Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Woman in the wild

Published on Aug 17, 2012
The bounty hunter Mad Jack (Denver Pyle) thinks he sees on Pine Ridge turns out to be a lady, Mrs. Kate Jackson (Tiffany Bolling) supposedly a writer seeking information on black bears.

She is invited to stay at the cabin where Adams (Dan Haggerty) learns the real story. She is not a writer, but a widow and the only child of an army colonel who was killed by a black bear. Kate has come to the mountain to avenge her father's death. Just as Totawny (Todd Tingey) is learning lessons in the wilderness while "brave-training" with Nakoma (Don Shanks) Kate Jackson will learn the biggest lesson of her life.

Adams trys to explain to her that killing is wrong and perhaps there is a reason that the bear might have attacked her father. She admits that Colonel Jackson loved to hunt merely for the sport and that his aide told her the attack was by a mother bear. Well, Adams knows that if a bear attacks it would only be to protect her cubs. In tears, Kate tells Adams she was also informed that her father was using one of the bear cubs for bait and this was probably the reason the bear attacked.

Kate decides to go back home and really become a writer of wilderness since she knows about it first hand now. She tells Adams that her new viewpoint is "Love can overcome hate and help people to respect all living things."

LEPROSY

40 There also came to him a leper, pleading with him even on bended knee, saying to him: “If you just want to, you can make me clean.”+ 41 At that he was moved with pity, and he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him: “I want to! Be made clean.”+ 42 Immediately the leprosy vanished from him, and he became clean. 43 Then he gave him strict orders and at once sent him away,44 saying to him: “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing the things Moses directed,+ for a witness to them.”+ 45 But after going away, the man started to proclaim it a great deal and to spread the account widely, so that Jesus was no longer able to enter openly into a city, but he stayed outside in isolated places. Yet they kept coming to him from all sides.+LEPROSY
A disease designated in the Bible by the Hebrew term tsa·raʹʽath and the Greek word leʹpra. A person afflicted with it is called a leper.
In the Scriptures “leprosy” is not restricted to the disease known by that name today, for it could affect not only humans but also clothing and houses. (Le 14:55) The leprosy of today is otherwise called Hansen’s disease, so named because Dr. Gerhard A. Hansen discovered the germ that is generally thought to cause this malady. However, though tsa·raʹʽath applies to more than the leprosy of today, there is no doubt that human leprosy now called Hansen’s disease was in evidence in the Middle East in Biblical times.
Varieties, With Their Effects. Today leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, which is only slightly communicable, manifests itself in three basic varieties. One, the nodular type, results in a thickening of one’s skin and the forming of lumps, first in the skin on the face and then on other parts of the body. It also produces degenerative effects in mucous membranes of the victim’s nose and throat. This is known as black leprosy. Another type is anesthetic leprosy, sometimes called white leprosy. It is not as severe as black leprosy and basically affects the peripheral nerves. It may manifest itself in skin that is painful to the touch, though it can also result in numbness. The third type of leprosy, a mixed kind, combines the symptoms of both forms just described.
As leprosy progresses toward its advanced stage, the swellings that initially develop discharge pus, the hair may fall from one’s head and eyebrows, nails may loosen, decay, and fall off. Then the victim’s fingers, limbs, nose, or eyes may be slowly eaten away. Finally, in the most serious cases, death ensues. That Biblical “leprosy” certainly included such a serious disease is apparent from Aaron’s reference to it as a malady wherein the flesh is “half eaten off.”Nu 12:12.
This description helps one better to appreciate Biblical references to this dread malady and the dire consequences of Uzziah’s presumptuous act in improperly endeavoring to offer incense in Jehovah’s temple.2Ki 15:5; 2Ch 26:16-23.
Diagnosis. By means of the Mosaic Law, Jehovah provided Israel with information enabling the priest to diagnose leprosy and to distinguish between it and other less serious skin afflictions. From what is recorded at Leviticus 13:1-46, it can be seen that leprosy might begin with an eruption, a scab, a blotch, a boil, or a scar in one’s flesh from fire. Sometimes the symptoms were very clear. The hair in the affected area had turned white, and the malady was seen to be deeper than the skin. For example, a white eruption in the skin might turn the hair white, and raw flesh might appear in the eruption. This meant that one had leprosy and was to be declared unclean. However, in other cases the malady was not deeper than the skin and a period of quarantine was imposed, with subsequent inspection by the priest, who made a final determination in the case.
It was acknowledged that leprosy could reach a stage in which it was not contagious. When it overspread the entire body, all of it having turned white, and living flesh was not in evidence, it was a sign that the diseased action was over and that only the marks of its ravages remained. The priest would then declare the victim clean, the disease posing no further danger to anyone.Le 13:12-17.
