Polmar, Norman 1938-

PERSONAL:

Born May 14, 1938, in Washington, DC; son of David William and Ida Polmar; married Beverly Rosenfeld (a speech pathologist), November 17, 1962; children: Deborah Beth, Michael Louis. Education: American University, B.A., 1965. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Alexandria, VA. Office—Churchill Press, Inc., Skyline Center, Falls Church, VA 22041.

CAREER:

Writer, editor, analyst, military historian, consultant, lecturer, and journalist. Washington Daily News, Washington, DC, copy boy and reporter, 1958-60; Navy Times, Washington, DC, associate editor, 1961-63; Naval Institute Proceedings, Annapolis, MD, assistant editor, 1963-67; Northrop Corp., Washington, DC, technical support advisor, 1967-70; Lulejian & Associates, Falls Church, VA, assistant to the president, beginning 1970; Navy Research Advisory Committee, 1982-86. Independent consultant, 1980—. Guest on television and radio programs. Served as consultant to government officials, including three U.S. Secretaries of the Navy, three members of the U.S. Senate, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

MEMBER:

American Military Institute, American Aviation Historical Society, Naval Institute, National Press Club.

WRITINGS:

Atomic Submarines, Van Nostrand (Princeton, NJ), 1963.

Death of the Thresher, Chilton (Philadelphia, PA), 1964.

Aircraft Carriers, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1969.

Soviet Naval Power, National Strategy Information Center (New York, NY), 1972.

(With Ken W. Sayers) Anchors and Atoms, McKay (New York, NY), 1974.

Strategic Weapons: An Introduction, Crane, Russak (New York, NY), 1975.

(Editor, with Floyd D. Kennedy, Jr.) World Combat Aircraft Directory, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1976.

(With Siegfried Breyer) Guide to the Soviet Navy, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1977.

(Editor) Soviet Naval Developments, Nautical and Aviation Publication Co. (Annapolis, MD), 1979.

(Editor) Strategic Air Command: People, Aircraft, and Missiles, Nautical and Aviation Publication Company of America (Annapolis, MD), 1979.

The American Submarine, Nautical & Aviation Publication Co. (Annapolis, MD), 1981.

(With Floyd D. Kennedy, Jr.) Military Helicopters of the World: Military Rotary-wing Aircraft since 1917, Naval Institution Press (Annapolis, MD), 1981.

(With Peter B. Mersky) The Naval Air War in Vietnam, Nautical and Aviation Publication Co. (Annapolis, MD), 1981.

(With Thomas B. Allen) Rickover, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1982.

Guide to the Soviet Navy, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1983.

The U.S. Navy Today, Sterling (New York, NY), 1985.

(With Dorr Carpenter) Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1986.

(With Thomas B. Allen) Ship of Gold, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1987.

(With Peter B. Mersky) Amphibious Warfare: An Illustrated History, Blandford Press (New York, NY), 1988.

(With Thomas B. Allen) Merchants of Treason: America's Secrets for Sale, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1988.

Carrier Power vs. Fighting Ship, Howell Press (Charlottesville, VA), 1990.

(With Jurrien Noot) Submarines of the Russian and Soviet Navies, 1718-1990, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1990.

The Naval Institute Guide to the Soviet Navy, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1991.

(With Thomas B. Allen and F. Clifton Berry) War in the Gulf, Turner (Atlanta, GA), 1991.

(With Thomas B. Allen) World War II: America at War, 1941-1945, Random House (New York, NY), 1991.

(With Mark Warren and Eric Wertheim) Dictionary of Military Abbreviations, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1994.

(With Thomas B. Allen) Code-name Downfall: The Secret Plan to Invade Japan and Why Truman Dropped the Bomb, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1995.

(With Thomas B. Allen) World War II: The Encyclopedia of the War Years, 1941-1945, Random House (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Thomas B. Allen) Spy Book: The Encyclopedia of Espionage, Random House (New York, NY), 1997, 2nd edition, foreword by Nigel West, Random House Reference (New York, NY), 2004.

