Strategy for Tomorrow
Hanson W. Baldwin. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. 377 pp. Illus. $12.50.
Reviewed by Rear Admiral Ernest M. Eller, U. S. Navy (Retired)
(A graduate of the Naval Academy in 1925, Admiral Eller served in the Pacific during most of World War II and, in 1946, assumed the duties of Director of Public Information, Navy Department. After graduating from the National War College and serving on the Joint Staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he commanded the Middle East Force from 1950-1951. After his retirement in 1954, Admiral Eller became Director of Engineering at Bucknell University, a position Which he held until 1956 when recalled to active duty as Director of the Naval History Division, Navy Department, a post he held until January 1970. Author of numerous articles, he has three times won the Naval Institute's Prize Essay Contest and has received honorable mention in the Contest on three other occasions.)
The world of tomorrow will continue to be a world of change, of tensions, of great danger, and great opportunity—all interlocked with power on, under, and above the seas. To ride the whirlwind, the United States must face the world as it is, not as we would like it to be. It must look with clear perception at its own strengths and weaknesses, and at Soviet intentions.
In these well-researched and well-reasoned pages, Hanson Baldwin unfolds in detail the conditions and needs in each critical area of the world:
(a) The Western Hemisphere—“This we must defend . . .” and can only defend by control of the sea and air spaces above.
(b) Western Europe—This, the world’s second greatest power center, must remain free. NATO has served invaluably to preserve and build up these western “rimlands” of Eurasia against the imperialistic colossus of the heartland. The first words of the name, “North Atlantic Treaty Organization” show how completely this is an oceanic alliance and how imperative it is for the United States to control the sea and the air spaces above, as well as maintaining nuclear superiority.
(c) The Mediterranean and Middle East—The “Sea of History” and the “Crossroads of Continents” have shaped civilization since man first came down to the sea—and will continue greatly to shape his destiny. Significant developments of our generation include the fabulous oil fields of the Middle East (and more recently of North Africa); the almost insoluble problems of Arab-Israeli antagonism; the growth of Soviet maritime presence in the Mediterranean and coincident rise of Moscow’s influence from Iraq and Syria to Algiers; the U.S.S.R.’s special attention to the nodal choke points, like Suez, of this great “maritime corridor” of the Mediterranean and adjoining waters. NATO is being perilously outflanked in this ancient sea by Soviet maritime power and influence in Arab nations.
(d) East of Suez—The Indian Ocean becomes the “newest stage” in the modern drama of world geopolitics as Britain completes its withdrawal from this far-spreading region (so long a gem of empire), the United States treads water, and the U.S.S.R. moves in. Soviet policies are keyed both to the vast oil wealth of the Persian Gulf and to control of these waters that would bring Pakistan, India, and the nations down Africa’s east coast into the Soviet orbit. Moscow has already made large social, economic, political, and military gains. For example, much of India’s navy now comes from the Soviet Union—shades of the glory of the British empire. Soviet naval, oceanographic, and merchant marine activities in the Indian Ocean are “. . . increasingly impressive.” This is not just temporary, “. . . it is planned, directed, and purposeful . . .” following a positive maritime strategy.
(e) Asia and the Broad Pacific—The only hope of checking the two Communist giants that divide most of Asia is a powerful U. S. Navy. With power afloat as the shield and spear, the United States should continue to build up offshore nations from Japan and Taiwan to Australia and New Zealand, along with the handful of anti-Communist nations on the mainland. To accomplish this goal, the United States must continue to develop strong island forward bases along with ample ships and planes to “. . . command the sea and its depths and the skies above it.”
Thus, around the globe, problems everywhere call for power on and above the sea. The first need, as this wise book points out, is for the United States to preserve internal strength. The second need is for citizens to understand their oceanic environment and destiny. They live in the heart of the continental island of the Western Hemisphere. “Thus a maritime strategy for the United States is a national geopolitical derivative—an imperative of our security.”
The United States ought to retain a land-sea mix of nuclear delivery forces, but needs to more and more favor the sea. Besides Polaris-Poseidon submarines, it should mount missiles in surface ships to increase its edge of superiority now threatened by the Soviet Union. Nuclear deterrence must remain a foundation of strategy for tomorrow, for if nuclear superiority should pass to Moscow, then blackmail and threat might force the nation to accept Communist aggression to the point of no return. With nuclear superiority, the next care for the United States must be to field a balanced mix of conventional land, sea, and air forces to protect its interests, give meaning to its policies, and support allies and friends around the world.
As part of the oceanic strategy, the nation should strengthen island positions as far overseas as possible. With adequate sea strength and tactical nuclear missiles, these could be held with small defense forces, unlike the large needs of continental enclaves. From this position of strength, the nation could intervene if necessary in continental situations, but at times and places of its choosing. Hopefully, the intervention would be swift and positive in the first stages of a brush fire. Then, a small force promptly and firmly applied can quench a blaze that later great armies could not handle.
