Billy Mitchell

This compelling chronicle of a controversial figure--a man who could be charming, fanatical, arrogant, and confrontational--places Billy Mitchell in the context of the great debates over U.S. air power between the world wars. Mitchell demonstrated during WWI that massive air power could decisively affect combat operations on the ground, and he argued vehemently to anyone who would listen that air power would be the decisive factor in the next war—a war that he was certain would be fought with Japan. But his brilliance was often overshadowed by his personal failings: typically, he alienated those in power who could act on his ideas. In a highly publicized trial, Mitchell was court-martialed and found guilty, ostensibly for openly attacking the Navy and the War Department over the fatal crash of the airship Shenandoah, but primarily for making public his warnings about U.S. weaknesses in the air. Although the air attack on Pearl Harbor made Mitchell look to some like a prophet martyred for his integrity, Cooke revises that portrait to reveal a character fatally flawed by consuming ambition and a man who was a victim only of circumstances of his own creation.