$10 · 15 STARS: EISENHOWER, MACARTHUR, and MARSHALL

Hardcover with dust jacket in like new unread condition. Pick-up is in Saanich close to the Monkey Tree and ICBC plaza off McKenzie Ave (McKenzie/Borden St.). Cross-posted. Weintraub, who has written many World War II histories, here inspects the interrelationship of the U.S. Army's three highest-ranking generals of that war: Douglas MacArthur, George Marshall, and Dwight Eisenhower. Ike's story bounces between those of the other two, for he served directly under them before Marshall selected him in mid-1942 to command American forces in Europe. MacArthur, by then already a military celebrity, was commander in the Southwest Pacific; Marshall managed the two from the newly built Pentagon. This geography makes Weintraub's narrative resemble a Venn diagram, existing at the intersections of the three generals' activities during the war. These took various forms, including visits from Marshall; messages about strategy and allocation of resources; and Marshall's disposition of personnel decisions that Ike or MacArthur referred to him. After the war, as the three assumed posts in the developing cold war, each took on an aura of presidential possibility. Culminating with the Korean War's ramifications for the trio, Weintraub's densely detailed chronicle can prime readers for future reading, whether individual biographies or battle histories. Taylor, Gilbert