From Hot War to Cold

by Barlow, Jeffrey G.

• ISBN13: 9780804756662
• ISBN10: 080475666X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-01-12
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr

Summary

This book discusses the role of the U.S. Navy within the country's national security structure during the first decade of the Cold War from the perspective of the service's senior uniformed officer, the Chief of Naval Operations, and his staff. It examines a variety of important issues of the period, including the Army-Navy fight over unification that led to the creation of the National Security Act of 1947, the early postwar fighting in China between the Nationalists and the Communists, the formation of NATO, the outbreak of the Korean War, the decision of the Eisenhower Administration not to intervene in the Viet Minh troops' siege of the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu, and the initiation of the Eisenhower "New Look" defense policy. The author relies upon information obtained from a wide range of primary sources and personal interviews with important, senior Navy and Army officers. The result is a book that provides the reader with a new way of looking at these pivotal events.

Author Biography

Jeffrey G. Barlow has been a historian in the Contemporary History Branch of the Naval Historical Center since 1987. He is the author of Revolt of the Admirals: The Fight for Naval Aviation, 1945-1950, co-winner of the John Lyman Book Award for Naval History from the North American Society for Oceanic History in 1995.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
A Note on Transliteration	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Wartime Organizational Changes in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations	p. 9
Initial Challenges: Postwar and Demobilization Planning	p. 35
The Navy and Unification	p. 57
The National Security Act Achieved	p. 74
Preparing for a New Enemy	p. 96
War Ends in the Pacific	p. 118
Troubles Emerge in Postwar China, 1945-1946	p. 137
Assessing and Responding to the Soviet Naval Threat	p. 160
Adjusting to the National Military Establishment	p. 175
Living in "Interesting Times"	p. 199
Slugging It Out on Capitol Hill	p. 219
Events in the Western Pacific	p. 241
Troubles on the Korean Peninsula	p. 259.
Deciding to Fight	p. 280
Defending NATO Europe: Planning During the Initial States	p. 300
The Eisenhower National Security Structure	p. 327
Rethinking National Strategy	p. 349
Coping with the New Look	p. 364
A Crisis Abroad and a CNOÆs Departure	p. 381
Conclusion	p. 403
Abbreviations	p. 409
Notes	p. 417
Bibliography	p. 617
Index	p. 683
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