From Publishers Weekly
A superb and charismatic Signal Corps officer and innovative air tactician in WWI, Mitchell, the son of a Wisconsin senator, faced an internal conflict: should he be loyal to his superior officers, whom he regarded as almost treasonably incompetent, or to what he saw as his country's best interests, which included a vastly larger, united and independent air arm? The result was a famous court-martial, which Time magazine correspondent Waller (The Commandos), with scholarship and balance, makes extremely comprehensible and gripping to readers more than 75 years on. The shorter biographical portion portrays Mitchell as egotistical, insubordinate, a so-so pilot, a racist, a spendthrift and borderline alcoholic, and heavily responsible in a messy divorce from his first wife. The trial itself was a media circus of modern proportions; Mitchell emerges as somewhat more than a gadfly if something less than a hero, essential to the growth of modern American air power but hardly a spotless martyr or a major strategic thinker. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
The 9/11 Commission's final report identifies four broad failures by the U.S. government and intelligence establishment in the years that preceded Sept. 11, 2001. The first of these was a failure of imagination. Leaders both in and out of government failed to imagine the scale of America's vulnerability and the magnitude of the evil that was stalking us in Islamist fundamentalism. The United States had been lulled into a false sense of security. This was remarkably similar to the interwar decades of the 1920s and '30s. In A Question of Loyalty, Douglas Waller tells the timely story of the court-martial of Gen. Billy Mitchell, who publicly attacked his generation of leaders for failing to imagine and fully prepare for the growing threat that could be posed by air power in the hands of a hostile power. Often regarded as the father of the U.S. Air Force, Mitchell was a maverick and a visionary who understood the future importance of airpower long before it became a reality. In 1921 he achieved worldwide celebrity by sinking a former German battleship with aerial bombing, an achievement that made onlooking admirals stamp their feet in anger. He famously first predicted the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1923, 18 years before the event. He was also a loud advocate for a Department of Defense and a Joint Chiefs of Staff. But Mitchell's cause célèbre was the creation of a separate air force, which was fiercely opposed by the Army and the Navy. "The nation victorious in future wars will be the nation commanding the skies," Mitchell argued. "Aircraft will be able to strike at the enemies' nerve centers, to spread panic, cripple industries and collapse governments." This was radical thinking in the early 1920s, when most generals, admirals and politicians doubted the military usefulness of aircraft beyond surveying enemy positions and guiding artillery fire. During the '20s there was a yawning generation gap in the military; young officers were frustrated by the failure of their seniors to understand the rapid advances being made in warfare. It was a time when the military bureaucracies had become static, close-minded and deeply resistant to change, very much like the U.S. intelligence bureaucracy today. It was a culture that rewarded "yes" men while sidelining those who spoke up about military deficiencies. This was the era when a reformer like Col. George Patton was passed over for promotion to general because "this officer is a disruptive influence on the peacetime Army." Aviators especially resented taking orders from men who knew little or nothing about aircraft or air combat. Mitchell became a hero for the younger generation of officers because he was one of the few officers in the upper ranks who publicly voiced their frustrations. He too was "a disruptive influence," and retribution was sure to come.Like many other reformers, Mitchell lacked subtlety. Nor was he without other little imperfections. He was viewed by many as a vain, egotistical, self-publicizing grandstander, and his fiery temperament eventually alienated him from nearly all whom he hoped to influence. Frustrated by a lack of progress toward a separate air force and a lack of investment in modern aviation technology, he began openly to criticize the establishment. He was clearly looking for trouble. After the Shenandoah airship disaster that killed 14 men in September 1925, Mitchell accused the War and Navy departments of "incompetency, criminal negligence and almost treasonable administration of the national defense." This outburst made headlines all over the country and left Mitchell facing a court-martial for insubordination. President Calvin Coolidge and his secretary of war, Dwight Davis, were unimpressed with Mitchell's arguments, which Coolidge viewed as a direct challenge to his authority as commander in chief. It was.The high-profile court-martial of the celebrity pilot and World War I hero captivated Washington and the nation. The court proceedings were enlivened by Gen. Douglas MacArthur's presence on the jury and by defense witnesses such as Fiorello LaGuardia and Gen. Hap Arnold. Mitchell's defense depended on the accuracy of his claims that the War and Navy Departments were negligent on pilot safety and national defense. The trial was also a fascinating battle of ideas over the future role of air power. Mitchell, however, played fast and loose with the facts of the Shenandoah disaster, and he exaggerated the immediate threat posed to America by aircraft. He was describing a world almost two decades into the future, a world that was simply beyond the imagination of nearly everybody in the early '20s. Among the spurious but damaging evidence presented by the prosecution was the final report of the President's Aircraft Board, which concluded, according to Waller, that "the nations of Europe may have to build large armies and air forces to protect themselves, but vast oceans 'freed' the United States 'from the heavy burden of armament.' " The War Department had little trouble finding enemies to testify against Mitchell, many of whom had a score to settle. In the end there was not much defense against the charge of insubordination. A constitutional democracy could not tolerate a challenge to military and civilian authority as harsh as Mitchell's. "In accordance with the army code," Arnold wrote many years later, "Billy had had it coming." Mitchell was suspended from Army service for five years. The court was lenient because of his war record. Institutional mavericks, whistle-blowers and critics who press for reform have a tendency to be abrasive, outspoken and hard to get along with. Mitchell was all of these. But much of what he said came to pass, and, as a result, his reputation grew. The realities of Blitzkrieg, Pearl Harbor and the destruction of entire cities with bombs dropped from aircraft cemented his reputation as a true visionary. Such "Mitchellites" as Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, Spaatz and Arnold went on to become the great army leaders of World War II, putting Mitchell's theories into practice. Most were validated, including the decisiveness of air superiority over the battlefield on land and sea and the value of close air support to ground forces. Others proved off the mark, like the inability of surface ships to survive air attack. Still others, like the value of strategic bombing of cities, remain controversial to this day. As Congress debates intelligence reform, this fascinating book reminds us of Harry Truman's dictum that the only thing new in the world is the history you don't know. Reviewed by John Lehman Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.
