Reflecting Antiracism: Equity/Accountability

Review by Bill Doughty

People in the Navy should not read “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi (One World, Random House; 2019). That’s the contention of some ultraconservatives, including writers at National Review, as well as several representatives in Congress. But –– like it or not, agree with it or not, and despite its many flaws –– this book is a thought-provoking treatise on the causes of inequity in society, possible remedies, and how to find common understanding.

Kendi’s book is one of dozens selected on the newest version of the Navy’s Professional Reading Program list by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday. Naysayers argue against including this book because of how Kendi reflects anticapitalist views.

In fact, Kendi does call racism and capitalism “conjoined twins.” He narrowly defines words  and concepts, particularly of the nature of capitalism. And he looks at history with a backward telescope, equating capitalism with greed and exploitation only, starting with the original sin: slavery. He cites Prince Henry the Navigator, of Portugal, as the father of for-profit race-based slavery from Africa in the 1400s.

Because everything is seen through the slavery lens and a long legacy of exploitation of people of color, Kendi does not accept nuanced interpretation or social progression. He fails to see the value of an economic system that can be based both on the incentive of competition/success and accountability for ethical behavior/fairness. But he notes that pure socialism and communism are not the answer, noting that Cuba is not capitalist but is persistently racist. “Socialist and communist spaces are not automatically antiracist,” he says.

As Kendi reflects on the history of institutionalized and systemic racism, he leads the reader  to think: Does the past have to be the future? 

Not in Kendi’s case. He candidly shows how he has changed.

This book is part coming-of-age memoir and part opinions and obsessions. He admits to hating white people as a young man, even thinking for a time that white people are extraterrestrials. He shows how his views about feminism and homosexuality evolved to be more tolerant and then fully accepting.

Along his search for truth, Kendi writes in powerful syllogisms and trains of thought. His conclusions are often refreshing in interpreting the nature of racism and meaning of antiracism.

For example:

“To be antiracist is to reject not only the hierarchy of races but of race-genders [i.e., “black women”] To be feminist is to reject not only the hierarchy of genders but of race-genders. To truly be antiracist is to be feminist. To truly be feminist is to be antiracist.”

“We cannot be antiracist if we are homophobic or transphobic.”

“As long as the mind is racist, the mind can never be free … To be antiracist is to deracialize behavior, to remove the tattooed stereotype from every radicalized body. Behavior is something humans do, not races do.”

For Kendi, the point is equality and equity.

“To be antiracist is to champion resource equity by challenging the racist policies that produce resource inequity.” 

“What if economic, political, or cultural self-interest drives racist policymakers, not hateful immorality, not ignorance?”

“To be an antiracist is to never mistake the antiracist hate of white racism for the racist hate of white people. To be an antiracist is to never conflate racist people with white people, knowing there are antiracist whites and racist non-whites.” [While Kendi capitalizes White and Black, we choose to use AP style lower case.]

“In the end, hating white people becomes hating black people. White supremacy hates whites!”

“To be antiracist is to recognize the reality of biological equality, that skin color is as meaningless to our underlying humanity as the clothes we wear over that skin.” 

But Kendi contradicts himself in some of his definitions and conclusions. He says a “biological antiracist” is “one who is expressing that the races are meaningfully the same in their biology and there are no genetic racial differences.” However, he demands people always see race. “The most threatening racist movement is not the alt-right’s unlikely drive for a white ethnostate but the regular Americans’ drive for a ‘race-neutral’ one.”

He condemns discrimination and inequities while justifying discrimination in the name of creating equity. Unfairness in the name of fairness? Two wrongs to make a right?

How can racial divisions, inequalities, and the concept of “race,” itself, survive as the United States and world continues to connect, integrate, and become better educated? 

According to the Pew Research Organization, which estimates that 6.9 percent of Americans are of mixed race, “Multiracial Americans are at the cutting edge of social and demographic change in the U.S.—young, proud, tolerant and growing at a rate three times as fast as the population as a whole.

Barack Obama was the first black president, and Kamala Harris (pictured above at the Pentagon with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, President Biden, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley) is the first black vice president –– but that’s not the whole story about them or our changing demographics.

