Douglas MacArthur the Far Eastern general / Michael Schaller.

Born in an army family and shaped by the values of that institution, Douglas MacArthur searched his entire life for the personal and professional recognition that the military never seemed able to provide. Unsatisfied with any army command, he yearned for the power to shape, not merely implement, national policy. The higher he rose in rank, the more frustrated he became with the constraints imposed by the traditions of civilian supremacy and the complexities of modern war and diplomacy. Each promotion left him under the control of some higher military or civilian authority whom he resented and against whom he left compelled to rebel. Even when he became Army Chief of staff, the Great Depression and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal mocked the Republican orthodoxy and military tradition he championed. --From the preface