Published in 1978, this is a biography of Douglas MacArthur, a man of extraordinary gifts and accomplishments, with an ego to match.  The son of a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient, MacArthur was born in 1880 when the Old West was still a reality.  Attending West Point, he would there begin to reveal the genius that would characterize his life and career.  Two World Wars, a myriad of successful engagements, seven silver stars, and two Medals of Honor later, he would return to America to be greeted by crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands—and to a disastrous run at the presidency.

Now deceased, William Manchester was a professor of history at Wesleyan University and a World War II veteran.  Manchester wrote beautifully, was thorough in his research, insightful, and highly opinionated.  I enjoyed some of his other works, namely, The Last Lion and The Arms of Krupp, but greatly disliked A World Lit Only By Fire, a study of the “Dark Ages” and a place where Manchester was clearly out of his depth.

Intrigued by Manchester’s own story, I also read his Pacific War memoir, Goodbye, Darkness.  While interesting and even moving at various points, I frankly wish that I had not done so.  I thought better of Manchester before reading it.  He includes any number of seedy details from his life that a wiser man would have left in the editor’s wastebasket.