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John T. Kuehn
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America's First General Staff: A Short History of the Rise and Fall of the General Board of the U.S. Navy, 1900–1950 Hardcover – October 15, 2017

by John Kuehn (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 5 ratings
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The General Board of the Navy, in existence from 1900 to 1950, was a uniquely American and unparalleled strategic planning organization. As John T. Kuehn shows, this was the United States' first modern general staff in peacetime, as well as the nexus for naval thought and strategic thinking. The Board's creation reflected the reformist spirit of the era that also gave birth to the Army War College, the Army General Staff, and the Chief of Naval Operations. As such, the General Board and its mission also reflected an attempt to reconcile the primacy of civilian control of the military with an increasing need for more formal military and naval planning establishments, processes, and methods. Thus the General Board's very name reflected the idea shared by both corporate America and naval tradition that challenges and problems could be met with special, temporary organizational bodies. By the 1920s the General Board had become a permanent feature of the Navy and was regarded as the premier strategic think tank for advice to the Secretary of the Navy. Evolving over the course of its existence, the Board developed into a bona fide institutional component atop the service's hierarchy. Kuehn highlights how this small body, wielding immense influence over the span of its organizational life, was an innovative, progressive, and productive force for the security of the United States in peace and for naval success in war. The service of the men comprising the Board is little known, but their collaborative ethos should serve as a model for their modern counterparts. Kuehn's organizational history of the General Board provides context on the complexities and turbulence involved in building the modern Navy that transitioned over time from coal and sail to nuclear-powered warships. America's First General Staff offers the first single-volume history of the General Board of the Navy, as well as an analysis of the U.S. Navy during periods of great change in both peace and war.
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  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Naval Institute Press
  4. Publication date
    October 15, 2017
  5. Dimensions
    6.25 x 1.25 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9781682471913
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1682471913
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"John Kuehn's new history has not only shed welcome light on the General Board of the Navy, but also mended the historical reputations of a number of early and mid-twentieth-century naval leaders. Anyone seeking to understand how the US Navy transitioned from the pre-dreadnought fleet of the Spanish-American War into the massive three-dimensional force that won the Pacific War should thoroughly read America's First General Staff; it is an essential addition to the literature of the US Navy in the twentieth century." —Michigan War Studies Review

"There are lessons embedded in the story of the General Board that should not be lost on today's national security leadership." —Parameters Recipient of The University Press-CGSC Golden and Bronze Pen

"America's First General Staff will appeal to any military enthusiast who wants to understand the U.S. Navy supremacy in the twentieth century." —The Journal of Military History

"Given the steady flood of books about strategy, it is remarkable how few there are about tactics. Friedman has filled that gap with a short, sharp piece of analysis that highlights the physical, mental, and moral dimensions of conflict." —Foreign Affairs

"John Kuehn has written a great book and one that deserves to be studied and built upon today, when we desperately need again such Boards and Admiralty in the Allied navies. A great read, thank you." —The NAVY Magazine

"America's First General Staff explains how the U.S. Navy's leadership grappled with rapid pre-1950 change. Through this work, Professor Kuehn provides a collective intellectual biography of the Navy's leadership for the period." —Joint Force Quarterly

"The subtitle of this book, 'A Short History of the Rise and Fall of the General Board of the Navy, 1900-1950' pretty well sums up the scope of this book. This book gives a detailed, but readable account of the formation, life and demise of the General Board of the Navy. Its 224 pages of text are followed by several informative annexes. I recommend this book for anyone who has an interest on how military organizations manage their role and the impact members can have in establishing that role." —Starshell

"In America's First General Staff, Professor John T. Kuehn has written an outstanding monograph on a little-known organization that had enormous influence in shaping the U.S. Navy to fight during the two world wars…. The General Board may be history, but the need for thoughtful, diversely experienced, creative, and respectful minds to aid decision-makers in navigating complex national security problems remains. America's First General Staff offers an excellent example of what a small group of talented and dedicated professionals can do." —Military Review

"This first-rate study brings to light the important accomplishments of the non-statutory General Board of the Navy, which functioned as a major arbiter of warship construction and maritime strategy throughout the first half of the twentieth century. John Kuehn presents an excellent read for anyone interested in the work of the General Board and the Naval officers who led it until its dissolution January 1951."—Paul E. Pedisich, author of Congress Buys a Navy

"John T. Kuehn has drawn on his extensive research into the papers of the Navy's General Board to argue that the Board played an essential role in the Navy's successful effort to become a modern organization. This story, interesting in itself, also has relevance for today's Navy as its leaders face the challenges of organizing to deal with an often-hostile digital environment." —Tom Hone, author of Power and Change: The Administrative History of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, 1946–1986

