Early May 2011, in a dramatic late-night appearance at the White House, President Obama declared that "justice has been done" as he announced that Osama bin Laden was dead. After more than a decade of military operations across Central Asia and the Middle East, the Al Qaida leader who orchestrated the 9/11 terrorist attacks was finally killed in a firefight with U.S. Navy SEALs in Pakistan. Although this daring raid marked the end of the longest strategic manhunt in American history, bin Laden was not the first individual targeted as the objective of a military campaign. From Geronimo to Pancho Villa, to Manuel Noriega, to Saddam Hussein, the United States has deployed military forces to kill or capture a single person nearly a dozen times since 1885. Part military history, part action thriller, and part strategic policy analysis, Wanted Dead or Alive chronicles the extraordinary efforts of the military and intelligence agencies to bring America's enemies to justice.

Shakespeare famously wrote that some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Part military history and part group biography, Generals in the Making tells the amazing true story of how George Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, and their peers became the greatest generation of senior commanders in military history. As the U.S. Army’s triumphant homecoming from World War I was quickly forgotten amidst two decades filled with economic depression and growing isolationism, Marshall, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Patton, Omar Bradley, Lucian Truscott, Matthew Ridgway, and their brothers in arms toiled in a profession most Americans viewed with distrust. Before they became legends, these young officers served their country in posts from Washington D.C. to Panama, from West Point to war-torn China. They taught and studied together in the Army’s schools, attempting to innovate in an era of shrinking budgets, obsolete equipment, and skeletal forces. Beyond these professional challenges, they endured shattering personal tragedies: the sudden deaths of children or spouses, divorce, depression, and court martial. Yet when the world faced possibly its darkest hour, as fascism and barbarism were on the march, they stood ready to lead America’s young men in the fight for civilization. By the end of World War II, even German commanders expressed amazement at the dynamic change in American military leadership since the Great War. Generals in the Making is the first comprehensive history of America’s World War II generals between the wars, an invaluable prequel to every history of that war.

This volume assesses the impact of U.S. presidential decisionmaking style and administrative structure on nation-building, from the post-World War II era through the Cold War, post-Cold War era, and current war on terrorism.