Intro to the Philippine Campaign of 1942

Paridon and Parshall lay out the interwar debate over Philippine defence — War Plan Orange, WPO-3, and MacArthur's characteristically grandiose alternative — setting the strategic table for the 1942 campaign. The interwar planning detail is excellent, tracing how decades of indecision in Washington shaped the disaster that followed. At nearly two hours, this is the kind of operational-strategic groundwork that rewards patient listeners before the series gets into the fighting itself.