Kendi calls for courage, approaching the fearlessness of Harriet Tubman, to become antiracist.

He calls for people to protest and demonstrate for equitable treatment –– even as some states, including Florida, put legislation in place to limit the rights of protesters to assemble and, amazingly, offer civil immunity protection to people who ram their cars into protesters.

With reflection: People, in general, support the Constitution and peaceful assembly/protest while condemning riots and violence. People, in general, support law enforcement while condemning abuse by some police officers. People, in general, are receptive to messages of unity and equal opportunity but condemn messages delivered with hate and contempt. People of good will want equitable treatment of all people.

Kendi calls for a refreshing self-reflection on the part of people trying to combat racist laws, systems, and people.

“When we fail to open the closed-minded consumers of racist ideas, we blame their closed-mindedness instead of our foolish decision to waste time reviving closed minds from the dead. When our vicious attacks on open-minded consumers of racist ideas fail to transform them, we blame their hate rather than our impatient and alienating hate of them. When people fail to consumer our convoluted antiracist ideas, we blame their stupidity rather than our stupid lack of clarity. When we transform people and do not show them an avenue of support, we blame their lack of commitment rather than our lack of guidance. When the politician we supported does not change racist policy, we blame the intractability of racism rather than our support of the wrong politician. When we fail to gain support for a protest, we blame the fearful rather than our alienating presentation. When the protest fails, we blame racist power rather than our flawed protest. When our policy does not produce racial equity, we blame the people for not taking advantage of the new opportunity, not our flawed policy solution. The failure doctrine avoids the mirror of self-blame. The failure doctrine begets failure. The failure doctrine begets racism.”

This raw call for self-critique and assessment is matched by the reality of seeing the success of Black Lives Matter protests throughout the United States last year –– of which 97 percent were peaceful –– and then seeing the successful prosecution of a police officer last week for the murder of George Floyd last year.

If Kendi can change (and continue to change), can’t society? In fact, society has changed tremendously in my own lifetime, finding greater equity and accountability with Brown v. Board of Education, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the Fair Housing Act. With the right amount of courage by leaders, we will see passing of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

Kendi says, “The antiracist power within is the ability to view my own racism in the mirror of my past and present, view my own antiracism in the mirror of my future, view my own racial groups as equal to other racial groups, view the world of racial inequity as abnormal, view my own power to resist and overtake racist power and policy.”

“To be antiracist is to let me be me, be myself, be my imperfect self,” Kendi proclaims, admitting his own inability to be objective about racism.

Kendi refers to his self-discovery as “my own, still ongoing journey toward becoming an antiracist.” It’s a type of journey everyone can benefit from. Which is why it is relevant and good that “How to Be an Antiracist” was chosen as an offering on the latest Navy Professional Reading Program list.

The CNO responded to critics who complained about including "How to Be an Antiracist" on the NPRP by saying, in part, according to FoxNews, “While I do not endorse every viewpoint of the books on this reading list, I believe exposure to varied ideas improves the critical thinking skills of our sailors. My commitment to them is to continue to listen, make sure their voice is heard, and make the Navy a shining example of an organization centered on respect, inclusive of all." 

Exposure to other points of view, whether we agree with all the opinions or not, can help expand perspectives and –– in this case –– promote antiracism as well as unity and cohesion in the Navy, military, and nation. Read to lead.

Earth Day & ‘Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World’

Review by Bill Doughty

Fareed Zakaria takes a global look at the past to predict the future in “Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World" (W.W. Norton & Company, 2020). In fact, Zakaria takes an out-of-this-world look at the impact of disease, pollution, and climate change on human survival:

“Climate scientists who warn of the dangers of our current path are unconsciously mirroring Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg’s warnings to us about viruses, back in 1989. Like him, they are urging us to assume that nature is a benign force that has any particular interest in the survival of life on this earth. The climate doesn’t care about us; it is simply an accumulation of chemical reactions that could easily get out of control and destroy the planet and all who live on it. Millions of other planets in other celestial systems may have suffered the same fate. In our own solar neighborhood, NASA’s recent computer modeling suggests that Venus (above) might have been habitable for around 2 billion years, after which a ‘runaway greenhouse gas effect’ led to the scorched and sterile conditions on the Venus of today. We can mitigate the forces that are pushing the earth in a similar direction. If that is not a sound reason for cooperation, then we will not find another.”

