Background
William Daniel Leahy was born in Hampton, Iowa, United States to Michael Arthur Leahy and Rose Hamilton. A prosperous attorney and Populist legislator, Michael in 1882 took the family back to his native Wisconsin, where William grew up.
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William Daniel Leahy was born in Hampton, Iowa, United States to Michael Arthur Leahy and Rose Hamilton. A prosperous attorney and Populist legislator, Michael in 1882 took the family back to his native Wisconsin, where William grew up.
In 1893 William was appointed to the U. S. Naval Academy and graduated thirty-fifth of the forty-seven members of the class of 1897.
Leahy's first billet inaugurated a long association with gunnery and a career of combat assignments. Aboard the Oregon he made the famous cruise in 1898 from Seattle around Cape Horn to the Caribbean in time to join in the sinking of the Spanish fleet off Santiago, Cuba. Assigned shortly thereafter to Asian waters, he saw action in the Boxer Rebellion and in the suppression of the Philippine Insurrection. At the close of hostilities Leahy returned to the United States. Service aboard cruisers and battleships followed, as did a term as an instructor at the naval academy and assignment with American forces intervening in the 1912 Nicaraguan civil war.
The opening of World War I found Leahy commanding the navy secretary's dispatch boat Dolphin, and during this duty he struck up his lifelong friendship with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt. Postwar commands included the cruiser St. Louis and the New Mexico, plus several gunnery billets. A fine captain and shrewd bureaucratic politician, Leahy won flag rank and nomination as chief of the Bureau of Ordnance in 1927. He improved antiaircraft guns, demanded more realistic target practice, and championed battleships over the claims of naval aviators.
After additional duty at sea, Leahy returned to Washington as chief of the powerful Bureau of Navigation in 1933. As head of the navy's personnel office, he assigned conservative admirals, members of the "Gun Club" clique, to most key fleet billets and resisted an attempt to curtail the independence of the bureaus. After brief commands of battleships and the battle force, Leahy was appointed chief of naval operations in 1937. He solidified the authority of his office over the fleet; persuaded Congress to adopt a 20 percent increment in tonnage; fathered the Hepburn report on base construction; and presided over a major reappraisal of strategic planning to deal with a possible two-ocean war. Leahy's keen sense of the possible permitted these accomplishments in an isolationist era.
Forced by age to retire He solidified the authority of his office over the fleet; persuaded Congress to adopt a 20 percent increment in tonnage; fathered the Hepburn report on base construction; and presided over a major reappraisal of strategic planning to deal with a possible two-ocean war. Leahy's keen sense of the possible permitted these accomplishments in an isolationist era.
Forced by age to retire in 1939, Leahy was nominated governor of Puerto Rico, where he demonstrated competence and impartiality in handling volatile elections. Roosevelt consulted Leahy frequently on military policy, and after Admiral J. O. Richardson opposed the president's decision to base the United States Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Leahy recommended his protégé's relief as fleet commander. In 1941 Leahy embarked upon his most controversial duty as Roosevelt's ambassador to Vichy France, with orders to try to prevent the transfer of the French fleet to Germany and to minimize French collaboration with Hitler. He succeeded in the former task but was helpless to relieve German pressure on the French and thus became the target of critics of American dealings with Vichy. With his influence at its nadir in the spring of 1942, Leahy was recalled; but his departure was delayed by his wife's unexpected death.
In July 1942 Leahy became chief of staff to the president and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He chose the role of moderator over that of advocate and served as spokesman in the White House for the military view. He restrained military influence over civilian affairs but discouraged civilian control over strategy, operations, and often foreign policy. Leahy favored an early cross-Channel invasion of France and other operations in 1942-1943 to aid the Soviets but at the same time urged greater emphasis on the war against Japan. He discouraged support for Charles de Gaulle and the Free French and distrusted Roosevelt's policy of concessions to the Soviet Union. A realist and articulate nationalist, Leahy scoffed at universalist plans to ease postwar tensions.
After Roosevelt's death, Leahy was retained by President Truman. Skeptical of the feasibility of the atomic bomb, he opposed its use, according to his own account. He persuaded the new chief executive to curtail lend-lease to Russia shortly after V-E Day; castigated Secretary of State James Byrnes in 1946 for his policy of accommodation with the Soviets; and usually pressed for a strong anti-Communist stance. Throughout his tenure Leahy championed aid to the Nationalist Chinese and opposed Truman's decision to embargo weapons during 1947. Less influential with Truman than with Roosevelt, Leahy failed to prevent service unification and increasing centralization within the Navy Department but did persuade Truman to appoint Admiral Louis Emil Denfeld over several aviators as Chief of Naval Operations in 1947. Discouraged by demobilization, reduced military appropriations, and the discontinuity of American foreign policy, Leahy retired in March 1949. To defend the wartime Democratic administration, Truman persuaded Leahy to publish his diary in amended form in 1950 under the title I Was There.
In retirement Leahy retained an interest in public affairs, but his influence on policy had ended. He died in 1959.
In early 1904 Leahy married Louise Tennent Harrington. Their only child, William Harrington Leahy, was born later that year. His son had achieved flag rank in the navy.