If the leper’s malady left him and he was cured, there were arrangements whereby he could ceremonially purify himself, and these included the offering of sacrifice in his behalf by the priest. (Le 14:1-32) But if the priest declared the uncured leper unclean, the leper’s garments were to be torn, his head was to become ungroomed, he was to cover the mustache or upper lip, and he was to call out “Unclean, unclean!” He had to dwell in isolation outside the camp (Le 13:43-46), a measure that was taken so that the leper would not contaminate those in the midst of whom Jehovah was tenting. (Nu 5:1-4) It seems that in Biblical times lepers associated with one another or lived in groups, making it possible for them to aid one another.2Ki 7:3-5; Lu 17:12.
In garments and houses. Leprosy could also affect woolen or linen garments, or an article of skin. The plague might disappear with washing, and there were arrangements for quarantining the article. But where this yellowish-green or reddish plague persisted, malignant leprosy was present and the article was to be burned. (Le 13:47-59) If yellowish-green or reddish depressions appeared in the wall of a house, the priest imposed a quarantine. It might be necessary to tear out affected stones and have the house scraped off inside, the stones and scraped-off mortar being disposed of in an unclean place outside the city. If the plague returned, the house was declared unclean and was pulled down, and the materials were disposed of in an unclean place. But for the house pronounced clean there was an arrangement for purification. (Le 14:33-57) It has been suggested that the leprosy affecting garments or houses was a type of mildew or mold; however, about this there is uncertainty.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  As a Sign. One of the signs Jehovah empowered Moses to perform to prove to the Israelites that God had sent him involved leprosy. As instructed, Moses stuck his hand in the upper fold of his garment, and upon his withdrawing it, “his hand was stricken with leprosy like snow!” It was restored “like the rest of his flesh” by his returning it into the upper fold of his garment and withdrawing it once again. (Ex 4:6, 7) Miriam was stricken with “leprosy as white as snow” as a divine act because she spoke against Moses. He begged God to heal her, which was done, but she was quarantined outside the camp for seven days.Nu 12:1, 2, 9-15                                 In Elisha’s Time. Naaman the Syrian was “a valiant, mighty man, though a leper [or, struck with skin disease].” (2Ki 5:1, ftn) His pride nearly lost him the opportunity of being cured, but he eventually did as instructed by Elisha, plunging into the Jordan seven times, and “his flesh came back like the flesh of a little boy and he became clean.” (2Ki 5:14) He thereupon became a worshiper of Jehovah. However, Elisha’s attendant Gehazi greedily acquired a gift from Naaman in the prophet’s name, thus misrepresenting his master and, in effect, making the undeserved kindness of God a means of material gain. For his misdeed, Gehazi was stricken with leprosy by God and became “a leper white as snow.”2Ki 5:20-27.                                    That there were a number of lepers in Israel in Elisha’s day is shown by the presence of four Israelite lepers outside Samaria’s gates while Elisha was inside the city. (2Ki 7:3) But there was a general lack of faith on the part of the Israelites in this man of the true God, just as the Jews in Jesus’ home territory would not accept him. Hence, Christ said: “Also, there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, but Naaman the man of Syria.”Lu 4:27.                                                                                        Healed by Jesus and His Disciples. During his Galilean ministry, Jesus healed a leper described by Luke as “a man full of leprosy.” Jesus ordered him to tell nobody and said: “But go off and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering in connection with your cleansing, just as Moses directed, for a witness to them.”Lu 5:12-16; Mt 8:2-4; Mr 1:40-45. 40 There also came to him a leper, pleading with him even on bended knee, saying to him: “If you just want to, you can make me clean.”+ 41 At that he was moved with pity, and he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him: “I want to! Be made clean.”+ 42 Immediately the leprosy vanished from him, and he became clean. 43 Then he gave him strict orders and at once sent him away,44 saying to him: “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing the things Moses directed,+ for a witness to them.”+ 45 But after going away, the man started to proclaim it a great deal and to spread the account widely, so that Jesus was no longer able to enter openly into a city, but he stayed outside in isolated places. Yet they kept coming to him from all sides.+                                    When Christ sent out the 12 apostles, he told them, among other things, “Make lepers clean.” (Mt 10:8) Later, while he was going through Samaria and Galilee, Jesus cured ten lepers in a certain village. Only one of them, a Samaritan, “turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice” and fell upon his face at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what had been done in his behalf. (Lu 17:11-19) It may also be noted that Christ was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper (whom Jesus may have cured) when Mary anointed Jesus with costly perfumed oil a few days before his death.Mt 26:6-13; Mr 14:3-9; Joh 12:1-8.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Defamation Of Pius XII (Key Texts) Hardcover – February 20, 2001 by Ralph McInerny

