The Reminiscences of Adm. Arleigh Burke, USN (Ret.), vol. I, Special Series on Selected Subjects : 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.

The first interview was inspired by an invitation for Admiral Burke to participate in a Japanese TV documentary on the use of Japanese minesweepers during the Korean War. The second interview deals with the modern Japanese Navy and Burke''s role in it. The third interview deals with the Korean War when Burke was CNO Forrest Sherman''s unofficial representative in the war theater and later when he was Commander Cruiser Division Five. Interviews four through six deal with Burke''s long association with Admiral Marc Mitscher--in the crucial battles of the Central Pacific and later when Mitscher commanded the Eighth Fleet and the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. Based on six interviews conducted by John T. Mason, Jr., from July 1978 through March 1979. The volume contains 555 pages of interview transcript plus an index. The transcript is copyright 1979 by the U.S. Naval Institute; the restrictions originally placed on the transcript by the interviewee have since been removed.