Nimitz’s Newsman: Waldo Drake and the Navy’s Censored War in the Pacific. By Hamilton Bean. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2024
Reviewed by Tim Coyle
Waldo Drake was the Public Relations Officer and Censor to Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief Pacific (CINCPAC), from December 1941 until Drake was removed, by order of the Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, on 09 October 1944. In the intervening 33 months, Drake ruled the dissemination of media output with an iron rod of censorship and, although he formed strong supportive relationships, they were outnumbered by powerful detracting forces in both the Navy and the news correspondents and publishers with whom Drake battled.
