Douglas MacArthur: The Far Eastern General

With his chiseled face, corn-cob pipe, and a voice which "could trumpet and drum," General Douglas MacArthur looked the part of a "heaven born general." Although he became arguably the best-known and most flamboyant American military leader of the twentieth century, the men who served in the trenches of Bataan sneeringly referred to him as "Dugout Doug." FDR privately termed MacArthur's defense of Corregidor "criminal," and Truman called his self-promoted "return" to the Philippines "a fiasco." This eye-opening book, written by one of America's leading authorities on United States-East Asian relations, offers an intimately detailed portrait of MacArthur, focusing particularly on the General's two decades in the Far East. Far from depicting him in a flattering light, Michael Schaller demythologizes the "American Caesar," and along the way gives us an insightful analysis of American foreign policy in Asia during those years. Revealing MacArthur's military failings, Schaller describes the costly consequences of MacArthur's indecisive Pacific Island campaign during World War II, which the popular press often hailed as brilliant. He also examines MacArthur's three futile attempts at the presidency and his destructive interference in foreign policy--ranging from his manipulation of policies in occupied Japan and his constant attacks on Truman's policy in China, to the Korean War when the seventy-year-old general willfully risked war with China and the Soviet Union to salvage his pride and humiliate his political enemies in Washington. This thought-provoking biography provides invaluable background to America's present relations with the Far East, as well as an unforgettable portrait of a man driven by talent, opportunism, vision, egotism, and jealousy.Schaller, Michael is the author of 'Douglas MacArthur: The Far Eastern General' with ISBN 9780195063325 and ISBN 0195063325.