American Warlords

by Jonathan W. Jordan

  17 FDR to GCM and EJK, 6/20/42, in Sherwood 588; McCrea to GCM and EJK, 7/20/42, in Pogue 332.

  18 Usher’s Log, 6/21/42, FDRL; Hastings Ismay, interview, 10/18/60, PL; HLS, 6/21/42; Brooke, 6/20/42.

  19 John McCrea, interview, 3/19/73, 32, FDRL (John McCrea Papers).

  20 Ismay 254 (“wince”); John McCrea, interview, 3/19/73, 32, FDRL (John McCrea Papers); WSC, Hinge of Fate, 344 (“defeat”).

  21 Ismay 255; WSC, Hinge of Fate, 344 (“chivalry”); Brooke, in Danchev, ed., 269 (“sympathy”); Ismay, interview, 10/18/60, PL.

  22 Ismay, interview, 10/18/60, PL (“Mr. President”).

  23 Ismay 255; HLS, 6/22/42 (“friend”); Pogue 2:332.

  24 CCS, memorandum, 6/19/42, and HLS to FDR, 6/21/42, FRUS, Washington-Quebec, 426–27, 459–60 (“spit”); HLS, 6/21/42; Sherwood 592.

  25 Stenographer’s Log, 6/22/42, FDRL; Ismay, memorandum, 6/21/42, in FRUS, Washington, 434–35; HLS, 6/22/42; M. C. Stayer, interview, 1/20/61, GCML; WSC, Hinge of Fate, 344; Matloff and Snell 198–200; Pogue 2:331–34, citing WBS to GCM, 7/21/42, forwarding draft notes by Ismay; R. E. Libby to EJK, 2/12/46, KP (box 4); Roberts 201–02.

  26 GCM and Alan Brooke to FDR, 6/22/42, FDRL (Map Room Files, box 165); HLS, 6/28/42; Roberts 201–02.

  27 WSC to FDR, 7/7/42 (“No responsible”).

  28 HLS, 7/10/42 (“weakening”).

  29 GCM, interview, 9/28/56, 11/13/56, GCML (“entertained”).

  30 DDE to GCM, 3/25/42, EP 1:207 (“backs”).

  31 JCS, minutes, 7/10/42, in Matloff and Snell 268 (“concentrating”).

  32 Brooke, 4/15/42 (“drain”); JCS, minutes, 7/10/42, in Matloff and Snell 268; Stoler, Allies, 79.

  33 GCM and EJK to FDR, 7/10/42, MP 3:269–70 (“Our view”); HLS, 7/10–12/42; R. E. Libby to EJK, 2/12/46, KP (box 4); EJK comments to draft memo, 7/10/42, in Hayes 786 n.53.

  34 GCM to FDR, 7/10/42, MP 3:271–72 (“to force”); GCM to EJK, 7/15/42, MP 3:276–77; EJK, comments to chapter IV, Joint Chiefs of Staff History of the War Against Japan, n.d., KP (box 8); GCM, interview, 10/5/56, GCML; but see Stoler, Allies, 79–80.

  35 Matloff and Snell 270.

  36 John R. Deane to EJK, 7/12/42, MP 3:272–73; HLS, 7/12/42; Stoler, Allies, 84.

  37 GCM, EJK and HHA to FDR, 7/12/42, MP 3:272–73; HLS, 7/12/42.

  38 FDR to GCM, undated draft, FDRL (McCrea Papers) (“disapproved”); FDR to GCM and EJK, telephone message, n.d., FDRL (Map Room Files, box 165); Stoler, Allies, 85.

  39 Usher’s Log, 7/15/42, GCML; HLS, 7/15/42 (“dishes”); Stoler, Allies, 88–89.

  40 HLS, 7/15/42 (“rough day”).

  41 HLS, 7/15/42; Roberts 234–40.

  42 FDR to GCM, undated draft, FDRL (McCrea Papers); FDR to Hopkins, GCM and EJK, 7/16/42, in Sherwood 603; FDR to GCM, EJK and Hopkins, 7/18/42, FDRL (PSF Safe File, box 3); Hopkins, notes, 7/15/42, in Sherwood 602–03 (“do not believe”); Hayes 152, quoting FDR to GCM, 7/14/42.

