In Post-Imperial World 'Navy Is Like Oxygen'

Review by Bill Doughty

War, anarchy and authoritarianism are children of crumbling empires. That's the gist of Robert D. Kaplan's retrospective collection, "The Return of Marco Polo's World: War, Strategy, and American Interests in the Twenty-First Century" (Random House, 2018). Kaplan sees the importance of a strong navy in a changing world.

Mahan

Noting that the U.S. Navy nearly half the size it was in mid-1980s, Kaplan warns, "A great navy is like oxygen: You notice it only when it is gone."

Decreases and delays in American warship production, coupled with increases in near-peer competitor shipbuilding, threaten U.S. Navy maritime influence.

As the Navy loses supremacy on the seas, according to Kaplan, similarly to what happened to the British Empire a century ago, other nations – including China and India –  are gaining influence and building more ships and ship-fighting technologies.

Kaplan reminds us of the influence of Navy Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan in 1890. Mahan, of course, called for the nation to become a great sea power, recognizing the oceans as the global "commons." Protecting sea lanes meant ensuring peace and prosperity. The Chinese are the Mahanians now," Kaplan contends. As Communist China expands its influence, Kaplan warns of the possibilities of conflict over freedom of maritime trade in Asia.

Such risk of conflict is a daily threat already in the Middle East, where the messy remnants of the Ottoman Empire and Arab Caliphate continue to flare in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, with the Kurds in the middle. Kaplan explains Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's "compulsive authoritarianism" and attempts to create "a mono-ethnic state" and a return to Ottoman-like imperialist tendencies. Again, the shadow of empire.

U.S. and Turkish military forces conduct a joint patrol in northeast Syria, Oct. 4, 2019.
(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Andrew Goedl)

"The map of former Syria and Iraq will continue to resemble a child's messy finger-panting with Sunni and Shi'ite war bands expanding and contracting  their areas of control – the result being flimsy and radical micro-states," Kaplan observes.

Neither continued conflict nor abandonment of partners in the region will win a war on terror: "Remember that right now there are millions of Arab refugees from these wars stuck in the region whose children are not being educated, making the next generation even more prone to radical Islamist propaganda."

Kaplan's map of history is vast and three-dimensional. As always, he shows the importance of geography and culture. And he gives examples from empires as far back as the Mesopotamia, Chinese dynasties, Persian Empire, Arab Caliphate, Greece and Rome.

Kaplan

As for recent events and the post-imperial world, Kaplan contends the vacuum is being filled vitally by a "raft of supranational and multinational groupings such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, European Union, International Monetary Fund, International Court of Justice, World Economic Forum," and United Nations.

Kaplan writes about the need for balanced leadership that carefully manages realism with idealism in the new world order. He says the Navy is part of a national leadership in protecting allies and projecting power.

"History moves on. World War II and the Cold War recede. But the United States is the most well-endowed and advantageously located major state on Earth. That good fortune comes with responsibilities that extend beyond our borders. Just look at the size of our three-hundred-warship Navy and the location of our aircraft carriers on any given week. Realism is about utilizing such power to protect allies without precipitating conflict. It is not about abandoning them and precipitating conflict as a consequence."

After World War II, the United States led by example and has silently undergirded a peaceful world, Kaplan contends: "protecting the sea-lanes, the maritime choke points, and access to hydrocarbons, and in general providing some measure of security to the world."
"This is not traditional imperialism, which is no longer an option," he writes about such international cooperation undergirding peace and prosperity, "but it is the best available replacement for it." Indeed, if a great Navy is like oxygen, then the world's economy depends on the U.S. Navy to breathe.

The Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) transits the Philippine Sea during Exercise Pacific Griffin 2019, Oct. 1. Pacific Griffin is a biennial exercise conducted in the waters near Guam aimed at enhancing combined proficiency at sea while strengthening relationships between the U.S. and Republic of Singapore navies. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Josiah J. Kunkle)

This week, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday presented the keynote address at the 12th Regional Seapower Symposium in Venice, Italy, noting in echoes of Mahan, "... our global economy floats on seawater.”

“I’m committed to advancing our relationship and our shared values of democracy, free and fair trade, the rule of law,” CNO Gilday said. “Combined with a robust constellation of allies and partners who desire to build and strengthen the international economic order, we are operating towards the same end – continued security and stability that results in a free and open maritime commons.”

CNO Adm. Mike Gilday speaks at the Regional Seapower Symposium in Venice, Italy, Oct. 17, 2019. The symposium goals are to foster open and constructive exchange of views and ideas, enhance a comprehensive approach to many sea-related matters, and boost mutual knowledge and trust among naval partners. (U.S. Navy photo by Cmdr. Nathan Christensen)

The essays in Kaplan's collection, some written more than a decade ago, are still relevant and provocative, particularly 2006's "When North Korea Falls."

This is an engrossing and often prescient book, well worth a Navy read. Among the dozens of people Kaplan acknowledges and thanks are Navy Adm. (Ret.) James Stravidis, Marine Corps Lt. Col. David Mueller, Army Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, and Air Force Col. (Ret.) James H. Baker.

Army Gen. David Petraeus calls "Return" a work that "will be regarded as a classic. "These essays constitute a truly path-breaking, brilliant synthesis and analysis of geographic, political, technological, and economic trends with far-reaching consequences."

The Sailor Who Brought Victory in WWII

Naval Cadet William D. Leahy, 1898 off Santiago.

Review by Bill Doughty

A Sailor was center-stage both in winning World War II and in setting up a successful strategy for the Cold War.

Some historians see Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy as a figure in the background, but he was in fact a key strategic thinker, planner and leader as Chief of Naval Operations, chief of staff to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, chairman of the joints chiefs of staff, national security advisor, ambassador, and, with President Truman, creator of central intelligence for the United States.