(With others) Chronology of the Cold War at Sea, 1945-1991, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1998.

(With Thomas B. Allen) The Encyclopedia of Espionage, Gramercy Books (New York, NY), 1998.

(Editor, with I.D. Spassky and V.P. Semyonov) Submarines of the Tsarist Navy: A Pictorial History, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1998.

(With Samuel Loring Morison) PT Boats at War: World War II to Vietnam, MBI Publishing (Osceola, WI), 1999.

Spyplane: The U-2 History Declassified, MBU (Osceola, WI), 2001.

(Editor) The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 2001.

(With John W. Lambert) Defenseless: Command Failure at Pearl Harbor, MBI (St. Paul, MN), 2003.

(With Samuel Loring Morison) The American Battleship, MBI (St. Paul, MN), 2003.

(Editor and author of foreword) D.M. Giangreco and Kathryn Moore, Eyewitness D-Day: Firsthand Accounts from the Landing at Normandy to the Liberation of Paris, Barnes & Noble Books (New York, NY), 2004.

(With Kenneth J. Moore) Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines, Brassey's (Washington, DC), 2004.

The Enola Gay: The B-29 That Dropped the First Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Brassey's (Washington, DC), 2004.

Historic Naval Aircraft: From the Pages of Naval History Magazine, Brassey's (Washington, DC), 2004.

(With Dana Bell) One Hundred Years of World Military Aircraft, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 2004.

(With Minoru Genda and others) Aircraft Carriers: A History of Carrier Aviation and Its Influence on World Events, Potomac Books (Washington, DC), 2006.

(With John D. Gresham) DEFCON-2: Standing on the Brink of Nuclear War during the Cuban Missile Crisis, foreword by Tom Clancy, Wiley (Hoboken, NJ), 2006.

(With Thomas B. Allen) Rickover: Father of the Nuclear Navy, Potomac Books (Washington, DC), 2007.

Contributor to journals and periodicals.

United States editor of Jane's Fighting Ships, 1967-77; Washington editorial representative for Air International and Ships of the World.

Author of regular column for Naval Institute Proceedings; author of regular column for Naval History magazine.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer and editor Norman Polmar is a military historian, defense analyst and consultant, and expert on naval ships and aircraft. He has been a consultant to the U.S. Navy and to several elected representatives, to the U.S. Department of Defense, and to businesses in the defense and aerospace industries. For ten years, from 1967 to 1977, Polmar served as the editor for the highly respected reference series "Jane's Fighting Ships." "The first American to ever hold an editorship with that publication, he was totally responsible for almost one-third of the volume in that period," commented a biographer on the Federation of American Scientists Web site. He frequently shares his expertise as a guest on television and radio programs, and he has lectured extensively throughout the world and is a frequent speaker at military schools and colleges in the United States and Great Britain.

Polmar is a prolific contributor to periodicals and journals and is the author or coauthor of more than thirty books, most of which focus on current defense and military subjects or on military history. In Codename Downfall: The Secret Plan to Invade Japan and Why Truman Dropped the Bomb, Polmar and coauthor Thomas B. Allen carefully reconsider the American military decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan in World War II. Allen and Polmar analyze the contemporary military situation surrounding the war with Japan. They look at a plan that existed to invade Japan through massive troop landings and reflect on the problems that would have faced such an invasion. Military analysts concluded that the Japanese were not prepared to surrender and likely would have resisted with the same level of determination that propelled the suicidal Kamikaze fighters, extending the war to at least late 1946. In the invasion scenario, estimates of potential U.S. and allied casualties were extremely high—half a million casualties total, including 130,000 combat deaths. Thus, the authors conclude, the American decision to drop the bomb was made in order to prevent such a tremendous blow to U.S. forces and to rein in the concurrent loss of Japanese life that would accompany it. Polmar and Allen present details on both the American invasion plan and the Japanese plan of resistance. "This is a convincing case to settle a long-running controversy," commented a Publishers Weekly contributor. Booklist critic Gilbert Taylor concluded, "This encompassing narrative—fit for all libraries—constitutes the war's unwritten final chapter."

