Guadalcanal

The campaign for Guadalcanal, an island located in the southern part of the Solomon Islands, consisted of dozens of separate naval and land engagements between August 1942 and February 1943. The first significant joint operation of the U. S. Navy, the U. S. Army, and the U. S. Marines during World War II, the campaign led to the withdrawal of the Japanese army from Guadalcanal by early 1943 and secured Allied supply routes to Australia. After the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942 and the Battle of Midway in June had halted the Japanese advance south and west, Guadalcanal began the three-year campaign in the World War II Pacific theater to push the Imperial Japanese forces back to the home islands.

Following the landing of marines on the beaches of Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942, the Japanese quickly responded by reinforcing their troops on the island. At the Battle of Savo Island of August 8-9, the U. S. Navy suffered perhaps its worst defeat in history, and in mid-August the Japanese landed more forces on Guadalcanal in an effort to drive the marines off the island and recapture the prized airstrip renamed Henderson Field by the marines. But by

Woody Guthrie (Library of Congress)

October, some 27,000 Americans were on Guadalcanal and nearby Tulagi.

Meanwhile, the navy fought an increasingly successful series of actions against the Imperial Japanese Navy from late August 1942 to January 1943, deterring Japanese efforts to strengthen their foothold on Guadalcanal. In the decisive naval battles of Guadalcanal (November 12-13 and November 14-15, 1942), the U. S. Navy, under Vice Admiral William F. “Bull” Halsey, stalled the “Tokyo Express” and left Japanese forces stranded on Guadalcanal without reinforcements and supplies.

By the end of 1942, American forces on Guadalcanal numbered nearly 60,000, almost triple the opposing Japanese strength, and American naval and air power in the area doomed the Japanese efforts. In early February 1943, the Imperial Japanese Army executed one of the rare Japanese retreats of the war, pulling all forces off Guadalcanal and conceding the island to the Americans. The campaign for the Solomons continued for the rest of the year, but the victory at Guadalcanal was a key breakthrough that put U. S. forces on the offensive.

Further reading: Richard B. Frank, Guadalcanal (New York: Random House, 1990); Edwin R Hoyt, Guadalcanal (New York: Stein & Day, 1982).

—Michael Leonard

Guthrie, Woody (1912-1967) singer, songwriter Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma, on July 14, 1912. He endured a hardscrabble existence as a young man, and after the DUST bowl storms ravaged his native state, he packed up his guitar and drifted from home at the age of 15. Guthrie ended up in California with many other “Okie” refugees and witnessed firsthand their deprivation and struggles in the fields and orchards of his adopted state. The experience both radicalized his politics and also inspired him to compose and perform original compositions portraying their plight. Guthrie was among the earliest exponents of social ballads that decried the inequities and suffering of the Great Depression. These were set to simple yet catchy melodies derived from traditional Appalachian folk music, and after his performances were broadcast over the radio, Guthrie was somewhat surprised to find that he had acquired a mass following. He also gained a degree of notoriety as a spokesman for labor and other leftist causes, although his best-known song, “This Land Is Your Land,” became something of a national standard. In 1939 Guthrie relocated to New York

City, where he circulated among radical and Communist circles and wrote songs and articles for a number of leftwing newspapers. During World War II he served two years in the merchant marine out of his hatred for fascism, and he also composed a number of patriotic ballads, including “Reuben James.” After the war he struck up a close liaison with fellow balladeer Reter Seeger and toured with his group, the Almanac Singers. He was subsequently blacklisted during the cold war period and suffered from intermittent bouts of Huntington’s chorea, but Guthrie lost none of his popularity among protest movements of the 1950s and 1960s. He died of the illness on October 3, 1967, a towering figure in the history of popular American song writing. In 1988 Guthrie was honored by his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work in pioneering socially conscious MUSIC.

Further reading: Ed Cray, Ramblin’ Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004).

—John C. Fredriksen

Halsey, William F., Jr. ("Bull") (1882-1959) admiral Admiral William Frederick “Bull” Halsey, Jr., whose personality, penchant for action, and aggressive leadership earned him his nickname, helped the U. S. Navy turn the tide in the World War II Pacific theater.

Halsey was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on October 30, 1882, and graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy in 1904. His obvious abilities brought him rapid promotion to command of destroyers before and during World War I. After a variety of assignments in the 1920s and 1930s, he qualified as a naval aviator in 1935 at the age of 52—the oldest man ever to do so. He won promotions to rear admiral in 1938 and to vice admiral in 1940.