Using hundreds of source documents and other resources, Phillips Payson O'Brien shows Leahy's phenomenal influence before, during and after the Second World War in "The Second Most Powerful Man in the World: The Life of Admiral William D. Leahy, Roosevelt's Chief of Staff" (Dutton, Penguin House, 2019).

Midshipman William Leahy graduated from the Naval Academy in 1897. He learned to sail aboard the USS Constellation.

President Taft visits U.S. Pacific Fleet on Navy's birthday, Oct. 15, 1911 with aide, Lt. Cmdr. Leahy. 

He would become the highest ranking American military officer to have served aboard the Constellation when the United States dropped the first atomic bombs in 1945.

Early in his career Leahy served in China, in the Spanish-American War, in the Philippines Insurrection, and during what was called the Banana War in Nicaragua. As a lieutenant commander, he became aide to President William Howard Taft.

Serving aboard warships in World War I and in overseas diplomatic assignments, big and small, Leahy gained an international perspective. He and Roosevelt bonded when the future president was assistant secretary of the Navy and later during FDR's 12-year presidency.

"Sharing a similar outlook on the world, Leahy and Roosevelt melded from the start. Both were convinced of the need for a large and efficient U.S. Navy. Roosevelt had manifested a love of the sea since boyhood and was fascinated with the importance of sea power. He was a believer in the historical theories of Alfred Thayer Mahan, the American naval officer who argued in the late nineteenth century that sea power was the greatest determinant in world politics. Mahan's ideas became fashionable and spread across the globe, influencing thanking not just in America but in Europe and Asia as well. In a series of books on various periods of history, he posited that control of the seas was practically an immutable law of international relations; that nations such as Great Britain, which could exercise dominance on the world's oceans, would inevitably triumph over other countries that could not. For Americans like Roosevelt and Leahy, Mahan helped codify an instinctive belief that the United States needed a much stronger fleet. When Roosevelt became assistant secretary [of the Navy], he engaged in a correspondence with Mahan about sea power, and, with war looming in Europe, the need to popularize its value. Yet Roosevelt, like Leahy, did not believe in sea power as part of some imperialist drive to conquer. He saw sea power as something vital to the United States' security, regardless of whether an American empire existed or not."

"By the late summer of 1937, Leahy was entrenched as the most powerful CNO in naval history," O'Brien writes. During the war, he became "the most powerful chairman of the joint chiefs of staff in American history, with or without congressional authorization." After the war he set out a plan to work with partners and Allies for a lasting peace.

Leahy's legacy:

• Embraced new technologies – In the 1930s, as tensions rose in Europe and Asia, Leahy led development of anti-aircraft defenses, a prescient and lifesaving move.
• Developed key alliances within government – Leahy built ties with FDR, Sumner Welles in the State Department, and congressional leaders like Carl Vinson, who had a "political tenacity on behalf of the fleet."
• Arranged allocation of resources – Thanks to Leahy's influence, new ships were built, including 60,000 tons of new cruisers, 30,000 tons of new destroyers (crucial after the attack on Pearl Harbor), large mobile dry docks, and tankers to refuel forward-deployed aircraft carriers.
• Made the shift from battleships to aircraft carriers – Leahy ensured the Navy had resources, including the building of 15 CVs during World War II.
• Saw the strategic importance of Marianas, Philippines, Hawaii and Puerto Rico – Leahy was an early proponent of air- and sea-power and forward basing.
• Instilled decentralized merit-based leadership – Throughout his career, Leahy pushed for a flattened organization. He pushed up young talented officers and pushed out older, less competent ones.
• Insisted on a purposeful blockade of Japan – When Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan conspired to invade Indochina (Vietnam) to take oil and other resources, Leahy, Welles and FDR planned for the embargo.
• Chose naval leaders – Immediately after Pearl Harbor and Oahu were attacked, Leahy wrote to FDR with his suggestions of Ernest King, Chester Nimitz and Thomas Hart for key positions in "important naval commands."
• Corralled the strong personalities of military leaders – Leahy had the unenviable job of soothing inter-service rivalries, type-A personalities and conflicting rivalries of General George C. Marshall, General Henry "Hap" Arnold, Adm. Ernest King, General Douglas MacArthur and other military leaders, including especially those of Allied nations.
• Balanced the needs of the military with labor market – Leahy opposed conscripting and nationalizing civilian companies and workers, and he defended civil liberties in the face of authoritarian tendencies of the government during the war.
• Developed a strategy of air- and sea-power to defeat Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan – His strategy worked to near perfection within a few years. O'Brien documents Leahy's direct influence.
• Opposed large-scale invasion of Japan – Leahy opposed both a direct assault on mainland Japan and the proposed use of a biological weapon designed to destroy rice. And he was against the atom bomb targeting noncombatants. "War is not to be waged to wipe out women and children," Leahy wrote.
• Foresaw problems with U.S. involvement in the Middle East – Leahy viewed emigration of Jewish refugees to Palestine as a mistake, and he argued against getting involved in other countries' civil wars, particularly among Islamic states.
• Warned of the dangers of Communist China – Leahy lamented the U.S. failure to back up the Chinese nationalists fighting the Communist takeover, which he considered, "the greatest American foreign policy tragedy of his career." The takeover led directly to the Korean War and creation of North Korea.
• Warned of the dangers of an untruthful, untrusting and untrustworthy Russia – From Appendix 3 (Leahy's notes on relations with USSR): "In secretive atmosphere pervading Soviet Govt., possibilities for distorting truth are infinite. The Russians do not believe in the existence of objective truth and hence believe all statements to be cloak for some ulterior motive."
• Fought the "unification" of the armed forces – Immediately after WWII, the Army proposed absorbing the Marine Corps and having the Army Air Force take over naval aviation. Leahy helped the Navy successfully fend off the power grab, which he could have adversely affected a balanced civilian control of the military. "To Leahy, civilian control of the military was, as always, sacrosanct," O'Brien writes.
• Opposed an interventionist CIA – After losing influence late in his career, "Leahy watched helplessly while the CIA transformed into a force committed to widespread covert operations."
• Drafted a blueprint for postwar peace – See the Navy Reads post on how Leahy worked with President Truman for a Navy Day speech outlining Cold War strategies for cooperation and the importance of global alliances to prevent war.