Why do John Cornwell in Hitler's Pope (1999) and Gary Wills in Papal Sins [BKL Ap 1 00] say such nasty things about Pope Pius XII? McInerny's fact-crammed response to those best-sellers presents Pius as the best friend Jews had during the Holocaust, responsible for the rescue of 860,000 of the 2 million European Jews who survived. Moreover, Pius' good offices were well known at the time and praised by Jewish political and religious leaders. Cornwell and Wills are reviving the anti-Catholicism of Rolf Hochhuth's hit play The Deputy (1963), which cast Pius as Hitler's anti-Semitic accomplice. Hochhuth slandered Pius, McInerny postulates, to displace Germany's collective guilt--a guilt that Catholic theology, McInerny points out, doesn't acknowledge. Cornwell and Wills are differently motivated. Disaffected Catholics, they despise church teaching on sexual morality and attack Pius and his successors to undermine papal authority. One needn't be Catholic to find McInerny's argument most compelling. Unless the events and statements he cites really didn't happen and weren't written, the memory of Pius XII deserves an apology. Ray OlsonEugenio Pacelli, Pius XII, was one of the few unalloyed heroes of World War II. At great personal risk, he saved some 800,000 Jews from extermination by the Nazis. Jewish refugees were given asylum in the Vatican, swelling the number of Swiss Guards. No Allied leader can match his glorious record. Golda Meir lauded Pius XII after the war, and the chief rabbi of Rome became a Roman Catholic, taking the name of Eugenio in tribute to Eugenio Pacelli.
Why then has such a man been vilified and all but accused of being responsible for the Holocaust? Rolf Hochhuth’s infamous play, The Deputy, marked the turning point. The outrageous distortions of this play turned the greatest friend the Jewish people had during World War II into an anti- Semite. This book restores Pius XII to the rank of hero, demolishes the ludicrous charges against him, and identifies the true target of this infamous calumny : the Church, the papacy, and the Christian moral teaching which confronts and condemns the Culture of Death

Did Pope Pius XII Help the Jews? Paperback – September 1, 2007 by Margherita Marchione

Sister Marchione strikes again. Her book titled DID POPE PIUS HELP THE JEWS is a short book, but it is solid. Sister Marchione again cites testimony from Jewish survivors, historical documents (not hysterical media nonsense), and secondary sources many of which were written by Jewish historians on behalf of Pope Pius XII and honest history. This book is a good introduction to the actual courage of Pope Pius XII and brave Catholics who risked their lives helping W.W. II refugees including Jewish refugees.

Rabbi Dalin wrote a book titled THE MYTH OF HITLER'S POPE, and Sister Marchione's book titled DID POPE PIUS XII HELP THE JEWS clarly proves that Pope Pius XII being Hitler's Pope is indeed a myth. Sister Marchione cites Eugenio Pacelli's remarks about Hitler in 1929 in which Eugenio Pacilli (the future Pope Pius XII)condemned Hitler and sounded alarm bells about the future German leaders. Sister Marchione examines the documents of the concordot between the Vatican and the German authorities made in 1933 in an attempt on part of the Vatican to protect the rights of Catholics under the new German government. Eugenio Pacelli not only insisted on the rights of the German Catholics, but as the Vatican Secretary of State, also insisted on the rights of race and religious minorities other than Catholics. The documents are there. Readers should note that when Eugenio Pacelli was elected Pope Pius XII, the Hitler regime registered strong protests and called Pope Pius XII the Jewish Pope because of his earlier condemnation of German race hallucinations.

