How did you get interested in history?
I was in third grade and it was the beginning of the centennial of the Civil War. That was more than fifty years ago, but I found the stories of generals and battles quite exciting. I think that it helped my interest that as a child I got to visit places like Gettysburg and Yorktown. Later, it was mountains, railroads, and mining towns that intrigued me in Colorado. This country is a wonderful mosaic of the experiences of many different people, and it is fascinating to watch the development of the American nation through those collective experiences.
Why did you decide to write about these admirals and the United States Navy?
Navies and sea power are major themes in two of my earlier books. It was the power of the Royal Navy that controlled the seas and won Great Britain a global empire during the French and Indian War. The War of 1812 is filled with stories of ship-to-ship battles on the high seas and, far more important to the outcome of the war, naval battles on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. In some respects, The Admirals is a continuation of those themes of national expansion and sea power. As Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King were graduating from Annapolis, the United States was stepping onto the world stage as a global power. Forty years later at the end of World War II, it had become the most dominant sea power in the history of the world.
Who are some of your heroes in this book?
Actually, since its publication, the men and women who have written me about their experiences in World War II have become my heroes. All were very young at the time, but they went where they were ordered and served our country an ocean or two away from home. For many, their service became the defining period of their lives. I recall in particular Richard E. Bennink, who was a 1938 NROTC graduate of Harvard. Bennink commanded three waves of Higgins boats landing a battalion of marines on the tiny island of Gavutu just north of Guadalcanal in early August 1942. He repeatedly went ashore under heavy fire to make certain that his disembarked troops could hold their positions and to evacuate their wounded.
What is the most important contribution that The Admirals makes to the history of World War II?
To my thinking, it is the largely overlooked role of William D. Leahy. I have stopped short of calling him “acting president” in the final year of Franklin Roosevelt’s life, but he was very close to it. And because of Leahy’s self-effacing personality, most of the country knew almost nothing about him. It goes beyond the scope of this book, but the equally amazing thing about Leahy–is that he went on to give the same service to Harry Truman for the first four years of Truman’s presidency. I challenge you to name another person who performed so close and important an adviser role, not to just one but to two presidents.
What are you working on next?
Up next is American Spring, a book on the first six months of the American Revolution. It fills a void between my earlier work on the French and Indian War, which in many respects created the climate that fostered revolution, and the War of 1812, which is the defining moment that proves the United States will not only survive as an independent nation but also expand across the continent. Those early months of 1775 are a tense tangle of emotions on all sides and they ignite a powder keg that burns for another six years, until the British surrender at Yorktown.