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Appendix B: Bibliography and Source Material

The sources used in compiling the present monograph fall roughly into three categories--official reports and records submitted by the units participating in the actions described, digests of those reports, edited and rewritten for public consumption, and interviews and correspondence with individuals at all levels of command who were presumed to have adequate firsthand knowledge of the events under discussion.

The first and third categories, interacting upon each other, were the most valuable sources of information. The second category, that of the official public release, generally could be depended upon only in matters of chronology, since pressure of time and the exigencies of national security made it impossible for such documents to be anything but extremely vague and general in content.

As has been intimated, the primary documents of the period are uneven in character and in value. Indoctrination in the value of documentary material for the purpose of study had not progressed to me point where there was a complete acceptance of the concept that all aspects of a given operation should be made a matter of record. Also--and this again was mentioned in the prefatory material of this work--the very nature of the early weeks of the operation made the adequate keeping of records almost impossible. There is the further consideration that much of the documentary material of Task Force 62, pertinent to the operation, was kept on board the McCawley until she was lost, a year later, in the northern Solomons.

For the initial chapter, which deals with the strategic background of the operation, the correspondence between Admiral Ernest J. King and General George C. Marshall supplies details of the growth of the concept of early attack. This correspondence was made available at the Naval Records and Library. Supplementary material, from the level of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was secured through the Historical Division, United States Army.

Valuable information was obtained, through correspondence, interviews, and informal discussions with approximately 300 people directly involved in the operations. The notes and correspondence are on file in the records of the Historical Section, U.S. Marine Corps.

The following documents regarding the operation, on file in the records of the Historical Section, were examined in detail and each of them, although it may not have been quoted, contributed to he completion of the work.

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Finally, liberal use has been made of material in the following published works:

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