The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War

The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War
By H.W. Brands
Doubleday, 2016. 437 pages. Nonfiction

Truman, who never expected to be President, approved the use of the atom bomb in Japan and subsequently won re-election at a time when the U.S. was recovering economic prosperity but facing the start of the Cold War. Truman’s postwar successes in Europe included the Marshall Plan and the Berlin airlift, when he stood firm against Stalin in Germany. In Asia, however, the Communists took over China and North Korea invaded South Korea. At the same time, General MacArthur was incredibly successful as the head of the U.S. occupation and rehabilitation of Japan. MacArthur was famously insubordinate to Truman while Truman thought he had accurately taken the measure of MacArthur and could tolerate his disrespect. But international events created a situation where these two very capable but very different men would clash over U.S. policies in Asia. Brands skillfully portrays the relationship between these two men and the background to events that still shape the world we live in. SH