Sea Power resurfaces after 14 Years in the depths

Sea Power, May 2003 by Vergun, David

This Month in Navy League History: May

Secretary of the Navy Lauds NLUS Contributions

During the past century, Sea Power, Navy, Now Hear This!-and, more recently, The Navy Leaguer-have documented the many ways that Navy League members have supported the nation's sea services, and a strong U.S. national-defense program, in times of war and peace. Following are some photos and examples from different years and different eras, but all reported in the May issues of those publications.

Why a Navy League?

In 1935,Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson answered that question in a letter of appreciation to NLUS National President Nelson Macy:

"The Navy League as a civilian organization is a valuable medium of naval information to the American public.

"The activities of the Navy are largely carried on at sea, out of contact with the people of the country it serves. The nature of any military organization is such that its personnel have but little latitude in the public discussion of service needs, or the value of its function to the nation.

"The Navy League of the United States has been in existence for the past 33 years. That the people of this country are today better informed as to the conditions and functions of its Navy is at least in part due to the service rendered the public by this organization.

"It is a source of satisfaction to me, as the civilian head of the Navy, to render to the Navy League this tribute of appreciation."

Sincerely yours,

Claude A. Swanson

The May 1935 Sea Power in which Secretary Swanson's letter appeared was the first issue of the magazine since 1921 when the peacetime Navy League discontinued publication because it was no longer affordable.

Why was publication resumed? Because the leadership of the Navy League recognized that, almost 20 years since the end of World War I, Americans were still living in perilous times. Partly because of the Depression, a new spirit of isolationism in the country, and because of national complacency, the United States was in the midst of a "naval holiday" from shipbuilding. Meanwhile, fascist dictators were threatening the uneasy peace that had existed in Europe since 11 November 1918, and Imperial Japan seemed bent on the conquest of all Asia.

"The pacifists in the United States have had their way," Macy wrote, with remarkable prescience, in his May 1935 Sea Power article Japan and the Naval Treaties. "Our reduction of our Navy by under-building for a long period," he pointed out, "did not reduce the building plans of other nations by a single ship. As they had every right to build as they did, we have ourselves to blame.

"Two years before the United States entered the World War," Macy continued, "the Navy League realized that a magazine was needed to emphasize, among citizens of leadership and influence, the League's preparedness warnings, hitherto issued only through its public statements in the press. Sea Power helped to arouse the nation to the serious need of preparedness for war, both on the sea and overseas.

"Foreseeing our entrance into the conflict, the Navy League advocated not only a stronger Navy [and ] Marine Corps, and a larger Merchant Marine, but also a large and powerful Army. Chapters throughout the country rendered splendid service to the nation by assisting in armed forces recruiting and organizing many hundreds of women's Comforts Committees-which, with patriotic spirit, knitted an incredible number of garments, at a time when government bureaus could not cope with the problem of supplying adequate clothing to the greatly expanded personnel of the sea services."

The Navy League's call for a stronger sea service was heeded, albeit somewhat belatedly. In 1941, prior to the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Macy wrote in another Sea Power article (From Roosevelt to Roosevelt) that, "Congress at last awoke to the fact that possibly someday there might be another war, and shipbuilding was again started. ... The Navy League has played no small part in efforts to make the nation seapower-conscious. The League has performed a useful service in keeping the American people alert to the needs of their Navy, emphasizing what President Theodore Roosevelt believed to be the Navy's true function-a bulwark of protection in times of war and a restraining force in times of peace."

Later that year, the United States did enter the war and, as in the previous global conflict, the Navy League answered the call to duty, supporting the men and women of all the nation's armed services in numerous ways, both overseas and on the home front, and joining with other civic and patriotic organizations in support of the war effort.

Throughout the post-WWII era the Navy League continued the clarion call voiced by Macy and other NLUS leaders, fighting another slide into complacency, and pointing out the unprecedented new dangers posed by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact partners. Through the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and many lesser conflicts involving U.S. forces throughout the world, the Navy League and its publications spread the seapower message and persistently helped rally the American people to support a strong overall national-defense program.