  43 FDR, edits to GCM and EJK to FDR, 7/15/42, FDRL (PSF, box 4) (“highest”).

  44 Sherwood 608–09.

  45 Cornelius Bull, 9/16/43, KP (box 6) (“The burned child”); Brooke, 7/21/42; Roberts 252 (“defensive”); Pogue 2:345.

  46 Sherwood 606.

  47 FDR to Hopkins, GCM, and EJK, n.d. and 7/24/42, FDRL (PSF, box 4); Sherwood 611; Cray 333; Pogue 2:345.

  48 Pogue 2:346–47, citing JCS to GCM, 7/24/42, in EJK and GCM to FDR, 7/28/42; MP 3:277–78; Crosswell 274.

  49 GCM, interview, 9/28/56, GCML (“remarkable”).

  50 Crosswell 275, quoting Vivian Dykes, 7/25/42 (“attack,” “Dakar”).

  51 GCM, interview, 9/28/56, GCML (“blew hell”); GCM to BCS, 7/24/42, MP 3:278–79; Stoler, Allies, 89.

  52 Pogue 2:347; HLS, 7/25/42; Sherwood 611; Croswell 277, quoting Vivian Dykes, 7/30/42; Stoler, Allies, 89–90.

  53 Pogue 2:348, citing CCS, 7/25/42 meeting minutes; Matloff, Strategic Planning, 281.

  54 DDE, Crusade, 71–72; Butcher 32; Pogue 2:348.

  55 DDE, 10/16/62, PL; Pogue 2:408, quoting GCM to DDE, 9/28/42.

  56 “64% Wish Military to Direct the War,” NYT, 8/7/42; HLS, 8/7/42.

  57 HLS, 8/7/42 (“happy faculty”).

  58 HLS to FDR, 8/10/42, in HLS, 8/10/42.

  59 HLS, 8/10/42 (“manly”).

  60 HLS, 8/10/42.

  TWENTY-THREE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

  1 EJK, interview, 7/4/50, KP (box 4).

  2 EJK, interviews, 12/11/46 and 2/12/46, KP (box 8); Davis 237–38.

  3 Leahy 128–29 (“high opinion”); FDR to Carl Vinson, 3/26/42, KP (box 9); FDR to WSC, 3/9/42; Harold Stark to Frank Knox, 5/2/42, LC (Knox Papers, box 4); EJK, interview, 4/28–30/42, KP (box 2); Whitehill 356–57; Buell 161; Roberts 88.

  4 Executive Order 9096, 3/12/42, FDR-PP, 1942, 157–59; Buell 161, 500–02 (Appendix IV); EJK, interview, 8/27/50, KP (box 6); EJK, 8/27/49, KP (box 8).

  5 EJK, interview, 7/30/50, KP (box 8) (“didn’t have time”); Buell 236.

  6 EJK, interview, 7/30/50, KP (box 8) (“Why should I”); EJK, interview, 8/26/50, KP (box 7); Lyle Wilson to Robert Sherrod, 11/6/64, KP (box 11); Buell 218.

  7 John McCrae, “Secretary Knox and Ad. King Collide, Spring 1942,” 5/16/77, KP (box 8) (“Admiral King . . . Good day.”); COMINCH office photo, 3048 Navy Department, n.d., KP (box 13).

  8 EJK, interview, 7/4/50, KP (box 8); Harold R. Stark to FDR, 3/17/39, KP (box 9); Harold R. Stark, interview, 5/26/48, KP (box 9); FDR to Knox, 12/23/40, FDR-PL 2:1088–89; Buell 226.

  9 FDR to Knox, 8/31/42, KP (box 9) (“Star Spangled Banner”); Buell 228.

  10 EJK to Knox, 5/15/42, FDRL (PSF Papers, box 62) (“advisable”).

  11 EJK, interview, 11/29/50, KP (box 7); FDR to Knox, 5/22/42, FDRL (PSF Papers, box 62) (“I wish”); FDR to Knox, 6/13/41, 6/23/41, 10/25/41, FDR-PL 2:169, 1171–72, 1226.

