num_pages: 496
description: From one of our most distinguished naval historians the first wartime biography in a half-century of the man who guided America to victory in the Pacific in World War TwoThe most cataclysmic and consequential war in history produced more than its share of fascinating characters and great leaders. Some have hardened into legend others fallen below the radar. Somewhere in-between sits Chester W. Nimitz Commander in Chief of both the Pacific Fleet and the PacificOcean Area from 1941 to 1945. Nimitz demanded and received less attention than his Army counterpart Douglas MacArthur whose self-promotion was prodigious. He seemed less colorful than some of his subordinates such as Admiral Bill Bull Halsey and General Holland Howlin' Mad Smith. Yet Nimitz'swas the guiding hand of Allied forces in the Pacific War and the central figure in the victory against Japan. Craig L. Symonds's full-length portrait of Nimitz from the precarious early months following Pearl Harbor when Nimitz assumed command of the Pacific Fleet to the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay is the first in more than fifty years. Using Nimitz's headquarters-the eye of the hurricane-as thevantage point Symonds covers the major campaigns from Guadalcanal to Okinawa. He captures Nimitz's calm discipline homespun wisdom and uncanny sense of when to project authority and when to pull back illuminating how this helped him direct one of the largest and most complex campaigns inmilitary history fought against an implacable foe. The pressures Nimitz faced were crushing involving tactical and strategic decision-making visualizing success while mindful of the welfare of those who served under him-soldiers sailors and Marines. He had to corral assertive subordinates andkeep them focused on the larger objectives and maintain a strong working relationship with his own superiors including the equally formidable Admiral Ernest J. King and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In addition Nimitz had to deal with the public spectacle of war managing the expectations of anation both expecting victory and longing for the carnage to end. In retrospect it seems impossible to imagine anyone else could have accomplished all this. As Symonds' absorbing dynamic and authoritative portrait reveals it took leadership asked of-and exhibited by-few others. Behind Nimitz's unflappable professionalism and reservoirs of charm were a resolveand audacity that became evident when most needed.
language: English
title: Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay
publisher: Oxford University Press