Acts of Madness:
U.S. Military Strategy in the Pacific, 1898-1941
(Under Contract with the university press of kansas, modern war studies series)
I am having such a great time researching and writing about this topic. It has been great fun to extend my research deeper into the twentieth century and also to go beyond the army to learn more about the navy and State Department. I am continually coming across fascinating, funny, and surprising documents that I do not want to wait for the completed book to share. This space is dedicated to letting others take part in the intellectual journey. I hope you enjoy them, too!
#5 - mean admirals - January 2025
Strategic decision and office drama combine when subordinate army and navy commanders overseas plot to upset one of the Navy Department’s top priorities. The result is this superficially polite formal correspondence between admirals which drips with spite between the lines. The outcome of these clashes of ideas and personality would eventually lead to decisions that set the stage for the opening campaigns of World War II and still shape the U.S. military’s basing in the Pacific today.
#4 - The Hopes of a Realist - July 2024
In 1906, the U.S. Navy began planning for war with Japan in earnest. With his characteristic wit, Commander William Sims comments on one of the early plans, cynically describing the challenges of strategy in a democracy. Yet he then expresses the hope that “one good, short and easily understood magazine article” might initiate a shift in public opinion in favor of the navy. In fact, Sims was already scheming to produce just such a piece.
#3 - Buyer’s Remorse - September 2022
President Theodore Roosevelt vented his frustration with the lack of domestic political support for empire and a strong navy before grudgingly acknowledging that the Philippines, which he had eagerly sought just a few years earlier, had become a strategic liability. In this letter, we see a statesman reconciling what he believes to be the best strategy with political realities.
#2 - The greatest Memo ever - July 2022
Brigadier General Stanley Embick did not hold back with his opinion of Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Douglas MacArthur’s plan: “To carry out the present Orange Plan…would be literally an act of madness.”
#1 - What is this Thing? - July 2022
A brief explanation of what the heck this series is all about.