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Duncan, Francis. Rickover: The Struggle for Excellence. Annapolis, Md.: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2001. 416pp. $37.50

Dr. Francis Duncan served as the official historian to the Atomic Energy Commission and Department of Energy and worked in Admiral Hyman G. Rickover’s office from 1969 until Rickover’s retirement in 1982. Duncan also has had access to much of Rickover’s personal correspondence, as well as that of his immediate family. Indeed, Rickover’s widow wrote the foreword to this book. This is Duncan’s third book on Rickover, for whom he candidly admits great admiration. Although the author’s familiarity with and admiration for his subject defines the book and gives it credibility, it also constitutes the book’s greatest weakness.

Duncan thoroughly chronicles Rickover’s methods of achieving his goals. This makes compelling reading for anyone familiar with the U.S. Navy’s nuclear propulsion program. Past and present nuclear-trained officers and sailors will likely be fascinated by how Rickover manipulated naval and congressional bureaucratic processes to achieve his goals. Many may find themselves nodding familiarly at Duncan’s incantations of Rickover’s proven formula for success— hard work, sacrifice, self-discipline, conservative engineering, and technical mastery. Others, however, may shake their heads when they read how Rickover plotted and pulled strings to achieve flag rank, and how he fought retirement, serving as an admiral for more than twenty-seven years until he finally retired at the age of eighty-one, in 1982. Still, although these stories are interesting and tell us much about Rickover’s character, a biography should offer more.

As Duncan aptly shows, Rickover is justly remembered as the father of the nuclear navy. However, Rickover is almost equally remembered for his abrasive and disdainful behavior, his vindictiveness, and his arrogance. Unfortunately, Duncan pays little attention to these characteristics, mentioning them only briefly. True, Duncan does acknowledge that Rickover could be unpleasant. He tells how in 1951 an admiral advised Rickover that “he could not get along with people” and pointed out how in a lecture Rickover had angered his audience of submarine officers “by talking down to them and calling them stupid.” This anecdote is notable, however, for its inclusion rather than its honesty. Instead of acknowledging and criticizing, or at least lamenting, Rickover’s difficult personality, Duncan asks readers to empathize with the man. For example, in 1958 Rickover was not invited to the White House reception honoring USS Nautilus’s passage under the North Pole. This slight, says Duncan, “hurt him deeply.” Years later, in 1982, Rickover unleashed a tirade during a meeting with President Ronald Reagan, venting “the fury of a goaded man who felt manipulated, patronized, and humiliated.” But it is difficult to feel much sorrow for the old admiral, who, at least by reputation, was so often guilty of even worse behavior. One can imagine that Rickover’s long-standing adversaries and enemies would be acutely aware of Duncan’s apparently inadvertent irony.

Another weakness is Duncan’s short shrift to Rickover’s private life. In the early chapters, Duncan makes significant use of letters between Rickover and his first wife during their courtship and early marriage, but that’s it. His first wife receives little further mention, and his son receives even less. Rickover’s second marriage gets only slightly more attention. The near absence of discussion between Rickover and family or friends leaves a critical void. No reason is offered for these omissions. Perhaps Duncan believed that Rickover, private citizen, did not warrant as much attention as Rickover, public servant. Perhaps Rickover’s family authorized the biography on the condition that his personal life remain off limits. The absence of this material is striking and yet possibly revealing. It could be that once Rickover lost himself in his work, his family life suffered, which would not be surprising. Rickover demanded that level of commitment and sacrifice from those who worked for him, and all indications are that he demanded the same of himself.

One comes away from this biography with an appreciation for Rickover’s accomplishments in the Navy but with no understanding of the man. Rickover certainly left an enduring and immensely valuable legacy, but Duncan should have been fully open and fair, reporting all the pertinent aspects of his life. A biography should neither unduly venerate nor unjustly condemn. Duncan comes perilously close to writing a hagiography. Most readers would have much preferred honesty and a more complete depiction of the complex human being Hyman Rickover was.

WILLIAM S. MURRAY
Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy
Naval War College