Thank admiralo robie for his generous hospitality. I should also mention that we are here representing the friends of the world war ii memorial. Named for ours leader, the founder of the friends. You may know that we conduct ceremonies on the important commemorative dates during the Second World War throughout the year yesterday, we commemorated the invasion of torch. On saturday, veterans day. In 1947, a new american secretary of state spoke at the 200th anniversary of princeton university. He concluded his remarks this was a former army general, george marshall, who had just become secretary of state by saying he could not imagine a graduate of that institution having completed his education the text of the pen the lesion roar through saturdays. The faculty mustve of been astonished. The point was that good officers and good citizens who take their work seriously are lifelong students of history. Our speaker this morning, david kennedy, is perhaps the most extraordinary practitioner of nowcraft in a university, with us. Dr. Kennedy is a graduate of standard stanford. He was educated in new haven. He was the american heart is worth professor at harvard. Has written books about American History and culture, one of which is probably known to most of you, a book called freedom from fear. This is a history of the depression, but most family a synoptic history of the United States during the Second World War. Me,epresents, it seems to the very best in university teaching. He is an evangelist on behalf of his craft and is the poet john dryden said of his here is gods plenty. Dr. Kennedy. [applause] dr. Kennedy thank you very much for the uncommonly graciously, not to mention poetic, introduction. Thank you very much. I would like to say what an honor it is to be invited to give the Aden Williams lecture. Whom mybout predecessors were on this stage. A great the duty a great intimidationor and that i feel being on the stage. It is the moment when this country really had to come to grips with this great conflict event ofs the center World History in the 20th century. Was uttered by winston chill trail on the floor of parliament on august 16, 1945. The day after the japanese emperor had indicated japans intentions of surrender, which happened formally back at the uss missouri a little bit than a load than a month later. When i read the transcript of that speech, it jumped off the page at me, not least of all because it summarized a great bit of history in a single declarative sentence. It also rendered the united churchillay rendered the United States as a plural noun. It is said that before the civil war, the United States were and after the civil war, the United States was. Hold the simple declared of sentence in your mind as we go through this mornings lecture. There are certain premises that underlie my remarks as morning. The first is that world war ii was transformational in a true a dramatic way, both in the life of the planet. Transformations that the United States was responsible for and participated in did not just happen to they considered decisions during the war. Lets go back to that remark again. The United States stand at this moment at the summit of the world. Improbablest how that statement would have been from the point of view of 1940, just five years earlier. Year of the 11th Great Depression, which began in 1929. By extrapolating backward, the standards of poverty developed in the 1960s, historians reconstruct at a party line. We believe 45 of white households and 95 of africanamerican households were under the party line. 11 years of depression, one Hoover Administration and two roosevelt administrations had not lifted the United States out of depression. Its also the case that 1940, 1939, the United States was living in the most isolationist phase of its history with respect to its relations to the rest of the world. The United States, within the preceding two decades, had refused to join the league of nations after world war i, even though leg was the brainchild of the american president , because it is on the repatriation of the british and french loans to the United States, loans made during onld war i, which insistence repatriation the u. S. Passes first immigration restriction legislation and cut immigration back by about 90 from its preworld war i levels. And the United States congress had passed the smooth holly terror in 1930, effectively tariff in 1930, effectively shutting off trade. This was not only a country in 1940 blighted by what appeared to be a permanent depression, but also a country that had marker after marker declared itself to be in its most isolationist phase since the founding of the republic. Citizend you had been a so imagine you had been a citizen walking down a street in their seeing verde speakers say so imagine you had been a citizen walking down a street in new york city and heard a speaker say, emerged as the leader of the holy reconstructed architecture for security and Economic Development and we will caps off depression and enter a decade of a quarter century of a year, growth, 4 sustained over 25 years, the likes of which this country has never seen before. If you had heard anybody say that in 1940, you would have understood immediately, reflexively, and correct daily and correctly that there is no basis for that. That that isow, exactly what happened and is insanely insane predictions of 1940 all caps a pass by 1945. All came to pass by 1945. The United States stands at the summit of the world. These are subtle reminders of what the world felt like at the time. Thisp roth described postwar moment