Non-cooperation within and between nations can be life-threatening.

Cooperation, on the other hand, can be lifesaving. That’s a chief lesson of the COVID-19 pandemic: telling the truth, marshaling resources, and cooperating together can reduce the number of cases and prevent deaths.

“If people cooperate, they will achieve better outcomes and more durable solutions than they could acting alone,” Zakaria writes, in what sounds a lot like Adm. Mike Mullen’s ‘A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower’ from 2007. Zakaria continues, “If nations can avoid war, their people will lead longer, richer, and more secure lives. If they become intertwined economically, everyone ends up better off.” Updated versions of the U.S. Maritime Strategy continue to note the interconnectedness of nations sharing the same oceans.

Zakaria interviews then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen in 2010. They discussed, among other topics, a drawdown of troops in Afghanistan.

Such idealism is not blindfolded. With China’s saber-rattling toward Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as it’s maritime claims in the South China Sea, the world may be on the verge of another Cold War. Yet Zakaria writes, “Tensions between the United States and China are inevitable. Conflict is not.”

Zakariah shows how a “deeply interconnected” world can prevent wars despite “a real-life butterfly effect,” in which a fluttering butterfly’s –– or bat’s –– wing can supposedly influence the wind and eventually weather patterns on the other side of the world.

“There is a paradoxical feature of pandemics: even though they have come to be named for specific locations, they are decidedly not contained by borders. This has been true for centuries, since the Silk Road caravans and merchant galleys of the medieval world, and especially over the past 150 years since the age of steamships and trains. There was the ‘Russian flu’ of 1889-90, the ‘Spanish flu’ of 1918-19, the ‘Asian flu’ of 1957-58, the ‘Hong Kong flu’ of 1968-69, the ‘Middle East Respiratory Syndrome’ (MERS) of 2012, and now the ‘Wuhan virus’ of 2019-21. By revealing obsession with foreign labels, these names –– even when incorrect as to the origin of the virus –– betray the diseases’ much wider reach. The urge to view a pathogen as coming from abroad is strong, but of course, those diseases have rarely been known by those monikers in the places they’re named for. In Spain, the ‘Spanish flu’ was just the flu.”

Naturally, Zakaria –– a voracious reader –– cites numerous authors and books: William Maxwell’s “They Came Like Swallows,” Katherine Anne Porter’s “Pale Horse, Pale Rider,” Thomas Friedman’s “The Lexus and the Olive Tree,” Francis Fukuyama’s “Political Order and Political Decay,” and Michael Lewis’s “The Fifth Risk,” for example.

Other writers and thinkers he cites include Shakespeare, Clausewitz, Ian McEwan, Yuval Noah Harari, and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Zakaria quotes Apple CEO Tim Cook, who, like Henry J. Kaiser in the past century, believes that his company’s “greatest contribution to mankind … will be about health.” (Kaiser, who helped shape history in the American West and in World War II, is featured in the most recent Navy Reads post earlier this month.)

It’s in his evaluation of history that Zakaria makes his most insightful conclusions about the importance of international cooperation in the wake of the pandemic –– and toward continued world peace.

“Franklin Roosevelt was assistant secretary of the navy in Woodrow Wilson’s administration and a great admirer of Wilson’s vision of a world ‘made safe for democracy’ He watched that idealism collapse in the years after World War I, leading to an even wider war during his own presidency. But the lesson FDR drew from Wilson’s experiences was to try international cooperation again, this time with America at the center of the new system –– and this time giving the great powers stronger practical incentives to fully commit themselves to the peace. A few months after America entered World War II, when victory was still uncertain and distant, FDR began formulating plans to create international institutions and systems of collective security that made future world wars unlikely. His longtime secretary of state, Cordell Hull, having seen how the trade wars of the 1930s spiraled into hot war, singlemindedly championed a new, international free trade regime. His successors realized this vision in the years after 1945 –– first through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which evolved into the World Trade Organization.

