--- product_id: 14443512 title: "The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur" price: "¥6404" currency: JPY in_stock: true reviews_count: 12 url: https://www.desertcart.jp/products/14443512-the-most-dangerous-man-in-america-the-making-of-douglas store_origin: JP region: Japan --- # The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur **Price:** ¥6404 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur - **How much does it cost?** ¥6404 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.jp](https://www.desertcart.jp/products/14443512-the-most-dangerous-man-in-america-the-making-of-douglas) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description At times, even his admirers seemed unsure of what to do with General Douglas MacArthur. Imperious, headstrong, and vain, MacArthur matched an undeniable military genius with a massive ego and a rebellious streak that often seemed to destine him for the dustbin of history. Yet despite his flaws, MacArthur is remembered as a brilliant commander whose combined-arms operation in the Pacific -- the first in the history of warfare -- secured America's triumph in World War II and changed the course of history. In The Most Dangerous Man in America , celebrated historian Mark Perry examines how this paradox of a man overcame personal and professional challenges to lead his countrymen in their darkest hour. As Perry shows, Franklin Roosevelt and a handful of MacArthur's subordinates made this feat possible, taming MacArthur, making him useful, and finally making him victorious. A gripping, authoritative biography of the Pacific Theater's most celebrated and misunderstood commander, The Most Dangerous Man in America reveals the secrets of Douglas MacArthur's success -- and the incredible efforts of the men who made it possible. Review: Dangerous and Midunderstood - I've always wondered about the mind of a military genius who holds the lives of millions in his hand, makes strategic decisions that cost lives and wins wars and knows that he is invincible. And I got to find out in reading Mark Perry's 5-star bio of General Douglas MacArthur...a man who stood in the middle of history and whose complex mix of ego, ambition and brilliance was hardly a passive component of shaping the world as we know it today. I usually gloss through the first few chapters of a bio because they are boring to me, but Perry plunges us right into the deep end of the pool when he starts out with one of the most contentious meetings ever between a President and a senior military officer when FDR sought to slice the military budget 51% in 1934...a cut that would fatally erode military readiness in the face of growing Japanese militarism and German aggression. MacArthur warned FDR that when we lost the next war because of these cuts, "and an American boy, lying in the mud with an enemy bayonet through his belly and an enemy foot on his dying throat, spat out his last curse, I wanted that name not to be MacArthur, but Roosevelt." The cuts were not as deep as intended but MacArthur carried on a constant battle with Washington to provide for his troops. His career was not without controversy from his incredible blunder with the Bonus Army at Anacostia, his evacuation from Corregidor and his confrontation with Truman...but he is a huge footprint in history because he was a man of enormous courage and got the nickname "Dugout Doug" which followed him for six decades. MacArthur's military genius resided in his voracious reading and ability to foresee that war was on the horizon and it would be fought differently because of innovations in technology...military theorist B. H. Liddell Hart wrote in 1935, "Someone in America had finally noticed that a war was coming and was thinking about how to fight it." It was MacArthur who recognized the power of aircraft in warfare..."The nation that does not command the air will face deadly odds. Armies and navies to operate successfully must have air cover." His tour of duty in the Philippines brought him to the precipice of his career and he was not alone when Pearl Harbor stunned him with it's sheer violence and the stark contrast with which America was unprepared to meet such a vicious foe. " Inevitably, the American stand in the Philippines became the stuff of legend" when MacArthur proclaimed, "I have not the slightest intention in the world of surrendering." He formulated a "fighting retreat"...the object being not to win but to survive to fight another day." And fight for the next four years he did...in the Pacific and in Washington...The politics is stunning. He fought like a lion for supplies for his troops...landing craft, air assets, food. His supply chief, Richard Marshall worked tirelessly to surmount these difficulties but during one explosive debate he charged, "There are some people in Washington who would rather see MacArthur lose a battle than America win a war." But the thing that makes this a 5-star book is the command Perry has when describing the hard-fought battles...his words take the reader to the heart of the action and gives one a fearful understanding of the horrors of war. He takes us to a beachhead just taken by our troops..."MacArthur tramped through the mud, talked with the men and awarded a Distinguished Service Cross to the first soldier who had made it ashore." Inspecting the front lines an officer warned him, "Excuse me, sir, but we killed a Jap sniper in there just a few minutes ago." MacArthur kept walking..."Fine. that's