Sister Marchione also cites the testimony of Jewish refugees who were helped by Pope Pius XII. If Sister Marchione would have cited all examples of such testimony and praise of Jewish survivors who benefitted from Pope Pius's rare courage and compassion, she would have written a five foot book shelf. In the early 1930s when Italian Jews were denied the right to work and prosper, Pope Pius XII did as much as he could to employ many of these people in the Vatican. One outstanding example of Jewish testimony on behalf Pope Pius XII was that of Rabbi Zolli who was the Chief Rabbi of Rome. He was so impressed with Pope Pius XII's undaunted courage and compassion, that Rabbi Zoli converted to Catholicism. Rabbi Zolli has an interesting chapter about this in his book titled BEFORE THE DAWN.

That Pope Pius XII ordered European priests, nuns, bishops, etc. to help refugees including Jewish people is clear. Pius XII ordered cloistered monastaries and convents to open their doors to Jewish refugees. In fact, as Sister Marchione cites, Pope Pius XII personally housed thousands of Jewish refugees in his residence and Vatican property throughout Rome.

As Sister Marchione makes clear, Pope Pius XII ordered Catholic religous authorities throughout Europe including Eastern Europe to do all they could to stop the arrests and deportations of Jewish people. This is a matter of record. In fact, the Hungarian Jewish leader Jeno Levai praised Pope Pius XII in Jeno's book titled HUNGARIAN JEWRY AND THE PAPACY:PIUS XII WAS NOT SILENT.

One problem that Pope Pius XII was his close proximity to Mussolini and Hitler. Catholic bishops and Jewish leaders begged Pope Pius XII to mute his condemnations of the Hitler regime due to retaliation and revenge. Pope Pius XII also knew that Hitler had planned a secret mission to invade the Vatican and remove the Papacy to Lichenstein. In other words, to use the expression, Pope Pius XII had to walk on egg shells. Yet if anyone reads Pope Pius XII's Christmas messages in the early 1940s, they would know that Pope Pius XII did speak out about the brutality of those involved in W.W. II. One only has to resort to the editions of U.S. newspapers in the early 1940s, including THE NEW YORK TIMES, to locate such statements.

Readers should also note that Pope Pius XII spent his own personal fortune in helping refugees including many Jews. The Vatican spent huge sums on rescue efforts and aid to refugees and had to appeal to Catholics throughout the world for donations to contine this work.

Sister Marchione cites documents priests, monks and nuns who repeatedly stated that they acted in part on direct instructions from Pope Pius XII to harbor and care for Jewish refugees. When Pope Pius XII's detractors try to argue that he did not issue such instructions, documents refute such lying. When the future Pope John XXIII was thanked for helping Jewish refugees in Turkey, the future pope reminded his listeners that he was acting on behalf of Pope Pius Xii.

While Pope Pius XII was praised by Christians for his courage and compassion, he was, and is, highly praised by Jewish leaders. Jewish leaders gave Pope Pius XII high praise during his lifetime. Sir Martin Gilbert, who is Jewish, has written extensively about the heroic efforts of Pope Pius XII. Rabbi Dalin has done the same. Bernard Baruch also gave Pope Pius XII such high praise.

While this is a short book, the bibliography in this book will help readers to further investigate the rare courage exhibited by Pope Pius XII. Readers are also encourged to read Siter Marchione's more extensive books such as YOURS IS A PRECIOUS WITNESS, POPE PIUS XII:ARCHITECT FOR PEACE, CONSENSUS AND CONTROVERSY, and CRUSADE FOR CHARITY. Her use of extensive documents is impressive, and she overwhelms Pope Pius XII's detractors with solid historical research and not pop culture nonsense. This reviewer highly recommends this book plus the others mentioned above.

The Jesuits and the Third Reich (Texts and Studies in Religion) by Vincent A. Lapomarda (Author)

Describes Nazi persecutions of the Jesuit order during the Third Reich and the fates of many Jesuits in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Baltic States, Russia, Rumania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy, the Low Countries, and France. The text also focuses on Jesuit efforts in defence of human rights, particularly those of Jews, and sThe Vatican’s silence in the face of Nazi atrocities remains one of the great controversies of our time. History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him “Hitler’s Pope.” But a key part of the story has remained untold.
The Jesuits and the Third Reich (Texts and Studies in Religion)  by Vincent A. Lapomarda  (Author)________________________________________________________________________
Pius ran the world’s largest church, smallest state, and oldest spy service. Saintly but secretive, he skimmed from church charities to pay covert couriers, and surreptitiously tape-recorded his meetings with top Nazis. When he learned of the Holocaust, Pius played his cards close to his chest. He sent birthday cards to Hitler—while secretly plotting to kill him.