Leahy stands behind FDR, seated between Churchill and Stalin at Yalta in 1945.

As FDR's key war planner, Leahy achieved the "grandest level of strategy," O'Brien writes:

"Historians relish rehashing the great strategic decisions that supposedly determined the outcome of World War II: Britain's resolve to fight on after the fall of France, Hitler's decision to invade the Ukraine instead of aiming for Moscow, Japan's doomed attack on Midway Island. Such choices add an air of suspense to the war, but they also miss the point about how modern war is won or lost. Decisions on when, where and even if can only be made after the careful determination of an even more important series of strategic choices, which represent the highest level of grand strategy, are about what kind of armed forces should be constructed. Every power in World War II had to assess what weaponry they needed to build their armies and navies, and, moreover, how to balance the need for military manpower with the necessity for industrial workers to assemble war machinery. Never do these decisions receive the intense focus reserved for the use of military force, but they are determinative."

O'Brien's biography is a priceless new look at a quiet giant in American history in the Twentieth Century. Leahy was a diplomat statesman who preferred the shadows to the limelight. In the best traditions of government service, Fleet Admiral Leahy led with humility, honor, honesty and strength.

(NOTE: Leahy was a staunch (and successful) defender of the U.S. Navy's war efforts in the Pacific, ensuring 90 percent of the Navy's assets were directed toward the war against Japan. Great Britain, on the other hand, believed the Allies should have a Germany-first policy. This led to a serious disagreement in meetings between the key Allies. "For Leahy, China was not to be abandoned, and his temper was put to the test when the British wheeled out Field Marshal Archibald Wavell. A repeated failure consistently promoted throughout his career as a way of moving him on. Wavell had been beaten soundly by Rommel in the Desert War of 1941 and deposited into India ..." British Field Marshall Wavell is mentioned in O'Brien's biography of Fleet Admiral Leahy, whose collection of poetry is a coming Navy Reads review. O'Brien and Leahy offer an unflattering picture of the British WWI military leader.)

Senior Officers of the U.S. Armed Forces make a radio broadcast in Washington, D.C., following the official announcement of Victory in Europe on 8 May 1945: General of the Army George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army; Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Senior Member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, Chief of Naval Operations. (National Archives)

Navy Day & Peacetime Strategies

by Bill Doughty

Fleet Adm. William D. Leahy

In "The Second Most Powerful Man in the World: The Life of Admiral William D. Leahy, Roosevelt's Chief of Staff" (Dutton, Penguin House, 2019) author Phillips Payson O'Brien shows how Leahy helped shape strategies to win World War II and the Cold War.

That may sound like a bold statement, yet unimpeachable evidence rests in the text, notes and appendices of O'Brien's excellent biography of an under-recognized American hero of the last century.

In the early days and months of his presidency, Truman wisely trusted and listened to Leahy, who had been FDR's right hand throughout the Second World War. Leahy's old friend William Bullitt, a former ambassador to France, like Leahy, suggested Truman give a postwar speech similar to Woodrow Wilson's post-WWI Fourteen Points speech.

Leahy was inspired to present foreign policy and wrote "the most important speech that Harry Truman would give in the first two years of his presidency."

O'Brien provides Leahy's personal copy of the fundamental points underlying U.S. foreign policy as Appendix B. These points were announced by President Truman in his Navy Day speech, October 1945, and they ring loudly today in territorial issues related to Palestine/Israel, Hong Kong/China, South and North Korea, Kurdistan/Turkey/Syria, and Ukraine/Russia.

Point number 4 seems to speak to what happened in the Russian attack on the 2016 U.S. election and what is happening currently in the constitutional crisis unfolding in the United States. Point number 7 shows the ongoing commitment to protecting freedom of the seas as part of a global commons.

"1.  No territorial expansion or selfish advantage. No plans for aggression against any other state, large or small. No objective which need clash with the peaceful aims of any other nation.

2.  The eventual return of sovereign rights and self-government to all peoples who have been deprived of them by force.

3.  No territorial changes in any friendly part of the world unless they accord with the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned.

4.  All peoples who are prepared for self-government should be permitted to choose their own form of government by their freely expressed choice, without interference from any foreign source.

5.  By the combined and cooperative action of our war allies, help the defeated enemy states establish peaceful democratic governments of their own free choice. And try to attain a world in which nazism, fascism, and military aggression cannot exist.

6.  Refuse to recognize any government imposed upon any nation by the force of any foreign power.

7.  All nations should have the freedom of the seas and equal rights to the navigation of boundary rivers and waterways and of rivers and waterways which pass through more than one country.

8.  All states which are accepted in the society of nations should have access on equal terms to the trade and the raw materials of the world.

9.  The sovereign states of the Western Hemisphere, without interference from outside the Western Hemisphere, must work together as good neighbors in the solution of their common problems.

10. Full economic collaboration between all nations, great and small, is essential to the improvement of living conditions all over the world, and to the establishment of freedom from fear and freedom from want.

11. Continue to strive to promote freedom of expression and freedom of religion throughout the peace-loving areas of the world.

12. The preservation of peace between nations requires a United Nations Organization composed of all the peace-loving nations of the world who are willing to jointly use force, if necessary, to insure peace."

Navy ships, planes & lighter-than-air vessels, Hudson River, Navy Day 1945.

According to O'Brien, "The final text of the speech is the best summary of Leahy's outlook as it had evolved to that time and was both a statement about the coming Cold War and an attempt to keep alive the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt."

