Nov 30, 2018 3 min read

As has been described oftentimes by historians, when the Japanese bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in a devastating surprise attack this week (Dec. 7) in 1941, it “awoke a sleeping giant.” Certainly, it angered one, as the attack killed 2,400 Americans and destroyed or badly damaged 19 ships, including eight battleships. It was a horrific blow, which the Japanese government and military believed had so crippled the United States, it would no longer threaten Japan’s imperial designs in the Far East.

Thanks to one member of Congress, Rep. Carl Vinson of Georgia, they were wrong. As early as the mid-1930s Vinson believed that Imperial Japan, as well as Nazi Germany, would one day pose a threat to America – meaning America might one day be fighting a two-ocean war – so he introduced in Congress a series of naval appropriation bills designed to create a larger and more technologically advanced Navy, which was already being created by the time Japan destroyed the aging U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.

With additional foresight, Vinson anticipated that the aircraft carrier, not the battleship, would be the consequential naval weapon in WWII, and within six months, the first of 24 aircraft carriers, the USS Essex, was launched. The advanced armada he persuaded Congress to fund also included battleships, submarines, cruisers and destroyers. His goal, which he would eventually achieve, was a U.S. Navy larger and more modernized than the rest of the world’s navies combined.

What made Vinson’s efforts so noteworthy was that, number one, he was pushing for this increased military spending in the midst of the Great Depression, in which the American economy was in free-fall, millions of Americans were out of work, and the government’s spending priorities were domestic – aiding destitute Americans – not spending money on foreign policy. But Vinson was relentless, figuring that defending America from attack was more important than any domestic concerns.

Number two, a chief purpose of any elected representative is to pass legislation benefiting the folks back home, yet Vinson was a congressman from Georgia, a state that would not benefit in any way from increased military spending on naval construction.

Vinson’s contribution to America’s victory in WWII, while little known, was significant, and as chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee and later the House Armed Services Committee, Vinson continued to champion military readiness until he retired from Congress in 1965. Today, among the truly technologically advanced nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the U.S. Navy is the USS Carl Vinson, named after the man who made sure that, militarily, the “sleeping giant” was really a giant.

Bruce G. Kauffmann’s email address is bruce@historylessons.net.