Category: Navy

US Naval history book – “The Free Sea” (Naval Institute Press, 2018) – James Kraska interview

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James Kraska was a Judge Advocate General for the US Navy and has extensive experience on defense issues and Freedom of Navigation issues. He’s currently a visiting Professor of Law at the Naval War College. He has co-authored a book on the history of US enforcement of Freedom of Navigation and we spoke about the book.

1:56 – Professor. Kraska was a Navy Judge Advocate lawyer and in this capacity he learned and practiced the law regarding Freedom of Navigation. He taught at the Naval War College and completed a degree on the subject. Raul Pedroza, the other author, is also a retired Navy JAG and a professor of law.

3:55 – It has been imperative for the US to protect the sea for economic and security purposes. The book is a mix of history and law on Freedom of Navigation. The book starts with the Quasi-War with France and continues all the way through the current Chinese attempts to assert unlawful control of regional seas.

6:55 – The US defends Freedom of Navigation globally because no one else will do it. Many countries depend on the US to maintain order at sea. The Dutch enforced freedom of the seas in the 1500s and then the British took over enforcing these global rights.

8:57 – The US took over from the British around the 1880s. By 1945, the US had fully assumed the role of protecting freedom of the seas.

11:00 – Freedom of navigation is a continuous struggle to maintain these freedoms. The Gulf of Tonkin and Pueblo incidents are examples of violent conflict involving freedom of navigation.

12:37 – Political will and military capability are needed to maintain freedom of navigation. Territorial seas are part of the global commons. The US has operated on territorial seas and also on high seas to protect navigation freedoms. Surveillance aircraft are also used to maintain freedom of navigation on the seas.

17:31 – Using international airspace to protect the seas has been developing for the last hundred years. The International Civil Aviation organization also supports airspace use to protect Freedom of Navigation.

19:00 – The threat of piracy greatly declined by the 20th century as states have cohered into stronger entities. Piracy existed around Somalia because it was a failed state. Before the Treaty of Paris in 1856, many states used privateers to attack enemy shipping. After the treaty, states agreed to stop using privateers. Since then, threats to freedom of navigation come from nation states.

21:40 – Chinese actions now are the greatest threats to freedom of navigation since Germany’s U-boat wars. During the Cold War, the US and Soviet Union worked in tandem to preserve navigational freedoms.   The Soviet Union needed it more than the US due to the location of their bases. China wants to undo parts of the international agreements on freedom of navigation and keep others out of the waters close to their territory. They want to dominate the seas within the first island chain including the South China Sea and the East China Sea.

27:56 – During WWII, Japan wanted to control the seas around East Asia through war. China is trying to achieve the same goal but through a “Finlandization” of its neighbors. China has used fishing claims to try to assert control in these areas but that doesn’t work within the existing international agreements.

32:57 – The main focus of the book is that freedom of the seas is not a condition that [exists] can exist without promotion and protection. If the US stops exercising rights over global seas, then these rights will erode for all nations.

34:45 – Wilson called for a protection of freedom of navigation by all nations and for all nations. Roosevelt also insisted on maintaining these global rights. A group of united nations met during WWII to maintain rights and later they met after the war to form the United Nations.

37:27 – Both authors have extensive experience in this field especially for events over the last 15 years and beyond. They used CIA archives and presidential libraries to do some research.

39:00 – Washington saw the US as a liberal actor that supported all nations and conducted trade with all as well. But European politics continued to drag the US into conflict and affected trade.

42:50 – He was most moved by the sacrifices made to protect US interests. John Negroponte made an impassioned speech on freedom of the seas to remind people how much US security depended on freedom of the seas.

44:58 – His next writing project might be on the free seas from the British perspective. He’s also working on a project about Japan’s relationship with sea.

45:35 – Many of his articles are on the SSRN.

Links

https://www.ssrn.com/en/

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: James Kraska

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, freedom of the seas, freedom of navigation, China, US, Britain, Germany, Japan, East China Sea, South China Sea, Quasi-War, Pueblo incident, WWII

19th C Naval Warfare book – “Progressives in Navy Blue” (Naval Institute Press, 2018) – Scott Mobley interview

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Dr. Scott Mobley studied history at the US Naval Academy and stayed in the Navy until retirement. He then went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to earn a PhD in history. The work for his PhD led to the publication of his book “Progressives in Navy Blue.”

1:23 – Scott talks about how he got into writing and history. He majored in history at the US Naval Academy. He stayed in the Navy until retirement and then got a PhD in history afterwards at the University of Wisconsin. He became interested in the book’s subject matter while pursuing his PhD. The book comes from his dissertation.

3:55 – The main themes of the book are maritime strategy, American Empire and the transformation of US Navy professional culture from 1873 to 1898.

5:35 – The modern Navy was born at the end of the 19th century from a Navy of mariner-warriors to warrior-engineers.

7:05 – The backdrop of an American empire changes much of what the Navy is about. The role and missions of the Navy changes.

9:46 – During the US Civil War, the US Navy went from a commercial mission to a whole new War Navy but it returns to the commercial mission after the war. But the commercial mission eventually moves to second place in the 1880s and becomes more of a war fighting Navy.