Church of Spies documents this cloak and dagger intrigue in shocking detail. Gun-toting Jesuits stole blueprints to Hitler’s homes. A Catholic book publisher flew a sports plane over the Alps with secrets filched from the head of Hitler’s bodyguard. The keeper of the Vatican crypt ran a spy ring that betrayed German war plans and wounded Hitler in a briefcase bombing.

The plotters made history in ways they hardly expected. They inspired European unification, forged a U.S.-Vatican alliance that spanned the Cold War, and challenged Church teachings on Jews. Yet Pius’ secret war muted his public response to Nazi crimes. Fearing that overt protest would impede his covert actions, he never spoke the “fiery words” he wanted.

Told with heart-pounding suspense, based on secret transcripts and unsealed files, Church of Spies throws open the Vatican’s doors to reveal some of the most astonishing events in the history of the papacy. The result is an unprecedented book that will change perceptions of how the world’s greatest moral institution met the greatest moral crisis in history.
eeks to defend the Roman Catholic Church from criticism.

Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War Against Hitler Hardcover – September 29, 2015

The Myth of Hitler's Pope: Pope Pius XII And His Secret War Against Nazi Germany Hardcover – July 25, 2005

  • Hardcover: 209 pages
  • Publisher: Regnery History (July 25, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0895260344
        • Was Pope Pius XII secretly in league with Adolf Hitler? No, says Rabbi David G. Dalin—but there was a cleric in league with Hitler: the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. As Pope Pius XII worked to save Jews from the Nazis, the grand mufti became Hitler’s staunch ally and a promoter of the Holocaust, with a legacy that feeds radical Islam today. In this shocking and thoroughly documented book, Rabbi Dalin explodes the myth of Hitler’s pope and condemns the myth-makers for not only rewriting history, but for denying the testimony of Holocaust survivors, hijacking the Holocaust for unseemly political ends, and ignoring the real threat to the Jewish people. In The Myth of Hitler’s Pope, you’ll learn: · The true history of Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust—how the Catholic Church did more than any other religious body to save Jewish lives · The real history of the Church and the Nazis—including the Nazi plan to kidnap the pope · The real agenda of the myth-makers: hijacking the Holocaust to attack the very idea of the papacy—especially the papacy of the late Pope John Paul II—as well as Christianity and traditional religion as a whole · Hitler’s cleric—Hajj Amin al-Husseini, who advised and assisted the Nazis in carrying out Hitler’s Final Solution · How Pope Pius XII rescued Jews—and deserves to be called a "righteous gentile"—while the grand mufti of Jerusalem called for their extermination Full of shocking and irrefutable detail, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope is sure to generate controversy, and more important, to set the record straight. If you want the truth about Pope Pius XII, about the Catholic Church, the Jews, and the Holocaust, and about how the myth of Hitler’s pope plays into the culture wars of our own time—and how the fact of Hitler’s mufti is a vital source of radical Islam today—you must begin here.ISBN-13: 978-089526

Stalin's Children: Three Generations of Love, War, and Survival Kindle Edition by Owen Matthews

On a mid-summer day in 1937, a car pulled up to the house of the Bibikov family in Chernigov in the heart of the Ukraine. Boris, the father, kissed his two daughters and wife goodbye and disappeared inside the car. His family never saw him again. His wife would later vanish, leaving the young Lyudmila and Lenina alone to drift across the vast Russian landscape as the Wehrmacht advanced in WWII. In the early 1960s Owen Matthews' father, Mervyn, moved to Moscow to work for the British embassy after a childhood in Wales dreaming of Russia. He fell in with the KGB, and in love with Lyudmila, and before he could disentangle himself from the former he was ordered to leave the country. For the next six years, Mervyn tried desperately to get Lyudmila out of Russia, and when he finally succeeded they married. Decades on from these events, their son, now Newsweek's bureau chief in Moscow, pieces together the tangled threads of his family's past and present-the extraordinary files that record the life and death of his grandfather at the hands of Stalin's secret police; his mother's and aunt's perilous journey to adulthood; his parents' Cold War love affair and the magnet that has drawn him back to the Russia-to present an indelible portrait of the country over the past seven decades and an unforgettable memoir about how we struggle to define ourselves in opposition to our ancestry only to find ourselves aligning with it.Decades on from these events, their son, now Newsweek's bureau chief in Moscow, pieces together the tangled threads of his family's past and present-the extraordinary files that record the life and death of his grandfather at the hands of Stalin's secret police; his mother's and aunt's perilous journey to adulthood; his parents' Cold War love affair and the magnet that has drawn him back to the Russia-to present an indelible portrait of the country over the past seven decades and an unforgettable memoir about how we struggle to define ourselves in opposition to our ancestry only to find ourselves aligning with it.

