A revealing narrative of "the other side" of a tough man, Chester Nimitz, with the monumental task of ending the war with Japan.

When Lt. Cdr. Waldo Drake, USNR arrived in Pearl Harbor in June 1941 as the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s first Public Relations Officer (PRO), he was an admired maritime reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Reserve Officer appointed to intelligence duties. By October 1944, he was hated by most of the correspondents assigned to cover the war against Japan and seen by officials in Washington as an obstacle to the development of Navy public relations. What led Drake to become the Pacific Fleet’s first PRO, what happened during the three years he served on the CINCPAC staff, and why he was removed from that position are the focus of Nimitz’s Newsman: Waldo Drake and the Navy’s Censored War in the Pacific. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Adm. Chester Nimitz, USN assumed command of the Pacific Fleet and inherited Drake’s services. Drake became responsible for informing America’s press about the Pacific Fleet’s wartime role and thus gained an outsized ability to influence American public opinion. The Navy’s decision to allow public relations officers to censor press copy caused numerous conflicts between Drake and the correspondents assigned to the Fleet. It was Drake’s love for the Navy, his tendency to take on every job himself, and above all his close relationship with Adm. Nimitz that allowed him to perform censorship duties with approval. Drake’s protection of Nimitz, and his reticence to give the press any information that could endanger operational security or dampen morale, caused Navy victories to go under-reported—much to the consternation of officials in Washington. In analyzing the dynamics of Drake and Nimitz’s relationship, and in highlighting Drake’s interactions with correspondents and Navy officials, Nimitz’s Newsman reveals the inside story of the Navy’s censored war in the Pacific during World War II.

Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1660--1783) was one of the most influential books on military strategy in the first half of the 20th century. A core text in the naval war colleges of the United States, Britain, and Japan, Mahan's book shaped doctrine for the conduct of war at sea. Adams uses Mahan's ideas to discuss the great Pacific sea battles of World War II and to consider how well they withstood the test of actual combat. Reexamining the conduct of war in the Pacific from a single analytic viewpoint leads to some surprising conclusions about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Doolittle Raid, the Battle of the Coral Sea, the recapture of the Philippines, and the submarine war. Naval historians and armchair strategists alike will find much food for thought in these engrossing pages.

Now available in paperback, Robert F. Cross’ Sailor in the White House remains one of the most interesting and intimate books about Franklin D. Roosevelt. Secret Service agents, family, and old sailing pals share stories about their days on the water with America’s greatest seafaring president. The author argues that the skills required to be a good sailor are the same skills that made FDR a successful politician: the ability to alter courses, make compromises, and shift positions as the situation warrants. This perspective on Roosevelt shows how his love of the sea shaped his presidency, and its unique look remains refreshing even today.

William Halsey was the most famous naval officer of World War II. His fearlessness in carrier raids against Japan, his steely resolve at Guadalcanal, and his impulsive blunder at the Battle of Leyte Gulf made him the “Patton of the Pacific” and solidified his reputation as a decisive, aggressive fighter prone to impetuous errors of judgment in the heat of battle. In this definitive biography, Thomas Hughes punctures the popular caricature of the “fighting admiral” to reveal the truth of Halsey’s personal and professional life as it was lived in times of war and peace. Halsey, the son of a Navy officer whose alcoholism scuttled a promising career, committed himself wholeheartedly to naval life at an early age. An audacious and inspiring commander to his men, he met the operational challenges of the battle at sea against Japan with dramatically effective carrier strikes early in the war. Yet his greatest contribution to the Allied victory was as commander of the combined sea, air, and land forces in the South Pacific during the long slog up the Solomon Islands chain, one of the war’s most daunting battlegrounds. Halsey turned a bruising slugfest with the Japanese navy into a rout. Skillfully mediating the constant strategy disputes between the Army and the Navy—as well as the clashes of ego between General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz—Halsey was the linchpin of America’s Pacific war effort when its outcome was far from certain.

In May 1942, submarines begin inflicting heavy damage on Japanese shipping. The marines and Army invade the Gilbert, Marshall and Solomon Islands. In November 1943, American forces, with heavy casualties, take Tarawa. Admiral Nimitz, over many objections, decides to bypass many strongly-held Japanese islands and blockade them to deprive the Japanese of supplies and food. Roosevelt publicly demands “unconditional surrender,” and the Japanese dig in their heels to fight to the death. American forces attack the Solomon and Marshall Islands, creeping ever closer to Japan. MacArthur attacks New Guinea. In June 1944, American forces invade the Mariana Islands of Saipan and Tinian, and later, Pelelui. With these islands in American hands, its bombers can reach the Japanese mainland. Saipan and Pelelui are captured with many American casualties. Fighting becomes a vicious no-holds-barred affair. A famous American, now a pilot, is rescued by submarine, after his plane crashes into the sea.