Stanley Weintraub (1929–2019)

Beginning on December 21, 1941, two weeks after Pearl Harbor, and ending on January 1, 1942, Pearl Harbor Christmas centers on Winston Churchill's Christmas visit to Franklin Roosevelt, but covers much more. Weintraub is a master at discovering fascinating details, which keep the tale of negotiations between Roosevelt and Churchill and their various subordinates from becoming dull. Showing that already, by December 1941, the world was at war, Weintraub keeps the reader apprised of events in show more the Pacific and on the Russian front, as well as how the war was beginning to affect the home front in the U.S.
Researching and writing over 60 years after the end of World War II, Weintraub has had access to many facts unknown to most people at the time they occurred. Although I had read enough already about "Dugout Doug" MacArthur to consider him no hero, Weintraub's depiction of MacArthur's constant lies to his superiors about what was actually happening in the Philippines was shocking to read about -- the author has his doubts about Churchill as well.
In December 1941, my mother was a senior in high school; she would go on to work in the local shipyard after graduation. My father, who had joined the National Guard at 16, was in the Army, since FDR had Federalized the Guard in summer 1940. He was stationed on an island off Portland, Maine, as a coast artilleryman; he would later serve in the Pacific Theater. Reading this book helped me to understand a bit of what it was like for them to live through that time. Highly recommended. show less

I picked up Stanley Weintraub's brief account of the 1914 Christmas truce after setting it down without completing it a couple of years ago. It is a good account of this odd anomaly of the Great War. Weintraub does a fine job of setting the scene: soldiers a settling down into their trenches, replete with the discomfort of the wet winter weather, the rats, bad food, and the nearness of the enemy lines divided by a No Man's Land littered with bodies-friends and foes alike. He contrasts this show more with the incongruities of the Christmas season-British and German soldiers alike receive government-sponsored goodies from home, which, while appreciated, do little to alleviate the suffering of those in the trenches-they don't drain the trenches, some waist high in mud, they don't reduce the danger from sniper's bullets or artillery shells.

That is left to the men themselves. From December 24th through December 26th, chiefly German and British soldiers informally agree to a lull in the fighting, first to bury their dead, and then to trade petty luxuries, souvenirs, trade pleasantries, and even to kick around a football. What the governments and generals will not do, the front line troops do themselves. Weintraub, importantly, points out that the truce wasn't universal, but many, many units in the trenches sent home accounts of the several days of quiet and fraternization.

If the book has a failing it is not fully exploring the fear of the governments and the generals that the truce could lead to an outbreak of peace-and what they did to insure it did not happen again.

Well told, with an eye to humanize an inhuman conflict. A special nod goes to Weintraub's use of English, German and French source. show less

I have read and enjoyed all of Stanley Weintraub's "Christmas War Books" (more than once!). They are not deep and detailed military histories, but they are of interesting subjects and make nice holiday reading for military history buffs (like myself) or by those who just want to get some insight about the subject.

"Washington's Christmas Farewell" begins in late 1783 in New York City, where Washington is with the last of his army waiting for the final departure of the remaining British Army show more (and those Royalists who plan on leaving with them) so he can can leave and be home in Mt Vernon by Christmas, for the first time in many years.

Weintraub writes of the many receptions held for Washington on his long journey down to Virginia, of his very moving and tearful farewell to his generals and staff who had been with him for so many years, and of his final resignation of his military commission to Congress in Annapolis, MD. The book ends with Washington on Christmas Eve, going into his house. Washington was a private man and left no written record of his first Christmas with Martha Washington and his family after so many years (which seems appropriate to me).

The author makes you realize how much the American public loved and revered Washington, and how respected he was abroad (even more than Ben Franklin) - many foreign military and political leaders expressing surprise that he planned on retiring and returning to his private life rather than taking authoritarian power, as they assumed he would. But that was not what Washington would do, showing to the world that the United States would be governed by the people, not the military. Thankfully for us. He remained a figure of respect abroad even in later years, so much so that in 1799 when he died, Napoleon declared a 10 day state of mourning with his army.

There is a quote by Washington in the book, which I think many politicians and the American public today should pay attention to, especially those who claim to regard him with admiration. It reads "The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges..." Would that more agreed with the Father of our Country. show less

I give this one 4.5 stars (out of 5). It was well-researched, easy listening, and I learned a lot. I guess all I previously knew about the Korean war came from books I'd read from the GIs' perspectives and some documentaries based on 1950's newsreels (which were mostly uninformed propaganda). This gave a much broader view of the conflict from the view of the generals.

Korea was a fiasco from start to finish. MacArthur's hubris as America's greatest general was quite costly. His poor decisions show more probably cost us the war while his political statements kept the nation fiercely behind him, calling for an impeachment of the President that fired him. Most people probably remember the firing as being because of his threats to drop A-bombs on mainland China, but that would be inaccurate. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs concluded in the end that he should have been fired years earlier for incompetence and insubordination.
But, at the time, MacArthur was a living legend, "God among us," blasphemed many Congressmen.

There are perhaps several parallels to the Korean effort and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Korea had the potential to be a flashpoint for World War III. Great book, great read. show less