With reduced requirements in continental forces, the Army and Air Force could be made more mobile, with small airborne units in forward island bases. These would provide quick reaction if needed to back up embarked Marine units and the highly mobile, self-contained airfields of the Fleet attack carriers. Central strategic reserves would supply back up in the United States.
This sound “aerospace-maritime” strategy, or any other, will collapse in disaster for the United States, however, should it fail to maintain “. . . superiority in nuclear-delivery capabilities and at sea. Unless these basic requirements are fulfilled there can be no viable strategy; there is no real alternative.”
Professional Reading
Compiled by Robert A. Lambert, Associate Editor
American Voyages to the Orient 1690-1865
Charles Oscar Paullin. Annapolis, Md., U. S. Naval Institute, 1971. 182 pp. $6.00.
This is a slightly edited compilation of five articles concerned with American commercial and naval interests in the Pacific, originally published in the Proceedings in 1910 and 1911-
Blue Meridian
Peter Matthieson. New York: Random House, 1971. 204 pp. Illus. $8.95.
A small expedition of professional underwater photographers goes in search of the great white shark, Unfortunately, between the swimming in open water among a hundred or more sharks off Durban, South Africa, and the eventual locating of several of the huge beasts in Spencer Gulf, Australia, there is a lot of trivia. The underwater photographs are genuinely exciting and, when the author stays underwater, he writes well. The book’s best parts, without the photos, appeared in the March 1971 issue of Playboy.
Bombers Between the Wars 1919-1939
Kenneth Munson. New York: Macmillan, 1970. 165 pp. Illus. $3.95.
Including patrol and transport aircraft, the slow evolution of the bomber is followed on an international scale with 70 typical specimens presented in color plates with technical details and short commentary.
British Maritime Strategy in the 1970s
J. L. Moulton. London: Royal United Services Institution, 1969. 64 pp. Illus. $2.00 (paper).
All aspects of Britain’s problem of finding viable policy balances between weaponry, economic realities, political expediencies, and strategic requirements are studied in this pamphlet.
Cargo Loss Prevention Recommendations
International Union of Marine Insurance. New York: International Insurance Monitor, 1970. 43 pp. $1.00 (paper).
Obviously aimed at commercial shippers, many of the suggestions for handling freight and controlling dock areas are applicable to military needs as well.
Deep Oceans
Peter J. Herring and Malcolm R. Clarke (eds.). New York: Praeger, 1971. 320 pp. Illus. $18.50.
Backed by a wide variety of color photographs, diagrams, and sketches, this large-format book brings together writings by British and American scientists in which they describe how their respective branches of science have approached the study of deep oceans.
Destination Corregidor
Robert L. Underbrink. Annapolis, Md.: U. S. Naval Institute, 1971. 240 pp. Illus. $9.50.
Foredoomed to failure, the efforts of the United States to supply Bataan and Corregidor by submarine and surface blockade runners during the first four months of 1942 are the subject of this detailed account.
Eastern Shore Chips and Shavings
R. Hammond Gibson. St. Michaels, Md.: Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, 1970. 38 pp. Illus. $2.50 (paper).
The Eastern Shore waterman is seen through sketches of his craft with commentary on their design, construction, and use.
Every War Must End
Fred Charles Ikle. New York: Columbia University Press, 1971. 160 pp. $8.00,
Clearly, concisely, the author explores the difficult processes by which wars in the 20th century have ended and what these processes may mean for ending future wars, especially Vietnam, which is never specifically mentioned.
Ferro-Cement Boat Construction
Jack R. Whitener. Cambridge, Md.: Cornell Maritime Press, 1971. 128 pp. Illus. $7.50.
From choosing the proper cement mixer to methods of applying protective finishes to the end result, this is a practical, step-by-step guide for building this type of hull.
Fighters Between the Wars 1919-1939
Kenneth Munson. New York: Macmillan, 1970. 164 pp. Illus. $3.95.
Covering slightly less than a dozen countries, a selection of 80 fighter aircraft typical of the period is presented in the pocket-size format identical to the previously cited Bombers Between the Wars.
German Secret Weapons of World War II
I. V. Hogg. New York: Arco, 1971. 80 pp. Illus. $3.50.
All manner of devices—common, eccentric, brilliant, successes, and failures—are listed in this compact encyclopedia providing a short descriptive paragraph on each weapon used, in prototype or under planning consideration.
Heinkel: An Aircraft Album
P. St. John Turner. New York: Arco, 1971. 128 pp. Illus. $3.95 (paper).
Accounts of the development, features, and career of each of the aircraft types constructed are included with technical data. Also included are details of the company’s formation in the post-World War I era and its assimilation into the present-day German aircraft industry.
Interest Groups in Soviet Politics
H. Gordon Skilling and Franklyn Griffiths (eds.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. 443 pp. $12.50.
Seven political interest groups—the military, the party bureaucrats, the security police, the industrial managers, the economists,. the writers, and the jurists—are analyzed to determine their roles in the planning and implementing of party policy. There is one chapter devoted to each group, and four other chapters unify the efforts of 11 separate authors.
