Roosevelt's Centurions: FDR and the Commanders He Led to Victory in World War II

No one can deny that F.D.R. was central to the Allied victory in WWII, but in his latest work, Persico (Roosevelt's Secret War) seeks to categorize how wise Roosevelt's choices were during the war. Persico wonders if Roosevelt's choices "hastened victory" or whether they "delayed the end with unnecessary death and destruction." He examines Roosevelt's susceptibility to Churchill's persistent charm offensive, and how it led to American troops landing in North Africa despite George Marshall's protests. Persico also notes that Roosevelt made the call for MacArthur to leave the Philippines, despite MacArthur's plan to stay on until the bitter end, after agreeing with MacArthur%E2%80%94in 1944 at the Honolulu conference%E2%80%94that the Philippines must be retaken instead of island-hopping straight to Japan. The author does reveal surprising moments of Roosevelt's presidency, such as when he was visiting a hospital and revealed his disabled body to a ward filled with amputees, but even with his analysis Persico struggles to cover any new ground. This is a thorough account of the war, but since it fails to add to the discussion, we are left with the same portrait of Roosevelt we had before: a very capable leader in a trying time. (June)