Bibliographical Note
Wherever practicable, information on which the text of this volume is based was acquired from documents in government archives, and mainly from War Department records which postwar reorganization transferred to the Department of the Army. Of these, by far the largest and richest concentration is that of the Historical Records Section, Departmental Records Branch, Adjutant General's Office. In that section's far-reaching file cases in the Pentagon Building at Washington (and in equally accessible storage near by) are most of the varied documents that are precisely identified in the footnotes of the foregoing chapters. These records are indexed, appropriately arranged, and made available to the student within limits imposed by initial haste, wartime preoccupation, or plain human fallibility.
The footnote citations themselves best show the extent to which each of the various groups of records has been used for the purposes of the present volume, that is, examination of the role of the Chief of Staff and his Office in the days preceding World War II. Of first importance, naturally, are the papers pertaining to the Chief of Staff's Office and so filed. Of incomparable value among these, in proportion to volume, are the successive binders of Notes on Conferences in that office, recording critical decisions and the reasons for them and pointing the researcher's way-by self-indexing classification or by tally card, or often by what seems like the magic of the Records Section's veteran personnel-toward the full store of relevant documents. In practice this full store was normally found also under the broad classifications of the prewar General Staff Divisions (G-1, G-2, G-3, G-4, WPD) or of the elements of the prewar Special Staff (Adjutant General, Ordnance, Engineers, Quartermaster, etc.). These records, likewise in vaults of the Historical Records Section, contain copies of the more important documents previously mentioned, together with many supplementary records, and their numerical indexing usually led quickly to the items desired. Frequently the papers sought were in the equally available files of the Secretary of War or the Under Secretary (the latter, unfortunately, still incompletely reassembled in 1949) or separately held in the compact OPD files retained, in 1949, in General Staff possession.
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In the case of a particular file covering a critically important subject fully so far as one Staff division was concerned (with cross references to files of other divisions) the researcher was required to make exhaustive examination from beginning to end, with results justifying the extended labor. Thus, rich deposits of essential information on the building up of the prewar Army were found by painstaking study of literally everything in the capacious containers known as Office Chief of Staff 14440 and 16810, in G-1 15588, in G-4 31349 and 31773, and in WPD 3674 and 4161. For essential documents on the 1940-41 production and procurement of materiel, WPD 4321 and 4494 likewise called for full examination. Similar intensive treatment of OCS 51151 and G-1 3615, 15777, and 21151 proved them to be abundant sources of information on personnel procurement and selection. For national policy and war plans the search turned primarily to WPD 3493, 4175, and 4402, and for pioneering in weapons development to OCS 21157 and G-4 29552. And so on. A host of other files produced far less in volume of "ore" per file, yet supplied items of admirable quality. A great many patient searches inevitably produced little, and often nothing.
But not all documents in all files can be examined or even sampled and, if a task is to be completed by mortal, innumerable short cuts must be found. Within the Records Section itself effective short cuts are afforded by indexing and tally cards. These on countless occasions provided just what was needed, but because of the vastness and dispersion of the records and the inevitable incompleteness of indexing-together with the student's uncertainty whether documentary evidence of a given event actually exists or ever existed-it often proved both desirable and necessary to establish, first, a clew as to the possible whereabouts and nature of the evidence. This was accomplished in several ways-by correspondence with persons familiar with events during the decades prior to World War II, by interviews with such of those persons as could be readily reached, by examination of newspaper files covering the approximate dates of specific relevance (plus use of The New York Times Index in search of these dates), and by scrutiny of a great many other published works in book and magazine form and of unpublished studies whose generous authors made them available; by turning an attentive ear to the suggestions of unnumbered colleagues in historical labors, from within the Historical Division of the Army and corresponding establishments of Navy, Air Force, and Joint Chiefs, and from industrious and helpful, yet anonymous, toilers in the various record rooms. Suggestions from all these sources repeatedly pointed the way for the
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author and his research assistants to documentary sources which otherwise would have gone unexamined.
Even so, it was not always possible to uncover an elusive document which would satisfactorily fill an interval in the sequence of events. Where some added link was essential to the narrative, a substitute for documentation had to be sought. In such cases, which are not numerous, there was resort to interviews and correspondence, from which was obtained information appearing by all practicable tests to be reliable. Annotation indicates where this method was employed.
The specific sources recited in the annotation are many. They include, chiefly: regulations, orders, letters, memoranda, and drafts of such communications (the unrevised and even unused drafts frequently revealing profoundly interesting "first thoughts" on critical issues); minutes of or notes upon formal conferences of the Joint Board, the British-United States Staff Officers (in Washington, in London, and aboard U.S.S. Augusta in Argentia harbor), the War Council, the State-War-Navy Liaison Committee; the informal digests of momentous meetings of these and other groups within the walls of the White House or the old Munitions Building or the Navy Building or in less official surroundings; diaries kept during the prewar period; captured enemy papers and postwar interrogations dealing with prewar events; carefully prepared studies of complex situations, from within the General Staff divisions, service branches, the old Army and Navy War Colleges, the Air Force, the Munitions Board, the Industrial College, the Selective Service Board, the State Department, the Treasury Department, the Defense Aid Division and its efficient successor the Lend-Lease establishment; and reports of official missions and observers. There are numerous references to historical volumes of this series, UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II, both those already published and manuscripts of volumes still in preparation. There are repeated references to the manuscripts of Capt. Tracy B. Kittredge, USNR, which, while not themselves available for public examination, have been of great aid in pointing the way to accessible documents. Abbreviations found in both the text and the footnotes, except those that are self-explanatory or which refer to arbitrary file symbols, are explained in the glossary at the end of this volume.