Spy Book: The Encyclopedia of Espionage, also written with Allen, contains "some 2,000 entries on people, places, institutions, code words, operations, and other aspects of spying," noted a Booklist reviewer, who also noted that the book "offers up-to-date, international coverage of the world of espionage." Polmar and Allen base their work on previously unavailable material from organizations such as the CIA and KGB and rely on other resources such as personal interviews, court documents, letters and correspondence, and scholarly presentations at academic conferences. The alphabetically arranged entries provide overviews and basic details, and more than twenty-five "master entries" offer greater historical depth and analysis of issues, events, and participants. A chronology of spying shows that such espionage has been practiced since at least 1800 B.C., and listings include data such as slang terms, the place of numerous countries in the history of spying, prominent persons in spy agencies, notorious spies, cryptography, the rise of the computer and the Internet in spying, industrial espionage, the recent declassification of the Venona intercepts of Russian intelligence, and more. Time contributor Jesse Birnbaum commented, "This authoritative reference book rides the espionage headlines exceedingly well."

Polmar serves as editor of important military reference books. He is the editor of several volumes of the definitive reference works, Guide to the Soviet Navy and The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, both of which are published every three years. The latter volume includes information on ships and aircraft of the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps, with details on corresponding civilian craft. Polmar includes material on vehicle platforms, organizational structure, vehicle programs, classes and types of ships, and other data. Reviewer Peter B. Mersky, writing in Naval Aviation News, called the seventeenth edition "one of the best editions of this triannual" publication, and a "fine reference." In an assessment of the eighteenth edition, Mersky wrote, "As expected, Norman Polmar has done an outstanding job compiling this continuing description of the naval service and its hardware. You can't get better value for the money."

Historic Naval Aircraft: From the Pages of Naval History Magazine includes a collection of Polmar's columns from Naval History magazine, which Mersky, in another Naval Aviation News review, described as a "well-written collection of broadstroke history." One Hundred Years of World Military Aircraft, written with Dana Bell, provides an overview of a century's worth of military aircraft from around the world. Polmar and Bell cover one hundred of the most important aircraft from military aviation's first century. Reviewer John Braddon, writing in Air Power History, concluded that "the manner of presentation, accuracy of the accounts, and ease of finding vital characteristics make this book beneficial to anyone interested in military aviation history." Aircraft Carriers: A History of Carrier Aviation and Its Influence on World Events presents a "definitive history of world aircraft carrier development and operations," according to an Internet Bookwatch reviewer.

DEFCON-2: Standing on the Brink of Nuclear War during the Cuban Missile Crisis, written with John D. Gresham, recounts the tense and volatile Cold War situation in 1962 that nearly erupted into full-scale nuclear war. The book's title is derived from the abbreviation for Defense Condition Two, the highest state of military alert in the United States before actual war. Polmar and Gresham look at the reasons behind the Cuban Missile Crisis and describe the military basis for the confrontation. "Thoroughly researched and suspenseful, their book is an excellent choice for fans of Cold War history," commented a Publishers Weekly contributor. Military Review critic Jonathan M. House called the book "a refreshing and informative study of a major strategic crisis in the history of the Cold War."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Air Power History, spring, 2006, John Braddon, review of One Hundred Years of World Military Aircraft, p. 51.

Aviation History, January, 2005, C.V. Glines, review of One Hundred Years of World Military Aircraft, p. 54.

Booklist, October 1, 1994, review of Dictionary of Military Abbreviations, p. 354; June 1, 1995, Gilbert Taylor, review of Code-name Downfall: The Secret Plan to Invade Japan and Why Truman Dropped the Bomb, p. 1722; April 15, 1997, review of Spy Book: The Encyclopedia of Espionage, p. 1453.

