Chuck Cross spent much of his youth and adult life in China and elsewhere in East Asia, garnering insights and skills he later applied to U.S. diplomacy in the region. His book –– part perceptive memoir, part provocative diplomatic history –– traces the intense, sometimes violent American connection with East Asia as the author observed and experienced it. He was a boy in Beijing, a teenager under the Japanese Occupation of North China, a decorated Marine in World War II combat in the Pacific, and a distinguished Foreign Service officer.