Edward J. Marolda Book order

A superbly illustrated guide to how the US Navy's most powerful fleet fought the Vietnam War, covering all of its elements from aircraft carriers and heavy cruisers to minesweepers and oilers.

The book explores the rich history of a significant yard, highlighting its connections to prominent figures like Washington and Lincoln. It details visits from royalty, historic waterfront events, and the influential Navy officers associated with it. Notable ships such as the USS Constitution and USS Constellation launched from its piers, while its factories produced powerful artillery for World Wars I and II, showcasing the yard's vital role in naval history.

Since the UN coalition's victory in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, journalists, generals, and historians have focused on the air blitz against Iraq and General Norman Schwarzkopf's "Hail Mary" maneuver around the desert flank of the Iraqi army, while the U.S. Navy has received relatively little attention. This book highlights the Navy's vital contribution to winning the GulfWar.The work also emphasizes that the U.S. Navy's presence and actions in the Persian Gulf in the years before the war helped the Bush administration persuade the Arab nations of the region and American's traditional allies to join the international effort against Iraq. Similarly, the navy has been an essential instrument of U.S. foreign policy since the end of Desert storm. As we can go to press in fall 1998, U.S. naval forces stand ready once again to carry out their political-military mission of compelling Iraqi compliance with UN resolutions against the development of weapons of mass destruction.The work stresses the Navy's involvement in joint and multinational operations. Ironically, the U.S. Navy worked long and hard during the Cold War preparing for armageddon at sea against the Soviet navy, a confrontation that navy envisioned fighting virtually alone. Actual operations were quite different. In the wars in Korea and Vietnam and the hostilities in Lebanon, Grenada, the Persian Gulf (1987-1988), and Panama, the navy routinely operated with U.S. ground and air forces and those of its global allies. Since this was also true of the GulfWar. We have elaborated on the Navy's interaction with the other U.S. armed services and with the navies of America's coalition partners.