Title Arming the nation for war : mobilization, supply, and the American war effort in World War II / Robert P. Patterson ; edited by Brian Waddell ; with a foreword by Robert M. Morgenthau

Edition First edition Published Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press, [2014] ©2014

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Description 1 online resource (xlv, 311 pages) : illustrations Series Legacies of war Legacies of war. Contents Introduction: Robert Porter Patterson and World War II -- A nation without arms -- The slow beginning -- Airplanes take five years -- A changing nation -- Altitudinal goals -- An offensive begins -- Alaska, Australia, the Persian Gulf -- Assault in force -- The end in Europe -- Concentration east -- Epilogue: industry, science, war, and the future Summary A decorated World War I veteran, Federal Judge Robert P. Patterson knew all too well the needs of soldiers on the battlefield. He was thus dismayed by America's lack of military preparedness when a second great war engulfed Europe in 1939--40. With the international crisis worsening, Patterson even resumed military training--as a forty-nine-yearold private--before being named assistant secretary of war in July 1940. That appointment set the stage for Patterson's central role in the country's massive mobilization and supply effort which helped the Allies win World War II. In Arming the Nation for War, a previously unpublished account long buried among the late author's papers and originally marked confidential, Patterson describes the vast challenges the United States faced as it had to equip, in a desperately short time, a fighting force capable of confronting a formidable enemy. Brimming with data and detail, the book also abounds with deep insights into the myriad problems encountered on the domestic mobilization front--including the sometimes divergent interests of wartime planners and industrial leaders--along with the logistical difficulties of supplying far-flung theaters of war with everything from ships, planes, and tanks to food and medicine. Determined to remind his contemporaries of how narrow the Allied margin of victory was and that the war's lessons not be forgotten, Patterson clearly intended the manuscript (which he wrote between 1945 and '47, when he was President Truman's secretary of war) to contribute to the postwar debates on the future of the military establishment. That passage of the National Security Act of 1947, to which Patterson was a key contributor, answered many of his concerns may explain why he never published the book during his lifetime. A unique document offering an insider's view of a watershed historical moment, Patterson's text is complemented by editor Brian Waddell's extensive introduction and notes. In addition, Robert M. Morgenthau, former Manhattan district attorney and a protégé of Patterson's for four years prior to the latter's death in a 1952 plane crash, offers a heartfelt remembrance of a man the New York Herald-Tribune called "an example of the public-spirited citizen." Brian Waddell, an associate professor of political science at the University of Connecticut, is the author of The War Against the New Deal: World War II and American Democracy and Toward the National Security State: Civil-Military Relations during World War II Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-301) and index Notes Print version record Subject Patterson, Robert Porter, 1891-1952. SUBJECT Patterson, Robert Porter, 1891-1952 Patterson, Robert Porter, 1891-1952 fast Patterson, Robert Porter 1891-1952 gnd Subject United States. War Department -- Procurement SUBJECT United States. War Department fast Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer Bitterfeld gnd Subject Industrial mobilization -- United States -- History -- 20th century World War, 1939-1945 -- Logistics -- United States World War, 1939-1945 -- Economic aspects -- United States World War, 1939-1945 -- United States Industrial mobilization -- United States -- Evaluation World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, American HISTORY -- General. HISTORY -- Europe -- Western. Armed Forces -- Procurement Armed Forces -- Supplies and stores -- Management Economics Industrial mobilization Logistics Industrie Logistik Mobilmachung Versorgung Weltkrieg 1939-1945 SUBJECT United States -- Armed Forces -- Supplies and stores -- Management Subject United States Genre/Form Personal narratives History Personal narratives Personal narratives. Récits personnels. Form Electronic book Author Waddell, Brian, editor ISBN 9781621900825 1621900827

Other Titles Mobilization, supply, and the American war effort in World War II

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