the best thing to do with them." One of the fascinating stories of World War Two was the MacArthur-Nimitz competition in the Pacific...but Perry finds that "not only did the feud fail to paralyze America's ability to wage war it actually promoted strategic flexibility." Pride never overcame love of country. MacArthur was also a student of Major General Fox Conner, the most influential of a group of army strategic thinkers from World War One...and he understood the three pillars of American warfare..."Never fight unless you have to, never fight alone and never fight for long." This all leads up to MacArthur's finest hour...his walk to the Red Beach on the Leyte coast and announcing "People of the Philippines, I have returned." When he and his staff plowed toward Red Beach on that day, MacArthur's dignified arrival was cut short when the beach master refused to clear a space for the launch and remained unimpressed when told it was MacArthur..."Let 'em walk," he said and MacArthur did though he was irritated he would be arriving soaked to the knees.. He was astonishingly ungrateful and sincerely honest. When told of FDR's death, he said, "So, Roosevelt is dead: a man who would never tell the truth when a lie would serve him just as well." Truman despised him..."He's worse than the Cabots and the Lodges--they at least talk to each other before they told God what to do," he writes in his diary, "Mac tells God right off." MacArthur and his staff put their combined military minds together to plan the final assault on Japan...Operation Downfall...it called for a massive amphibious landing involving 14 Army and Marine divisions...nearly 350,000 men who would come ashore on 35 beaches. On a personal note, my father, a heroic United States Marine, was among those readying themselves for this battle which was planned for Nov. 1, l945. And the rest as they say is history. And yet history has not been kind to MacArthur. A recent Internet poll listed him as America's worst commander...Benedict Arnold was second. I don't take much stock in internet polls these days where those voting don't really know that much about the subject. Just read this book...it is a good story about a good man who fought for a good country...God Bless America. Review: Honestly, It's A Pretty Good Book - The fact that Arthur Herbert used this book to write his (Herbert's) book on MacArthur, caused me to pick back up on this, Perry's book. Frankly, I like Herbert, whatever he writes. So that makes me a conservative, right? But Perry is obviously liberal, if you judge by his tacked-on remarks here and there. He's one of those guys who can't resist a swipe at Courtney Whitney; Perry's version is that Whitney was MacArthur's Flatterer. Roosevelt comes off as the American White Knight here. But curiously, that isn't accompanied by a constant berating of MacArthur. It is almost as if Perry drops in a political remark as an afterthought, since the book as a whole studiously avoids amalgamating the war with politics. Russia is given a pass for spending a few days against Japan so as to get hold of Manchuria, and Yalta is passed over as if it were an afternoon party in the Rose Garden. I appreciate the book because it is based on research of primary sources, and, contrary to what some reviewers have said, I think the book is pretty well written. Many books on MacArthur fall short of this author's ability to synthesize and then summarize. I don't get lost in this book like I do in quite a few MacArthur biographies. He respects MacArthur as a general, but when he turns drugstore psychologist like many liberals do, he loses me. If you know little about psychology -- and he, like most authors do -- then you ought to stay clear of the word "paranoia." ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #2,048,184 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #774 in WWII Biographies #1,744 in World War II History (Books) #1,979 in American Military History | | Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 301 Reviews | ## Images ![The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71UUkhUNlQL.jpg) ## Available Options This product comes in different **Media Format** options. ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Dangerous and Midunderstood *by S***E on June 23, 2014* I've always wondered about the mind of a military genius who holds the lives of millions in his hand, makes strategic decisions that cost lives and wins wars and knows that he is invincible. And I got to find out in reading Mark Perry's 5-star bio of General Douglas MacArthur...a man who stood in the middle of history and whose complex mix of ego, ambition and brilliance was hardly a passive component of shaping the world as we know it today. I usually gloss through the first few chapters of a bio because they are boring to me, but Perry plunges us right into the deep end of the pool when he starts out with one of the most contentious meetings ever between a President and a senior military officer when FDR sought to slice the military budget 51% in 1934...a cut that would fatally erode military readiness in the face of growing Japanese militarism and German aggression. MacArthur warned FDR that when we lost the next war because of these cuts, "and an American boy, lying in the mud with an enemy bayonet through his belly and an enemy foot on his dying throat, spat out his last curse, I wanted that name not to be MacArthur, but Roosevelt." The cuts were not as deep