Bücher von Geoffrey Perret

How Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq Made The Commander In Chief and Foretell the Future of AmericaThis is a story of ever-expanding presidential powers in an age of unwinnable wars. Harry Truman and Korea, Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam, George W. Bush and Iraq: three presidents, three ever broader interpretations of the commander in chief clause of the Constitution, three unwinnable wars, and three presidential secrets. Award-winning presidential biographer and military historian Geoffrey Perret places these men and events in the larger context of the post-World War II world to establish their collective legacy: a presidency so powerful it undermines the checks and balances built into the Constitution, thereby creating a permanent threat to the Constitution itself.In choosing to fight in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq, Truman, Johnson, and Bush alike took counsel of their fears, ignored the advice of the professional military and major allies, and were influenced by facts kept from public view. Convinced that an ever-more powerful commander in chief was the key to victory, they misread the moment. Since World War II wars have become tests of stamina rather than strength, and more likely than not they sow the seeds of future wars. Yet recent American presidents have chosen to place their country in the forefront of fighting them. In the course of doing so, however, they gave away the secret of American power-for all its might, the United States can be defeated by chaos and anarchy.

Not since Bruce Catton has there been such an absorbing and exciting biography of Ulysses S. Grant. “Grant is a mystery to me,” said William Tecumseh Sherman, “and I believe he is a mystery to himself.” Geoffrey Perret’s account offers new insights into Grant the commander and Grant the president that would have astonished both his friends, such as Sherman, and his enemies.   Based on extensive research, including material either not seen or not used by other writers, this biography explains for the first time how Ulysses S. Grant’s military genius ultimately triumphed as he created a new approach to battle. He was, says Perret, “the man who taught the army how to fight.”   As president, Grant was widely misunderstood and underrated. That was mainly because he was, as Perret shows, the first modern president—the first man to preside over a rich, industrialized America that had put slavery behind it and was struggling to provide racial justice for all.   Grant’s story—from a frontier boyhood to West Point; from heroic feats in the Mexican War to grinding poverty in St. Louis; from his return to the army and eventual election to the presidency; from his two-year journey around the world to his final battle to finish his Personal Memoirs—is one of the most adventurous and moving in American history.