Historian Stephen R. Platt, a professor at UMass Amherst, uncovers the incredible story of Evans Carlson, a trailblazing Marine and pivotal figure in the creation of U.S. Special Forces. They discuss Carlson's daring exploits in Nicaragua and his time in China, where he embraced guerrilla warfare tactics. Platt illuminates Carlson's controversial legacy, his close ties to FDR, and the often-overlooked contributions of China during WWII. His innovative ideas reshaped military strategies, leading to the creation of the Marine Raiders.
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insights INSIGHT
Cold War Politics Erase Carlson
Carlson's close association and admiration for Chinese communists led to his political ostracism during the Cold War.
Despite his wartime heroism, McCarthyism labeled him a communist, damaging his legacy.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Carlson's Restless Youth and Enlistment
Carlson ran away from home at 14 and lied about his age to join the Army at 16.
He was driven by a restless spirit and a deep desire to find his true purpose in life.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Nicaragua Battle Launches Combat Career
Carlson earned the Navy Cross for leading a small squad of Nicaraguan soldiers in a surprise attack against a much larger bandit force.
This marked his first real combat experience and revealed his fearlessness under fire.
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The Raider
The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II
Stephen R. Platt
The Raider by Stephen R. Platt tells the story of Evans Carlson, a controversial Marine Corps officer who commanded America's first special forces during World War II. Carlson's life was marked by his involvement with Chinese communist forces and his role in introducing guerrilla tactics to the U.S. military. The book explores Carlson's exploits and the cultural misunderstandings that shaped U.S.-China relations.
The extraordinary life of forgotten World War II hero Evans Carlson, commander of America’s first special forces, secret confidant of FDR, and one of the most controversial officers in the history of the Marine Corps, who dedicated his life to bridging the cultural divide between the United States and China “He was a gutsy old man.” “A corker,” said another. “You couldn’t find anyone better.” They talked about him in hushed tones. “This Major Carlson,” wrote one of the officers in a letter home, “is one of the finest men I have ever known.” These were the words of the young Marines training to be among the first U.S. troops to enter the Second World War—and the Major Carlson they spoke of was Evans Carlson, a man of mythical status even before the war that would make him a military legend. By December of 1941, at the age of forty-five, Carlson had already faced off against Sandinistas in the jungles of Nicaragua and served multiple tours in China, where he embedded with Mao’s Communist forces during the Sino-Japanese War. Inspired by their guerilla tactics and their collaborative spirit—which he’d call “gung ho,” introducing the term to the English language—and driven by his own Emersonian ideals of self-reliance, Carlson would go on to form his renowned Marine Raiders, the progenitors of today’s special operations forces, who fought behind Japanese lines on Makin Island and Guadalcanal, showing Americans a new way to do battle. In The Raider, Cundill Prize–winning historian Stephen R. Platt gives us the first authoritative account of Carlson’s larger-than-life exploits: the real story, based on years of research including newly discovered diaries and correspondence in English and Chinese, with deep insight into the conflicted idealism about the Chinese Communists that would prove Carlson’s undoing in the McCarthy era. Tracing the rise and fall of an unlikely American war hero, The Raider is a story of exploration, of cultural (mis)understanding, and of one man’s awakening to the sheer breadth of the world.
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