#18
Post
by Carl Schwamberger » 04 Dec 2019, 04:24
King despised the press. However, a few months after appointment as Navy CoS he began changing Navy policy from 'Tell Them Nothing' to a much more team like arraignment. As part of this he started inviting key members or the Washington press, reporters, editors, and managers/owners to his home for cocktails several times a month. In these sessions he discussed general strategy and other details over the line of secrecy. This gave the in crowd among the press context and clarification of the mass of news stories they wrote on the military, cultivated allies for King in the press, and developed a professional relationship. King still did not like them, but as Alan-Brooke remarked he was shrewd . Kings change in policy gave the mass of Americans a better understanding of what the Pacific war was all about and a much stronger sense of connection to the USN. The cinema news reels showing dead Marines and destroyed vehicles on the shore of Betio Island at the end of 1943 shocked the public. And it gave them a dose of understanding just how serious or difficult finishing the war was going to be. Kings decisions concerning public information honesty worked and were a model lost to later generations of military leaders.
I suspect that if King had personal feelings about the Brits he shrewdly suppressed them. Note that when the US was down to a single aircraft carrier in the Pacific in the winter of 1942-43 King did not reject a Brit carrier operating as part of the Enterprises Task Force. Look up the USS Robin if you don't know this story.