  12 FDR to Stark, 2/17/42, FDR-PL 2:1286.

  13 EJK, interview, 7/30/50, 11/29/50, KP (box 7) (“craziest”); Buell 292.

  14 FDR to Lister Hill, 3/17/42, FDR-PL 2:1299; FDR, press conference, 3/17/42, FDR-PP, 1942, 165–68; HLH, 1/24/42, Sherwood 491–92; “Text of Willkie’s Lincoln Day Talk Before Boston Club,” NYT, 2/13/42; HLS, 3/20/42; Davis 246, 252; Larrabee 20.

  15 EJK, interview, 7/4/50, KP (box 4) (“He used”).

  16 EJK, interview, 7/4/50, KP (box 4); Buell 340 (“I’m going”).

  17 EJK to M. A. Edson, 8/24/49, KP (box 4); Leahy 119, 282; EJK to J. G. Scrugham, 2/11/42, KP (box 7); EJK, interview, 8/29/48, KP (box 7) (“quite sure”); Davis 259; Forrestal, “Statement Before Senate Naval Affairs Committee,” 5/1/46, KP (box 7); EJK, “Statement Before Senate Naval Affairs Committee,” 5/7/46, KP (box 7); Buell 165, 167.

  18 GCM to HLH, 11/4/42, MP 3:423–24; Davis 106, quoting GCM to James Byrnes, 7/10/43 (“After Cabinet”); GCM, interview, 11/13/56; Davis 256–58; Stoler, Allies, 108; Buell 167.

  19 GCM, interview, 11/13/56, GCML (“Superman”); GCM, interview notes, 10/5/56, PL; HLS, 2/24/42.

  20 Leahy, interview, 5/24/48, FDRL (Oral History Collection, box 1); GCM, interview, 11/13/56, GCML; HLS, 2/25/42, 3/20/42; Thomas Handy, interview notes, 8/21/56, PL; Albert K. Murray, interview, 9/29/80, 122, 12/1/80, 80, KP (box 13) (“four degrees”); Davis 259; Stoler, Allies, 104–05; Roberts 315.

  21 EJK to Thomas Dobyne, 6/22/51, KP (box 4); EJK, interviews, 7/31/49 (“fixer”), 7/4/50, 8/27/50, and 11/28/50, KP (box 8); Charlotte Pihl, interview, 3/16/74, KP (box 10).

  22 Stenographer’s Diary, 7/7/42, FDRL; FDR to Leahy, 7/20/42, Leahy 117, 119–20.

  23 FDR, press conference, 7/21/42, FDR-PP, 1942, 301–02 (“foggiest,” “order to duty”); Davis 260.

  24 John McCloy, interview, 10/15/57, PL; John J. Hyland to Thomas B
uell, 5/5/76, KP (box 9); Robert L. Dennison, interview, 69–70, 72, KP (box 10); Buell 251.

  25 Charles J. Moore, interview, 762, 772, KP (box 11); Robert L. Dennison, interview, 69–70, KP (box 10) (“Well George,” “kept falling”).

  26 GCM to FDR, 9/1/43, MP 4:113.

  TWENTY-FOUR ALONG THE WATCHTOWER

  1 H. L. Goodwin, compilation of marine songs, 1943, LC (Folklore Archive); see also William Bruce Johnson, The Pacific Campaign in World War II: Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal (Routledge, 2005), 242. Buell 204–05; Pogue 2:382–83.

  2 Morton, Strategy and Command, 318; Pogue 2:383.

  3 Morton, Strategy and Command, 322, citing EJK to GCM, 8/1/42, and GCM to Thomas Handy, n.d., attached to Handy to GCM, 8/5/42; GCM to BCS, 7/24/42, MP 3:278–79; Pogue 2:383.

  4 Morton, Strategy and Command, 326, citing GCM to DDE, 7/20/42.

  5 Pogue 2:383, citing EJK to GCM, 8/1/42, and GCM to Thomas Handy, n.d., attached to Handy to GCM, 8/5/42; Morton, Strategy and Command, 322; Hayes 170.

