The second most powerful man in the world

Dutton

2019

viii, 531 p., 16 unnumb. leaves of plates

Includes bibliographical references (pages 461-468) and index.

9780399584800

The education of a naval officer -- Building a career and family -- Enter Franklin Roosevelt -- The roaring twenties -- Depression -- Nearing the top -- Rising in Roosevelt's court -- Leahy's Navy -- The first retirement -- Governor of Puerto Rico -- Ambassador to Vichy France -- Dark days -- Chief of staff to the Commander in Chief -- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- The grandest level of strategy -- From Casablanca to Trident -- Difficult friends -- Top dog -- Cairo and Tehran -- Acting president -- Leahy's war -- Atomic bombs and elections -- Yalta and death -- Truman -- The end of the war -- Two speeches -- Personal snooper -- Priorities -- Cold war -- Key West -- On the outside -- Fading away -- The forgotten man.

The life of Franklin Roosevelt's most trusted and powerful advisor, Admiral William D. Leahy [1875-1959], Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief. Aside from FDR, no American did more to shape World War II than Admiral William D. Leahy--not Douglas MacArthur, not Dwight Eisenhower, and not even the legendary George Marshall. No man, including Harry Hopkins, was closer to Roosevelt, nor had earned his blind faith, than Leahy. Through the course of the war, constantly at the president's side and advising him on daily decisions, Leahy became the second most powerful man in the world. In a time of titanic personalities, Leahy regularly downplayed his influence, preferring the substance of power to the style. A stony-faced, salty sailor, he began his U.S. Navy career as a cadet aboard a sailing ship. Four decades later, Admiral Leahy was a trusted friend and advisor to the president and was his ambassador to Vichy France until the attack on Pearl Harbor. Needing one person who could help him grapple with the enormous strategic consequences of the war both at home and abroad, Roosevelt made Leahy the first presidential chief of staff. Leahy's profound power was recognized by figures such as Stalin and Churchill, yet historians have largely overlooked his role. In this important biography, historian Phillips Payson O'Brien illuminates the admiral's influence on the most crucial and transformative decisions of WWII and the early Cold War. From the invasions of North Africa, Sicily, and France, to the allocation of resources to fight Japan, O'Brien contends that America's war largely unfolded according to Leahy's vision, and his quiet, immeasurable power in its aftermath determined the course of modern history.

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