Halsey was instrumental in the American victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific theater. His performance was characterized not only by bold leadership but also by the hostility toward the Japanese common after the attack on Pearl Harbor. His mission, he said, was to “Kill Japs, kill Japs, kill more Japs.” Early in 1942, he directed carrier attacks on Japanese positions in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. Made commander of the Allied naval forces in the South Pacific in October 1942 (and promoted to full admiral in November), Halsey energized and brought success to the pivotal campaign in the Solomon Islands that included the crucial victory at Guadalcanal.

In June 1944, Halsey took command of the U. S. Third Fleet, and played a controversial role in the Battle for Leyte Gulf off the Philippines in October. As part of the large and complex battle, the Japanese positioned several aircraft carriers north of the main action, wanting to lure Halsey and his Third Fleet to the north so that a Japanese force could pass through the San Bernardino Strait and attack the U. S. Seventh Fleet. Eager to sink the Japanese carriers, Halsey took the bait and steamed north, permitting Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita’s surface ships to enter Leyte Gulf through the San Bernardino Strait and inflict damage on the American forces. Ultimately, the Japanese experienced a disastrous defeat at Leyte Gulf, one marking the end of the Japanese navy as a serious threat, but Halsey’s reputation was tarnished. His impulsive decision to seek out the Japanese carriers, leaving the San Bernardino Strait unguarded, became known as “the Battle of Bull’s Run.” Halsey’s record throughout the war nonetheless brought him appointment to admiral of the fleet—five-star rank—in December 1945. He retired from the navy in 1947.

Further reading: E. B. Potter, Bull Halsey (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1985).

Harriman, W. Averell (1891-1986) businessperson, government official, diplomat

William Averell Harriman, businessman, New Deal administrator, ambassador to the Soviet Union, secretary of commerce, and governor of New York, was born in New York City in 1891. He was the son of Edward Harriman, a powerful railroad financier who organized the Union Pacific Railroad. After graduating from Yale in 1913, Harriman trained to take over his father’s firm but soon struck out on his own. During the 1920s he created one of the world’s largest shipping fleets and developed businesses in the Soviet Union before being elected chairman of the board of Union Pacific in 1932.

Despite his business background, Harriman had switched to the Democratic Party in 1928 and he supported Franklin D. Roosevelt in the election of 1932. In 1933, presidential adviser Harry Hopkins helped Harriman win a post in the National Recovery Administration. Harriman left the government in 1937 to head the Business Advisory Council.

World War II brought Harriman back to the Roosevelt administration in 1941, when he joined the Office of Production Management. With the passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941, Harriman went to London to oversee that program in England. He traveled to various battlefronts and expedited war material shipments

Soviet foreign minister V. M. Molotov, W. Averell Harriman, and British prime minister Winston Churchill (Library of Congress)

To the British. He often bypassed the American ambassador and communicated directly to the White House, usually through Hopkins. In September 1941, Harriman traveled to Moscow to arrange Lend-Lease shipments to the Soviet Union; he later returned to the USSR with British prime minister Winston Churchill to discuss Allied strategy with Joseph Stalin. In 1943, President Roosevelt named him ambassador to the Soviet Union, and Harri-man was a member of the American delegation at the wartime Cairo Conference, Teheran Conference, and Yalta Conference.

Harriman’s work as ambassador was noteworthy for a meticulous attention to details. He won Stalin’s respect with a blunt, face-to-face candor and a serious consideration of Soviet demands for Allied cooperation. He held no illusions about Soviet postwar aims and reported on Soviet methods to establish Communist regimes in Eastern Europe. By war’s end, however, Harriman’s influence in foreign policy had diminished, and he played a smaller role at the Yalta Conference than he had at previous wartime meetings. He left Moscow in 1946.

Harriman subsequently served in the Truman administration as ambassador to Great Britain in 1946, secretary of commerce from 1946 to 1948, and as U. S. administrator of the Marshall Plan from 1948 to 1950. He was elected governor of New York in 1954, negotiated the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty under President John F. Kennedy, and served as President Lyndon B. Johnson’s ambassador to the Paris peace talks with North Vietnam. He died in 1986.

See also Grand Alliance; Soviet-American relations.

Further reading: W. Averell Harriman and Elie Abel, Special Envoy to Ch-urchill and Stalin, 1941-1946 (New York: Random House, 1975).

—Robert J. Hanyok