When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, the United States and NATO were losing the Cold War. The USSR had superiority in conventional weapons and manpower in Europe, and had embarked on a construction programme to gain naval pre-eminence. But Reagan had a plan.Reagan pushed Congress to build the navy back to its 1945 strength. He gathered a circle of experienced naval planners, including the author, to devise an aggressive strategy. New radars, sensors and emissions technology would make ghosts of US submarines and surface fleets. They would operate aircraft carriers in Arctic waters which no navy had attempted. The Soviets, surrounded by their forward naval strategy, bankrupted their economy trying to keep pace. It wasn’t long before the Berlin Wall fell and the USSR was disbanded.

When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, the United States and NATO were losing the Cold War. The USSR had superiority in conventional weapons and manpower in Europe, and had embarked on a construction programme to gain naval pre-eminence. But Reagan had a plan.Reagan pushed Congress to build the navy back to its 1945 strength. He gathered a circle of experienced naval planners, including the author, to devise an aggressive strategy. New radars, sensors and emissions technology would make ghosts of US submarines and surface fleets. They would operate aircraft carriers in Arctic waters which no navy had attempted. The Soviets, surrounded by their forward naval strategy, bankrupted their economy trying to keep pace. It wasn’t long before the Berlin Wall fell and the USSR was disbanded.

From Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Navy comes the incredible story of that service, beginning to end. John Lehman focuses on the important ships, interesting people, and decisive battles in American naval history from the Revolutionary War to the present day. Everyone and everything in these pages is larger than life. Some of the men are legends. Lehman covers, among others, the Revolutionary War's John Paul Jones (of "I have not yet begun to fight" fame); David Glasgow "Damn the torpedoes" Farragut of the Civil War; and the recently retired Hyman G. Rickover, the "high priest" of the nuclear submariners and his stormy, controversial relationship with Lehman himself. He also uses little-known diaries and accounts to tell the stories of the individual, unknown sailors who made it all possible. Then there are the ships: from the U.S.S. Constitution and C.S.S. Alabama to the ships of today's Navy including yesterday's nuclear-powered Nimitz supercarriers and today's superfast, high-tech Arleigh Burke destroyers just rolling off their blocks in Maine's Bath Ironworks. And finally, of course, the battles, thrillingly recounted from the Battle of New Orleans to the Battle of Midway to Grenada (which is more exciting than you thought).

When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, the United States and NATO were losing the Cold War. The USSR had superiority in conventional weapons and manpower in Europe, and had embarked on a construction programme to gain naval pre-eminence. But Reagan had a plan.Reagan pushed Congress to build the navy back to its 1945 strength. He gathered a circle of experienced naval planners, including the author, to devise an aggressive strategy. New radars, sensors and emissions technology would make ghosts of US submarines and surface fleets. They would operate aircraft carriers in Arctic waters which no navy had attempted. The Soviets, surrounded by their forward naval strategy, bankrupted their economy trying to keep pace. It wasn’t long before the Berlin Wall fell and the USSR was disbanded.

When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, the United States and NATO were losing the Cold War. The USSR had superiority in conventional weapons and manpower in Europe, and had embarked on a construction programme to gain naval pre-eminence. But Reagan had a plan.Reagan pushed Congress to build the navy back to its 1945 strength. He gathered a circle of experienced naval planners, including the author, to devise an aggressive strategy. New radars, sensors and emissions technology would make ghosts of US submarines and surface fleets. They would operate aircraft carriers in Arctic waters which no navy had attempted. The Soviets, surrounded by their forward naval strategy, bankrupted their economy trying to keep pace. It wasn’t long before the Berlin Wall fell and the USSR was disbanded.

From Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Navy comes the incredible story of that service, beginning to end. John Lehman focuses on the important ships, interesting people, and decisive battles in American naval history from the Revolutionary War to the present day. Everyone and everything in these pages is larger than life. Some of the men are legends. Lehman covers, among others, the Revolutionary War's John Paul Jones (of "I have not yet begun to fight" fame); David Glasgow "Damn the torpedoes" Farragut of the Civil War; and the recently retired Hyman G. Rickover, the "high priest" of the nuclear submariners and his stormy, controversial relationship with Lehman himself. He also uses little-known diaries and accounts to tell the stories of the individual, unknown sailors who made it all possible. Then there are the ships: from the U.S.S. Constitution and C.S.S. Alabama to the ships of today's Navy including yesterday's nuclear-powered Nimitz supercarriers and today's superfast, high-tech Arleigh Burke destroyers just rolling off their blocks in Maine's Bath Ironworks. And finally, of course, the battles, thrillingly recounted from the Battle of New Orleans to the Battle of Midway to Grenada (which is more exciting than you thought).