Roosevelt was known to be an idealist at heart, but his successor, Harry S Truman, had no such reputation. Truman is credited as the hard-nosed realist who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, created NATO, worked to contain the Soviet Union, and waged war in Korea. But Truman was also a deeply idealistic man, and he too had drunk from the well of Wilsonian internationalism.”

Truman, when asked why he strongly supported the United Nations, would quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “Locksley Hall,” a poem which foresaw a world where cooperation reigned and nations formed a federation based on peace, commerce, and “universal law.”

Twice in this book, Zakariah recalls Dwight D. Eisenhower’s visit to the U.S. military cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer in Normandy (above) on the twentieth anniversary of D-Day. In an interview with Walter Cronkite, Eisenhower, who as president had called for abolishing nuclear weapons worldwide and strengthening the UN, spoke to Cronkite about the 9,000 American bodies buried there: “These people gave us a chance, and they bought time for us, so that we can do better than we have before … So every time I come back to these beaches, or any day when I think about that day 20 years ago now, I say once more we must find some way to work to peace, and really to gain an eternal peace for this world.”

“Ten Lessons” advocates for people listening to experts –– and experts listening to people. One lesson is that “what matters is not the quantity of government but the quality.” Another is about the reality of virtuality: “Life is digital.” Still another is recognizing the rise of ultranationalism and that “the world is becoming bipolar” as well as more unequal.

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Larry Hunter, an energy NCO with Headquarters Battalion, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, monitors as a child spins a questionnaire spin wheel during an Earth Day event, Apr. 23, 2019 about the importance of energy conservation, recycling, and protecting the environment. (Sgt. Zachary Orr)

But the most important lesson, one that permeates the whole book, is the importance of the world’s interconnectedness and need for cooperation.

George W. Bush initiated a war on AIDS in Africa. Obama/Biden led the global battle to contain the Ebola virus in Africa. Unfortunately, in early 2020, despite declaring war on COVID-19, the Trump administration failed to acknowledge and confront the threat and provide a centralized plan for testing, tracing, and telling the truth.

“By the middle of 2020, tragically, with the pandemic raging across most of its fifty states –– long after Europe and East Asia contained their outbreaks –– America had no attention for anything or anyone else, except to bash Beijing. The Trump administration is not wrong to critique China’s handing of COVID-19. But coming from such a messenger, the message lands with a thud. A lifelong friend of America, the former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd wrong in Foreign Affairs of his horror and disappointment over how far America has fallen: ‘Once there was the United States of the Berlin airlift. Now there is the image of the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) crippled by the virus, reports of the administration trying to take exclusive control fo the vaccine being developed in Germany, and federal intervention to stop the commercial sale of personal protective equipment to Canada. The world has been turned on its head.’”

At the beginning of March, 2020, only a few people in the United States had died from COVID-19, but the number of cases was beginning to grow exponentially. By the end of April, just after the United States commemorated the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, there were more than 1 million cases in the U.S. and more than 60,000 deaths –– despite messages from President Trump that everything was under control, the virus would go away, people should take Hydroxychloroquine, and we should try injecting bodies with disinfectants (one year ago this week).

A runner pushes through the last 100 meters of a 5K Earth Day Fun Run at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, April 2014. (Cpl. Ali Azimi)

One year later, on Earth Day 2021, there have been nearly 570,000 American deaths. But a coordinated vaccination campaign is working now to reduce cases and fatalities. Unfortunately, the world has suffered 3.1 million deaths due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, and new variants threaten everyone.

“Ten Lessons” presents the stark realities and possibilities ahead; Zakaria warns about the near certainty of another pandemic this century in a connected world. But he also presents an optimistic message about the possibilities ahead if the nations of the world become more educated, more equal, and more committed to cooperation to confront existential threats, including global climate change.

Idealism is not dead. Hope is alive. And the opportunity for lifesaving cooperation is here now despite –– and because of –– the pandemic.

The Titan Patriot Who Helped Win WWII

Review by Bill Doughty

He was a giant of American industry and friend of the Navy, yet he’s nearly forgotten today.

Leading his own companies and as the elected chairman of a group of other companies, Henry J. Kaiser built roads, bridges, dams, and factories. And during World War II he became known as the father of modern shipbuilding as he –– and the men and women he hired –– produced Liberty Ships, Victory Ships, LSTs, CVEs, and tankers. He is credited for producing 1,500 vessels during the war effort.

