Diplomats & Admirals: From Failed Negotiations and Tragic Misjudgments to Powerful Leaders and Heroic Deeds, the Untold Story of the Pacific War from Pearl Harbor to Midway

Been studying history for some time. Excellent lead in to the Pacific War. Explaining primary and underlying reasons of the conflict. Sometimes I felt that it portrayed the Japanese as victims of bad U.S. diplomacy. Not saying that is a knock on this book. Just an observation. I do not feel to badly for the Japanese; they invaded China, etc., and committed numerous atrocities. Bottom-line is they had to be stopped somewhere and by someone. Anyone who enjoys or wants to learn more about the diplomatic, strategic decision making processes that led into, and were carried out during the first 6 months of the Pacific War will like this book. It also gives you some initial operational and tactical insight regarding the beginning of the conflict.

The opening portraits of FDR, Churchill, Tojo (not ToJo), and their lieutenants are excellent, along with the string of miscalcutaions, miscommunications, and stupidity that led up to the war. The discussion of Midway has been done better, and with fewer cliches. As Evan Mawdsley points out, the Devestator bomber was superior to the Swordfish and roughly as good as the Japanese Kate, not the hackneyed "obsolete." He does a good job of explaining Kurita's various mistakes, and is imaginative enough to call Kurita's decision to break off an attack on Leyte Gulf itself during the battle off Samar so as not to pointlessly sacrifice his sailors "courageous." Worth a read, especially for the first parts.

The author tends to want to write alternative history but in doing so he shows the actual events and personalities involved in the actual events. Shows all the warts of the state departments of the world players

This book was nicely written and especially well detailed. It certainly displayed the out dated Secretary of State, Hull and yet, Roosevelt believed he needed a number of Republicans to solidify his presidency. I found it interesting and informative to study the more in-depth education and practices of the Japanese Naval Admirals. They were directly led by the army - who also had to appoint a member to the Japanese Cabinet and thus could remove an individual which would bring down the government. Their position that Japanese expansionism could only work as long as the United States was not brought into any conflict due to the fact some of the Admirals, Yamamoto included, did not accept Japan could sustain a long war with the United States, and this seemingly was not shared by the army of Japan. Again, a book worth reading and there is much to learn and a good list of sources from which to pursue further interests.

It was a good overall review of some major issues that led up to and happened once war broke out. A very good book.

New information not seen or discussed in any of the movies or other books I have read about the battle of Midway. Very insightful!

It covers a number of perspectives and, maybe, as an intro book to the geopolitics of World War 2 Pacific Theater it has value ...Some of the early parts of the book, such as the deep involvement of Secretary Hull memo (outside of the memo itself) and negotiations, were new for me, but much of the rest was either filler or well known.The author adds a *lot* of commentary which is what made me disappointed in the book. "So and so should have done x". Paragraph of questions asking "why?" someone did something that made no sense to the author. Give the reader the facts ... offer a conclusion toward the end, but the running commentary killed it.The book is a decent intro into the Pacific theater of World War 2. If you knew little then this book does a very good job of getting a reader started.I was looking for a book on the hows and whys that the politicians reached their conclusions with an exploration of the options and constraint they had. The books covers a broad swatch of early World War 2 Pacific Theater, but falls short on helping the reader understand what it was like for the people who lived it. Of understand the decision making in the moment.

The media could not be loaded. Purchased as a gift. Tall book. Looks great. Has some photos. Well organized.