MAROLDA, Edward J.

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Earned a doctoral degree.

ADDRESSES: Office—The Naval Historical Center, 805 Kidder Breese St., SE Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC 20374-5060. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Historian and writer. Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC, senior historian.

WRITINGS:

(Compiler, with William C. Heimdahl) Guide to United States Naval Administrative Histories of World War II, Naval History Division, Department of the Navy (Washington, DC), 1976.

(Compiler, with G. Wesley Pryce III) A Select Bibliography of the United States Navy and the Southeast Asian Conflict, 1950–1975, Operational Archives, Naval Historical Center (Washington, DC), 1982.

(With G. Wesley Pryce III) A Short History of the United States Navy and the Southeast Asian Conflict, 1950–1975, Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy (Washington, DC), 1984.

Carrier Operations, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 1987.

(With Oscar P. Fitzgerald) The United States Navy and the Vietnam Conflict, Volume 2: From Military Assistance to Combat, 1959–1965, Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy (Washington, DC), 1989.

(Editor) Operation End Sweep: A History of Minesweeping Operations in North Vietnam, Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy (Washington, DC), 1993.

By Sea, Air, and Land: An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia, Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy (Washington, DC), 1994.

(With Robert J. Schneller, Jr.) Shield and Sword: The United States Navy and the Persian Gulf War, Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy (Washington, DC), 1998.

(Editor) FDR and the U.S. Navy, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1998.

The Washington Navy Yard: An Illustrated History, foreword by Christopher E. Weaver, Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy (Washington, DC), 1999.

(Editor) Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. Navy, and the Spanish-American War, Palgrave (New York, NY), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: A specialist in U.S. Naval history, Edward J. Marolda has written about the navy's involvement in numerous conflicts and wars. In The United States Navy and the Vietnam Conflict, Volume 2: From Military Assistance to Combat, 1959–1965, Marolda and collaborator Oscar P. Fitzgerald use the Naval Historical Center archives to detail the U.S. Navy's involvement in bolstering the South Vietnamese navy's efforts prior to the United States' official involvement in the war and its subsequent role as U.S. troops began to actively participate in the conflict. In outlining such efforts as the navy's role in coastal blockade, river patrols, and naval air strikes, the authors note the failure of navy forces to disrupt the flow of supplies from North Vietnam. They also report on the Tonkin Gulf incident, in which the North Vietnamese fired on the USS Maddox. Writing in the American Historical Review, Stephen Pelz commented that the book constitutes "a comprehensive survey of the U.S. Navy's Vietnam experience."

Marolda's narrative in By Sea, Air, and Land: An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia is bolstered by maps, charts, and more than 500 photographs. Marolda covers nearly every aspect of the navy's involvement in Southeast Asia, including bombing campaigns, logistics, sealift efforts, and the river war which, as noted by Sam J. Tangredi in the Naval War College Review, are "placed in context as a cohesive and mutually supporting whole." Tangredi also called the book "a proud and worthy tribute to the Navy veterans of the Vietnam conflict" and noted that "the book's best attribute is that it is not geared to the professional historian."

Marolda served as the compiler for FDR and the U.S. Navy, which charts President Franklin D. Roosevelt's efforts to modernize the navy in the 1930s. In the book, Marolda notes the opposition that the president sometimes faced from Republican partisans in the naval hierarchy, who did not share Roosevelt's prescient view that the United States could be heading into a long-term war. Stanley Itkin, writing in the Library Journal, commented that the book belongs "in every collection of FDRiana and modern U.S. naval history."

Marolda and collaborator Robert J. Schneller, Jr. provide an official history of the U.S. Navy's involvement in ousting the Iraqi military from Kuwait in the early 1990s in their book Shield and Sword: The United States Navy and the Persian Gulf War. The authors relate both the navy's successes, such as its contribution in moving enormous amounts of equipments and supplies into the theatre of operations, and its problems, such as its lack of resources in mine warfare and bureaucratic rivalries that led to conflicts with central command. Writing in the Naval War College Review, Alexander S. Cochran noted that the book "argues a clear thesis: the Persian Gulf War was an enormously complex undertaking, and the U.S. Navy contributed to every aspect, from diplomacy and sanctions to combat and logistics." Cochran went on to call Shield and Sword "first-rate history—solid in research, comprehensive in coverage, and insightful in analysis." Air Power History contributor James R. FitzSimonds called the effort "a textbook on modern naval warfare in a littoral environment that is a must read for anyone with an interest in joint military planning or the ongoing debate over force transformation."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Air Power History, spring, 2003, James R. FitzSimonds, review of Shield and Sword: The United States Navy and the Persian Gulf War, p. 52.

American Historical Review, April, 1988, Stephen Pelz, review of The United States Navy and the Vietnam Conflict, Volume 2: From Military Assistance to Combat, 1959–1965, pp. 527-528.

Journal of Government Information, November-December, 1995, review of By Sea, Air, and Land: An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia, p. 499.

Journal of Military History, April, 1995, review of By Sea, Air, and Land, p. 367.

Library Journal, October 1, 1998, Stanley Itkin, review of FDR and the U.S. Navy, pp. 110, 112.

Naval War College Review, winter, 1996, Sam J. Tangredi, review of By Sea, Air, and Land, pp. 146-147; spring, 2001, Alexander S. Cochran, review of Shield and Sword, p. 135.