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The Gentle Warrior: General Oliver Prince Smith, USMC. By Clifton La Bree. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-87338-686-8. Maps. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xv, 268. $32.00.
General Oliver Smith's long face, lanky frame, and shock of white hair went well with his quiet, temperate, and contemplative manner. During his tour as the commanding general of the 1st Marine Division in Korea, war correspondents quoted him as saying, "Retreat, hell! We're just attacking in a different direction!" But that remark could not have come from this Marine Corps officer: he never cussed. Clifton La Bree, an amateur historian, attempts here a biography of General Smith's thirty-eight years in the Corps (1917-55).
O. P. Smith built his well-deserved reputation as a soldier-scholar as an instructor in Quantico and a graduate of the prestigious Ecole Superieure de Guerre...