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Beetle: The Life of General Walter Bedell Smith by D. K. R. Crosswell Lexington, KY: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2010 1,070 pages $39.95
While assisting Merle Miller with research for a biography about Dwight Eisenhower in the early 1980s, D.K.R. Crosswell discovered General Walter Bedell "Beetle" Smith, Ike's wartime Chief of Staff. In 1991, Crosswell published The Chief of Staff: The Military Career of General Walter Bedell Smith with Greenwood Press. For two decades that volume has remained the best work on Smith. When Roger Cirillo, director of the Association of the United States Army book program, approached Crosswell about republishing it, the author suggested writing a new biography instead.
The resulting revision is more than twice as long as the original. As is...