Here's an excerpt from Truman's actual Navy Day Speech focusing on a commitment to global cooperation, outlawing of nuclear weapons and a peaceful future for the world's citizens. As Truman delivered the speech, Leahy sat by his side.

   "The world cannot afford any letdown in the united determination of the allies in this war to accomplish a lasting peace. The world cannot afford to let the cooperative spirit of the allies in this war disintegrate. The world simply cannot allow this to happen. The people in the United States, in Russia, and Britain, in France and China, in collaboration with all the other peace-loving people, must take the course of current history into their own hands and mold it in a new direction – the direction of continued cooperation. It was a common danger which united us before victory. Let it be a common hope which continues to draw us together in the years to come.   The atomic bombs which fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki must be made a signal, not for the old process of falling apart but for a new era—an era of ever-closer unity and ever-closer friendship among peaceful nations.   Building a peace requires as much moral stamina as waging a war. Perhaps it requires even more, because it is so laborious and painstaking and undramatic. It requires undying patience and continuous application. But it can give us, if we stay with it, the greatest reward that there is in the whole field of human effort ...   The immediate, the greatest threat to us is the threat of disillusionment, the danger of insidious skepticism—a loss of faith in the effectiveness of international cooperation. Such a loss of faith would be dangerous at any time. In an atomic age it would be nothing short of disastrous ...   What the distant future of the atomic research will bring to the fleet which we honor today, no one can foretell. But the fundamental mission of the Navy has not changed. Control of our sea approaches and of the skies above them is still the key to our freedom and to our ability to help enforce the peace of the world.   No enemy will ever strike us directly except across the sea. We cannot reach out to help stop and defeat an aggressor without crossing the sea. Therefore, the Navy, armed with whatever weapons science brings forth, is still dedicated to its historic task: control of the ocean approaches to our country and of the skies above them.   The atomic bomb does not alter the basic foreign policy of the United States. It makes the development and application of our policy more urgent than we could have dreamed six months ago. It means that we must be prepared to approach international problems with greater speed, with greater determination, with greater ingenuity, in order to meet a situation for which there is no precedent.   We must find the answer to the problems created by the release of atomic energy—we must find the answers to the many other problems of peace—in partnership with all the peoples of the United Nations ...   In our possession of this weapon, as in our possession of other new weapons, there is no threat to any nation. The world, which has seen the United States in two great recent wars, knows that full well. The possession in our hands of this new power of destruction we regard as a sacred trust. Because of our love of peace, the thoughtful people of the world know that that trust will not be violated, that it will be faithfully executed.   Indeed, the highest hope of the American people is that world cooperation for peace will soon reach such a state of perfection that atomic methods of destruction can be definitely and effectively outlawed forever."

The speech was delivered at a Navy Day celebration in New York City October 27, 1945.

President Harry S. Truman is piped aboard USS Missouri (BB-63), during the Navy Day fleet review in the Hudson River, New York City, 27 October 1945. Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy is just behind the President. (National Archives and Naval History and Heritage Command)

(A clip from the Navy Day 1945 speech.)

To Tell the Truth, Mr. President – II

by Bill Doughty

A young U.S. Naval Academy submarine officer sat in front of then-Capt. Hyman Rickover, head of the Navy's highly secret nuclear program. Near the end of the interview the young man faced a question that could hurt this chance of promotion to a key position. Rickover asked, "Did you always do your best?"

Jimmy Carter writes in his memoir "A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety" (Simon & Schuster, 2015) that he responded honestly: "No sir, I didn't always do my best." He knew he could have studied more, participated in more class activities and tried harder for advancement. Carter was sure he had failed the interview, but his truthful response earned him a position developing the first nuclear reactors for the Navy's submarines.

Later, as Governor of Georgia and while campaigning for president, Carter would remember the Rickover interview.

"One of the earliest and most persistent questions when I began campaigning was 'If elected, will you tell us the truth?' Having served as a legislator and governor, I knew how difficult it was to keep this promise, especially when facing influential constituents who held opposing opinions on subjects important to them. Nevertheless, I decided to make the commitment, and would tell my small audiences that I would make the same declarations to them and to all my other listeners. Often I would close by saying, 'If I ever lie or even make a misleading statement, don't vote for me.'"

Carter and Rickover. (NHHC)

Carter remembers how he and Rickover "established a close friendship from the beginning of my presidency." He remembers a visit aboard what was then the Navy's newest nuclear submarine:

"In May 1977 Rosalynn and I flew down to Cape Canaveral and spent the day with Rickover on the nuclear submarine USS Los Angeles. He and the captain put the new ship through extreme maneuvers, and he pointed out that the U.S. atomic-powered ships would stretch for more than ten miles if lined up stem to stern and that there had never been a nuclear incident that caused any damage or injured a person. I was surprised when I asked him how he would react to a total elimination of nuclear weapons – and nuclear power production – from the earth. He said it would be one of the greatest things that could happen."

First Lady Roaalynn Carter and President Jimmy Carter, along with Admiral Hyman G. Rickover (far right), visit USS Los Angeles in 1977. (Public Domain)

Rickover helped Carter plan and institute safety measures at American nuclear power plants in the wake of the Two Mile Island accident in March 1979. The measures were "patterned after those he maintained in navy ships." With Congress, Carter also successfully navigated the nation away from implementing breeder reactor nuclear power plants.

Yet, Carter says, "I remain convinced of the efficacy of nuclear power generation, especially as an alternative to the extremely threatening prospect of global warming caused by excessive consumption of coal, oil, and other fossil fuels." He adds, "There will have to be an emphasis on simplicity and safety of design and highly trained personnel to operate the reactors."

President G.H.W. Bush with former presidents Reagan, Carter, Ford and Nixon. (Navy)

Like other presidents, Carter eschewed nuclear weapons and worked toward nonproliferation. "I wanted to maintain peace and to reduce the world's nuclear weaponry as near to zero as possible."

