Douglas MacArthur

Statecraft and Stagecraft in America's East Asian Policy

By (author) Russell D. Buhite

Publication date:

18 April 2008

Length of book:

208 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780742544253

Buhite offers a trenchant evaluation of Douglas MacArthur's career in east Asia and his role in some of the most important military and diplomatic issues of the twentieth century. Concise and highly readable, this biography considers diplomatic fact in light of psychological insight, and asks us to look anew at both MacArthur and American involvement in the region. From Manila to Washington, with Tokyo and Seoul in between, readers follow the course of American foreign diplomacy in East Asia via MacArthur's own career. This fascinating intersection of personality and policy would make for newsreel footage and newspaper headlines, such as when he waded ashore Luzon Island in the Philippines and sent Washington provocative communiqués about the People's Republic of China. Yet, as Buhite shows, grand gestures are not the substance of great foreign policy, and MacArthur's reputation merits critical reassessment. This is a must read for those interested in diplomatic and military history.

Chapter 1: The Measure of the Man
Chapter 2: The Philippine Years
Chapter 3: "I Shall Return"
Chapter 4: Victory in Japan
Chapter 5: Korea: Background to War
Chapter 6: Hubris Unbounded
Chapter 7: Strategic Myopia
Chapter 8: An Appraisal

A short, spirited, and persuasive study of General Douglas MacArthur's long career in Asia. . . . Buhite offers a balanced, accessible critical history of the General's life in Asia and the Pacific that should be especially useful for students in military and diplomatic history classes.