Choice, March, 1995, review of Dictionary of Military Abbreviations, p. 1090; February, 1997, "World War II," p. 948; May, 1997, review of Spy Book, p. 1479; June, 1997, review of The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, p. 1643; June, 2004, M.J. Smith, Jr., review of One Hundred Years of World Military Aircraft, p. 1861; September, 2004, R. Higham, review of Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines, p. 163.

Defense Daily, March 20, 1997, Sheila Foote, "Submarine Critics Accuse Navy of Harassment," p. 435.

Defense Transportation Journal, August, 2001, Joseph G. Mattingly, Jr., review of The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, p. 36.

Internet Bookwatch, February, 2005, review of Historic Naval Aircraft: From the Pages of Naval History Magazine; February, 2007, review of Aircraft Carriers: A History of Carrier Aviation and Its Influence on World Events.

Journal of Military History, April, 1993, review of The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, p. 367.

Library Journal, August, 1995, Robert Favini, review of Code-name Downfall, p. 93; April 15, 1997, Stephen W. Green, review of Spy Book, p. 72.

Military Law Review, summer, 1985, Craig P. Niederpreum, "The Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet," p. 129.

Military Review, March-April, 2007, Jonathan M. House, review of DEFCON-2: Standing on the Brink of Nuclear War during the Cuban Missile Crisis, p. 120.

Naval Aviation News, November-December, 2001, Peter B. Mersky, review of The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, p. 33; May-June, 2004, Peter B. Mersky, review of Defenseless: Command Failure at Pearl Harbor, p. 48; May-June, 2005, Peter B. Mersky, review of Historic Naval Aircraft, p. 30; September-October, 2005, Peter B. Mersky, review of The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, p. 24.

Naval Forces, May-June, 2005, Edward H. Landquist, review of The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, p. 157.

Naval War College Review, spring, 2002, review of The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, p. 119; autumn, 2006, review of The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, p. 152.

New Statesman & Society, August 11, 1995, Glyn Ford, review of Code-name Downfall, p. 38.

New York Review of Books, September 21, 1995, Ian Buruma, review of Code-name Downfall, p. 26.

New York Times Book Review, July 30, 1995, Michael R. Beschloss, "Did We Need to Drop It?," review of Code-name Downfall.

Publishers Weekly, May 15, 1995, review of Codename Downfall, p. 61; January 9, 2006, review of DEFCON-2, p. 49.

Reference & Research Book News, May, 1998, review of Chronology of the Cold War at Sea, 1945-1991, p. 24; November, 2004, review of Spy Book, p. 154; February, 2005, review of Historic Naval Aircraft, p. 282; May, 2005, review of The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, p. 298; February, 2007, review of Aircraft Carriers.

School Library Journal, November, 1997, Margaret Tice, review of Spy Book, p. 142.

SciTech Book News, September, 2001, review of The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, p. 166; March, 2004, review of Cold War Submarines, p. 179; March, 2004, review of One Hundred Years of World Military Aircraft, p. 179.

Sea Frontiers, May 1, 1985, review of The Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, p. 184.

Sea Power, July, 2001, "Ship's Library," p. 53; February, 2004, David W. Munns, review of One Hundred Years of World Military Aircraft, p. 47; May, 2004, David W. Munns, review of Cold War Submarines, p. 54; November, 2004, David W. Munns, review of Spy Book, p. 36; April, 2005, review of Historic Naval Aircraft, p. 43; May, 2005, David W. Munns, review of The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, p. 41; April, 2006, David W. Munns, review of DEFCON-2, p. 68.

Time, December 9, 1996, Jesse Birnbaum, review of Spy Book, p. 86.

ONLINE

Federation of American Scientists,http://www.fas.org/ (March 9, 2008), author profile.