immediately after the war as the greatest collection of inebriation in all American History. [laughter] when the country was positively havingith the feeling of won a just war and embarking on a postwar period of world leadership and widely shared domestic prosperity. Thats when i think what if i looks like. Lets peel back for when the United States entered the war. I want to share some remarks with your people who were intimately involved with the history of that moment by way of suggesting that, even as late as december 1941, it was not clear to many people, at least not how hello when, where or why or for what goal the United States would be fighting the war. So the firstcome some the mouth of adolf hitler. Ear witness what pearlrd the moment of the harbor attack. He did not know anything of consequence about the japanese planning that attack. The japanesegerman attack was japanesegerman alliance was imperfect. Taylors first reaction to the firstharbor hitlers reaction to the pearl harbor was one of relation. At almost precisely the same moment, a few hundred miles away, Winston Churchill heard. He same news over the wire he had no advance knowledge of the attack and we dont know what he said at the moment, but we do know what he said what when he after the war heard the pearl harbor news eare. Thee the following United States was in the war, up to the neck and into the death. We had won after all. England would live. Slept thebed and sleep of the saved and the thankful. What is remarkable about these two remarks is here are two major actors in this great historical aphis owed makingcal episode absolutely opposite appraisals of what would now be the implications of american belligerency. What this tells us historically is, even as late of december 1941, it was not clear how the United States would fight the war, with what composition of forces and what timetable and guided by what strategic doctrine. The next remark comes from the pen of this man, the German Foreign minister. Here he is in his ss uniform. He wrote a memorandum for adolf hitler. Germany had declared war on the United States on december 11. He rode a memorandum for his furor in which he tried to explain the locations of this new fact, that the United States was now a former formal belligerent. He wrote we have just one year to cut russia off from her military supplies. And thent succeed munitions potential of the United States joins up with the manpower potential of the russians, the war will enter a phase in which we show only be able to win it with difficulty. That was a much marsh rude and Accurate Appraisal than hitler himself announced upon hearing the pearl harbor news of what would be the longerterm strategic implications of american belligerence. The final document from this from the commander of the Japanese Imperial fleet, the man who planned the pearl harbor attack and also the midway attack six months later. To break the timeframe of december 1941 here briefly, because this document comes from september 1940. When the u. S. Japanese relationship was beginning to go seriously sour and yamamoto prepared a memorandum for his Prime Minister, the last civilian Prime Minister in japan before the war. He wrote the following. September, 1940. If im told to fight, regardless of the consequences, i shall run wild for the First Six Months or year. But i have utterly noconfidence for a second or third year. Therefore, mr. Prime minister, the you will endeavor to avoid a japaneseamerican war. Very document coming from the end of the man who was later test with the job of starting the war. Using roughly the same timeframe as riven through did speaking to. He had no confidence for a second or third year. Lets just give those thoughts a look whate take happens after december 1941, when the United States formally enters the war. , if idents at stanford can let them talk frankly about how they feel about the study of history, have been known to tell them want to quote exactly, professor kennedy, the trouble with the study of history is its just one dam thing after another. [laughter] if you take nothing away from the discussion this morning, i hope it is the thought that would deposit of the summit of the world, to use churchills language, 1945, is not, repeat not just the story of one dam thing after another. Is the story of the realization of some very shrewdly taken Strategic Decisions about how to fight a particular kind of war on a particular timetable with a particular composition of forces towards particular strategic objectives. In the history of warfare, the United States the way the United States waged world war ii was something of a rarity, a country being the prosecutor war from beginning to end on the basis of a plan with which it began. Usually war plans are badly disruptive or revised over the course of fighting, but to a remarkable degree, the United States succeeded in fighting its kind of war, and to make a point of looking back to later, americas world war ii is like nobody elses world war ii. We fought a war on our own terms and succeeded in doing so in a degree that was truly remarkable in the context of both that conflict and in the history of warfare. I remind you again of how improbable was to churchills conclusion about the United States standing at the summit of the world was in 1945, especially when measured against the perspective of 1940, the last full peacetime year in the United States. Lets go back to that reflection again. Im going to try to tell a story here and you might even think of it as a parable. About how the United States fought on the basis of