★ 03/15/2018
Thoroughly researched and compellingly written, [The China Mission ] is at once a revealing study of character and leadership, a vivid reconstruction of a critical episode in the history of the early Cold War and an insightful meditation on the limits of American power even at its peak.
The New York Times Book Review - Aaron L. Friedberg
"The story Kurtz-Phelan tells is a gripping one [and] does a splendid job of delineating Marshall’s evolving relationships. … [A]n enormous contribution to our understanding of Marshall."
"In gripping, crystalline detail, Kurtz-Phelan has given us a vital new chapter on American statecraft. The lessons from what he calls the ‘unsettled world’ of the early Cold War are urgently relevant today. The China Mission will be read for years to come as a window on the origins of American power—and the limits of its reach."
"An outstanding book on a very important subject: how to use American power judiciously and effectively in a rapidly changing world."
"The best character study of Marshall I’ve yet seen. He comes alive here as in nothing else that’s been written about him. A major achievement."
"Now [Marshall’s China mission] has been brilliantly described in the detail it deserves by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, the executive editor of Foreign Affairs , who seems to have consulted all relevant primary and secondary sources. ... Kurtz-Phelan is particularly good at using his various sources to bring Marshall’s personality to life."
New York Review of Books - Roderick MacFarquhar
"Thoroughly researched and compellingly written, [The China Mission ] is at once a revealing study of character and leadership, a vivid reconstruction of a critical episode in the history of the Cold War and an insightful meditation on the limits of American power even at its peak."
"Deeply researched and written with verve, [The China Mission ] ought to be read by any U.S. foreign-policy maker practicing diplomacy in Asia. … Mr. Kurtz-Phelan has performed a service in reviving this important episode with such aplomb, rigor and pace."
"America has always sought to convert rather than understand China, whether to Christianity or capitalism. In this brilliant historical study, Daniel Kurtz-Phelan focuses on the pivotal moment of misunderstanding between these two very different countries. As a bonus, he provides a beautifully written portrait of George Marshall, a statesman of such integrity that he seems as far removed from Washington, D.C., today as would an ancient Roman."
"The China Mission has much to teach us about both the past and future of American leadership—and about what individual leadership means in the face of hard choices. I have rarely read such a vivid account of how diplomacy really works."
"Kurtz-Phelan has written a marvelous narrative about General George Marshall’s valiant effort to bring Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong together at the end of WW II. But apart from the engrossing China saga, what makes this books so absorbing - and sometimes even even touching - is that it draws the reader into the life of a truly great American, reminding us of a different time in America’s odyssey when a sense of modesty, service to mankind, and duty to country were enthroned and esteemed."
"[A] compelling portrait of a remarkable soldier and statesman, and an instructive lesson in the limits of American power, even at its zenith."
"Was America’s greatest statesman to blame for America’s greatest diplomatic failure? In this wonderfully written book, Daniel Kurtz-Phelan sheds a bright light on a crucial but dimly understood chapter in U.S. foreign policy. His portrait of General George Marshall is a model of empathetic but clear-eyed biography and a memorable lesson in the limits of power."
"[A] compelling portrait of a remarkable soldier and statesman, and an instructive lesson in the limits of American power, even at its zenith."
Malcolm Hillgartner’s bass pitch and stately American tone sound like the mid-twentieth century, and this is a very mid-twentieth-century story. In late 1945, immediately after engineering the Allied victories in WWII, Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall was directed by President Harry S. Truman to lead a special mission to China to negotiate a coalition government between the Nationalist Army, led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communists, led by Mao Zedong. It was supposed to be a short, uncomplicated task, but as months of mediation failed and civil war loomed, the listener can hear in Hillgartner’s voice that the United States was headed for a major diplomatic setback and the first stages of the Cold War. B.P. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
2018-01-23
