The U.S. At War, Great Decisions

The hour made the meeting dramatic. For the first time since Belleau Wood a U.S. Army was fighting with its back to the wall—in far-off Luzon. Only a little more than a fortnight after the U.S. had gone to war, the democracies were faced with a possible defeat as serious as the fall of France—the loss of the entire Far East if Malaya and the Philippines succumbed. And at this juncture the leaders of the two biggest democracies took a step that filled their nations with satisfaction out of all proportion to its...