Carter writes clearly and honestly about this relations with former presidents, including a deep friendship with Gerald Ford and strained relationship with Ronald Reagan. He says that, as the first president to install solar panels atop the White House, he was disappointed Reagan removed them after coming into office. In a conservationist initiative, Carter also championed protection of Alaska lands from commercial development.

"A Full Life" includes Carter's views on controversial issues like national intelligence, racial discrimination, abortion, drugs, poverty, peace in the Middle East and relations with Iran, China, Soviet Union and North Korea.

"Progress on the Korean Peninsula (toward reunification) was frustrated by reluctance among both the Koreans and some of my own military leaders," Carter notes. "As a submariner during the Korean War, I had felt frustrated when it ended with an arbitrary line drawn between North and South Korea plus merely a cease-fire and not a permanent peace treaty."

Lieutenant James Earl (Jimmy Carter) in the main control room of USS K-1. (NHHC)

He offers a fascinating and in some cases harrowing description of life aboard the submarines USS Pomfret and USS K-1 during the Cold War – and earlier aboard the battleships USS Wyoming and USS Mississippi. He considers the experience satisfying, rewarding and character-building.

"In "A Full Life" Carter also includes personal reflections on religion, charity work, painting, woodworking and writing post-presidency. 

He is the author of more than thirty books, including "Why Not the Best" (1975), "Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President" (1982), "Always a Reckoning, and Other Poems" (1995), and "Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power" (2014).

Remembering his interview as a young naval officer with taciturn Rickover, Carter reveals that some of the surprising questions during the interview involved his taste in music (jazz, country and classical) as well as books. Carter and Rickover discussed novels by William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, plays by Shakespeare and especially the naval novel "The Caine Mutiny" by Herman Wouk.

While president, Carter would read founding documents and continue to strive to always tell the truth.

"I tried to honor my campaign pledges, to make our government 'as good and honest and competent as the American people,' and to understand this challenge I paused on occasion to read the U.S. Constitution, and also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a simpler but more complete description of the goals to which we were committed."

This memoir ends with a hopeful note in "restoring the trust, admiration and friendship formerly enjoyed among other peoples."

"Our government should be known to be opposed to war, dedicated to the resolution of disputes by peaceful means, and, whenever possible, eager to accomplish this goal. We should be seen as the unswerving champion of human rights, both among our citizens and within the global community. America should be the focal point around which other nations can rally against threats to the quality of our common environment. We should be willing to lead by example in sharing our great wealth with those in need. Our own society should provide equal opportunity for all citizens and assure that they are provided the basic necessities of life."

He says the United States still has the capability of being a "sterling example" for others.

(Note: The first "To Tell the Truth, Mr. President" essay on Navy Reads is a review of Jon Meacham's "The Soul of America" and focuses on President Truman's contention that autocratic dictators lie in order to stay in power.)

BANGOR, Wash. (May 29, 2015) Former President Jimmy Carter is piped aboard during his arrival at the change of command ceremony for USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) at Naval Base Kitsap - Bangor. (U.S. Navy photo by MC1 Kenneth G. Takada/Released)

Air Force Drones On

Review by Bill Doughty

Air Force Lt. Col. T. Mark McCurley does his best to downplay the Navy's support, development and use of unmanned aircraft – remotely piloted aircraft – in his personal wartime memoir "Hunter Killer: Inside America's Unmanned Air War" (Dutton, 2015). 



Still, it's worth a read, especially as McCurley, writing with Kevin Maurer, recounts the hunting and killing of terrorists, especially the targeting of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American of Yemeni descent who inspired three high-profile terrorist acts: Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's shooting and killing of 13 people, Umar Farouk Abdulmautallab's failed "underwear bombing" attack aboard an airliner heading for Detroit, and the Boston Marathon bombers.

McCurley describes tracking terrorist leader Abu Musad al Zaaqawi for 480 hours only to fail the mission when an operator accidentally hit a space bar. McCurley shows how UAVs were used in Operation Steel Curtain and the Second Battle of Fallujah, assisting Marines. And, he describes – without ever mentioning the name of the mission – his involvement in the Navy SEALs' Operation Red Wings.

He takes credit for the Air Force zeroing in on the location of the SEAL team who had been ambushed in mountains of Kunar Province, Afghanistan, believing he heard a transmission from Marcus Luttrell (author of "Lone Survivor").

"We took pride in knowing we were the only aircraft able to make it to the area that day. The Predator's unique qualities were an asset in such a dangerous location. The Air Force would never put a human pilot in harm's way in those weather conditions given the threat from the Taliban, and even hough we lost two predators, my aircraft provided the first pictures of the crash site and possibly confirmed Luttrell's position through his radio transmission. Without that information, it would have taken a lot longer to launch the rescue operation."

McCurley does not mention the hero of Operation Red Wings by name: U.S. Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy. He does reveal the personal frustration and remorse of not being able to provide more support.

Several times in "Hunter Killer" McCurley spotlights differences between Air Force RPA and Navy Top Gun, even denigrating volleyball-playing stereotypes. The remote pilots' community comes across as disunited, disconnected but not disaffected by the lethality of some of their missions.

MQ-1 Predator (Senior Master Sgt. Stanley Thompson)

Those pilots see the "proximity of death" when their drones are used to bring lethality in high-definition. "No other pilots got to see the target like we did," he writes.

"Fighter pilots also rarely saw the whole engagement. They just got the call and put bombs on target. The closest they got to the fight was strafing runs and the occasional flash from the bomb or missile as it passed their windscreen. Their proximity to death and violence stirred their blood, but the images in their targeting pods were tiny and fuzzy compared to our high-def pods, keeping them remote to the effects on the ground. Our targeting pods not only showed us everything, but also lingered over the carnage, searing the images into our brains. Our experience was far different from that of the fighters."