  6 M. Matsuyama, interrogation, n.d., Interrogations of Japanese Officials, 255; David E. Quantock, “Disaster at Savo Island, 1942,” 4/9/02, U.S. Army War College paper, www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/rep/Savo/Quantock/index.html.

  7 William R. Smedberg III, interview, 5/8/75, 77, KP (box 13); Forrest Davis, “King’s Way to Tokyo,” Saturday Evening Post, 12/3/44, 101, KP (box 9).

  8 George Russell, interview, 12/11/74, KP (box 11); Alan McFarland to Thomas Buell, 9/3/74, KP (box 2).

  9 George Russell, interview, 12/11/74, KP (box 11) (“Admiral”).

  10 Buell 205–06.

  11 “Guadalcanal Risk Explained by King,” NYT, 10/22/45; George Russell, interview, 12/11/74, KP (box 11); George Russell to Thomas Buell, 11/18/74, KP (box 2) (“can’t thank”).

  12 Glenn Perry to E. P. Bartnett, 11/7/42, KP (box 11) (“expected”).

  13 “Guadalcanal Risk Explained by King,” NYT, 10/22/45; Buell 206.

  14 Buell 206.

  15 FDR to EJK, 8/12/42, KP (box 4) (“blowtorch”); Usher’s Log, 8/11/42, FDRL (Mrs. Harry Hopkins); EJK, interview, 4/27/48, KP (box 7).

  16 Cornelius Bull, “The First Seminar,” 11/6/42, 9, KP (box 6).

  17 Hanson Baldwin, interview, (interview 4), 359, KP (box 10) (“I object!” “hell of a way”); Charles J. Moore, interview, 781, KP (box 11).

  18 Morton, Strategy and Command, 323, 326–27, citing EJK to GCM, 8/8/42, 8/13/42; Matloff, Strategic Planning, 302; Pogue 2:384; Stoler, Allies, 90.

  19 GCM, interview, 11/21/56, GCML; Morton, Strategy and Command, 325; Pogue 2:384, citing EJK to GCM, 8/20/42 and Arnold to JCS, 8/21/42; Pogue 2:387, quoting McNarney to EJK, 9/3/42, and Arnold to EJK, 9/3/42; Stoler, Allies, 92.

  20 Morton, Strategy and Command, 324–36, citing GCM to DAM, 8/10/42; Pogue 2:384, citing DAM to GCM, 8/12/42, and GCM to DAM, 8/13/42; Matloff, Strategic Planning, 303–04, quoting Leahy to GCM, 8/22/42.

  21 Pogue 2:386, citing DAM to GCM, 8/28/42, 8/30/42, and 9/6/42; Morton, Strategy and Command, 339–42.

  22 GCM to DAM, 8/31/42, MP 3:330; DAM to GCM, 8/30/42, MP 3:330 n.1; Morton, Strategy and Command, 328, 331; HHA, 9/18/42, LC (Arnold Papers, box 2) (“Listen”); Pogue 2:386, citing GCM to FDR, 9/2/42, and GCM to DAM, 8/31/42.

  23 HLS, 9/2/42 (“discouraged,” “lets up”); HHA, 9/16/42, LC (Arnold Papers, box 2) (“subterfuge”).

  24 HHA, 9/16/42, LC (Arnold Papers, box 2); Morton, Strategy and Command, 334–35, citing Joint Planning Staff, memorandum, 8/28/42, and JCS, minutes, 9/15/42; Hayes 186, citing JCS, minutes, 9/15/42.

  25 Pogue 2:392, quoting EJK to GCM and Leahy, 10/3/42; DAM to GCM, 10/17/42.

  TWENTY-FIVE GIRDLES, BEER, AND COFFEE

  1 “The Pot Boils,” Time¸ 10/26/42 (“chance,” “mad”).

  2 HLS, 10/29–30/42 (“Fifth Column”); Pogue 2:394–95, citing GCM to FDR, 8/12/42; Henry I. Shaw, Jr., First Offensive: The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal (Washington: Marine Corps Historical Center, 1992).

