Carrier Wars: Naval Aviation from World War II to the Persian Gulf

This simplistic popular history describes the U.S. Navy's ``fumbling'' efforts up to the battle of Midway in 1942 to employ its carriers effectively, and the victories against the Japanese navy that followed. Hoyt ( America's Wars ) is severely critical of Admiral Raymond Spruance, victor at Midway, for his subsequent ``litany of failure,'' claiming that his ``timidity'' in various operations drastically prolonged the war in the Pacific. These charges are ill-founded, for it is accepted wisdom that there are times in war when caution is more prudent than headlong aggressiveness; and most naval historians agree that Spruance was a master at both modes of naval/air warfare. This is in part a ``what might have been'' book. Clearly Hoyt regrets that his ideal admiral, William Halsey, was not in charge totally, instead of alternating command of the Third and Fifth Fleets with Spruance. The book also includes a cursory account of British carrier operations in World War II and the deployment of carriers in the Korean, Vietnam and Falklands wars, as well as their recent use in Middle East hot-spots. Photos. (July)