The sights, sounds, smells and scorching heat of the Navy-operated Camp Lemmonier in Djibouti make it a desolate hell-hole, where McCurley says he got little support, especially from operations officer "Worm," "a lieutenant commander who acted like an admiral."

Yet he gives grudging credit to another naval officer, "Cruiser," as well as to then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen. Both were instrumental in getting parts and weapons for UAs that made it possible for the Air Force to carry out its mission.

An MQ-9 Reaper flies a training mission Oct. 18, 2017, at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. MQ-9 and MQ-1 Predator aircrews helped liberate Raqqah, Syria, from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s control in early October. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Christian Clausen)

This book is worth a read for anyone interested in an Air Force first-hand perspective on the development and history of remotely piloted aircraft such as the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper – unmanned air systems and aircraft (thou-shalt-not-call-them-"drones," but that's what they're called). Discipline, professionalism and following established rules of engagement are critical to the ethical use of remote warfare, especially as artificial intelligence is developed and implemented.

This book does not have an index, notes or glossary. It does have a good dedication: "to honor the small cadre of aviators, the operators, who fought and continue to fight a war deep in the shadows."

An MQ-9 Reaper sits on the flight line at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., Oct. 13, 2015.  (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Emily A. Kenney)

McCurley points out – both at the beginning and end of his book – how Gen. Hap Arnold predicted the rise of drones.

On V-J Day, 1945, Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, U.S. Army Air Forces commander, said, “We have just won a war with a lot of heroes flying around in planes. The next war may be fought by airplanes with no men in them at all ... It will be different from anything the world has ever seen.”

Of course Winston Churchill made the same prediction in 1925 after WWI, and Leonardo da Vinci actually designed a drone in 1485. The history of UA, while benefitting from the Air Force's perspective including in "Hunter Killer," deserves a wider and deeper presentation.

Mattis on Preventing Leadership Failure

Review by Bill Doughty

General Jim Mattis, former Secretary of Defense, says a commander who hasn't read hundreds of books is functionally illiterate and will be a failure in a position of leadership.

In his new memoir, "Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead" (Penguin Random House, 2019), he writes, “If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you,” Jim Mattis writes in his memoir. 

“Any commander who claims he is ‘too busy to read’ is going to fill body bags with his troops as he learns the hard way,” Mattis says.

On Sunday's Global Public Square with Fareed Zakaria, Mattis explains: "Life is too short and leadership roles are too short ... to learn everything you need to know based on your own experience."

As a leader of Marines and Sailors, Mattis says many of his best "new" ideas came from old books. Reading not only quenched his thirst for knowledge but also sharpened his critical thinking skills and strategic competency.

"Everyone has got to lead in their own way," Mattis told Zakaria. "But I would say you have to have a curiosity about life, you have to have a thirst for learning. You have to be committed to your own development if you're going to be a leader."

Written with Bing West, "Call Sign Chaos" is a fast-paced, no-nonsense jog through Mattis's career, with a long focus on his role as a warrior and leader of warriors in what he calls the War of Terrorism (not Terror).

“Reading sheds light on the dark path ahead,” Mattis says. “By traveling into the past, I enhance my grasp of the present.” The book is meant for leaders in the military as well as in business, sports, politics or other endeavors.

Among the best parts of the Mattis memoir are the appendices, including his resignation letter to President Trump, a memo justifying awards for his troops, and an insightful article in Business Insider about Mattis's book and author suggestions.

Here are Mattis's recommended books when he served as Secretary of Defense:

"With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa" by E. B. Sledge (1981)
"One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer" by Nathaniel Fick (2005)
"Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, Robert McNamara, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam" by H.R. McMaster (1997)
"Fighting Talk: Forty Maxims on War, Peace, and Strategy" by Colin Gray (2007)
"The Future of Strategy" by Colin Gray (2015)
"Military Innovation in the Interwar Period" by Williamson Murray (1996)
"Before the First Shot Is Fired: How America Can Win Or Lose Off The Battlefield" by Tony Zinni (2014) 
"Scipio Africanus: Greater Than Napoleon" by Basil H. Liddell Hart (1926)
"My American Journey" by Colin Powell (1995)
"The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer (1971)
"Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela (1994) Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield (1998)
"Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War" by Robert Gates (2014)
"The Lessons of History" by Will and Ariel Durant (1968)
"The Greatest Raid of All" by Lucas Phillips (1958)
"The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant" by Ulysses S. Grant (1885) March of Folly: "From Troy to Vietnam" by Barbara Tuchman (1984) The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman (1962)
"Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow (2004)
"Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" by Paul Kennedy (1987)
"Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD)
"Diplomacy" by Henry Kissinger (1994)
"World Order" by Henry Kissinger (2014)
"Defeat into Victory" by Viscount Slim (1956)
"Just and Unjust Wars" by Michael Walzer (1977)
"War, Morality, and the Military Profession" by Malham Wakin (1979)
"For Country and Corps: The Life of General Oliver P. Smith" by Gail Shisler (2009) "Sherman: Soldier, Realist, American" by Basil H. Liddell Hart (1929)
"The Rules of the Game" by Andrew Gordon (1996)
"The Far Pavilions" by M. M. Kaye (1978)

Earlier in his career, as a leader of Marines, Mattis recommended or required a variety of books for his warriors. Among the recommendations are these titles:

"Gates of Fire: Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae" – Stephen Pressfield
"A Bell for Adano" – John Hersey
"One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer" – Nathaniel Fick
"Achilles in Vietnam" – Jonathan Shay
"The Crusades Through Arab Eyes" – Amin Maalouf 
"The Village" – Bing West
"The Utility of Force" – General Rupert Smith
"The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror" – Bernard Lewis
"Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia" – Ahmed Rashid
"Taliban" – Ahmed Rashid
"Imperial Grunts" – Robert Kaplan
"What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East" – Bernard Lewis
"From Beirut to Jerusalem" – Thomas Friedman
"Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan" – Lester Grau
"The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War" – Ali Ahmad Jalali and Lester Grau
"The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power" – Max Boot
"Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan" – Robert Kaplan
"Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia" – Ahmed Rashid
"The Punishment of Virtue" – Sarah Chayes
"Afghan Guerrilla Warfare" – Ali Ahmad Jalali
"What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam" – John Esposito
"The Battle for God" – Karen Armstrong
"Islamism and its Enemies in the Horn of Africa" – Alex De Waal
"No God but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam" – Reza Aslan
"The Idea of Pakistan" – Stephen Cohen

This Marines' Marine also reads poetry. “Other Men’s Flowers,” an anthology by Lord Wavell, is one of his personal favorites.