as intended but MacArthur carried on a constant battle with Washington to provide for his troops. His career was not without controversy from his incredible blunder with the Bonus Army at Anacostia, his evacuation from Corregidor and his confrontation with Truman...but he is a huge footprint in history because he was a man of enormous courage and got the nickname "Dugout Doug" which followed him for six decades. MacArthur's military genius resided in his voracious reading and ability to foresee that war was on the horizon and it would be fought differently because of innovations in technology...military theorist B. H. Liddell Hart wrote in 1935, "Someone in America had finally noticed that a war was coming and was thinking about how to fight it." It was MacArthur who recognized the power of aircraft in warfare..."The nation that does not command the air will face deadly odds. Armies and navies to operate successfully must have air cover." His tour of duty in the Philippines brought him to the precipice of his career and he was not alone when Pearl Harbor stunned him with it's sheer violence and the stark contrast with which America was unprepared to meet such a vicious foe. " Inevitably, the American stand in the Philippines became the stuff of legend" when MacArthur proclaimed, "I have not the slightest intention in the world of surrendering." He formulated a "fighting retreat"...the object being not to win but to survive to fight another day." And fight for the next four years he did...in the Pacific and in Washington...The politics is stunning. He fought like a lion for supplies for his troops...landing craft, air assets, food. His supply chief, Richard Marshall worked tirelessly to surmount these difficulties but during one explosive debate he charged, "There are some people in Washington who would rather see MacArthur lose a battle than America win a war." But the thing that makes this a 5-star book is the command Perry has when describing the hard-fought battles...his words take the reader to the heart of the action and gives one a fearful understanding of the horrors of war. He takes us to a beachhead just taken by our troops..."MacArthur tramped through the mud, talked with the men and awarded a Distinguished Service Cross to the first soldier who had made it ashore." Inspecting the front lines an officer warned him, "Excuse me, sir, but we killed a Jap sniper in there just a few minutes ago." MacArthur kept walking..."Fine. that's the best thing to do with them." One of the fascinating stories of World War Two was the MacArthur-Nimitz competition in the Pacific...but Perry finds that "not only did the feud fail to paralyze America's ability to wage war it actually promoted strategic flexibility." Pride never overcame love of country. MacArthur was also a student of Major General Fox Conner, the most influential of a group of army strategic thinkers from World War One...and he understood the three pillars of American warfare..."Never fight unless you have to, never fight alone and never fight for long." This all leads up to MacArthur's finest hour...his walk to the Red Beach on the Leyte coast and announcing "People of the Philippines, I have returned." When he and his staff plowed toward Red Beach on that day, MacArthur's dignified arrival was cut short when the beach master refused to clear a space for the launch and remained unimpressed when told it was MacArthur..."Let 'em walk," he said and MacArthur did though he was irritated he would be arriving soaked to the knees.. He was astonishingly ungrateful and sincerely honest. When told of FDR's death, he said, "So, Roosevelt is dead: a man who would never tell the truth when a lie would serve him just as well." Truman despised him..."He's worse than the Cabots and the Lodges--they at least talk to each other before they told God what to do," he writes in his diary, "Mac tells God right off." MacArthur and his staff put their combined military minds together to plan the final assault on Japan...Operation Downfall...it called for a massive amphibious landing involving 14 Army and Marine divisions...nearly 350,000 men who would come ashore on 35 beaches. On a personal note, my father, a heroic United States Marine, was among those readying themselves for this battle which was planned for Nov. 1, l945. And the rest as they say is history. And yet history has not been kind to MacArthur. A recent Internet poll listed him as America's worst commander...Benedict Arnold was second. I don't take much stock in internet polls these days where those voting don't really know that much about the subject. Just read this book...it is a good story about a good man who fought for a good country...God Bless America. