'This major reassessment properly identifies, analyzes, and emphasizes the importance of political considerations and goals in determining U.S. strategy in the war against Japan. It provides a useful corrective to the popular but erroneous belief that U.S. strategy during World War II was based on 'purely military' factors.' - Mark A. Stoler, author of Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs ... Read moreof Staff, the Grand Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II and George C. Marshall: Soldier-Statesman of the American Century 'This is a lovely book: lean, elegant, crisp - by far the best narrative of American military diplomacy and strategy in the Pacific War. Its singular strengths include a careful analysis of the role of domestic - i.e., 'public' - opinion on the Administration's and Joint Chiefs' judgments on naval and military strategies for the prosecution of the Pacific campaigns.' - Josiah Bunting, HF Guggenheim Foundatio Show Less