Personal Diary of Admiral the Lord Louis Mountbatten Supreme Allied Commander, South-East Asia, 1943-1946

Mountbatten of Burma, Louis Mountbatten, Earl

ISBN 10: 0002176076 / ISBN 13: 9780002176071

Published by William Collins & Sons Ltd, 1988

May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0002176076I4N00

Synopsis:

In August 1943 Churchill asked Mountbatten whether he would be prepared to go to South-East Asia. Disconcerted, Mountbatten replied that he supposed he could spare a few weeks if he had to. `Don't you understand,' growled Churchill, `that I am proposing you should go out as Supreme Commander?' Mountbatten fled to Ismay for reassurance. `I feel as though I've been poleaxed,' he began. He had good reason. The task was a fearsome one. Though the tide of war in Asia had begun to turn, few signs of this were apparent. The Japanese were rampant on the frontiers of India, a British counterattack had been crushed, morale was low, defeat seemed very possible. Mountbatten's diary tells how, little by little, the situation was redressed, Burma and Malaya reconquered, Vietnam and Indonesia occupied, the region nursed back to economic and political stability. It describes his frustration at neglect by Washington and Whitehall, his admiration for Slim and MacArthur, his contempt for certain other allied leaders, his heated rows with Somerville, his uneasy fencing with Chiang Kai-shek. MacArthur and Eisenhower - one an absolute monarch, the other a chairman of committees - were the only other Supreme Commanders, and one of Mountbatten's problems was that no one had told him which model he should emulate. A constant and sometimes comical theme in these diaries is the jostling for power that ensued: Mountbatten trying to impose his will on commanders far older and more experienced than himself and meeting embittered resistance in his efforts. Frank, revealing and sometimes alarmingly honest, Mountbatten's diaries pull no punches and spare no reputations. They are of the first importance to all those interested in South-East Asia or the Second World War, and fascinating in the light they throw on a complex and larger-than-life personality.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Personal Diary of Admiral the Lord Louis ...
Publisher: William Collins & Sons Ltd
Publication Date: 1988
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket