Macarthur and the American Century: A Reader

General Douglas MacArthur has been hailed as the greatest soldier in American history. While not everyone would agree with that assessment, there is no question that MacArthur played a prominent role in the emergence of the United States as a world power in the 20th century. A distinguished combat soldier during World War I and an innovative educator at West Point in the 1920s, MacArthur became the army's chief of staff during the Great Depression. He went abroad in the 1930s to prepare the Philippines for war. His stand against the Japanese following Pearl Harbor made him a national hero, and his subsequent campaign against Japanese forces in the Southwest Pacific only added to his reputation. The Korean War gave MacArthur a final opportunity to display his military skills. This book assembles a full scrutiny of MacArthur's entire career. Essays by such experts as Stephen A. Ambrose, Stanley L. Falk, and D. Clayton James accompany materials by Dwight D. Eisenhower and MacArthur himself to analyze and evaluate the immense impact this dramatic figure had on war, peace and the American imagination.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations; List of Maps; Introduction - William M. LearyChronologyPart 1: Growth to MaturityLet Us RememberDouglas MacArthurMacArthur as West Point Superintendent - Stephen A. AmbroseDouglas MacArthur - Dwight D. EisenhowerThe Army and the Bonus Incident - John W. KilligrewThe Defense of the Philippines Douglas MacArthurDouglas MacArthur and Manuel Quezon: A Note on an Imperial Bond - Carol M. PetilloAn Exchange of Opinion - Paul P. Rogers and Carol M. PetilloPart 2: World War IIThe Lessons of History - Douglas MacArthurDouglas MacArthur and the Fall of the Philippines, 1941-1942 - Duncan AndersonMacArthur: An Australian Perspective - David HornerThe Army in the Southwest Pacific - Stanley L. FalkDouglas MacArthur and the 1944 New Guinea Offensive - Stephen R. TaaffeMacArthur's Lapses from an Envelopment Strategy in 1945 - D. Clayton JamesMilitary Intelligence and MacArthur, 1941-1951: A Reappraisal - Edward J. DreaMacArthur as Maritime Strategist - Clark G. ReynoldsA Commentary on Dr. Clark Reynolds's Paper "MacArthur as Maritime Strategist" - Gerald E. WheelerPart 3: JapanThe Administration of Japan Douglas MacArthurThe Late General MacArthur, Warts and All - Faubion BowersSuccess in Japan--Despite Some Human Foibles and Cultural Problems - Robert B. TextorMacArthur's Japan: The View from Washington - Michael SchallerThe Occupation of Japan, 1945-1952 - Ikuhiko HataPart 4: KoreaOld Soldiers Never Die Douglas MacArthurInchon: The General's Decision - H. Pat TomlinsonThe Inchon Invasion - Karl G. LarewTruman and MacArthur: The Wake Island Meeting - John Edward WiltzThe MacArthur Plan - Edgar O'BallanceCommand Crisis: MacArthur and the Korean War - D. Clayton JamesNew Light on the Korean War - Barton J. BernsteinPart 5: AssessmentsDuty, Honor, CountryDouglas MacArthurThe MacArthur I Know - George C. KenneyNo Substitute for Virility: Douglas MacArthur, Gender, and the Culture of Militarism - Laura A. BelmonteDouglas MacArthur - Norman CousinsA Unique General: MacArthur of the Pacific - Brian Loring VillaA Successful Postrevisionist Synthesis? - Charles M. DobbsMilitary Biography without Military History - Russell F. WeigleyEgotist in Uniform -Louis MortonBibliographical Essay; Source Acknowledgments; Index

About the Author :
William M. Leary is E. Merton Coulter Professor of History at the University of Georgia. His books include "We Shall Return! MacArthur's Commanders and the Defeat of Japan, 1942-1945."

Review :
"All MacArthur 'buffs', scholars of twentieth-century history, military historians and interested students will want to read this outstanding collection" Journal of Military History "This substantial book provides an excellent discussion about the career of a man who, as William M. Leary points notes, 'surely must be credited with playign a major role, for good or ill, in shaping the character of American impact on Asia'...This is a far superior collection to what often passes as 'A Reader' and is well worth library purchase."--History, October 2002