  3 GCM to FDR, 10/18/42, MP 3:404–05; FDR to Queen Wilhelmina, 10/17/42, FDR-PL 2:1355; FDR to WSC, 10/19/42; Morton, Strategy and Command, 358, citing John McCrea to GCM, 10/14/42; FDR to JCS, 10/24/42, in Sherwood 624–25 (“every possible weapon”); Hassett 129; Stoler, Allies, 95–96.

  4 Hassett, 11/1/42 (“withheld”).

  5 GCM, interview, 10/5/56, GCML (“Please”); GCM, interview, 7/25/49, GCML; DDE, Crusade, 195; Pogue 2:402.

  6 Leahy 141; Murphy, 102 (“No one”) 115–18; DDE to GCM, 10/17/42, EP 1:622–23.

  7 Murphy 115–18.

  8 HLS, 11/4/42; “Occupation Duties Taught to Officers,” NYT, 4/12/43; Pogue 3:456.

  9 Pogue 3:456.

  10 GCM, interview, 2/14/57; “Says Rule by Army Will End on Peace,” NYT, 12/30/42.

  11 HLS, 8/27/42 (“cherubs”); Pogue 3:458–59, quoting John Hilldring, interview, 3/30/59 (“priesthood”).

  12 HLS, 11/4/42 (“Klein”).

  13 HLS, 11/6/42 (“difficulties”).

  14 GCM, 2/14/57, GCML (“bitter,” “shocked”); Pogue 3:456, citing Julius Klein to Pogue, 2/14/70, GCML.

  15 Leighton, 1940–1943, 201–02, 602; HLS, 10/23/42.

  16 Laura Bellew Hannon, Ph.D. dissertation, “The Stylish Battle: World War II and Clothing Design Restrictions in Los Angeles” (December 2012) 2–3; “The Nation,” NYT, 1/23/44.

  17 HLS, 11/25/42; FDR, fireside chat, 6/12/42, FDR-PP, 1942, 270–71.

  18 John Kenneth Galbraith, “What I’ve Learned,” Esquire (January 2002); Galbraith, Life in Our Times, 155.

  19 “WPB Bars Rubber for Corset Field,” NYT, 2/26/42; “Return is Hinted of Elastic Yarns,” NYT, 7/17/43; “Fears of Milady for Girdles Fade,” NYT, 7/10/42; “New Corsets End Fears of Women,” NYT, 9/30/42; “Elastic in Girdles Ordered Reduced,” NYT, 4/23/42; Goodwin 357, quoting Raymond Clapper, Watching the World, 155, and Rubber Survey Committee, Report, 9/10/42, 6, FDRL (OF 150).

  20 FDR to Bernard Baruch, 7/29/42, FDR-PL 2:1334; Frank Kluckhohn, “Rubber Situation Still Confused,” NYT, 6/13/42; “Campaign at Hand for Scrap Rubber,” NYT, 6/7/42; FDR, radio address, 6/12/42, FDR-PP 1942, 270–71; Goodwin 357.

  21 FDR, radio address, 6/12/42, FDR-PP 1942, 270–71 (“about rubber”).

  22 Goodwin 357–58.

  23 HLS, 10/31/42; EJK to FDR, 10/23/42, KP (box 5) (“at your service”).

  24 EJK to FDR, 10/23/42 and FDR to EJK, KP (box 13) (“So what”); Whitehill 412.

  25 Glenn Perry to Thomas Buell, 6/25/75, KP (box 11); Glenn Perry to E. P. Bartnett, 11/7/42, KP (box 11); HLS, 10/30/42.

  26 EJK, testimony, Senate Hearings: Navy Appropriation Bill for 1944, 2 (Washington: U.S. Government, 1943) (“pussyfoot”); Buell 213.

  27 HLS, 10/30/42, 12/4/43.

  28 Glenn Perry to Thomas Buell, 6/25/75, KP (box 11); Robert Sherrod to Thomas Buell, 4/8/75, KP (box 11); Glenn Perry, “King’s Press Circle,” n.d., KP (box 11).

  29 Glenn Perry to Thomas Buell, 6/25/75, KP (box 11) (“hate newspapermen”); Phelps Adams to Thomas Buell, 6/10/75, KP (box 11); Arthur B. Krock, “In the Nation,” NYT, 6/28/56; Robert Sherrod to Thomas Buell, 7/11/75, KP (box 11); Perry, Dear Bart, 83.

