Chesty: The Story of Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller, USMC
The first biography since Burke Davis's uncritical Marine!  (1962), this engrossing biography by Hoffman (Marine Corps  Historical Ctr.) effectively portrays "Chesty" Puller  (1898-1971) as an enduring icon of the U.S. Marine Corps. His  37-year career included engagements with bandits in Haiti,  rebels in Nicaragua, Japanese Imperial forces on Guadalcanal,  New Britain, and Peliliu, and North Korean and Red Chinese  armies in Korea. Puller's legendary reputation is based on  fearlessness, uncompromising leadership, and an ability to gain  the respect and affection of his enlisted men. The author  celebrates these qualities but also offers a balanced discussion  of Chesty's more questionable traits, like his continuing  disparagement of staff officers and military education courses  and his penchant for costly frontal assaults against an  entrenched enemy. Tender family correspondence allows readers to  get beyond Puller's crusty exterior. Hoffman's research efforts  into untapped sources, map selections, and detailed battlefield  accounts are the cardinal strengths of this definitive  biography. Recommended for military collections in all  libraries. John C. Edwards, Univ. of Georgia Libs., AthensCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.