About the Author

JOHN T. KUEHN is a retired naval aviator. He teaches military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and is the author of the 2008 Naval Institute Press book, Agents of Innovation: The General Board and the Design of the Fleet That Defeated the Japanese Navy.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1682471918
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Naval Institute Press; Illustrated edition (October 15, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781682471913
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1682471913
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.45 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.25 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 5 ratings

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John T. Kuehn

John T. Kuehn

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John T. Kuehn is a former naval aviator (EP-3/ES-3) who has completed cruises aboard four different aircraft carriers. He flew reconnaissance missions during the last decade of the Cold War, the First Gulf War (Desert Storm) and the Balkans (Deliberate Force over Bosnia). He currently serves as a Professor of Military History at the Army Command and Staff School. He previously served as FADM E. J. King Visiting Professor at the US Naval War College 2020-2021. Kuehn served on the faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College since July 2000, retiring from the naval service in 2004. He earned a Ph.D. in History from Kansas State University in 2007. He is the author of the Agents of Innovation and Eyewitness Pacific Theater with Dennis Giangreco, A Military History of Japan (Praeger, 2014), Napoleonic Warfare (Praeger, 2015), America's First General Staff: A Short History of the Rise and Fall of the General Board of the Navy, 1900-1950 (Naval Institute, 2017), and most recently The 100 Worst Disasters in Military History, with David Holden (ABC-CLIO, 2020). He is a past Major General William Stofft Chair of Historical Research and Professor of Military History at the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He won the Moncado Award from the Society of Military History in 2010 for his essay "The U.S. Navy General Board and Naval Arms Limitation: 1922-1937." He was also honored as "Best Faculty Member" by Norwich University in the Military History Masters program in 2011.

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Top reviews from the United States

  • John G Pochan
    5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
    Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Interesting historical story
    One person found this helpful
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  • D. M. Giangreco
    5.0 out of 5 stars US Navy used Prussian Army General Staff as a model for its own
    Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2018
    It’s a very good thing that author John Kuehn has a pleasing writing style and the ability to relate complex subjects cleanly and simply. If this hadn’t been the case, a valuable book such as this would have probably been read by few more than his students at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth and a narrow selection of educators at the military’s various institutions of higher learning. Instead, Kuehn has produced an accessible work that anyone interested in the development of America’s maritime strategy in the first half of the twentieth century --- and what kinds of ships would be required to make that strategy work --- will want to read.

    In many ways, America’s First General Staff at first seemed to me an arcane continuation of the author’s earlier Agents of Innovation: The General Board and the Design of the Fleet that Defeated the Japanese Navy (he has authored at least five books), but it’s really more of a companion volume. In Agents of Innovation Kuehn demonstrated how the Navy, though virtually bereft of island bases, was able to project its rapidly expanding fleet across the Pacific’s vast expanse. Here he tells the story of the Navy’s influential General Board which was a major agent in contributing to the combat effectiveness of that fleet. The organization acquitted itself particularly well during the complex between-wars period of partial disarmament and rebuilding within the limits mandated by the Washington Naval Treaty.

    Many will be surprised by the fact that the General Board, established in 1900, was America's first peacetime, long-term general staff and that this organization, which was closely modeled on the Prussian Army General Staff of Scharnhorst, Clausewitz, and Moltke the Elder, was NOT a creation of the U.S. Army, but of the Navy. It was finally dissolved more than 50 years later in 1951 having been declared redundant in the wake of the Defense Unification after World War II when the Chief of Naval Operations emerged as the all-powerful organization inside the Navy.

    The General Board lasted so long because it was small and it influenced so many because it was trusted. It kept its deliberations secret and out of the press thus avoiding such things as the hullabaloo that erupted when President Woodrow Wilson, upon discovering through a newspaper article that officers at Fort Leavenworth had engaged in an academic study of how a war against Germany might be fought, threatened “to relieve at once every officer” found to be involved. The Board also defied bureaucratic growth --- quite an anomaly in the history of not just military organizations.

    My favorite chapter in America’s First General Staff is probably the last one prior to the epilogue where Kuehn details how World War II affected the Board’s activities and how it continued its work in the midst of the politics and infighting that marred the post-war services. This chapter also contains the newest scholarship and I agree with Tom Hone (author-educator currently with the Defense Dept.) that while the book is interesting in itself, it also “has relevance for today's Navy as its leaders face the challenges of organizing to deal with an often-hostile digital environment."

    One additional note: Word has it that the author’s colleagues have been known to preface his name with the unique --- and utterly unauthorized --- acronym DCJJ for Doctor, Commander, Jet Jockey as the retired Navy commander and carrier pilot is the only History PhD to have performed 200-plus deck landings. We are fortunate that he brings such an unusual array of talent and experience to his work.
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