Scramble for Asia - (War and Society) by Marc Gallicchio (Paperback)

About the Book

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 pea...

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

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.


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.