Summary
Michael Barone gives President Franklin D. Roosevelt too much credit for selecting the best men "early on" to command our armed forces in World War II ("Importance of Fallon's fall," Commentary, Tuesday). Roosevelt is often credited for the selection of Gen. George Marshall as Army chief of staff before World War II. However, as military historians know, Roosevelt paid little attention to the Army. In any case, with the support of both World War I hero Gen. John Pershing and the then-incumbent chief, Gen. Malin Craig, Marshall was the obvious choice.
By contrast, Roosevelt considered the Navy his personal fiefdom, personally selecting all its chief commanders, and his record there is mixed. The most important command in the armed forces before World War II was the Pacific Fleet, known until 1941 as the U.S. Fleet. Until early 1941, that fleet required two four-star admirals to command it at a time when the entire Army, including the Air Force, had only one four-star general: the chief of staff. Yet Roosevelt, in 1941, had to replace the two men he had selected to command that fleet - Adm. James O. Richardson, who disagreed with Roosevelt over moving the fleet from San Diego to Pearl Harbor, and Richardson's successor, Adm. Husband Kimmel, after the Pearl Harbor debacle.See the full content of this document
Extract
Nimitz Redeemed Fdr
Depending on one's perspective, Roosevelt's 1939 c...
See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
