foreign policy, however, Wilson took an active role overseeing American diplomats.His approach toward the military followed a similar pattern, though sometimes commanders’actions affected Wilson’s diplomatic goals. Benbow focuses on these conflicts between militaryreality, the necessity of foreign intervention, and Wilson’s desire for a legacy to present a morenuanced view of the president as Commander in Chief.Note, gentle readers, and others, “The U.S. President as C-in-C (CinC) of the nation’s armedforces, historians, political scientists, policy professionals, and politically informed audiences,including buffs, are certain to find these volumes instructive and engaging”.Meanwhile, “AT THE DAWN OF AIRPOWER – The U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps’Approach to the Airplane, 1907-1917” examines the development of aviation in these threebranches of U.S. armed forces from their first official steps into military flight up to the UnitedStates’ declaration of war against Germany in April 1917. Author Laurence Burke explains whyeach of the services wanted airplanes and how they developed their respective air arms and thedoctrines that guided them. His narrative follows aviation developments closely, delving deeplyinto the official and personal papers of those involved, revealing their ideas and intents,especially those of the early military piloting pioneers. Burke also closely examines theconsequences of both accidental and conscious decisions on the development of nascentaviation arms. “AT THE DAWN OF AIRPOWER” is one of the most brilliant USNI books yetpublished.In “THE BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF AT 75 – – A Retrospective”, author-editor-compiler Thomas J.Cutler has provided readers with a superlative contribution to the historiography on thatstupendous battle. Often appropriately referred to as the “greatest naval battle in all history”,the 23-26 October 1944 fight was a series of sea life and death encounters in which both sidesexhibited courage and resourcefulness yet suffered from confusion born of poorly conceivedcommand relationships and ineffective communications. Marked by awe-inspiring heroism,failed intelligence, and smart deception, the gargantuan battle involved hundreds of ships,including nearly 200,000 participants, spanning more than 100,000 square miles.This enlightening retrospective collection is further enhanced by a careful selection ofarticles from the rich archive of the Naval Institute’s Proceedings and Naval History magazinesthat have long sustained the debates and the lessons learned from the actual event. The resultfor us readers is an edifying and entertaining volume that will not likely be the last on this
important subject, but until then serves as an important contribution to this evergreen topic.