Mattis on 9/11

At last year's 9/11 commemoration ceremony at the Pentagon, then-SecDef Mattis said, "We commit ourselves to remembering and honoring the lives that might have been. They endowed us forever with an enduring sense of purpose," he said, and "in their passing they empowered us."

On Sunday's Face the Nation, Margaret Brennan asked Mattis whether the Taliban can be trusted "to make a clean break with terrorists and honor a diplomatic deal."

Mattis responded, "Well, you're going to the heart of the issue right there: can they be trusted? You remember when we reduced nuclear weapons with Russia we talked about 'trust, but verify.' In this case with this group, I think you want to verify then trust. We've asked them – demanded – that they break with Al-Qaeda since the Bush administration; they've refused to do so," Mattis said. 

"They murdered three thousand innocent people. Citizens of 91 countries on 9/11. We should never forget that."

'The Admiral'

Review by Bill Doughty

One hundred years ago, Sept. 1, 1919, Admiral Albert Gleaves, commander of the Asiatic Fleet, broke his flag as a four-star, full admiral. "Four days later we sailed," he writes in his memoirs. "I was glad to get to sea again and into the roaring northeast trade winds which soon blew all the dirt and much of shore out of the ship."



First published in 1934 and republished in 1985 (Hope Publishing House) with a foreword by Adm. James D. Watkins and preface by Vice Adm. William P. Lawrence, Gleaves's autobiography "The Admiral" is a portrayal of a seagoing life and a fascinating portrait of a Navy's transition from sail to coal to oil, from the War of 1812 and Civil War to World War I, and from war to global diplomacy.

During his career Gleaves served under admirals like Barker, Dewey, Coughlan and Walker, "men who had been tried in battle and had served under Farragut and Porter in the Civil War. Without exception they were typical of what is expected of the American sea officers. Even if not always correct in their judgments or methods, they were a fine lot of American gentlemen devoted to their profession, and not one who did not in himself set an example of honor, loyalty and patriotism. All were prime seamen too, adhering perhaps a little too much to the ideas of the sail period, which was natural, but boldly assuming the care and handling of huge modern steel ships, whether singly or in squadron."

"Of course, all these men were not of the same type of mind. Some were prosaic and cautious, strict in interpretation of the regulations, seeing nothing but the letter of the law and following it to the death. Others were a law unto themselves, believing the naval regulations to be intended as a guide for those who carried no light of their own, and more honored in the breach than in the observance. These used their own discretion, never requested instructions, acted on their own and let it go at that. The latter were the better all around officers, and made the better leaders."

Gleaves, who was commissioned an ensign in 1881, writes about the limits of coal consumption at sea, the importance of new "electrical officers" and the dangers of having to bring ice on board (which could mean a deadly typhoid outbreak).

These sentences about the old Navy can bring a smile: "While exercising spars and sails, our main topgallant mast was sprung." And, Admiral Davis "thought the navy was headed to hell ... there wasn't a sailor ... who knew the difference between a topgallant sheet and a topsail reef tackle!"

Old Salts of the Square Rigger Navy aboard USS Mohican in 1888 (Photo by Assistant Surgeon H.W. Whitaker, USN (Navy History and Heritage Command)

Gleaves gives an unvarnished view of enlisted sailors when he first served in the fleet, nearly a century before the modern, all-volunteer, integrated, professional force.

"The crew of the Hartford was a heterogeneous collection of various nationalities. This was usual for that period. Few Americans enlisted in the navy, and those who did were invariably beachcombers and the like. Often they were deserters from other ships who reenlisted under different names. North countrymen, Swedes and Norwegians predominated. They were known as 'square heads' – solid, heavy and dumb – but faithful and, as a rule, excellent seamen. Portugal furnished a large percentage of the stewards, while Norfolk and its vicinity contributed more than half of the colored servants. The worst elements in the ship's company were the degenerate Englishmen, for the most part deserters from their own navy or merchant service. They were known as 'limeys,' and were not liked either forward or aft. The best element beside the few old-timers was perhaps Irish – splendid sailors, hard-drinking and hard-fighting, but ready at all times to reef a topsail in a gale of wind, join a landing party or man a cutter in a rugged sea."

Frederick Douglass

In 1889 Gleaves married Evelina Heap, daughter of David Porter Heap who was nephew of Commodore David Porter "of USS Essex fame." They would have two daughters. 

Gleaves was a son of Tennessee who attended the Naval Academy just eight years after the end of the Civil War. He was born twelve years before nonwhite American males could vote (thanks to the 15th Amendment), and he was 62 years old – and six months from retirement – before ratification of the 19th Amendment acknowledged a woman's right to vote.

As a young officer Gleaves served aboard USS Dolphin, captained by future rear admiral Charles O'Neil, a survivor of the Cumberland's battle with the Merrimac. Their first cruise was a mission to pick up a distinguished American at Puerto Rico and take him on a tour of inspection around Haiti. The Navy provided escort to the new minister of Haiti: Frederick Douglass.