Peter J. Marsh tells “the untold story of Henry Kaiser’s Oregon shipyards” in “Liberty Factory” (Seaforth Publishing, 2021), a book filled with striking black-and-white images, mostly taken by former Oregonian photojournalist Larry Barber, an Ansel Adams of shipyards in the Pacific Northwest.

Kaiser helped build:

• Dams –– Grand Coulee, Bonneville, and Boulder (later renamed Hoover Dam)
• San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
• Shipyards, ships, and a shipping company 
• Kaiser Steel and Kaiser Aluminum
• Complex highway tunnels in Western states
• Kaiser Gypsum Company
• Kaiser Jeep Corporation (sold to AMC in 1970)
• Subdivisions, businesses, and other entities*

Marsh notes, “Concrete he manufactured at the Permanente Plant built docks, runways, and bases in the Pacific Theatre.” In fact, he shipped much of the concrete to Pearl Harbor for the Navy and then built a concrete-producing plant in Hawaii. On the mainland, “Electricity generated by the dams he built fueled war industries on the Columbia River and in the Bay Area.”

As an art project, Kaiser built a stunning summer retreat at Lake Tahoe (later selected by Francis Ford Coppola as the Corleone home in “The Godfather Part II”).

At his shipyards Kaiser used prefabricated mass production techniques, vertical integration, welding instead of riveting, and “other innovative ways to cut costs, save time, improve the product, and work in cooperation with a myriad of federal agencies.”

“Liberty Factory” describes in detail how Kaiser’s workers built a ship from keel to launch in ten days and kept top secret a visit by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Portland, Oregon. FDR’s daughter Anna Boettiger launched the Liberty ship SS Joseph N. Teal on Sept. 23, 1942, less than a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor and Oahu.

Henry J. Kaiser showed how infrastructure for workers and families starts with concrete and steel but doesn’t end there.

One of Henry J. Kaiser’s most lasting achievements was the creation of Kaiser Permanente, which is a non-profit foundation, health plan, and group of for-profit hospitals and medical groups. “On his 85th birthday, he told reporters, ‘Of all the thing I’ve done, I expect only to be remembered for my hospitals. They’re the things that are filling the people’s greatest need –– good health.’”

According to Marsh, “Affordable health care was a new idea in 1961 where people could prepay for health services at Kaiser’s hospitals and clinics rather than to higher cost fee-for-service providers…”

Kaiser teamed with a military medical officer to provide TRICARE-like healthcare to his shipyard workers during WWII after success in earlier projects.

“The Kaiser Corporation had adopted the ‘pre-payment’ health care system devised by Doctor Sidney Garfield on an earlier project on the Colorado River Aqueduct. In 1939, he moved his operation to the largest construction site in history –– the Grand Coulee Dam –– to provide care for the 6500 workers and their families. He recruited a team of doctors and nurses to work in a ‘prepaid group practice’ in a local hospital that he turned into a state-of-the-art facility. But as the dam neared completion in 1941, it seemed that the grand experiments reaching the end of its life, until world history intervened. Now, Henry J. Kaiser had a bigger problem: how to provide health care for a workforce that would grow to 30,000 in the first Van-Port yard alone.

Kaiser was convinced that Dr. Garfield could scale up his system, but according to the Kaiser Permanente archive, he first had to persuade the US Army to release the good doctor from military service. This may have been the first favour Henry asked of FDR during the war effort, but it was definitely not the last!”

Kaiser and his son Edgar provided more than healthcare services at the shipyards. They also built the nation’s (and perhaps world’s) earliest first child development centers, hiring teachers who specialized in early education. 

The first women welders arrived at the Oregon Shipbuilding Company April 15, 1942 –– exactly 79 years ago this month. One of the first two women welders hired had lost a son in the Battle of Bataan in Luzon, Philippines.

The Kaisers paid their workers the highest wages around. By 1944, 30 percent of their workforce was women. They also hired wounded warriors and “found places for amputees, paralyzed workers, the deaf and dumb, the blind and many other individuals who were previously considered unemployable.”

