Cocktails With the Admiral: Drinks, Espionage, and the History of the American Century

The beginning of my fifteen-year friendship with Mac-RADM Donald McCollister Showers lived the American Century with a front-row seat. An Iowa Depression-era kid, Mac's desk in a Pearl Harbor basement enabled the Secrets to be used for victory at the greatest naval battle of modern times-hatched near his desk.

He headed the Estimates Section on Admiral Nimitz's forward head- quarters and briefed the breathtaking casualties involved in the coming invasion of the Home Islands. He stayed in th...