From Bookmarks Magazine
As detailed in Waller’s exhaustively researched book, Mitchell’s 1925 court-martial remains a riveting saga nearly 80 years after the fact. By weaving together biography, courtroom drama, and early 20th-century political and military history, Waller rescues from obscurity both the sensational 34-day trial and its larger-than-life star. Under the author’s even-handed treatment, Mitchell emerges as a complex character memorable for his many personal failings as well as for his achievements in combat and aviation. Ultimately, A Question of Loyalty succeeds not only because it provides an engaging and authoritative look back at an interesting chapter in history, but because it touches on important defense-related questions in contemporary American society as well. Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* "Gee," a commercial TV producer supposedly said, "history is full of good stories!" Waller superbly retells one of those best suited to TV. In September 1925, General Billy Mitchell, army aviation hero and leader in World War I, dropped a bomb--figurative, as opposed to all the real ones he had dropped--when he accused the War and Navy Departments of incompetence, criminal negligence, and treason. His immediate complaint was the crash of the navy's flagship dirigible, Shenandoah, in a thunderstorm during a public relations flight, but underlying reasons included rivalry between War and Navy over aircraft development, disagreements between Mitchell and his War Department superiors about the importance of military aircraft, Mitchell's ego, and his plans to publicize his books and articles. The general subsequently got his publicity, though in a way he didn't expect: he was court-martialed. The trial of a war hero for insubordination riveted the nation as much as Babe Ruth or Red Grange ever did. Waller, the author of several superior military-history volumes, has probably done his best work ever in this recounting of Mitchell's life and trial and reconjuring of the atmosphere of Washington in the 1920s. Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Chicago Tribune Books
Named to the Chicago Tribune’s "Best of 2004" list
Booklist (starred review)
"Waller has probably done his best work ever in this recounting of Mitchell’s life and trial"
Greta Van Susteren, Fox News
"Buy this and get ready to hang on to your seats! A gripping true-life trial. I loved it."
Chicago Tribune
"[A] fascinating well-told story of a military maverick’s life"
John Lehman (member of the 9/11 Commission), Washington Post Book World
"Fascinating book"
Wall Street Journal
"Facinating . . . A Question of Loyalty is a must-read"
Senator John McCain
"Don’t pass up Douglas Waller’s riveting read about the legendary Billy Mitchell, whose rebellion captivated a nation"
Washington Post Book World
Named to the Washington Post Book World’s "The Best of 2004" list
Booklist
Named to the Booklist Editors’ Choice 2004 list
Washington Post Book World
Named to the Washington Post Book World’s "Best of 2004" list
Book Description
It had all the ingredients of a movie drama:a scandal that grips Washington and touches the White House; bitter battles and backroom intrigue at the highest levels of the U.S. military; glamorous women who make or break the careers of powerful men; a high-stakes trial with a celebrity defendant who captures the nation's attention ...
A Question of Loyalty plunges into the seven-week Washington trial of Gen. William "Billy" Mitchell, the hero of the U.S. Army Air Service during World War I and the man who proved in 1921 that planes could sink a battleship. In 1925 Mitchell was frustrated by the slow pace of aviation development, and he sparked a political firestorm, accusing the army and navy high commands, and by inference the president, of treason and criminal negligence in the way they conducted national defense. He was put on trial for insubordination in a spectacular court-martial that became a national obsession during the Roaring Twenties.
Douglas Waller has crafted a compelling new biography of the daring Billy Mitchell, a larger-than-life figure remembered as much for his outspokenness as for his innovations in the use of airpower. Waller has uncovered a trove of new letters, diaries, and confidential documents that have enabled him to capture in detail the drama of the court and to build a rich and revealing biography of Mitchell, one of the army's most controversial and flamboyant generals.
Born to a millionaire Midwest family at the end of the 1870s, Mitchell joined the military at the age of eighteen and became one of its rising stars. During World War I, he led the largest armada of airplanes ever to attack an enemy force and returned to the United States a dashing young general with a chest full of medals and a radical vision of airpower as the only decisive instrument for future wars. But as the military shrank in the postwar years, Mitchell became increasingly impatient and vocal, lashing out at bureaucratic enemies he accused of impeding airpower's progress. After a tragic airship accident that shocked the nation, he publicly blasted the War and Navy Departments for their handling of aviation and was put on trial for it.
A Question of Loyalty is a story about Washington politics, about love and betrayal, about heroes in battle, about determined lawyers and powerful military men pitted against one another in a courtroom.
About the Author
Douglas Waller is a senior correspondent for Time, and before that was with Newsweek. He is the author or coauthor of six previous books, including the national bestseller Big Red, The Commandos, and Air Warriors. He lives in Annandale, Virginia, with his wife and has three children.
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