35th Annual Admiral Nimitz Symposium - 2022: Craig Symonds Guest Speaker

www.pacificwarmuseum.org/
“I Will be Lucky to Last Six Months”: Chester Nimitz in 1942
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz was thrust into the command of the Pacific Fleet at a perilous moment. He took up the task on the last day of 1941 when the wreckage of the battleship fleet was still smoldering from the Japanese attack three weeks before. From the start, he was under pressure from a public that was eager for revenge, a boss (Ernest J. King) who badgered him to initiate an immediate offensive, and an administration that was committed to fighting “Germany First.” The pressures on him were crushing. In March, he wrote his wife that it was possible he would soon be replaced.
Instead, Nimitz quietly and efficiently re-built the fleet, fended off unrealistic demands of his superiors, adjudicated the quarrels of his subordinates, and employed his scarce resources to keep the Japanese off balance. He acted boldly to defend Midway and sustained the Marines’ precarious hold on their beachhead on Guadalcanal. Throughout the perilous year of 1942, he was a model of effective theater command.
Speaker Bio:
Craig L. Symonds is professor of history emeritus at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he taught for thirty years and served as History Department Chair. From 2017 to 2020 he was the Ernest J. King Distinguished Professor of Maritime History at the U.S. Naval War College, in Newport, RI. He is a four-time recipient of the Federal Government’s Superior Civilian Service Medal, and in 2014 he received the Dudley W. Knox Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Naval Historical Foundation. He is a Director Emeritus of the Admiral Nimitz Foundation.
Symonds is the author of seventeen books, including Lincoln and His Admirals, which won the 2009 Lincoln Prize, and Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History (2005) which won the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Prize for Naval History. His books on World War II include The Battle of Midway (2011), Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings (2014), and World War II at Sea: A Global History (2018). His newest book is Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay (2022).
Special Thanks to Symposium Donors and Sponsors:
Humanities for Texas
Fischer and Weiser
Hilmy Cellars
and several private donors.
Book: Nimitz at War
store.pacificwarmuseum.org/pr...
This is a recording from the 35th Annual Admiral Nimitz Symposium: 2022.
For more information about symposiums, webinars, and our mission please visit us online:
www.pacificwarmuseum.org/
NMPW Copyright 2022

[@peterlewellyn2389]

Very simply, I see Nimitz as the George Washington of the Pacific Theater. He was intelligent, just, courteous, and effective, but he knew when he needed to relieve an officer who could not handle the situation. Those who have studied General Washington, I believe, would agree wholeheartedly.

[@parrot849]

I’m in 100% agreement with your assessment and comparison of General (later President) George Washington, and Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz; Except that the admiral didn’t have wooden teeth!

[@wellsbengston4132]

​@@parrot849Neither did George Washington

[@parrot849]

@@wellsbengston4132 - Okay, I’ll bite(no pun intended). What’s the real story about the wooden teeth thing?

[@wellsbengston4132]

@@parrot849 Throughout his life Washington employed numerous full and partial dentures that were constructed of materials including human, and probably cow and horse teeth, ivory (possibly elephant), lead-tin alloy, copper alloy (possibly brass), and silver alloy. It’s quite possible that some of his dentures, particularly after they had been stained, took on a wooden complexion, but wood was never used in the construction of any of his dental fittings.

[@richardbennett1856]

Anything that includes Craig Simmonds is extremely entertaining, informative and honest. I'm honored to get a seat at the presentation.

[@Tony-Rizzo212]

What an awesome lecture!!!

[@styven77]

His course on the Pacific War on the Great Courses channel is fantastic, I've watched it twice.

[@DanielMulloy-bg6gw]

Nimitz was everything we needed in a leader, then and now!

[@AdmiralYeti8042]

If I had to summarize everything I’ve ever read of Nimitz, He was the right man at the right time in the right place. If we are ever faced with a modern circumstance that requires the level of decision and management that the Pacific war required of Chester Nimitz, I hope and pray we have a person stashed away somewhere that has the capability to rise to the occasion and fill the role of being able to put the right people in place to take ownership of the problems at hand and wrestle the bear of logistics to get them what they need when and where they need it to win.

[@craigb4913]

Currently listening to his book Nimitz At War. A great lesson on leadership. Highly recommend it.

[@liviervilla6045]

Have read the biography of Fleet Admiral Nimitz, Churchill's six volumes of the History of World War II, Inside the Third Reich and Spandau, The Secret Diaries, by Albert Speer, and Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan, by Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya, but I must say, Professor Symonds' lecture was excellent.