Marsh pulls the story together from various archives, including Kaiser’s company magazine “The Bo’s’n’s Whistle.” “Liberty Factory” includes captivating photos of the men and women who worked together to help win the war in less than four years.

“After Pearl Harbor, the entire USA was mobilized in the war effort in many ways that seemed unimaginable just a year before –– and only appear more remarkable in retrospect. The emergency shipbuilding program on the West Coast immediately began drawing unemployed people from all over the western states and would eventually create over 1.5 million jobs nationwide. Throughout the country, the small cities around the new shipyards were completely unprepared for the dramatic changes the war effort would bring … Needing still more workers, Henry Kaiser scoured the country for recruits, finding thousands of willing volunteers in the prairie states where mechanization had displaced thousands of farm workers.”

Kaiser also sent trains, known as “Kaiser Karavans,” into New York and throughout the south and provided new employment opportunities to African American workers.

Kaiser, who had dropped out of school at 13 and considered a career in photography before finding his passion as a builder, was a consummate communicator and promoter. He believed in open communication and collaboration with his workforce; efficient production and innovation; and incentive, competition, and recognition. He worked closely with Rear Adm. Emory S. Land, Rear Adm. Howard Vickery, and Vice Adm. Lewis Strauss, who introduced the Battle E award.

He embraced challenges and in the footsteps of Teddy Roosevelt, was a champion of progressive practices. In 1950, when the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific picketed a Panamanian-flagged Liberty ship that tried to hire a foreign crew, “Henry Kaiser decided to support the union, bought the ship, and it became the first American ship to be crewed entirely by union members. Kaiser renamed the ship after the union president –– the SS Harry Lundeberg –– and became a public supporter of labour, stipulating union wages on all of his jobs,” according to Marsh.

This book is filled with gorgeous images and fascinating history and statistics. The presentation is a bit disjointed with various (but interesting) timelines; however, the photography more than makes up for any shortcomings in the narrative.

To learn more about the great titan of shipbuilding and other industries, Marsh recommends Mark S. Foster’s “Henry J. Kaiser: Builder in the Modern American West,” a 1989 biography of the great business leader and philanthropist.

The Navy recognized the achievements of Kaiser with the naming of a class of fleet replenishment oilers. Its lead vessel, the first ship named for Henry J. Kaiser, (T-AO-70), went into service for the Military Sealift Command in 1986. One can occasionally see the ship docked at concrete piers at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

*(Kaiser established the Kaiser Family Foundation in 1948, a private nonprofit organization focusing on healthcare issues. He formed Kaiser-Frazer and Kaiser Motors. He built the Hawaiian Village –– now Hilton Hawaiian Village. And, he ventured into the entertainment business, producing the Maverick TV series starring James Garner as well as Hawaiian Eye, a precursor to Hawaii Five-0. He designed and built the Hawaii Kai community in East Honolulu. And he started Kaiser Broadcasting with TV and radio stations in Hawaii.)

Chief Logistics Specialist Andre Stetz, from Krakow, Poland, monitors the distance between the Military Sealift Command fleet replenishment oiler USNS Henry J. Kaiser (T-AO 187) and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett (DDG 104) during a replenishment-at-sea while underway conducting routine operations in the Pacific in 2020. (MCSA Drace Wilson)

Military Sealift Command Fleet replenishment oiler USNS Henry J. Kaiser (T-AO 187) departs Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Aug. 5, 2016 following the conclusion of Rim of the Pacific 2016. Twenty-six nations, more than 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel participated in RIMPAC in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2016 was the 25th exercise in the series that began in 1971. During RIMPAC 2012 USNS Henry J. Kaiser took on 900,000 gallons of a 50/50 blend of advanced biofuels and delivered the biofuels to platforms participating in the Great Green Fleet demonstration during the exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2012. (MC1 Rebecca Wolfbrandt)

Top photo: Henry J. Kaiser is pictured second from left, next to son Edgar, standing, in an open car with FDR visiting the Kaiser Oregon shipyard, St. Johns, Oregon, September 23, 1942, for the launching of the SS Joseph N. Teal; Oregon Gov. Charles Sprague is at left.

