Daniel Kurtz-Phelan,The China Mission: George Marshall's Unfinished War, 1945-1947 (New York & London: Norton, 2018):Id. at 358.
Foreign policy is made by analogy. The stories we tell matter. How we tell them matters.
When considering their country's role in the world, Americans like stories of heroism or villainy, of clear triumph or utter catastrophe. In the standard telling, the years covered in this book [1945-1947] are a prime exhibit of heroism and triumph. They mark the start of the American era, a period of visionary leadership that supplied doctrines and models still invoked today . . .
More than any other figure in that narrative, George Marshall embodies the conception of American leadership at its best--strong, generous, bold.
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