Explains how the best laid plans of US military strategists were scrambled by such factors as coalition politics, inter-service disputes, disagreements between field commanders and Washington, logistical constraints, and some uncooperative initiatives and reactions of the enemy. The initial plan was to pin down the Japanese, mass troops in Britain, destroy Germany, then mop up the Pacific; the war turned out to be multi-front and relatively simultaneous. Includes 18 contemporary battle maps. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR