Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay

by Craig L. Symonds

This is not a biography of Chester Nimitz. It is, instead, a close examination of his leadership during his three and a half years directing World War II in the Pacific Theater

Nimitz, like Generals George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower, exemplified another leadership style, a quieter one that depended on intelligent listening, humility, and patience. Nimitz did not shrink from hard decisions—

Rather than impose orders, he elicited solutions; he sought achievement, not attention. He unified. His was a quiet, calm, yet firm hand on the tiller during an existential crisis, and his leadership style reinforced rather than challenged democratic norms. It is a leadership template more relevant than ever.

On December 16, 1941, only nine days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt named Chester Nimitz Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet—the Navy acronym for which was CinCPac. Curiously, he had considered making that appointment exactly a year earlier.