Includes bibliographical references (p. [467]-532) and index.

Prologue: Captain William DePuy and the 90th Division in Normandy, summer 1944 -- Pt. I. World War II : General George G. Marshall: the leader ; Dwight Eisenhower: how the Marshall system worked ; George Patton: the specialist ; Mark Clark: the man in the middle ; "Terrible Terry" Allen: conflict between Marshall and his protégés ; Eisenhower manages Montgomery ; Douglas MacArthur: the general as presidential aspirant ; William Simpson: the Marshall system and the new model American general -- Pt. II. The Korean War : William Dean and Douglas MacArthur: two generals self-destruct ; Army generals fail at Chosin ; O. P. Smith succeeds at Choisin ; Ridgway turns the war around ; MacArthur's last stand ; The organization man's Army -- Pt. III. The Vietnam War : Maxwell Taylor: architect of defeat ; William Westmoreland: the organization man in command ; William DuPuy: World War II-style generalship in Vietnam ; The collapse of generalship in the 1960s: At the top, In the field, In personnel policy ; Tet '68: the end of Westmoreland and the turning point of the war ; My Lai: General Koster's cover-up and General Peers's investigation ; The end of a war, the end of an Army -- Pt. Iv. Interwar : DePuy's great rebuilding ; "How to teach judgment" -- Pt. V. Iraq and the hidden costs of rebuilding : Colin Powell, Norman Swartzkopf, and the empty triumph of the 1991 war ; The ground war: Swartzkopf vs. Frederick Franks ; The post-Gulf War military ; Tommy R. Franks: two-time loser ; Ricardo Sanchez: over his head ; George Casey: trying but treading water ; David Petraeus: an outlier moves in, then leaves -- Epilogue: Restoring American military leadership.