Content area
Full Text
No Substitute for Victory: Lessons in Strategy and Leadership from General Douglas MacArthur. By Theodore and Donna Kinni. Old Tappan, N.J.: Pearson Education, 2005. 288 pages. $27.95. Reviewed by Dr. Mark R. Grandstaff, Senior Fellow, James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland, College Park and Professor of History, Brigham Young University.
Army General Douglas MacArthur is a prime candidate for the study of leadership. The son of Army General Arthur MacArthur, he spent more than 70 years serving in a variety of leadership positions, including Superintendent of West Point, Chief of Staff of the Army, Field Marshall of the Philippines, Supreme Allied Commander of the Pacific duringWorldWar II,MilitaryGovernor of Japan during its occupation, and as a presidential hopeful as well as public administrator and businessman. His famous victory following the Inchon landing during the KoreanWar is a classic in the annals ofmilitary strategy. President Harry S. Truman's later dismissal ofMacArthur also provides an important lesson in civilian control over the military. The general's famous speech to the Congress in 1951 belies his main point-far from fading away, MacArthur's star continues to rise in the pantheon of "great leaders and generals." A book on his...