The Scramble for Asia: U.S. Military Power in the Aftermath of the Pacific War

by Marc Gallicchio

Overview

As American generals and diplomats accepted Japan's surrender on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri in September 1945, allied combatants wrestled for power in the new post-war world. The decisions made to effect Japan's surrender entangled U.S. forces on the mainland of Asia for the next two years, and helped shape the next several decades of international relations in the Far East.

Marc Gallicchio expertly examines the diplomatic, military, and economic struggles in which the United States, China, and the Soviet Union were pitted in the immediate aftermath of victory over Japan. The Allied victory was but a prelude to an American search for a lasting peace across Asia, stretching from Korea to Vietnam and out to the Pacific atolls.

In seeking to shape events on the mainland, the administration of Harry S. Truman confronted the anomalous nature of American power. The military operations undertaken by the United States in the early days of post-war peace affected developments in Asia in unexpected ways. As Gallicchio makes clear, Americans would soon find that the scramble for Asia from 1945 to 1947 had set the stage for future conflict in the region.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742544376
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/09/2008
Series:	War and Society
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Marc Gallicchio is professor of history at Villanova University. His book, The African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black Internationalism in Asia, 1895–1945, won the Robert H. Ferrell Senior Book Award from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. He is also the editor of The Unpredictability of the Past: Memories of the Asia-Pacific War in U.S.-East Asian Relations.

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1: Intermission
Chapter 2: The Politics of Surrender
Chapter 3: The High Water Mark
Chapter 4: Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy
Chapter 5: Occupational Hazards
Chapter 6: A Lingering Presence
Conclusion: No Peace for Asia
Selected Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Marc Gallicchio's authoritative account of the interaction and friction between military planning, operations, and diplomacy brilliantly illuminates the complexities of war termination. His comprehensive analysis of events in postwar Asia provides us with a fresh context to appreciate the perils of peacemaking.

Edward J. Drea

Intended for undergraduates and general audiences, this brief but detailed overview can benefit scholars in the field as well. The Scramble for Asia relies on both recent scholarship and the author's prior work with contemporary soldiers' and journalists' materials to offer a new, synthetic interpretation of American policy making in the immediate postwar period in Asia that is at once comprehensive and persuasive.

Pacific Affairs

Clearly written and concise study.. .. Gallicchio covers the dramatic shift in President Harry S. Truman's initial intention to seek cooperation with the Soviet Union to secure Japan's surrender and the impact of such sentiments. Gallicchio's book derives its arguments from a diverse assortment of primary and secondary sources. This extensive research is summarized in an individual bibliographic essay for every chapter.. .. Gallicchio also makes excellent use of quotations and insightful anecdotes. He relies on firsthand recollections of American soldiers.

American Historical Review

This latest volume in the 'Total War: New Perspectives on World War II' series is a fascinating account of the days following Japan's sudden surrender in 1945.. .. This belongs in all serious WW II or Cold War collections. Highly recommended.

Choice Reviews

Adds unexpected and welcome flavour to what would otherwise be a rather conventional study of the interaction between foreign policy and military planning.. .. What Gallicchio has managed to convey, above all, is the profound confusion that beset U.S. policy in the Far East in the two years following the Japanese surrender. Overbearing personalities clashed over priorities, the looming confrontation with the Soviet Union heightened tensions, and the domestic pressures for military retrenchment meant that the resources available to impose American will were never matched to the more grandiose schemes of those who wanted to translate the recent victory over Japan into a dominant position on the East Asian mainland.

Journal of American Studies

A thoughtful and elegant writer, Marc Gallicchio has emerged as one of the leading historians of American–East Asian relations. No one knows the immediate post–World War II era as well.

Warren I. Cohen

This latest volume in the 'Total War: New Perspectives on World War II' series is a fascinating account of the days following Japan's sudden surrender in 1945.. .. This belongs in all serious WW II or Cold War collections. Highly recommended.

Choice

This latest volume in the 'Total War: New Perspectives on World War II' series is a fascinating account of the days following Japan's sudden surrender in 1945.. .. This belongs in all serious WW II or Cold War collections. Highly recommended.

CHOICE

Marc Gallicchio's authoritative account of the interaction and friction between military planning, operations, and diplomacy brilliantly illuminates the complexities of war termination. His comprehensive analysis of events in postwar Asia provides us with a fresh context to appreciate the perils of peacemaking.--Edward J. Drea, U.S. Army Center of Military History (retired), author of MacArthur's Ultra

A thoughtful and elegant writer, Marc Gallicchio has emerged as one of the leading historians of American-East Asian relations. No one knows the immediate post-World War II era as well.--Warren I. Cohen, distinguished professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County and senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center

This latest volume in the 'Total War: New Perspectives on World War II' series is a fascinating account of the days following Japan's sudden surrender in 1945. . . . This belongs in all serious WW II or Cold War collections. Highly recommended.--CHOICE

From the Publisher

A thoughtful and elegant writer, Marc Gallicchio has emerged as one of the leading historians of American–East Asian relations. No one knows the immediate post–World War II era as well.

Warren Cohen

Adds unexpected and welcome flavour to what would otherwise be a rather conventional study of the interaction between foreign policy and military planning. . . . What Gallicchio has managed to convey, above all, is the profound confusion that beset U.S. policy in the Far East in the two years following the Japanese surrender. Overbearing personalities clashed over priorities, the looming confrontation with the Soviet Union heightened tensions, and the domestic pressures for military retrenchment meant that the resources available to impose American will were never matched to the more grandiose schemes of those who wanted to translate the recent victory over Japan into a dominant position on the East Asian mainland.

Journal Of American Studies