A Study On Chester Nimitz’s Military Thoughts

The Second World War was not only a stepping stone to the top of the world forU.S.A, but also fostered a number of highly outstanding great world military leaders,including Chester Nimitz, one of the bright eye-catching stars. He was a famousmilitary strategist and one of the distinguished generals of the United States Navy andeven the world naval history. During the Pacific war, he led the United States PacificFleet to achieve glorious success. With an extraordinary talent and exceptionalcommand of humble charisma, he won widespread praise and admiration of the worldnations.From1901, Chester Nimitz (1883.2-1966.2) attended the United States NavalAcademy to actively join the Naval career, experienced two World Wars, and becamethe first Chief of United States Naval Operations after World War II. His life wasburdened with highly distinguished pressing military duties. During47years ofmilitary practice and experience, he not only formulated his own unique view of thewar, his interpretation of new contents of sea power, and proposed a theory ofSeapower Peace, but also formed series of military strategy, tactics, armymanagement, logistic guarantee, and military affairs education and thoughts.The introductory part is a systematic sort of related history and current situation ofresearch on Nimitz. As is known, one’s military thoughts mainly come from his or hermilitary practice. So does Nimitz’s military thoughts.The first chapter elaborates Nimitz’s biography and the contributing factor ofhis military thought. This part briefly outlines the life trajectory of Nimitz in timeorder, so as to lay a foundation for full understanding of his military thoughts. Itfocuses on the historical background, educational factors, scientific and technologicalprogress, military practice, military influence and his character, in order to analyze thereason for his shaping ideology. It illustrates another example of the formation of bothNimitz’ military thoughts and reaction made by objective reality, also the results of along rational thinking, so providing great vitality. During his early military career, hewas devoted to the study of military technology, then summarized his experience andadvocated the innovation of military technology. Later, he put forward the militarytheory from his rich military experience. At the same time, he wholeheartedly studiedthe technology of ships, such as the structure of the submarines and their drivingsystem. He created the technology of “Broadside Method” on the sea and “CarriersCircle Formation”, which laid a solid professional basis of his being a great militarystrategist and general for his future life.The second chapter focuses on the formation of the Nimitz’s military thoughts,which is the center of the dissertation. On the Pacific battlefield, Nimitz attacked theJapanese army according to the specific situation with different ways, such as the formation of aircraft carriers, amphibious warfare, the destruction of the seatransportation, signal information and bombing, which made America won victoryafter victory. Nimitz excelled not only at military strategy and tactics but also at navalequipment. He was involved in the reform of naval logistics and set up a logisticaltroop, called “Service No.10” and invented new modular docks. On the aspect ofmanaging the army, Nimitz, as a commander, was calm, responsible and highlycooperative with his rich work experience and good relationship with others. He wasgreatly praised by his superiors and subordinates, for his strict management of thearmy, proper punishment and reward, and full use of anyone’s capacity. In themeantime, he took many steps to improve the quality of the military.The third chapter is mainly about the development of Nimitz’ military thoughts.Nimitz, himself, loved peace. However, he recognized the significance of keepingpeace and human rights through just wars. He opposed to the preemptive war andproposed to protect peace by the powerful military strength and “containment anddeterrence” of nuclear weapons. As to “sea power”, he put an emphasis on air strengthand logistical guarantee. Facing the upsurge of disarmament after World War II, hetried to keep the independent status of the navy and proposed “seapower Peace”. Healso stressed the innovation of military equipment, esp. the use of nuclear power.The fourth chapter is the comments on Nimitz’s military thoughts. Firstly,Onthe battlefield, he was an excellent military leader. He established the JointOperational Command Office to direct all U.S. army and carry out multi-area warfare.In the warfare, he defeated the enemy with outnumbering soldiers and unexpectedattack. Secondly,comparing with Isoroku Yamamoto’s, Doenitz’s and MacArthur’s,the advantages and disadvantages of Nimitz’s military thoughts have been analyzedwith his own feature..From the viewpoint of American military history, especiallyfrom traditional big-ship cannon battle fleets to open “sea-air winning” aircraft carrierera, Nimitz’s military thoughts have become an important part of modern Americannaval thought, greatly affecting the development of the United States Navy and theWorld Navy. After his47-year military practice, Nimitz became a submarine forces’expert, a marine fuel supply pioneer, the founder of both the large-scale combataircraft and the overstep island combat, the founder of Seapower Peace, the creator ofisland-crossing warfare, and the excellent Pacific War general. Due to the timelimitations, his military thoughts were imperfect, and its defects were mentioned atthe end of the chapter.