13:26 – Two groups of Navy thinkers emerged after the Civil War. One was based on technology. They were dissatisfied with the direction the Navy went during the 1870s.

17:18 – The other group of thinkers were strategic in focus. They worried more about planning for wars. They focused on policy and strategy rather than technology. Mechanism was the term used in the 19th century for technology.

19:07 – Bradley Fiske was on both sides of this debate. But in the 1890s these factions were fighting for limited resources.

26:06 – Torpedo technology is the one technology Congress supported right after the US Civil War. Technical subjects were taught to Navy officers at the new Torpedo School in Newport, Rhode Island.

30:26 – Fears of international turmoil and advancing technology abroad got Navy officers worried about future war involving the US.

32:05 – The Endicott Board was a joint board between the Army and Navy to discuss coastal fortifications. They discussed how to defend the US against modern mechanized threats.

36:43 – Navy officers embraced progressive methods and ideas quicker than other professionals in the 1880s and 1890s.

38:19 – Peacetime war planning efforts, contingency planning, began at this time for the first time in the US. There was no Naval plan for the US Civil War until the war started.

40:25 – Scott possibly found the first strategic peacetime war plan in the papers of a junior Naval officer. The plan was focused on a possible war with Canada. The plan was read by Mahan and possibly incorporated into Naval War College classes.

45:25 – Scott was surprised to learn that the building of modern warships was not motivated by empire as many scholars have claimed. Naval growth was spurred by a desire to defend the US. Some wanted empire but the majority wanted to protect US shores.

51:46 – The US did not have an empire-focused Navy until after 1898. The US had to quickly acquire gunboats, logistics ships, and other vessels to control its new empire.

 

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

 

Guests: Dr. Scott Mobley

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, navy, empire, mahan, civil war

WWII history book – “Seven at Santa Cruz” (Naval Institute Press, 2018) – Ted Edwards interview

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Ted Edwards grew up around WWII veterans and ended up studying history in college. He’s a mountaineer and involved with US Gymnastics and kept journals about his experiences. These varied interests resulted in a meeting with some famed WWII naval aviators and he ended up writing a book about one of them. I interviewed him about the new book.

[Editor’s note: Mr. Edwards mentioned an “A-team” but he meant Lundstrom’s First not A Team. He also mentions Joe Stapp but he meant John.]

1:58 – Ted first discusses how he got into writing and history. He was born in 1945 and grew up around WWII veterans. He became fascinated with military history. He learned how to write history at Stonybrook.

4:31 – He took up journaling and did so when he did mountaineering and was involved with US gymnastics.

5:01 – He attended an event for men who had been on the USS Enterprise and he met a man who who flew on the Enterprise and wrote a book about it. Ted was then introduced to Swede and they spoke a while.

7:21 – Swede had done a lot on the Enterprise but none of the official accounts of his exploits matched. They then discussed what actually happened during his career. Swede then let Ted record and then write about Swede’s career. It was an 8 year endeavor.

10:02 – The book talks about the A-team, which were the first group of pilots who fought the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. The book also talks about leadership failures including those of Admiral Kincaid. There is also a discussion of Medal of Honor politics.

12:20 – Swede saw a report about one of his important missions that was supposed to have been written by him but he said he was certain he never wrote the report. Swede kept his own journal during his life.

15:31 – Swede went on missions right after Pearl Harbor and said that even a month later the devastation was apparent.

18:43 – Bill Birch, Swede’s old squadron commander, had taught Swede and fellow pilots a lot about dogfighting which helped him achieve success.

20:50 – He switched to fighters after success as a bomber pilot.

22:04 – The day before the battle of Santa Cruz might be more important than the battle itself. Swede’s group had a terrible patrol that made the battle that much more difficult.

23:36 – Swede was shocked when he heard that Admiral Kincaid was in charge of the carrier task force before Santa Cruz because Kincaid wasn’t an aviator.

25:17 – Kincaid creates a Wildcat strike group to go out 300 hundred plus miles and Swede objected because of the distance but they’re sent out.

27:08 – The patrol found nothing and returned late even though almost none of them was qualified for night landing. Then the Enterprise wasn’t where it was supposed to be and it was dark. They followed an oil slick to find the ship.

33:31 – The US rotated its veteran aviators to train young pilots whereas the Japanese used their best pilots until they died. Swede didn’t like being made an instructor but he did enjoy being an instructor once he started.

37:31 – He was made CO of the Constellation in the 1960s but there was a fatal accident that hurt his career. He took responsibility for it though.

40:31 – Ted interviewed a number of WWII naval aviators for the book.

45:09 – Swede told Ted about John Stapp who was studying the forces on pilots when they ejected from planes.   John used a high speed spinning sled to test this and Swede was offered a ride and declined because John got beat up by the machine. John became famous for this and got seat belts mandated for cars.

51:01 – Ted had to learn the format that Naval Institute Press used for his books before he could finish it.

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

 

Guests: Ted Edwards

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, stonybrook, corsair, wildcat, enterprise, constellation, aviation accidents, torpedo bombers, dive bombers, combat air patrol