The China Mission

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. -- Evan Osnos, New Yorker staff writer and author of Age of Ambition 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. -- Evan Thomas, author of Ike's Bluff and coauthor of The Wise Men 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. -- Madeleine Albright, former secretary of state The China Mission is a must-read for foreign-policy makers practicising diplomacy in Asia. -- Globe and Mail [A]t once a character study of the charismatic and dedicated Marshall; a narrative account of the mission's miraculous early successes and prolonged, painful collapse; and a meditation on the impossibility of reconciling parties that are determined to remain enemies. -- Foreign Affairs [Marshall's China mission] has been brilliantly described in the detail it deserves by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan... 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. -- Roderick MacFarquhar - New York Review of Books 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. -- Wall Street Journal [A] compelling portrait of a remarkable soldier and statesman, and an instructive lesson in the limits of American power, even at its zenith. -- Economist 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. -- John Lewis Gaddis, author of George F. Keenan and professor of history, Yale University 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. -- New York Times Book Review