Supreme Commander
by Seymour Morris, Jr.
He is the most decorated general in American history--the only five-star general to receive the Medal of Honor. Yet Douglas MacArthur's greatest victory was not in war, but in peace.As Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in postwar Japan, General Douglas MacArthur was charged with transforming the defeated militarist empire into a beacon of peace and democracy, a task he called "the greatest gamble ever attempted." A career military man, MacArthur had no experience in politics, diplomacy, or economics. Vain, reclusive, and self-centered, he had many enemies in Washington who considered him a flaming peacock. Few thought he could succeed, not even President Harry Truman's closest advisors. But MacArthur did succeed--brilliantly--defying timetables and expectations. He announced eleven objectives and achieved them all, establishing a bond between two countries that survives to this day.Supreme Commander combines political history and military...