Books: The Chastened American

THE MOUNTAIN ROAD (347 pp.)—Theodore H. Whife—Sloane ($3.95).

Hengyang, Kweilin, Tushan, Liuchow—the names fall like a dirge on the South China wind. The time is 1944, and the stench of burning Chinese towns masks the peaceful summer scent of oranges, persimmons and rice fields. With the Japanese armies at their heels, U.S. demolition teams mine the strategic airstrips with 1,000-lb. bombs gouging the good earth as they retreat. The irony is that they outrun the enemy but are runners-up to history.

Against this turbulent, doom-splashed setting, Reporter and Author Theodore H. (for Harold) White (Thunder Out of China, Fire in the Ashes) projects...

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