[@wbiro]

Great behind the scenes history.

[@haldorasgirson9463]

One of my classmates attended West Point in 1976. Very intense and smart woman. Sadly she washed out.

[@peterlewellyn2389]

I don't think anyone in professor Symonds class ever fa\ell asleep.

[@08jag81]

I don't buy his story on the "flight to nowhere".

[@MrKen-wy5dk]

11:50 Twelve years later???

[@seanlander9321]

1942 was the year that Britain turned on Australia. The treachery was the end of their empire because it proved that the mutual alliance was false.

[@larryyoung5757]

The best thing King did was to make the US Navy’s voice heard by the command of US forces. Otherwise he was a real dick to his force commanders, always the Monday morning quarterback. Nimitz’ subterfuge to get Halsey to Midway was one of the keys to winning the battle. King continuously criticized Ray Spruance for not pursuing the enemy fleet aggressively after decisively winning two major carrier fleet battles, the only US admiral to do so without leaving landing forces and their support groups stranded. King was a dour critic of his commanders, possibly the best strategic commanders in the US. Operations

[@bigwoody4704]

Montgomery was a bigger insubordinate dick - and dug out doug to. At least King tried to stop IKE and FDR rolling over for Winston/Brooke like a puppy rubbing their tummies. The very limited military partner in the ETO/Med tossing out edicts. I respect their fighting men but many of their officers were fox hunting fauntleroys pulled off their estates

[@hoppish088]

Craig Symonds is mistaken. Wendy Lawrence is in the second class of women to attend the Naval Academy, 1981. She was not in any classroom at Annapolis is 1976. 1977 maybe, if he taught Western Civilization to plebes. EZ 25 1981.

[@lieshtmeiser5542]

I get the impression you dont like Craig Symonds.

[@DanielMulloy-bg6gw]

​@@lieshtmeiser5542 ha, I thought the same thing.... I trust the prof. Memory over this guy's Comment!

[@jameseaton905]

"Lawrence graduated from Fort Hunt High School in Alexandria, Virginia in 1977.[5] She went on to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science in Ocean Engineering." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_B._Lawrence

[@david24262]

Does it matter? The lecture is about Nimitz not Lawrence.

[@douglasbuck8986]

Back when the military leadership wasnt politically orientated...

[@Lawschoolsuccess]

Nimitz did well in the beginning but he only executed War Plan Orange. War Plan Orange was never meant to be executed with the massive military power that he was eventually given. The power that he possessed was not used well at all. You can see that in Iwo Jima and and Okinawa. While he almost walked on water in the early days he clearly stumbled and did not do well at all in the later years. Overall he would rate a B but not the ass kissing these professors give him. The same is true of Halsey and Spruance. They all had their good moments but none of them changed when the power they possessed changed. If you look at the success of the American military you have to be floored by how phenomenal the ranks of Major and below were. It was those lower ranks and their consistent A ratings that made up for the serious mistakes made by those ranks above them. The same problems exist today. We have extremely good ranks of Major and below but well over 70% of the Admirals and Generals are worthless.

[@johnfleet235]

When you say Nimitz would rate a "B" you are looking at the Pacific War with hindsight. Look at it from the point of view of December 1941. Carrier aviation was still relatively new, and the planes were constantly changing. War Plan Orange did not fully take the aircraft carrier into consideration. Plus, the German First policy put War Plan Orange on the back burner. No one with the exception of the Japanese starting in April 1941 had ever operated a carrier striking force to attack the enemy. Nimitz, Halsey or Spruance just like the Japanese had to learn how to manage carrier task forces and to supply those forces with fuel, food, planes, ammunition and medical supplies. Nimitz had pioneered underway replenishment of Navy ships, but it took time to build the infrastructure needed to maintain the Big Blue Fleet. Both Halsey and Spruance had their role to play in the Pacific War. The genius of Nimitz is that he was able to use their skills to effectively fight the war. Halsey was the guy to go in and take chances to win. Spruance was the man that knew what his boss wanted and went out and executed Nimitz's plans.

[@bigwoody4704]

@@johnfleet235 ya you could do better ripping those much better than he. The enemy gets a vote I'm sure law school there could handle the massive Kamikaze attacks no problem.Because like everyone sinks 4 aircraft carriers in a day. Hell it took half the Royal Navy to sink a Battleship,and they did that with bi planes