"One day during the morning watch, while lying off Gonave, Mr. Douglass was talking to me on the quarterdeck about the future of the islands and said, 'As long as the natives have only to get their breakfast off the trees they will never work. Frederick Douglass was a most interesting person. He had belonged to Col. Edward Lloyd of the eastern shore of Maryland. When he was at the New York yard, waiting for the man-o'-war which was to take him to Hayti (sic), it was said the Colonel Lloyd's son, an ensign in another ship at the yard, called on his father's former slave and that Douglass said of this visit, he had received many honors in his life, but none had touched him so deeply as this attention shown by the son of his old master."

Gleaves recounts times spent with Assistant Secretary of the Navy and later President Theodore Roosevelt. In his career he deployed to the Falklands, Europe, Aden, Bombay (now Mumbai), Ceylon, Central America, Philippines, Formosa (now Taiwan), China, Japan, Russia and Hawaii.

He was in Hawaii aboard USS Boston shortly before the overthrow of the monarchy.



"The Sandwich, or Hawaiian, Islands, as they are now called, are strategically the most important outpost of the United States," Gleaves writes. "For years they were a tempting prize to the nations of the world, but all feared to take them. Every European nation knew that the rape of those islands would mean immediate restitution, or war, with the United States."

"On the 24th of August (1894) we arrived at Honolulu and moored inside the reef. The San Francisco, flagship of Adm. George Brown, was in port awaiting our arrival, and went to sea that afternoon. The admiral was very popular in the islands and had made several cruises there. He had brought the body of the late King Kalakaua back to Honolulu after his death in San Francisco ... When we had been in Honolulu for several days we were presented to Queen Liliuokalani at the palace. She was coldly polite and did not appear to be overjoyed to see either our minister, Mr. Stevens, or Captain Wiltse. The queen, a pureblooded native, had traveled in Europe and the United States and was a woman of the world. Evidently she sensed the approaching political storm which was inevitable and was about to blow her off her tinsel throne."

Gleaves was also a witness to history at the beginning of the Spanish-American War.

Torpedo boat USS Cushing

In fact, his next ship, the torpedo boat USS Cushing, would have been tied up to the ill-fated USS Maine in Havana Harbor if he hadn't been delayed by the death of his close friend Ens. Cabell Breckenridge on the eve of the explosion of the Maine and start of the war in April 1898. Breckenridge's replacement was Midshipman Henry Mustin.

Adm. Albert Gleaves

Gleaves provided critical communication, patrols, scouting and blockading during the short war, and was commended by Rear Adm. Charles D. Sigsbee for his assistance during "troubled times."

At the turn of the century Gleaves took command of USS Mayflower, "the vessel selected by President Roosevelt (T.R.) for his special use." It was considered a plum assignment and "a great prize in the Navy. I was lucky enough to be the first to get it."

He helped develop torpedoes for the Navy and commanded the North Dakota in the early part of the century. In 1914, Gleaves took command of USS Utah and in 1915 he was promoted to rear admiral.

German sailors of U-53 visit U.S. in 1917.

Admiral Mayo ordered the Distinguished Service Medal be presented to Gleaves for his actions as Commander, Destroyer Forces in 1917 calling for immediate readiness review of all destroyers and destroyer crews. After an interaction with German U-53 submarine sailors Gleaves recognized America's imminent involvement in the Great War.

He would achieve international fame for his service as Commander, Cruisers and Transport Force. According to Adm. Watkins, "That organization ferried approximately one million American soldiers to France. Remarkably, not a single soldier lost his life at sea during this demonstration of American sea power. Their unique story is a classic example of naval power projection."

Return of the Mayflower, as the United States Navy brings assistance to Europe in the First World War. (painting by Bernard F. Gribble)

In his memoirs, Adm. Gleaves calls it "the most important command I ever had." He pays tribute "to the men who carried me through so loyally." In the preface to his 1919 book, "The History of the Transport Service," Gleaves recognizes "the officers and men of the American Transports, and my admiration for their unsurpassed skill and endeavor in the performance of their duties. At sea for many years, these Master Mariners of the United States lived up to the highest traditions of the sea, and brought credit to their country."

St. Nazaire Monument, France commemorating 1917 convo

President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote, "Admiral Gleaves had already achieved distinction in the Navy before his eminent stature was further revealed by his service as commander of the cruiser and transport force during the World War. He organized the strategy of our transport service and completed the enormous task assigned to him without the loss of a single soldier. For this service he won the admiration of the world. His long naval career was characterized by great versatility and by the utmost tact and diplomacy in the discharge of the varied duties which fell to him to perform."

Gleaves was an intense reader and prolific writer.

Because he was a such a good writer and a great witness to history, it is rewarding to read his perspective from Vladivostok, Shanghai and Hong Kong – when Russia and China were allies or friends and Germany, Japan and Spain were, for a time, our enemies.

After diplomatic work in Russia, China and Japan, Gleaves lowered his admiral's flag for the last time, Feb. 4, 1921, and sailed for home via Vancouver and Seattle.

"My last cruise was ended," Gleaves writes at the end of his memoirs. "For me the lights had twinkled on the rocks for the last time."

Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves (at center, facing right), Commandant of the Boston Navy Yard, oversees the transfer of guns from USS Constitution to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, 1921. (NHHC)

Gleaves died January 6, 1937, a few days after his 79th birthday. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

His family helped launch his namesake USS Gleaves (DD-423) one month later. His granddaughters, Evelina Gleaves Van Metre and Clotilda Florence Cohen, assisted at the launching ceremony at Bath, Maine. (Clotilda died in 1996. Evelina died earlier this year and was interred last month, July 31, 2019, at Arlington.)

USS GLEAVES (DD-423) joint sponsors Evelina Gleaves Van Metre and Miss Clotilda Florence Cohen at launching of USS Gleaves (DDG-423). (NHHC)