Calculated Risk

by Mark W. Clark, Martin Blumenson (Introduction)

Overview

"[The World War II campaign] of the Mediterranean Theatre - the 'soft underbelly of the Axis' as Churchill so wrongly called it - was compounded of elements reminiscent of the heyday of the Foreign Legion - intrigue, suspense, a secret mission to a secret seaside villa in Algeria... the strange but necessary alliance with Darlan, and then the bloody, muddy and most unexpectedly long and difficult Italian campaign where the roster of troops sounded like the roll-call of the allied nations. These are elements to make any book interesting, and, if past history, still exciting, and General Clark has capitalized fully on them. There are sketches of Churchill, of Eisenhower in his difficult coordinating position, of the war's lesser known heroes, the officers and enlisted men of the battle command Clark wanted and finally received. And there is the series of almost fatal blunders which followed the taking of Rome when the Western Allies seemed almost determined to play into the hands of the Russians. Tito might have left the Kremlin's orbit sooner, and the present list of satellite nations might have been smaller. And when Clark was made American high commissioner of Austria he experienced more of the same lack of foresight and he concludes with a political sophistication not common to the military – 'We celebrated a victory when in reality we had not won the War'. Honest, forceful, colorful, this is one of the best books to come from World War II's top brass." — Kirkus

"Calculated Risk deals in large part with events and situations in which General Clark and I were not only close associates but friends and comrades. But even if I am, therefore, a prejudiced witness, I cheerfully and unhesitatingly prophesy that thousands will find the book as accurate and as completely absorbing as I did." — Dwight D. Eisenhower

"[F]orthright, hard-hitting stuff... This book [...] should be widely read... A high-powered, high-tempered man [...] afraid of nothing and no man, [Clark] was consistently given tough assignments. His superiors always seem to have had complete confidence in his ability to carry out these assignments and always gave him their full moral support... The whole Mediterranean Campaign, he says, was a calculated risk. The North African Campaign was an extremely perilous military adventure. Aside from possible French and probable German resistance in North Africa, there was always the threat of Spanish or German attack via Spanish Morocco on our extended lines of communication, an attack which might well have been fatal... a fascinating book." — Richard E. Danielson, The Atlantic

Product Details

BN ID:	2940186086406
Publisher:	Plunkett Lake Press
Publication date:	05/01/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Born in Madison Barracks, New York, Mark Wayne Clark (1896-1984) was a third-generation soldier, commissioned at West Point in 1917. He sailed for France in 1918, was wounded in combat and returned to the United States in 1919 to serve in various Army posts before graduating from the Command and General Staff School (Fort Leavenworth, Kansas) in 1935, and from the Army War College (Washington DC) in 1937. He was then assigned to the staff of the 3rd Division at Fort Lewis, Washington and was briefly Chief of Staff of the Army Ground Forces before taking command of ground forces in the European Theater of Operations in June 1942 under General Eisenhower.

Clark went by submarine to then hostile French Morocco in October 1942 to meet with French officers loyal to the Allies. At age 46, he became the youngest three-star general in the Army. After planning the North African invasion of November 1942, he commanded the Fifth Army in Italy, which he had organized and trained in North Africa in 1943 for the invasion of Italy, and later the 15th Army Group which combined the Fifth and the British Eighth Army joined by Indian, South African, Australian, New Zealand, anti-Fascist Italian, Polish, Jewish and Brazilian brigades. He led the Salerno and Anzio landings, the costly charge of the 36th Division at the Rapido River and the bombing of the Monte Cassino Abbey. After the German forces in Italy surrendered in May 1945 following the Allies’ final push into the Po Valley, Clark became commander of US Occupation Forces and High Commissioner in Austria. Later, as Deputy Secretary of State, he helped negotiate a treaty for Austria.

In 1949-50, General Clark was Chief of Army Field Forces. In April 1952 he succeeded General Matthew Ridgway in Tokyo as UN Commander in Korea and Commander in Chief of the US Far East Command. He signed the Korean armistice on July 27, 1953.

Clark retired in October 1953 after 36 years in the Army. In 1954 he became president of the military college The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, a position he held until 1965.