General George S. Patton was America's antihero of the Second World War. Driven by an innate sense of duty, both to his family’s great military tradition and to his country, he was fixated on the notion of reaching the status of a military legend and driven by outdated notions of honor.
Simultaneously brilliant and deeply flawed, he could be daring and noble and then petulant and cruel, lacking in the diplomatic grace and tact that defined many of his contemporaries. Nevertheless, he was the kind of guy the Allies needed to get the dirty work done on the ground, all the while also being the kind of guy they wanted to get rid of or silence once the fighting was over.
Outspoken about the conduct of the war and eager to identify the Soviet Union as the next great threat to American democracy and world peace, he was relieved of command, and he vowed to “take the gag off” after the war and tell the intimate truth about controversial decisions. In this historical analysis, Robert Orlando explores whether a man of such flawed character could have been right about his claim that the Cold War was inevitable and investigates the questions that still abound about Patton’s rise and fall—including his suspicious death.
Praise for THE TRAGEDY OF PATTON: A Soldier's Date With Destiny by Robert Orlando
“In bright, admiring prose, Robert Orlando brings to life America’s most famous general in vivid colors. Patton’s brilliance, flaws, contradictions and beliefs leap off the pages in this fast-reading biography.”
— Jonathan W. Jordan, bestselling author of Brothers, Rivals, Victors“WWII is a lifelong passion of Orlando’s. The Tragedy of Patton has been a labor of love and truly a quest for truth and justice. His film, Silence Patton, was bold, engaging, and riveting, and so is this book. The man lost his life 75 years ago, to the shock of the world, but the life and the mystery live on. Anyone with any interest in General George S. Patton, the Cold War, his bizarre and tragic death, or his date with destiny needs to read this book.”
— Paul Kengor PhD, Professor of Political Science at Grove City College, author of God and Ronald Reagan, The Divine Plan, and The Devil and Karl Marx“I can honestly say, every military history library should have this volume on its shelf.”
— Charles M. Province, The George S. Patton, Jr. Historical Society“Robert Orlando is one of America’s leading scholars on the turbulent life and interesting times of General George S. Patton. His life was full of sound and fury, who did so much for America and for the world. Patton, in addition to his many military conquests, was also a visionary. Imagine if the world had seen the Soviet threat earlier, as Patton did, how much suffering might have been prevented? Read, absorb and most of all enjoy Rob’s new tome, The Tragedy of Patton.”
— Craig Shirley, Ronald Reagan biographer and presidential historian