In 1918, as a very cocky Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin Roosevelt had crossed to Europe on a destroyer. He was wondering whether the President would remember him, and hoped he wouldn’t. Here are the captain’s recollections of that encounter prior to meeting Roosevelt the President. In fact, he first met this iconic historical figure during one of his first naval assignments. Of course, Captain Henry’s interactions with FDR served as the sine qua non of the book.

Interestingly, of all the people he encountered, he only experienced nervousness prior to meeting Churchill. While serving in these varied locales, he met the war’s most influential figures including Hitler, Churchill and Stalin. Following that he received reassignment to Moscow during the German invasion. Later he travelled to the UK where he “observed” a bombing raid on Berlin. At the book’s beginning he received the post of US Naval Attaché in Berlin. While he longed to command a battleship, the brewing “winds of war” swept him up into a fascinating series of positions. The captain always seemed to find himself in the middle of many major historical events at least the ones leading up to the Second World War. In a way, he reminded me of Forrest Gump.

Wouk created the most unique literary character I’ve ever encountered in Captain Victor Henry. A magisterial work of historical fiction resulted. The Winds of War traced a naval family’s experiences from the summer of 1939 through the Pearl Harbor attack. Herman Wouk woke me up to the concept of the epic American novel.

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