US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Pianning for War, 1940-1941 173
tude.” 42In May, therefore, he persuaded the Chief of Naval Operations to
sign an official letter to the Chief of Staff which contained these critical
words :
9. No plans whatsoever exist for Joint Overseas expeditions, nor for naval
cooperation with Army effort in support of Latin-American Governments.
10. If the United States is to succeed in defeating the Axis forces, it must
act on the offensive, instead of solely on the defensive.43
HAIRBRAINED SCHEMES OF THE PRESIDENT
Admiral Turner also recalled that:
Stark spent a lot of time knocking down the hairbrained schemes of the
President in regard to the Navy.”
When Admiral Stark was questioned in regard to this, he smiled and said:
Maybe I wouldn’t call them hairbrained schemes, but there were many I
didn’t believe sound and we did spend a lot of time trying to prove this, or
provide better alternatives, or determine just what would be needed to carry
the project out. The President had a great habit of ‘trying one on the dog.’45
During the 1941 period of German consolidation of position in Central
Europe and the Balkans and prior to the German invasion of the Soviet
Union on 22 June, the question as to where they would hit next was a con-
stant one. The value to the Germans of certain pieces of real estate to
facilitate their movement towards the Americas, particularly South America,
was evident, and this generally raised the question of its prior seizure or
reinforcement by American arms. Sooner or later the President would drop
a remark in regard to it, and then the pressure would be on the War Plans
Division for an estimate on such a situation or for a plan to meet it.
Immediately after the President had directed the relief of the British forces
in Iceland, the War Plans Division drafted a memorandum to the Secretary
of the Navy for signature by the CNO on the strategic value to the United
States, of Iceland, the Azores, the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands,
and French West Africa.”
4’Turner.
u CNO to COS, OP–12–VED, letter, Ser 058212 of 22 May 1941, subj: Analysis of plans
for overseas expeditions.
44Turner.
46Stark.
~ CNO to SECNAV, OP-12-VED, letter, Ser 067012 of 10 Jun. 1941.