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Honestly, It's A Pretty Good Book *by T***T on August 1, 2020* The fact that Arthur Herbert used this book to write his (Herbert's) book on MacArthur, caused me to pick back up on this, Perry's book. Frankly, I like Herbert, whatever he writes. So that makes me a conservative, right? But Perry is obviously liberal, if you judge by his tacked-on remarks here and there. He's one of those guys who can't resist a swipe at Courtney Whitney; Perry's version is that Whitney was MacArthur's Flatterer. Roosevelt comes off as the American White Knight here. But curiously, that isn't accompanied by a constant berating of MacArthur. It is almost as if Perry drops in a political remark as an afterthought, since the book as a whole studiously avoids amalgamating the war with politics. Russia is given a pass for spending a few days against Japan so as to get hold of Manchuria, and Yalta is passed over as if it were an afternoon party in the Rose Garden. I appreciate the book because it is based on research of primary sources, and, contrary to what some reviewers have said, I think the book is pretty well written. Many books on MacArthur fall short of this author's ability to synthesize and then summarize. I don't get lost in this book like I do in quite a few MacArthur biographies. He respects MacArthur as a general, but when he turns drugstore psychologist like many liberals do, he loses me. If you know little about psychology -- and he, like most authors do -- then you ought to stay clear of the word "paranoia." ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent on every level! *by D***Y on June 11, 2014* Occasionally you will meet people who are avid readers, but of a very exclusive kind. They tell you that they do not waste their time reading fiction, which they equate with untruth, for they are only interested in the facts. By taking this rigid stand they are mistaken on two counts. First, they are missing the truth that is conveyed through fiction. They think "facts" are represented only by historical events, or by concrete material objects. Those are facts, all right, but so are moral truths, of the kind that great literature can be particularly adept in communicating to its readers. Second, they are quite naive if they think that in their reading of history they are getting nothing but the straight, unvarnished truth--unlike what they suppose they would be getting in fiction. The actual events of history are, to be sure, objective facts, but historians who write about those facts always do so from a particular, sometimes highly personal, point of view, and they have a way on occasion of doctoring up those facts so as to make them fit that point of view. The "objective," in other words, can become thoroughly mixed up with the-subjective. It is imperative that we learn to appreciate the special value of fictional narrative, the story, as an eminently efficacious and potent means of conveying the truth. Great literature can be defined in many ways, but perhaps the best way to do so is simply to say it is literature which is a vehicle of truth. Who can count the truths transmitted to us by Mr. Perry whose work makes us aware of an array of beneficial truths, truths which should serve to support and sustain us in our efforts to successfully prosecute war when diplomacy fails. General MacArthur was a national hero in the '20s, the soldier became a pariah in the '30s for heavy handed dealing with the veteran squatters in Washington, D.C. As WWII loomed, the U.S. Army needed his expertise. But could he be trusted? President Franklin D. Roosevelt, arguably the only person in America who equaled him in fame was an energetic, confident leader, who had helped jolt a Depression-mired America back to life. It's easy to envision that when General MacArthur was ushered into the Oval Office he found FDR seated behind his desk. It is also easy to envision President Roosevelt with his head thrown back, his trademark cigarette holder tilted rakishly upward. Roosevelt exuded charm, joie de vivre, and an unmistakable air of power and command and no sign of the many grave problems weighing on his mind. Mr. Perry brings, in the course of his genial banter, two titans, scrutinizing one another closely. It is evident that President Roosevelt judges his man quickly and plays him cleverly. General MacArthur comes off of more value to the administration rather than less. It seems to me that the unity necessary for a successful war demands that all viewpoints be presented in Washington and those of the chief naysayer, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, who believed General MacArthur should have remained buried in merciful oblivion and Henry Stimson, the secretary of war who didn't believe General MacArthur could carry on the war with sufficient aggressiveness were counterbalancing discussions that President Roosevelt valued. Mr. Perry presents General MacArthur as a soldier never going far from the center as his thoughts, ideals and convictions about the real enemy. We get the portrait of a man who did not like to be held back by the question of influencing the mass of people or by the desire for adventure to security, freedom to popularity, and conviction to influence. Less than a month before the end of the war in Europe, Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia. We really don’t know what General MacArthur felt! Having observed him visit old friends at the historic cemetery on the grounds of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, it isn't too difficult to imagine true emotion. By all accounts, General MacArthur was supremely happy during those perilous, exciting years. After the war, even some of General MacArthur's harshest critics acknowledged that he had acquitted himself well and never admitted he was wrong about anything he had said or done. Dennis P. Vasey, Colonel, US Army (Ret.) --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.jp/products/14443512-the-most-dangerous-man-in-america-the-making-of-douglas](https://www.desertcart.jp/products/14443512-the-most-dangerous-man-in-america-the-making-of-douglas) --- *Product available on Desertcart Japan* *Store origin: JP* *Last updated: 2026-10-28*