John J. McLaughlin

I was looking forward to reading this book that has been on my Wishlist for a long time. I have read a lot about Wedemeyer as an unsung hero and the probably the last of living WWII senior officer ranks before he passed away in 1989.

Overall I thought there was much information presented in this book about the experiences of Wedemeyer and his impact within the US military and political circles during and after WWII. I learned that he was a pretty strong anti-Communist. This view flavored a show more lot of this decisions and comments about others (the good and the less good). His roles as a lead planner in in the strategy against the Germans and in Operation Overload along with the picking up of the pieces after General Stilwell's C-B-I command departure are awesome. He deserves his place in history. For an Army officer that went from a major to a lieutenant general in about 6 years, he earned the rank advancements achieved.

I found Wedemeyer's relationship with Marshall interesting. Learned things about Marshall that other books about him don't reveal. Marshall's relationship with the book's subject and to Stilwell showed the challenge of an officers' loyalty to peers/friends and to subordinates.

While the book is heavily researched as evidenced by the 50+ pages of end notes, after the first several pages, I had the feeling I was reading an essay rather than a typical biography. It became obvious that the author was writing the book to justify the actions of Wedemeyer rather than to just relay life experiences.

Most biographies enhance the subject's personal experiences and actions with historical background. This book more so. There were sections when historical background would continue on and on before Wedemeyer's name was mentioned again.

The author's writing style was clearly one of a researcher. I found his use of words interesting at times. This is the first time I have heard countries during WWII being referenced in the masculine. Virtually every other book I have read does it in the feminine.

If you can get past the essay tone of the book and sometimes very generous historical backgrounds provided in select sections, you will find this a decent biography about a very respected, but low key, general officer. show less

A book for which I had high expectations, it sadly let me down. While it is generally very readably and the subject (Wedemeyer) interesting, the arguments and conclusions presented in the book is thin to say the least, especially the theory that Wedemeyer had alienated the British and Churchill in particularly so much that they actively sought to have him removed from Washington is based loose "evidence" i.e. McLaughlin refers to a letter (page 117) that Wedemeyer received in 1968 from a show more Colonel Orren L. Jones in which Jones refers to conversations that he had with General Tansey, who told him that British Field Marshal John Dill and Lt-Gen. Frederick Morgan were intent on getting Wedemeyer out of Washington. This is presented as facts; even though the McLaughlin in a note mentions that he has been unable to verify Dill and Morgans "efforts" to get Wedemeyer out of Washington. Generally I feel that the book is marred with an Anglophobe attitude.

Though acknowledging that most authors of biographies are biased towards their subject McLaughlin simply over do it in my opinion, and he dwells too much on the doings and errors of others rather than tell us in details of Wedemeyer's doings. All in all very disappointing. show less