a grand strategic doctrine i will try to illustrate by selling i have called a tale of three cities. This is the first city. Sometimes ask people guest mice when i speak about this on this basis. What are the three cities and the stories of which added together explain america strategy and world war ii . One of the more interesting responses to that i ever got was for in oak ridge, tennessee and new mexico. The three principal sides of the manhattan project. To this a story similar with those three cities, but thats not the ones am going to use. This is my pedagogical device of giving us framework in which to understand the development and implementation of american grand strategy in a narrative form. Rulon on cities are the base of the river in france, stalingrad in russia, and washington, d. C. Where we said today. Lets begin with rulon france. 1942. This tale of three cities takes place in about a sixmonth frame from august, 1942 to february, 1943. We understand what happened in these three cities in that timeframe, we will understand the pattern of american grand strategy and how it was that the United States got deposited the at the summit of the world in 1945. , the fleet of one dozen be 24 american bombers took off from their bases in the south of england even though they are supposed to be self defending aircraft, they were escorted much of the way by a swarm of british firefighters for insurance sake and they bombed a railroad marshaling yard in rouen, france. By the usual standards of the measurement of these kinds of things and world war ii was a very successful raid. All of the ordnance dropped on the primary target, no loss of aircraft and a loss of crew. Thats not why i bring it up here. Its important for a couple of reasons. Rulons the first instance of implementation of a strategic doctrine that had been developed about a decade earlier in the War Department about how to find the next war, it got for billy river to be one and the idea was to cash in deeply on the insights of italian theorist published in a book in the early 20s called the command of the air. He argued that there was a technology now available and increasingly being developed, the longrange aircraft, not just tactical air support for fighters in combat troops on the ground, but aircraft could be developed that could penetrate deeply into the enemys airspace, cripple his economy by destroying production facilities and energy infrastructure, transportation of her structures infrastructure and not incidentally, by so terrorizing a word he used with abandon, terrorizing the Army Civilian population so that his public would sue for peace. He thought this would be a revolutionary style of warfare that would leverage the advantages of those nations that can best mobilize and deploy their scientific and engineering and manufacturing resources. This was a strategy madetoorder for the United States, given the depths of its engineering, scientific, and manufacturing resources, and it was decided that in the event of a future conflict, the United States would build its armed forces around the principal arm of a large Strategic Air force. Important to emphasize here, strategic. I dont need to belabor the point for this audience, but Strategic Bombing is to be distinguished from tactical air support. The object is not to deliver your blow against the enemies force in the field of combat, but against the enemies civilian , both for purposes of destroying his infrastructure, terrorizing the civilian population. This is the first point i want to emphasize here is the tale of rulon tells us that the United States meet its principal met on the power of Strategic Bombing to win the war in a way that would be sparing of american manpower terrorizing the civilin population. And american resources, because we had abundant resources of the kind that would be used for this purpose. Theres another reason to emphasize this raid. Its because of a man who is highlighted in this photograph. Here is his name. In thathe lead pilot raid in august, 1942. Is everyone in this room will appreciate, is also the pilot of the enola gay that delivers the first atomic bomb attack in history on hiroshima. Just about three years later. Almost to the day, certainly to the month. In the course of this one mans career, and world war ii, you might say we have a kind of summary statement of this principle promise of american grand strategy, which was to build a Strategic Bombing force that would deliver its principal blow not against the enemy in the field, but against the enemies homeland and its capacity to support both material and psychologically his forces in the field. Chapter two in the parable, tale of three cities has to do with the city in which we are all gathered, washington, d. C. And a famous dispute, it was famous of the time, largely been lost to the historical record. One of the army history green books, theres a whole volume devoted to this. Was called the feasibility dispute. Thethe War Department 1941ipal author drew up in a master plan called the victory the unitedp, for how states would mobilize its economy to fight the war that many people now saw coming over the horizon. The fantastically detailed document, right down to the number of chainsaws that will be required to harvest the timber that would need to be milled to build a chance to receive x number of troops and the amount of cotton and wool that would be needed for their uniforms and the amount small arms and bullets, enormously detailed document. It became the job of the man in to center of this photograph undertake the shifting of t