Title: MacArthur At War

Arthur: Walter R. Borneman

MacArthur At War chronicles General Douglas MacArthur’s rapid emergence as an iconic global hero. I the first book to focus intensively on the decisive four-year period of MacArthur’s lie during World War II, Walter R. Borneman examines an America grinding against its enemies in the Pacific Theater giving special attention to the relationships between MacArthur and his family and staff, his colleagues in the war effort such as Eisenhower, Marshall, Leahy, and Halsey, and political leaders including Churchill and Roosevelt.

On December 7, 1941, General MacArthur was a military officer whose career had little to recommend it to the history books. Yet within six months, he was hailed as the hero of Bataan and Corregidor–stunning American defeats though they were–and had come to personify the war effort in the Pacific.

One pithy quote–“I shall return”–enshrined him as a legend. But the full story went deeper. Following the destruction of his air force after Pearl Harbor and the bungled supplying of Bataan, MacArthur looked frozen at best. For a time, MacArthur himself was certain he would meet his end before the war was over. There were other moments when his strategic daring seemed to defy conventional logic: his audacious surprise landings and the aggressive leaps across the Pacific. And then there were the general’s personal appearances at the front, charging in from the ocean to announce dramatic victories–sometimes as the bullets were still flying.

MacArthur at War deftly shows why, as architect of stunning triumphs as well as inexplicable defeats, Douglas MacArthur remains the most intriguing military leader of the twentieth century–an inspiring and complex hero.