For Country and CorpsRecommendations

Oliver P. Smith served in Peleliu and Okinawa before commanding the 1st Marine Division in Korea during the Inchon Assault, the recovery of Seoul, and the Chosin Reservoir Breakout. Smith was renowned as a superb combat commander, a man of high intelligence, and moral bravery, and was dubbed one of the twentieth century's great Marine leaders. The general's amazing life is chronicled in this book written by the granddaughter he helped raise. It is based on interviews, oral histories, and a careful review of correspondence maintained by the family that had never been made available to scholars before. Gail Shisler's research of Smith's connection with his Army superiors in Korea, as well as his Marine Corps colleagues and superiors, differs from previously published accounts and gives new insights into the Corps' postwar survival fight.