How the Far East Was Lost


Book Description

The Far Eastern policy pursued during the Roosevelt-Truman administrations has long been the subject of spirited controversy among historians. This volume, first published in 1963, is the result of seven years of intensive research into a mass of documentary data dealing with the Communist conquest of China. “Professor Kubek discusses with unusual candor and clear vision the many mistakes of the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations with reference to the Far East. There are new data and fresh interpretations that lend additional evidence to support the contentions of earlier writers that the diplomacy of the Administrations of Roosevelt and Truman was disastrous in the extreme. The strange actions of General Marshall in China, and his blind policy while Secretary of State, were chief factors in the loss of China to the Communists. In a noteworthy chapter that all Americans should read, Professor Kubek traces in damning detail the tragic role that Marshall played in the fall of Nationalist China. “This is a volume that will earn the sharpest criticisms of the motley hordes that crowded the Roosevelt and Truman bandwagons, but it is a must book for any American who wants to know why the present sawdust Caesar, Khrushchev, can insult at will the President of the United States and can hurl continual threats to “bury” all Americans. Soviet militate might is the direct product of billions of Democratic Lend-Lease aid, coddling of Communists in high places in the American Government, and failure to understand the basic drives of world Communism. Never before in our history was Presidential leadership so devoid of vision, and never before had the mistakes of our Chief Executives been so fraught with peril to our nation. Read this book and then begin to worry about how Americans will fare in the next decade.”—Charles Callan Tansill, Professor Emeritus of Diplomatic History, Georgetown University (Foreword)




Fighting the People's War


Book Description

Jonathan Fennell captures for the first time the true wartime experience of the ordinary soldiers from across the empire who made up the British and Commonwealth armies. He analyses why the great battles were won and lost and how the men that fought went on to change the world.




The Second World War in the Far East


Book Description

Leading historian of the war in the Far East, P.H. Willmott, provides a concise, readable account of the conflict. The book is fully illustrated throughout and incorporates computer generated graphics that bring the battlefields to life.




The Missing Chapter Lee Harvey Oswald In The Far East


Book Description

Before Lee Harvey Oswald became linked to the JFK assassination, he was a mediocre U.S. Marine assigned to a radar squadron in Atsugi, Japan. Swike, a former Marine Corps Intelligence Officer stationed in Japan, spent over two decades researching Oswald's activities overseas, unraveling a chapter of Oswald's life that had quite simply been overlooked.




Foreign Devil


Book Description

For 30 years Hughes wrote newspaper stories for The Sunday Times and the Economist from and about Southeast Asia. Followed by readers around the globe, his reports were often harbingers of momentous events to come. In addition Hughes teases the reader with was or wasn't he-a spy, a double-agent and, most important, for whom? This is a rollicking read by a seasoned veteran who keeps his cards close and his enemies closer.




Losing the Long Game


Book Description

One of Foreign Affairs' Best of Books of 2021 and "Books For The Century"! "Book of the Week" on Fareed Zakaria GPS Financial Times Best Books of 2020 The definitive account of how regime change in the Middle East has proven so tempting to American policymakers for decades—and why it always seems to go wrong. "It's a first-rate work, intelligently analyzing a complex issue, and learning the right lessons from history." —Fareed Zakaria Since the end of World War II, the United States has set out to oust governments in the Middle East on an average of once per decade—in places as diverse as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan (twice), Egypt, Libya, and Syria. The reasons for these interventions have also been extremely diverse, and the methods by which the United States pursued regime change have likewise been highly varied, ranging from diplomatic pressure alone to outright military invasion and occupation. What is common to all the operations, however, is that they failed to achieve their ultimate goals, produced a range of unintended and even catastrophic consequences, carried heavy financial and human costs, and in many cases left the countries in question worse off than they were before. Philip H. Gordon's Losing the Long Game is a thorough and riveting look at the U.S. experience with regime change over the past seventy years, and an insider’s view on U.S. policymaking in the region at the highest levels. It is the story of repeated U.S. interventions in the region that always started out with high hopes and often the best of intentions, but never turned out well. No future discussion of U.S. policy in the Middle East will be complete without taking into account the lessons of the past, especially at a time of intense domestic polarization and reckoning with America's standing in world.




Siege Weapons of the Far East (1)


Book Description

The prevalence of particular fortress types in medieval China, Mongolia, Japan and Korea demanded the evolution of different modes of siege warfare in each country. The wealthy walled towns of China, the mountain fortresses of Korea and the military outposts of Japan each presented different challenges to besieging forces, and this book reveals the diversity of tactics that were developed to meet these challenges. Most of the Far Eastern weaponry of this period originated in China, but was adapted to fit the demands of siegecraft across the region and the individual strengths and weaknesses of each piece of machinery are studied here.




Plants from the Edge of the World


Book Description

At the heart of this descriptive and entertaining travelogue is the authors' personal tale of exciting rare plant discoveries in the Far East. Vividly illustrated with color maps and photographs.




Where Chiang Kai-shek Lost China


Book Description

“A masterful contribution not simply to the history of the civil war, but also to the history of 20th century China.” —Steven I. Levine author, Anvil of Victory: The Communist Revolution in Manchuria, 1945-1948) The civil war in China that ended in the 1949 victory of Mao Zedong’s Communist forces was a major blow to U.S. interests in the Far East and led to heated recriminations about how China was “lost.” Despite their significance, there have been few studies in English of the war’s major campaigns. The Liao-Shen Campaign was the final act in the struggle for control of China’s northeast. After the Soviet defeat of Japan in Manchuria, Communist Chinese and then Nationalist troops moved into this strategically important area. China’s largest industrial base and a major source of coal, Manchuria had extensive railways and key ports (both still under Soviet control). When American mediation over control of Manchuria failed, full-scale civil war broke out. By spring of 1946, Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist armies had occupied most of the southern, economically developed part of Manchuria, pushing Communist forces north of the Songhua (Sungari) River. But over the next two years, the tide would turn. The Communists isolated the Nationalist armies and mounted a major campaign aimed at destroying the Kuomintang forces. This is the story of that campaign and its outcome, which were to have such far-reaching consequences. “Where Chiang Kai-shek Lost China is more than a fluidly written battle narrative or operational history. By tapping an impressive array of archival materials, published document collections, and memoirs, Harold Tanner has put the Liao-Shen Campaign in the larger context of the Chinese Civil War and significantly advanced our understanding of the military history of modern China.” —Michigan War Studies Review




The Soul of the Far East


Book Description

This book is concerned with East Asian civilization in general, although it focuses principally on Japan.