Books and pamphlets studied (in many cases intensively) for their treatment of events discussed in this volume include:
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Appleman, Roy E., James M. Burns, Russell A. Gugeler, and John Stevens. See United States Army in World War II.
Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. I, Plans and Early Operations. Edited by Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate (University of Chicago Press, 1948). Also Historical Studies 25 and 46 in Archives of Air Historical Office.
Army and Navy Journal, Washington (various files for public record of statements).
Baxter, James P., Scientists Against Time (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1946).
Borchard, Edwin, "The Attorney-General's Opinion on the Exchange of Destroyers for Naval Bases," The American Journal of International Lam, XXXIV (1940), No. 4.
Bureau of the Budget, The United States at War (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1946).
Churchill, Winston, The Second World War, all volumes to 1949 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company).
Civilian Production Administration, Industrial Mobilization for War-History of the War Production Board and Predecessor Agencies 1940-1945 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1947).
Cline, Ray S. See United States Army in World War II.
Federal Register for text of various official documents.
Frye, William, Marshall, Citizen Soldier (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1947).
Gallup, George. See U. S. Army, Industrial College.
Greenfield, K. R., Robert R. Palmer, and Bell I. Wiley. See United States Army in World War 11.
Hagood, Johnson, The Services of Supply (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1927).
Hull, Cordell, The Memoirs of Cordell Hull (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1948).
Hart, Liddell, Sherman, Soldier, Realist, American (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc., 1929).
Joint Army and Navy Selective Service Committee, American Selective Service: A Brief Account of Its Historical Background and Its Probable Future Form (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1939).
Langer, William, Our Vichy Gamble (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1947). Also MS awaiting publication.
March, Peyton C., The Nation at War (New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1932).
Matloff, M., and E. M. Snell. See United States Army in World War II.
Millis, Walter, The Martial Spirit ( Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1931).
Morgenthau, Henry, "The Morgenthau Diaries" as printed in Collier's Magazine, specifically in the issue of 18 October 1947.
Morison, Samuel Eliot, The Battle of the Atlantic (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1947).
Morison, Samuel Eliot, The Rising Sun in the Pacific (Boston: Little Brown & Company, 1948).
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Morton, Louis. See United States Army in World War II.
Motter, T. H. Vail. See United States Army in World War II.
Nelson, Donald M., Arsenal of Democracy (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, Inc., 1946).
Nelson, Otto L., Jr., National Security and the General Staff (Washington: Infantry Journal Press, 1946),
Palmer, John McAuley, General Von Steuben (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1937) and America in Arms (Yale University Press, 1941).
Palmer, Robert R., Bell I. Wiley and William R. Keast. See United States Army in World War II.
Pearl Harbor Attack (including Report, exhibits, and also hearings of earlier official investigations), being the Hearings before the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack. Congress of the United States, 79th Congress, First Session (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1946), 39 volumes.
Pershing, John J., My Experiences in the World War (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, Inc., 1931).
Report of the Commission Appointed by the President to Investigate the Conduct of she War Department in the War wish Spain, 8 volumes, Senate Document 221, 6th Congress, 1st Session (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1899).
Roosevelt, Franklin D., Public Papers and Addresses (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1941).
Sherman, William T., Memoirs (New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc., 1931 edition).
Sherwood, Robert E., Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948).
Stettinius, Edward R., Lend-Lease: Weapon For Victory (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1944).
Stimson, Henry L. and McGeorge Bundy, On Active Service In Peace And War (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948).
United States Army (or War Department) Annual Reports of the Secretary of War, Assistant Secretary of War, Chief of Staff, Adjutant General, Chief of National Guard Bureau, et al., during numerous years from 1903 to 1941; Biennial Reports of the Chief of Staff (General Marshall); 1939-41 and 1941-43; U. S. Department of the Army, Office of the Adjutant General, Strength Accounting Branch, Strength of the Army (STM-30) Monthly Reports; War Department General Staff, Statistics Branch, Strength of the Military Establishment June 30, 1914 to June 30, 1926, Special Report 196, revised 22 January 1927; Industrial College Department of Research, Plant Surveys and Educational Orders in World War II, January 1947; Industrial College lecture by Dr. George Gallup (on public attitude on certain military problems); Report of Special Committee on Army Air Corps, 18 July 1934 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1934).
United States Army in World War II, volumes as follows:
Appleman, Roy E., James M. Burns, Russell A. Gugeler, and John Stevens, Okinawa: The Last Battle (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1948).
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Cline, Ray S., Washington Command Post: The Operations Division (awaiting publication).
Greenfield, K. R., Robert R. Palmer, and Bell I. Wiley, The Organization of Ground Combat Troops (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1940.
Matloff, M., and E. M. Snell, Strategy of Deployment (awaiting publication).
Morton, Louis, The Fall of the Philippines (awaiting publication).
Motter, T. H. Vail, The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia (awaiting publication).
Palmer, Robert R., Bell I. Wiley, and William R. Keast, The Procurement And Training Of Ground Combat Troops (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1948).
Winnacker, Rudolph A., The Secretaries (awaiting publication).
United States at War: Development and Administration of the War Program by the Federal Government. Prepared by War Records Section, Bureau of the Budget (Washington).
United States Congress, Hearings of the Military Affairs Committees of both Senate and House, also of certain subcommittees of the Appropriations Committees of both Senate and House throughout 1938-41.
United States Department of State, Peace and War, U. S. Foreign Policy, 1931-41 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1943).
Winnacker. Rudolph A. See United States Army in World War II.
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