From Publishers Weekly

For three generations of Matthews's family, Russia was a place that made us and freed us and inspired us and very nearly broke us. In this fascinating family memoir, Matthews, Newsweek's Moscow bureau chief, recounts that history. His maternal grandfather was executed in Stalin's purges in 1937. His mother, separated from her own mother for 11 years, grew up essentially as an orphan. But even more extraordinary is the tale of Matthews's parents' relationship. His father, Mervyn Matthews, was a British embassy staffer in Moscow turned graduate student who left Russia after the KGB tried to recruit him in 1960. Returning in 1963, he fell in love with a Soviet woman, but when he again refused to do business with the KGB, he was thrown out of the country. For the next several years, he lobbied to reunite with the woman who would become Matthews's mother, finally getting her out of the USSR in 1969. Drawing on KGB files and his parents' hundreds of letters from their years of separation in the 1960s, Matthews (now married to a Russian woman) relates this dramatic tale in understated but lovely prose. B&w illus. (Sept.) 

No Better Friend: One Man, One Dog, and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage and Survival in WWII Kindle Edition

No Better Friend: One Man, One Dog, and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage and Survival in WWII Kindle Edition


Flight technician Frank Williams and Judy, a purebred pointer, met in the most unlikely of places: a World War II internment camp in the Pacific. Judy was a fiercely loyal dog, with a keen sense for who was friend and who was foe, and the pair's relationship deepened throughout their captivity. When the prisoners suffered beatings, Judy would repeatedly risk her life to intervene. She survived bombings and other near-death experiences and became a beacon not only for Frank but for all the men, who saw in her survival a flicker of hope for their own.

Judy's devotion to those she was interned with was matched by their love for her, which helped keep the men and their dog alive despite the ever-present threat of death by disease or the rifles of the guards. At one point, deep in despair and starvation, Frank contemplated killing himself and the dog to prevent either from watching the other die. But both were rescued, and Judy spent the rest of her life with Frank. She became the war's only official canine POW, and after she died at age fourteen, Frank couldn't bring himself to ever have another dog. Their story--of an unbreakable bond forged in the worst circumstances--is one of the great undiscovered sagas of World War II.

AMERICAN WARLORDS

AMERICAN WARLORDS by Jonathan W. Jordan
Kirkus Star

AMERICAN WARLORDS

How Roosevelt's High Command Led America to Victory in World War II

KIRKUS REVIEW

Attorney Jordan (Brothers, Rivals, Victors: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley and the Partnership that Drove the Allied Conquest in Europe, 2011, etc.) delivers another page-turning chronicle of World War II.
Small details and little-mentioned facts make this a highly informative look at four men in charge in Washington, D.C., during that time. Franklin Roosevelt never made it easy for his military men. He was secretive and nonchalant, and his answers to their questions were often glib and equivocal. He was also very much under the spell of Winston Churchill. Planning meetings often began with the British presenting their strategy and the Americans, with no clue from FDR, nodding their heads. Luckily, the American contingent included Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall; Secretary of War Henry Stimson; and Ernest J. King, leader of the Navy. Marshall had his hands full fighting the Allies as much as the enemy. In the Pacific, there were squabbles between Army and Navy, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur focused primarily on his promise to relieve the Philippines. The British harped on their needs to strike at Africa and the Balkans, while the American public and Joseph Stalin were demanding action against Hitler in France. American tanks, planes, and ships supplied all of these theaters during the war, but they could only produce so much. Furthermore, a second front was impossible until 1944. Throughout, the author provides astute and clever portrayals of the leaders, including Churchill’s pretense to his ancestor’s abilities, Stalin’s displays of compassion, and FDR’s meddling in naval projects. Jordan’s wonderful new insight into the leaders shows how lucky we were regarding Stimson’s prescient warnings about nuclear war, Marshall’s long-suffering, self-effacing loyalty, and King’s rough-and-ready fighting abilities.
In addition to World War II buffs, other readers will enjoy the intrigue, back-stabbing, action, and diplomacy in this well-written book.