In this book I delve into the effects of personality and circumstance on foreign policy and the outcomes of war. More specifically, I explore the interaction between policy conceived in Washington during World War II, defined as 1937 (Nanjing) to 1945 (Nagasaki), and the lived experience of US diplomats residing in the major belligerent countries. There American ambassadors sculpted formal policy – occasionally deliberately, other times inadvertently – giving it shape and meaning not always intended by FDR or predicted by his principal advisors. As such this book belongs to an expanding genre in diplomatic studies, centered on those activities undertaken by a cast of characters outside the limelight but who have served national leaders.

Popular and scholarly interest in World War II has generated an immense literature. It continues to grow without signs of abating as audiences try to grasp the war's many facets. These include the conflict's deep origins and immediate causes, aims of the belligerents, strains within alliances, weapon technologies, life on the home fronts, genocides. Related postwar events have been evaluated too from diverse standpoints – the convening of international military tribunals at Nuremberg and Tokyo to mete out justice to Axis leaders, rumblings of Cold War confrontation, first flushes of decolonization in Africa and Asia.