Eagle Against the Sun

Archival Summary & Scope

Ronald H. Spector reassesses the forty-four-month Pacific War, arguing that US strategy was shaped more by inter-service rivalries between the Army and Navy than by military necessity. He challenges the standard narrative of Midway, positing that Japan's fatal error was the subsequent shift to a war of attrition. The book utilizes declassified intelligence to highlight ignored warnings in Papua and Leyte and details the friction between British and American commands.