Based on the wartime journals of General George Patton, the journal maintained by Major General Hobart Gay (a close friend and associate), letters to his wife... the author "follows Vincent Sheean's precept: 'Very often what the general does is less important than what he is." Patton used his diaries to say exactly what he wished without the constraints of military protocol. His entries make clear the ambivalence he had toward his associates as well as his uncertainty toward himself. Tactical details or operational aspects of his battles are not necessarily included, as these part of history. The book shows what Patton did as a general rather than what his forces accomplished and how they did so.