‘Forging the Trident’ –– TR and Navy Infrastructure

Review by Bill Doughty

Theodore Roosevelt was appointed as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in April 1897, 124 years ago this month. In that position and later as President of the United States, TR helped build the infrastructure of the modern Navy. But, in his attempt to fortify deterrence, did he build inadvertently toward war a generation later?

Editors John B. Hattendorf and William P. Leeman draw up their own blueprint of TR's history with the Navy. They deploy a team of scholars, historians, and essayists to construct an argument for TR’s remarkable role to transform the Navy in “Forging the Trident: Theodore Roosevelt and the United States Navy” (Naval Institute Press, 2020). In complementing essays, various authors show TR’s leadership and influence after the Civil War, through the Spanish-American War and World War I, and –– through his cousin FDR –– in World War II.

TR was born three years before the start of the Civil War. His father was an ardent supporter of the Union, but members of his mother’s family were part of the Confederacy. In fact, his maternal grandparents were slave owners, and his uncles served in the Confederate navy, which is where TR acquired his love of ships and the open ocean.

The authors of “Forging the Trident” show how TR, who came from the party of Abraham Lincoln, negotiated and cajoled to keep the South and North united. Author Sarah Goldberger writes about the politics of reconciliation in “An Indissoluble Union.”

“Upon Roosevelt assuming the presidency, southern Republicans immediately approached him on the importance of taking control of the Republican Party in the South. John Wise, a lawyer from Virginia who now lived in self-appointed exile in New York, brought Roosevelt up to date on the sad state of affairs in Virginia –– that the commonwealth, like the other southern states, would soon disfranchise black voters. Some Republicans –– ‘Lily Whites,’ as they were called –– believed that this was perhaps a good thing, as it would make white men more likely to join the Republican Party; other Republicans saw the elimination of the black voters as fatal to the party. Wise, who considered himself in the latter category, served as the attorney of a group of black plaintiffs who fought disfranchisement. As president, Roosevelt became immersed in the very complex intersection of southern racial politics and federal patronage. Although the majority of federal employment now required civil service examinations, there was still patronage enough to bestow, such as the coveted position of local postmaster.”

TR became determined to change the system of discriminatory and patriarchal patronage into a merit-based system that rewarded performance.

“Roosevelt was determined to appoint only the most qualified people,” Goldberger writes. He invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House to help judge African American appointees, but the backlash from white Southerners was extensive (and would have a lasting effect until the Nixon presidency).

TR delivers a speech on U.S. naval preparedness, Haverhill, MA, 1902.

Following in the footsteps of Lincoln, TR put his faith in the Constitution, the Union, and progressive values. He was also a champion of the environment as a true conservative and conservationist. And he strongly supported the Navy throughout his life.

Under TR’s leadership, the Navy enacted the Personnel Act of 1899. He wanted every Navy officer to be an engineer. He saw the advent of submarines and supported the possibility of developing “flying machines,” including for the Navy. Roosevelt communicated –– like few before him –– the need for public support for the Navy and understanding of its global maritime mission.

In “Checking the Wake While Looking Beyond the Horizon,” David Kohnen observes this about infrastructural changes in the Navy and nation after the Civil War as the country looked beyond its own borders:

“The naval outlook of Roosevelt reflected the confidence associated with industrialization and economic prosperity. Americans viewed the U.S. Navy as a symbol of national unity, as the Reconstruction era culminated in the stunning success of the Spanish-American War. The oceanic borders having been connected with the transcontinental railroad, the armored warships driven by coal-fired steam propelled the U.S. Navy forward in the global maritime arena. The economic rise of the United States remained closely connected to the watery lines of maritime communications –– as the empires of Europe and Asia also competed for economic dominance through naval power.”

Forward-thinking Roosevelt believed in having an international profile. And he strenuously promoted naval innovation.

TR

Under TR, the Navy shifted from coal to oil, deployed wireless communication, and developed new gunnery for its large battleships. “Forging the Trident” explains in several essays how Lt. Cmdr. William S. Sims –– with the support and protection of Roosevelt –– became more influential than most admirals and captains in the era of change in the early 20th century, often in the face of opposition from older traditionalists.

