The West Point story is linked closely to the story of our country. In the hard days of the American Revolution, General Benedict Arnold tried to sell West Point, and, because of his treachery, an honest soldier was hanged. Had Arnold succeeded, our Military Academy would never have been born.

The United States Military Academy is today one of the greatest institutions in the world. This book gives a graphic account of the trying days Colonel Thayer had establishing the West Point pattern—a pattern which would furnish leaders for our nation in war and peace. In each crisis in our history, West Point has had its leaders ready.

Yet many fierce struggles lie behind the West Point story. In the beginning, Congress often considered abolishing West Point, but after their trial by fire in the Mexican War, United States Military Academy graduates were proven invaluable. Since World War II the nation has been more keenly aware than ever before of the value of West Point and its cadets.

You discover here the testing ground in which these leaders have been molded. But it is not always a stern life our cadets lead. The chapter "There's a Monkey in Barracks" shows how cadets have amused themselves from the early days of the Academy—down to painting a U.S. destroyer with the words BEAT NAVY!

West Point has produced fierce fighting men like Stonewall Jackson and John J. Pershing, great leaders like Robert E. Lee and Douglas MacArthur, and two illustrious Presidents of the United States.

From the book