The Recollections of Adm. Arleigh A. Burke, USN (Ret.), CNO Years, 1955-1961 : 1901-1996

With a career spanning from World War II to Korea to service as Chief of Naval Operations during the Eisenhower and Kennedy years, Admiral Arleigh Burke was instrumental in molding the Navy into the fleet that would eventually prevail in the Cold War and remain dominant to this day. From 1972 to 1981, Naval Institute oral historian John T. Mason Jr. spent a remarkable amount of time with Burke while conducting nearly 20 interviews with him, thus generating a sprawling four-volume oral history magnum opus, supplemented with various writings by Burke. The collection is the requisite starting point for any serious study of this officer and the era of U.S. naval history which bears his indelible imprint.

These interviews cover largely the period from 1955 to 1961 when Admiral Burke served as CNO. Included in the comments and discussion are: Eisenhower; Dulles; closing of the Suez Canal; development of Sidewinder; the President taking command of fleets away from CNO; DEW Line early warning system; Navy bases in Holy Loch and Rota; Nautilus expedition; Southeast Asia; President Kennedy; Vietnam; Amity cruise to South America; relations with foreign Navy heads; 1960 fire in New York shipyard where the Constellation was being repaired; involvement in hijacking of the Santa Maria; Bay of Pigs; the George Washington''s first voyage; and the U.S. merchant marine. Based on four interviews conducted by John T. Mason, Jr., from November 1972 through January 1973, this volume contains 249 pages of interview transcript plus an index. The transcript is copyright 1973 by the U.S. Naval Institute; the restrictions originally placed on the transcript by the interviewee have since been removed.