Ebook: Beetle: the life of general Walter Bedell Smith

The first full biography of Smith, a fascinating American soldier and diplomat who began his career in 1911 as a private in the Indiana National Guard, and retired as a four-star general.;Epilogue as prologue : soldier, diplomat, spymaster. Soldier turned diplomat ; Expecting the worse ; Dulles's number two ; The Geneva Conference ; "Ike's prat boy" -- Officership in the army of the "long generation," 1917-1939. Born to be a soldier ; The summons to war ; "They don't make 'em any better than Smith" ; "Expunge the bunk, complications, and ponderosities" ; The other class stars fell on ; "No one ever graduates" -- The towering figure : George C. Marshall. The chief's apprentice ; Forging the mold ; "Exceptionally qualified for service as Chief of Staff" -- The Mediterranean campaign. "Smith will save Ike" ; "We are on the threshold of a magnificent success" ; "Thank God you are in London" ; "We shall continue to flounder" ; "Allies are very difficult people to fight with" ; The many travails of an Allied Chief of Staff ; The road to Messina ; The Italian job ; "A feeling of restrained optimism" ; "We conduct our wars in a most curious way" -- France 1944. The Supreme Command ; "Enough to drive you mad" ; "It's go" ; Normandy deadlock ; What has the Supreme Command amounted to? ; End the War in '44 ; "The logistical bottleneck now dictates strategy" ; Après le déluge -- The victory campaign. One desperate blow ; Déjà vu all over again ; The German is a whipped enemy ; Mission fulfilled -- Appendixes. Marshall's reorganized War Department General Staff ; AFHQ command and staff structure ; SHAEF command and staff structure.