"Admiral Leahy had served with Roosevelt since FDR had been assistant secretary of the Navy and enjoyed the president's complete confidence. Marshall, Roosevelt's personal choice for chief of staff, brought a single-minded, take-no-prisoners dedication to his task- combined with a remarkable sensitivity to political nuance at the highest level. Arnold, underneath his affable exterior, had a genius for organization urgently required to create an air force virtually from scratch. King, to some extent, was odd man out: fiercely Anglophobic, incredibly stubborn, not as gifted intellectually as his colleagues, but a powerful command presence that the Navy needed after Pearl Harbor. FDR said King shaved with a blowtorch, and it was that fierceness that propelled the Navy, even when King was wrong (as he was in early 1942, when he refused to convoy ships in American waters)."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Military leaders from the United StatesUnited States Navy peoplePeople from IowaNavy Cross recipientsUnited States Ambassadors to France
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Jean Edward Smith, FDR (2007), p. 546-547
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_D._Leahy
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
William D. Leahy
30 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by William D. Leahy β
Related Quotes
"[MacArthur's "Old Soldiers Never Die" speech was of] such a superlative quality of excellence... that there is no othβ¦"
"I did not see Julius Caesar's return to Rome, but I am sure that in comparison it looked like a deuce of spades."
"I was there."
"Throughout the war, the four of us- Marshall, King, Arnold, and myself- worked in the closest possible harmony. In thβ¦"
"In the Pacific we gave our enemies a costly lesson in amphibious warfare, just as in Europe we, with our allies, demoβ¦"
"Once it had been tested, President Truman faced the decision as to whether to use it. He did not like the idea, but wβ¦"
"The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling was that in being the first β¦"
"Perhaps there is some hope that its capacity for death and terror among the defenseless may restrain nations from usiβ¦"
"Far less known than other leaders of World War II, Leahy was content to perform his services for his country and for β¦"
"Everybody may have peace if they are willing to pay any price for it. Part of this any price is slavery, dishonor of β¦"