US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Prologue
In a letter to the Director of Naval History, 9 November 1956, Admiral
Kelly Turner wrote as follows:
But the matter of my writing a book—and particularly a history of all
past amphibious warfare—is quite a different thing, and one which I would
not care to undertake. Before retiring in 1$)47’,I did give serious thought to
writing an account of the amphibious operations in which I participated, but
decided against doing so for several reasons.
In the first place, writing history is quite a field in itself, and one with
which I am unfamiliar. I definitely would not attempt it by the use of a
‘ghost’. Look at all the lousy books that ghosts have produced since the war!
Again, it would have meant living in Washington for several years, of
digging into many thousands of documents written by other officers as well
as by my staff and myself, and of which I do not have copies. Finally, I
scarcely could have avoided controversy, and giving myself ‘breaks’ that
perhaps would be undeserved.
So, Judge, the whole thing simply did not appeal to me then, and appeals
to me even less now. Future professional historians will write what they feel
like writing anyhow, whether truthful or not. So I’m willing to let them
disagree among themselves !
When I had my first interview about this book with Kelly Turner, he
told me with a grin:
When Judge told me that you were willing to undertake the task, I thought,
‘Well, he’s just enough of a son-of-a-bitch to do a good job.’
So, I told Judge ‘all right’.
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