  30 HLS, 10/31/42; Glenn Perry to Thomas Buell, 6/25/75, KP (box 11).

  31 Cornelius Bull, “The First Seminar,” 11/6/42, KP (box 6); Glenn Perry, “King’s Press Circle,” n.d., KP (box 11); Phelps Adams to Lloyd Graybar, n.d., KP (box 11) (“expletives”).

  32 Phelps Adams to Lloyd Graybar, n.d., KP (box 11); Buell 244.

  33 “War Songs,” Time, 10/26/42; “OPA To Regulate Our Coffee Habit,” NYT, 11/1/42; “Outstanding Events and Main Trends of the Year in Review,” NYT, 12/27/42; Rosenman, Working, 361.

  34 Goodwin 385, quoting U.S. News, 11/13/42.

 
35 Rosenman, Working, 349–50; Reilly 67.

  TWENTY-SIX THE DEVIL’S BRIDGE

  1 Tully 264; Rosenman, Working, 363.

  2 Tully 264 (“Thank God.”).

  3 JCS, minutes, 11/9/43, KP (box 9); Brown, Bodyguard, 529 (“to Gib”).

  4 Pogue 2:420; Jordan, Brothers, 100–01.

  5 Blum 148–49 (“most ruthless”); Jordan 97 (“sleeping”); HLS, 11/16/42 (“starry”); WSC to FDR, 11/15–17/42.

  6 FDR to WSC, 11/16/42, FDRL (Hopkins Papers, box 136) (“You may”).

  7 Pogue 2:420, quoting GCM to DDE, 11/20/42 (“Do not worry”); GCM to Davis, 12/12/42, MP 3:480–81; HLS, 11/17/42, 12/22/43 (“harassed”); DDE, interview, 10/15/62, PL.

  8 HLS, 11/16/42; GCM, interview, 2/15/57, GCML; Parrish 332–33 (“incredibly stupid”).

  9 Rosenman, Working, 363.

  10 FDR, “Statement on the Temporary Political Arrangements in North and West Africa,” 11/17/42, FDR-PP, 1942, 479–80 (“expedient”); Parrish 333.

  11 FDR, press conference, 11/17/42, FDR-PP, 1942, 479 (“children”); Stalin to WSC, 11/28/42, in WSC to FDR, 12/2/42, FRUS, Casablanca, 493.

  12 HLS, 9/17/42; Lang to HLH, 12/31/42, FDRL (Hopkins Papers, box 194); Thompson and Mayo 238–40, 255.

  13 Lang to HLH, 12/31/42, FDRL (Hopkins Papers, box 194); EJK, statement, “Personnel Situation in the Navy,” n.d., KP (box 7); Greenfield et al. 209–11; Pogue 2:425; Roberts 297.

  14 JCS to FDR, 1/8/43, W. M. Jeffers to FDR, 12/1/42, FDRL (PSF, box 6); HLS, 1/6/43; “Timetable for the Draft,” Time, 2/1/43; Goodwin 395; Blum, V for Victory, 123.

  15 WSC to FDR, 10/31/42, FDRL (Hopkins Papers, box 136); JCS, minutes, 11/9/42, 12/10/42, KP (box 9).

  16 Sherwood 665.

  TWENTY-SEVEN “HOLLYWOOD AND THE BIBLE”

  1 “Dirty Gertie Promises Cleanup for Unintentional Army Lyricist,” Milwaukee Journal, 8/25/43; John W. Alexander, “Debunking Gertie from Bizerte,” SEP, 12/11/43; Bull, “The First Seminar,” 11/6/42, KP (box 6); Glenn Perry to E. P. Bartnett, 11/30/42, KP (box 11).

  2 Bull, “The Third Seminar,” 2/19/43, KP (box 6); Glenn Perry to E. P. Bartnett, 2/22/42, KP (box 11); Bull, “The Second Seminar,” 11/20/42, KP (box 6); EJK to Hanson Baldwin, 6/12/50, GCML (Baldwin Papers, box 2); Romanus and Sunderland 82.