A DRAMATIC AND REVEALING ACCOUNT, FROM INSIDE THE GOVERNMENT, OF THE MOMENTOUS DAYS IN WHICH AMERICA ASSUMED THE RESPONSIBILITY OF WORLD LEADERSHIP. First published in 1955, Joseph M. Jones' memoirs The Fifteen Weeks chronicle his role in the development of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. "The fifteen weeks which form the title and subject of this book comprise the period in 1947 when the United States stepped out irrevocably and wholeheartedly as leader upon the world stage.... "The greatness of a nation, like the greatness of an individual, is in the last analysis a mystery. We do not know why at one time immense exertions and far-reaching vision are more prevalent than at others. Yet to look within, to account for the obvious factors in the situation is highly useful. That function is performed in a book which for readability and for responsible narration would be hard to surpass."—August Heckscher in the New York Herald Tribune.