. He really shouldn't have mentioned the "no Israeli is 'innocent'" bit at all, and could have used instead some other of the usual Palestinian rationales in making his own point-- or at least knocked this one down if he'd felt compelled to use it.I wondered, while reading, if the author was old enough to have remembered the Munich Games or was even alive at the time, as others of us were; because much of this reads as if he'd looked it all up. Though apparently he was a grad student, actually there at the time.As to errors, in a passage on American swimming great Mark Spitz, the author actually refers to the man who later broke his record of 7 gold medals at one Olympics as "Mark" Phelps instead of the correct "Michael." Now, how many American authors of a book on the Olympics would screw that up?? I'm thinking-- just this guy. Maybe it's why he is relegated to being a "professor" in Montana, of all places, I don't know. But I have to think that if this book had an author plus an editor plus a fact checker plus a proofreader, that this mistake is unforgivable. Akin to saying that Babe Ruth's lifetime home run record was broken by "Joe" Aaron (instead of "Hank."). He refers to Rick DeMont, a Munich 1972 gold medalist, as "Richard" DeMont in the section describing DeMont's travails at Munich, despite getting it right when mentioning Rick in passing earlier in the book. (DeMont never used "Richard" in his sporting life.)The narrative is actually much shorter than the 396 pages advertised, as it's got 78 pages of notes and other such material at the end included in that figure. This big topic deserved far more than 318 pages. Still, the book captures quite a bit of the feel and even the details of the 1972 games and the run-up to them, despite usually reading like a race through all the topics and facts. It is worth reading despite these significant imperfections. (Readers wanting works on this topic have few other choices!)A book with a very fresh perspective on the Munich games, though with not nearly as much material on that one particular subject, is the late sportscaster, Howard Cosell's, best book (of his several books), simply called "Cosell," published a year after the Munich games, in 1973. Written by someone who was there and who was involved, albeit as a reporter, in several of the athletic controversies and the massacre of the Israeli athletes. A vivid read from cover to cover, bringing the chapters on the Munich Olympics VERY much to life.

This was a facinating read. Like most people, all I really knew about the 1972 Olympic Games was the terrorist attack, yet this book explored every aspect of the games, from the decision to bid for the games to their aftermath. A bit dry in places but well worth your time if, like me, the stories of the games can be as interesting as the sporting events themselves.