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PREFACE

This is a multipurpose study. It is first and foremost the story of a naval officer and his times, times that were crucial in the history of the U.S. Navy. However, it is also the story of a man who, although the navy was the central, guiding factor in his life, was more than a naval officer. The connecting thread in these two stories is the character of Thomas C. Hart. If nothing else, Tommy Hart was a man of principle, and his principles and the actions they guide him to take are the theme of this work.

The central questions that are explored are: What forces and circumstances shaped Tommy Hart into an officer who was selected to be one of the U.S. Navy’s four full admirals on the eve of World War II? How did he carry out the responsibilities assigned to him? How did he react to the fate that befell him in that conflict? Attempting to answer those questions requires some probing of his personality, but this is no psychological biography. The suggestions made in a psychological vein are few and, although framed after discussions with professionals, they are not intended to be in any way scientific; they are merely attempts to answer questions that are frankly beyond my capacity to answer otherwise.

While being of interest because of his fifty-two-year career that spanned three wars and his varied service in destroyers, submarines, battleships, industrial plants, academic institutions, a fleet command, the first Allied naval command, and the U.S. Senate, Thomas Hart is significant because of where he was between 1939 and 1942 and because he left a written record of his life and times. Aside from Admiral Kimmel’s Story, which reads much like a defense lawyer’s brief, and Admiral Ernest J. King’s collaborative effort, Fleet Admiral King, there are no firsthand accounts of how the senior officers in the U.S. Navy saw the coming of the war or reacted in its early months. There are numerous valuable histories, including Samuel Eliot Morison’s History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, that give overviews, and there are some first-person accounts, such as Captain Robert J. Bulkley’s At Close Quarters: PT Boats in the United States Navy. Histories of the Asiatic Fleet, however, are narrow, novelistic, or shot full of inaccuracies. Unfortunately, from a historical point of view, the army and air forces participants in World War II were prolific writers and their actions have attracted much wider attention than anything written about the navy. The most obvious case in point is that of General Douglas MacArthur, who wrote his memoirs, whose aides wrote their memoirs, and about whom more than a dozen creditable books have been written, including a monumental study published in 1978 and a popular account published in 1979.

Not only was Hart in a position to observe events in the Far East and, through his correspondence, to keep up with developments in Washington, he also maintained a daily diary which gives a unique perspective on what was happening and how he was reacting to it. If that were not enough, immediately after returning to the United States in 1942, he wrote a lengthy narrative of events, to which he later added a supplement. Thus, he left a running account of developments in the Far East.

The period Hart spent in the Philippines and in Java was historically momentous and he was a controversial actor in the drama. Here it should be noted that, in writing this biography, I have attempted to avoid apologizing for Hart or defending him against his critics, unless apology and defense seemed to me justified. He never wrote a justification of his actions, nor would he, I believe, want anyone else to do so. When he was wrong he admitted it and accepted the consequences. This account attempts to follow that admirable example.

Tommy Hart’s diary obviously was a valuable resource in charting his activities and feelings. Let me quickly add that I am aware of the pitfalls of relying too heavily on a personal diary; valid questions can be raised about why a person keeps such a record. My impression is that Tommy Hart did so in large part to vent reactions to people and events that would have been destructive if vented in any other way and equally destructive if kept locked inside himself. One thing is certain. He did not maintain the diary to apologize either for or to himself: in it he is fully as hard on himself as some suggest he was on them. The most amazing thing about the diary and the mass of other Hart material, which includes hundreds of letters between him and his trusted confidante, his wife Caroline Brownson Hart, and the invaluable series of oral history interviews he gave is that they are so consistent. If Hart says he said “so and so” to a superior on “such and such” a date, a check of the record proves in every case that that is precisely what he said and that it was said when he claims it was. His “geese” do not become “swans”; he does not tell one thing to one person and something else to another. His records are as honest and as straightforward as he was. He kept letters that praised him and, although it must have hurt like the devil, he also kept those that condemned him for making mistakes or losing the lives of loved ones. There was no cant about Tommy Hart, and while the perceptive historian who interviewed him for his oral history and later came to know him well observed that “he was not a transparent personality,” the twin virtues of honesty and fairness do provide a constant guiding beam in charting the life of Tommy Hart.