This 1997 book written by Gregory Vistica, a reporter for Newsweek at the time, tells of how the Navy brass really operated during the Reagan years. Although the book centers around the Secretary of the Navy, John Lehman, under Ronald Reagan, it goes on to discuss how Lehman destroyed anyone that stood in his way of a bigger Navy with battleships (useless by the way) and his bigger navy budget. Many tough-sounding flyboys such as Lehman were the darlings of the fanged neocons who littered the Reagan years. Not much different that the men who recently licked the heels of President George Bush year after year, which left our country in a financially disasterous mess today. The book points out that a much more sober analysis of the true Soviet threat at the time might have shown it to be false, and could have saved billions of dollars from being wasted trying to overthrow the Soviets---much as today, a better analysis of our world's situation would keep American taxpayers from spending trillions ($) in the ill-conceived war of George Bush in Iraq and Afghanistan which will in fact crush our nation as military overspending crushed the Soviet Union because of their ill-conceived war in Afgahistan. The book goes on to point out it wasn't just secretary John Lehman, and those like him that ruined the Navy, but many other high-ranking navy officer with immoral and unethical behavior, some even criminal. Admirals, captains, and other high-ranking naval officers are shown in this Vistica book that they thought they were above the laws of this land and even the Uniform Code of Military Justice (USMJ). Author Gregory Vistica takes the reader through the scenes of TAILHOOK, the Admiral Boorda suicide, ILL Wind’s procurement scandal, the John Walker Spy case, the Iowa Battleship explosion and cover-up, and yes, even the Captain Melvin D. Munziner incident where a skipper was accused of and investigated by the Navy Office of Inspector General, and by then Senator William Proxmire, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee for killing whales(endangered species) with the XO, Operations Officer and other for sport, purposely running over a Korean fishing fleet and destroying government property. f there is anything learned from years in government and the military is that Mr. Visctica's book is not far off base, but instead just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to immorale and unethical behavior exhibited by many high ranking officers in the navy. This is a MUST read for anyone who thinks the American Navy is free from corruption and bad behavior such as Capt. Mel Munzinger and his antics in Subic. Cudos to Mr. Vistica for this well-written book!