In 1942 Trudeau was assigned to be Chief of Staff for the newly formed Engineer Amphibian Command. Organized in the early spring at Camp Edwards on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Washburn Island, between Falmouth and Mashpee on Cape Cod's south shore, became the main training area. In 1944, Trudeau was promoted to
brigadier general. Considered a specialist in amphibious warfare as the prior chief of staff of the
Engineer Amphibian Command, he assumed command of a secret base in the Philippines in 1945, assisting in the preparation for an invasion of Japan that never happened. In January 1946, Trudeau was appointed as a judge at the military tribunal of Gen.
Masaharu Homma in view of the
war crimes committed by his command during the
invasion of the Philippines, sitting on the bench along with Major General Leo Donovan, Major General
Basilio Valdes, Brig. Gen. Robert G. Gard, and Brig. Gen. Warren H. McNaught. After the war, he served in Germany, before becoming deputy commander of the
United States Army War College in 1950. in 1958 During the Korean War, Trudeau commanded the
1st Cavalry Division, and later the
7th Infantry Division. He received the
Silver Star by personally leading a reconnaissance team to scout a strategic position,
Pork Chop Hill, while it was under heavy enemy fire. He was named chief of army intelligence in October 1953, but was relieved of his command 20 months later when
Allen W. Dulles,
Director of Central Intelligence, sent a scathing memorandum of complaints to
the Pentagon. Although the contents of the memorandum were not made public, Trudeau was noted for his vigorous
anti-Communist statements, and he often clashed with other government officials over their differing views of communist intentions. He returned to Korea to take command of
I Corps. In 1958, he returned to Washington as director of Army research and development. ==Later life and death==