The ghost of Adm. Alfred Thayer Mahan haunts this book. In fact, Mahan’s name appears in all but one chapter. TR owed much to Mahan. But, as president, Roosevelt saw that the great geostrategic theorist was also a bureaucratic authoritarian whose “apostasy” stood in TR’s way. So, in order to advance many of the new technologies and strategies of the time, TR gently nudged him into retirement.

Kohnen writes, “As for Mahan, in late 1914 he died, as did the era of coal and multi-caliber battleship guns … The death of Mahan enabled the generation of Sims to pick up the torch in defining the future of American sea power.” 

Volatility extended to the top level of Navy leadership. Historian Branden Little lays out a fascinating review of TR’s turnover of SECNAVs –– six men served as Navy Secretaries during TR’s time as president.

FDR

In another chapter, “Legacy,” Craig Symonds presents an thoughtful look at the similarities as well as the differences between TR and his cousin FDR. “Among their shared values was a belief that government had both the authority and responsibility to proactively improve the lives of American citizens.”

Both men held the same jobs, and both had to be reigned in during their tenures as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. FDR, who married TR’s niece Eleanor, shared “Uncle Ted’s” deep love of the maritime service. He continued TR’s commitment to preparedness of a powerful, modern fleet able to have an impact on the international stage. As presidents, however, FDR proved to be more cerebral and cautious –– and perhaps more effective than TR as a communicator and consensus-builder. FDR, working with allies and former enemies, built a lasting infrastructure of a post-war era of peace for Europe and Asia.

Navy Reads readers may find James R. Holmes’s essay to be the biggest gem in this collection. It appears in chapter 9 and is titled “Why Deterrence Failed: The Imperial Japanese Navy, Strategic Memes, and the Great White Fleet.” 

Using Richard Dawkins’s insights about memes –– published in “The Selfish Gene” –– as a way to explain the history, psychology, and sociology leading to WWII, Holmes examines TR’s strategy to deploy the Great White Fleet as a “Big Stick” intended to show the world the power, prestige, and peacekeeping abilities of the United States.

President Theodore Roosevelt addresses sailors on the after deck aboard USS Connecticut (Battleship #18), in Hampton Roads, Virginia, Feb. 22, 1909. (NHHC)

But was the GWF actually a deterrent? TR may not have fully appreciated the nationalism memes running through Japanese society after the IJN’s victories in the Sino-Japanese War, 1894-95, and Russo-Japanese War, 1904-05, which “forged the IJN’s access-denial strategy.” TR believed the circumnavigating voyage would foster peace. “The truth is murkier,” Holmes says. In the end, the GWF “message” may have piqued Japan’s pride and hubris –– an incentive for militaristic Japan to build the IJN even stronger, leading to an inevitable clash over Hawaii and the Pacific during FDR’s presidency.

Holmes’s conclusions –– and the legacy of both TR and FDR –– are relevant when thinking about innovative infrastructure initiatives in the United States in 2021.

“Few institutions are are exempt from bureaucratic dynamics –– or stasis. Dynamists typically fare better in armed competition than services set in their ways. Perhaps the way to remain supple and innovative is for top leaders to inscribe one indelible precept on the institutional culture, setting it above all others: No Precept Is Forever. That is one meme worth making permanent. The Imperial Japanese Navy offers an example to avoid –– or to exploit if some future foe appears likewise prone to fixed ideas.”

Reading “Forging the Trident” is like sitting alone with gifted historians and informed communicators telling you about how a great president served as a key architect of the modern Navy at the beginning of the last century. Editors Hattendorf and Leeman have succeeded in designing an indispensable edition –– and addition –– to the Roosevelt bookshelf. No precept is forever, but some concepts can last and improve over time.

OYSTER BAY, New York (Oct. 26, 2018) Cmdr. Julie Schmidt (right), the commanding officer of Navy Operational Support Center Long Island, and Cmdr. Christopher Kendrick, the executive officer of Navy Recruiting District New York, saluting a presidential wreath after placing it beside the grave of President Theodore Roosevelt in Youngs Memorial Cemetery. Students from nearby Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School were on hand to place flowers and play "Taps" to commemorate his birthday. (U.S. Navy photo by Bruce Howard/Released)