Research for this book covered considerable ground and incurred many debts. The principal archive for three of the fleet admirals is the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, in Washington, D.C. The primary Nimitz Collection is at the Naval History and Heritage Command at the Washington Navy Yard. I am indebted to the fine staff of both institutions, particularly John W. Greco at the latter.
I also greatly appreciate the assistance of David D’Onofrio at the Nimitz Library, United States Naval Academy; Dr. Evelyn Cherpak at the Naval Historical Collection of the Naval War College; and the staffs of the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming; Joyner Library at East Carolina University; Hoover Institution at Stanford University; the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland; the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, New York; the Submarine Force Museum at Groton, Connecticut; the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial in Camden; the National World War II Museum in New Orleans; and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. Shea Houlihan helped with research in Georgetown University’s archives.
Having worked closely with museums for almost forty years, I am not inclined to rave unduly about them. The National Museum of the Pacific War (Nimitz Museum) at Fredericksburg, Texas, is, however, an exception. This is a wonderful facility that does a superb job of honoring the story of World War II in the Pacific.
I continue to appreciate those who have produced major secondary works in my areas of writing. Each of the fleet admirals has had a major biographer who either knew his subjects personally or had access to immediate family members and wartime associates. My debt here is to E. B. Potter, Thomas B. Buell, and Henry Adams.
Photographic assistance came from the National Archives and Records Administration; the Naval History and Heritage Command; the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library; the George C. Marshall Foundation, particularly Jeffrey Kozak; Gary Fabian of the UB88 project; the National Museum of the Pacific War, particularly Amy Bowman; the Library of Congress; and the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming. Many thanks, as always, go to David Lambert for his crisp maps.
My greatest debt is to the historians who read all or portions of the manuscript and engaged in frequently lively discussions about these men: Dr. Paul Miles of Princeton University; John Lundstrom, “Mr. World War II in the Pacific”; and Dr. Jeffrey G. Barlow of the Naval History and Heritage Command. And where would I be without those breakfasts with my longtime friend and fellow historian Jerry Keenan?
This book and my career writing history would not have been possible without the consistent and unyielding support of my agent, Alexander C. Hoyt. At Little, Brown, I have found an engaged and insightful editor in John Parsley. I also greatly appreciate the enthusiasm shown by editor in chief Geoff Shandler and all the Little, Brown staff, particularly William Boggess, Theresa Giacopasi, Peggy Freudenthal, and Jayne Yaffe Kemp.
As for my usual time researching in the field, I sat on the veranda at Top Cottage above Hyde Park and considered Roosevelt meeting secretly there with King, walked the flag bridge on the New Jersey and pondered Halsey’s dilemma at Leyte, and stood before the graves of all four men. My wife, Marlene, passed on winter research in Washington, but found a February trip to Pearl Harbor and an April visit to Fredericksburg—the bluebonnets were blooming—quite agreeable duty.