the highlight of his wwii duology was the scholarship on state department types, embassies, chargés d'affaires, red tape, exit visas and passports and the creative genius of making his jew characters' odyssey wend its way through all that. despite his demonstrated mastery of those things and ability to make them interesting the clear moral of the story is that all of that is ultimately pointless and the only rescue in the end is through military strength. his disdain for scholars and diplomats comes through in the cain mutiny, too, which however i never could get into