MacArthur's War: Korea and the Undoing of an American Hero - Softcover

Weintraub, Stanley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743205030 ISBN 13: 9780743205030

Publisher: Free Press, 2001

Synopsis

A myth-puncturing indictment of the actions of General Douglas MacArthur in Korea both explores how the brilliant but irresponsible general almost caused World War III before losing from his position and indelibly describes the soldiers who paid for political mistakes. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.

About this title

Review

Douglas MacArthur, in William Manchester's memorable phrase, was an American Caesar, a general accustomed to having his own way on or off the battlefield. He surrounded himself with fawning aides, commanded imperiously and sometimes impetuously, and did not kindly accept criticism.

Stanley Weintraub, who served as an Army lieutenant during the Korean War, makes the persuasive case that MacArthur's character and methods as commander of the Allied forces in Korea led him to commit disastrous errors of judgment--among them his failure to anticipate the Chinese entry into the war when MacArthur's troops approached the Yalu River, and his odd plan to seed South Korea's defensive perimeter with nuclear explosions and thus make the border impassable for generations.

Weintraub praises MacArthur's brilliance as a tactician and student of military history, pointing out that MacArthur's audacious landing at Inchon was straight out of Xenophon. He also notes that MacArthur correctly predicted that the Allied conduct of the Korean conflict would lead to stalemate. Still, Weintraub quietly insists that President Harry Truman was right in removing MacArthur from command on the grounds of insubordination, an act with enormous political repercussions at the time. An outstanding contribution to the literature of the Korean War--a conflict that is again in the news--Weintraub's book spares no detail in examining the end of Douglas MacArthur's checkered career. --Gregory McNamee

About the Author

Stanley Weintraub is Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at Pennsylvania State University. He has written acclaimed works of military history on World Wars I and II, including A Stillness Heard Round the World and Long Day's Journey into War. He lives in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania.

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0743205030
• ISBN 13: 9780743205030
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400