MacArthur
Sydney L. Mayer. New York: Ballantine, 1971. 160 pp. Illus. $1.00 (paper).
A short and very fair, evaluative portrait of the man and his military career to the end of World War II is presented.
Marine Policy, Law and Economics
Ann L. Hollick (ed.). Kingston, R.I.: The Law of the Sea Institute, 1970. 184 pp. $5.00. Later supplements $3.00.
Covering the decade of the 1960s, this is an annotated bibliography of journal articles, books, reports, and symposia bearing on policies, decisions and arrangements for using the sea’s resources. The listing is published in a loose-leaf, three-ring binder, permitting the user to make additions or to rearrange the material.
Mosquito!
Joe Holliday. New York: Doubleday, 1970. 236 pp. Illus. $6.95.
Interesting occasionally, but mostly puffed-up and overblown, is this journalistic-style history of the World War II, de Havilland fighter-bomber made from plywood.
NATO Handbook
Brussels: NATO Information Service, 1971. 93 pp. Illus. No cost given, (paper).
NATO’s history and component structure are summarized, and relevant documents are also included.
Naval Force Levels and Modernization
Arnold M. Kuzmack. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1971. 47 pp. $1.00 (paper).
Based entirely on unclassified material, this monograph deals with the problem of “block obsolescence” in the U. S. Navy, and, while not recommending any given level of shipbuilding to overcome the problem, sets forth three alternative programs and budgets, each relating to a corresponding force level. Neither political, strategic, nor technical considerations are evaluated in the choice of force levels used in the alternatives.
Of Rivers and the Sea
Herbert E. French. New York: Putnam, 1970. 318 pp. $6.95.
Man’s use of, and involvement with, water—lakes, springs, rivers, fountains, glaciers, exploration, industry, agriculture, bathing, bathrooms—is the subject of this highly anecdotal and entertaining discussion.
Practical Construction of Warships
R. N. Newton. New York: American Elsevier, 1970. 484 pp. Illus. $18.25.
This new edition reflects the changes in construction techniques and requirements which have occurred since publication of the second edition in 1955.
Russian Sea-Power
David Fairhall. Boston: Gambit, 1971. 275 pp. Illus. $10.00.
A clear exposition of the many facets of Soviet seapower is presented as a series of discussions of policies concerned with the Arctic, merchant shipping, fishing, oceanography, military hardware, world strategy, and local tactical situations. The language is non-technical, the tone is understated, conclusions, when voiced, are temperate. It was first published in Great Britain as Russia Looks to the Sea.
Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World
Lionel Casson. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. 441 pp. Illus. $20.00.
The footnotes overwhelm the text, which is fortunately well-written; each chapter is broken into subchapters, making almost any piece of information findable without using the general index; there are appendixes to the chapters; there are glossaries and specialized indexes, as well as 197 illustrations, in what may very well be the most comprehensive word on this subject. Of course, the classic trireme problem is thoroughly explored and the probability of large catamarans strongly argued. This reference covers the first crude stages of ship technology, from about 3000 B.C. to the fleets of the Byzantine Empire in the 9th century A.D.
The Two Sieges of Rhodes 1480-1522
Eric Brockman. New York: Transatlantic Arts, 1971. 184 pp. Illus. $9.50.
The sieges—the Knights of St. John were victorious in the first, but losers to the Turks in the second—are described and set against their background of the Crusades, the Renaissance, and the rapid changes in weapons and tactics following the development of gunpowder.
Uniformed Services Almanac 1971
Lee E. Sharif (ed.). Washington, D C.: Uniformed Services Almanac, 1971. 154 pp. $1.25 (paper).
For officers and enlisted men, a vital compilation of information for themselves and their dependents.
Weyer's Warships of the World 1971
Gerhard Albrecht (ed.). Annapolis, Md.: U. S. Naval Institute, 1971. 458 pp. Illus. $22.50.
Since the last English-language edition in 1969 three sections have been added—the front end-papers are color reproductions of merchant and naval flags, a review of the naval policies of the major powers, and a status review of the world’s navies.
RE-ISSUES
The Blond Knight of Germany
Raymond F. Toliver and Trevor J. Constable. New York: Ballantine [1970], 1971. 333 pp. Illus. $1.25 (paper).
Commodore Moore and the Texas Navy
Tom Henderson Wells. Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press [1960], 1971. 218 pp. Illus. $1.95 (paper).
Johnny Westcott
Joseph Chester. Philadelphia: Dorrance [1956], 1969. 109 pp. $.95 (paper).
Original Title: When Time Stood Still.
Marlinspike Sailor
Hervey Garrett Smith. Tuckahoe, N.Y.: John de Graff [1956], 1971. 131 pp. Illus. $7.95.
Scorched Earth
Paul Carell. New York: Ballantine [1966], 1969. 652 pp. Illus. $1.65 (paper).
Zero!
Masatake Okumiya, Jiro Horikoshi, and Martin Caidin. New York: Ballantine [1956], 1971. 318 pp. Illus. $1.25 (paper).