Marching Orders: The Untold Story Of World War II - Softcover

Lee, Bruce

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0306810360 ISBN 13: 9780306810367

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2001

Synopsis

Robert T. Crowley, an intelligence officer in World War II who later became a senior executive at the CIA, has called Marching Orders simply "one of the most important books ever published about World War II." At last available in paperback, the book reveals a host of previously untold stories about codes and codebreaking—including how the American breaking of the Japanese diplomatic Purple ciphers led to the defeat of Germany, as well as why America and England agreed to use nuclear weapons against Japan. Bruce Lee, who had access to 1.5 million pages of U.S. Army documents and 15,000 pages of the sometimes daily top-secret messages sent to Tokyo from Japanese diplomats stationed in Berlin and elsewhere, constructs the most complete history available on American codebreaking activity and its consequences. He concisely documents the extraordinary casualties both American and Japanese forces would have suffered in an invasion and occupation of Japan, demonstrating through intercepted secret communications between Japanese leaders that Tokyo was adamant in its refusal to surrender.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

aimed as "one of the most important books ever published about World War II,"* this brilliantly written book reveals a host of previously untold stories: how the American breaking of the Japanese diplomatic Purple ciphers led to the defeat of Germany and caused Eisenhower not to capture Berlin, as well as why America and Great Britain agreed to employ nuclear weapons against Japan.

In researching Marching Orders, Bruce Lee had access to 1.5 million pages of U.S. Army documents -- plus 15,000 pages of Japanese decrypts -- detailing Germany's most sensitive military secrets. Japanese diplomats and military attaches in Europe sent these reports daily to Tokyo, believing falsely that their ciphers could not be broken. In turn, Tokyo sent its diplomats plans for the military expansion of the Japanese Empire.

In Marching Orders, Bruce Lee takes these decrypts and shows, with an overlay on wartime chronological events, what their impact was on Chief of Staff George C. Mars

About the Author:

Bruce Lee, in a long and distinguished publishing career, has been editor-researcher for Cornelius Ryan and the editor of Gordon Prange, Admiral Edwin T. Layton, Ronald Lewin, Gordon Wekhman, William Craig, Ralph Bennett, and Charles B. MacDonald. He lives in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0306810360
• ISBN 13: 9780306810367
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 640