Until now historians have generally accepted the interpretation that actual military planning for war with Germany and Japan came only after the events of 1939 when the security of the United States had been threatened. But Henry Gole counters this accepted historical wisdom with a forceful body of evidence indicating that the U.S. Army planned for coalition warfare as early as 1934, and specifically for a simultaneous two-ocean war with a Nazi Confederation and Japan in 1935, 1936, and 1937. Using primary sources from the Army War College, the Naval War College, and the National Archives, including materials discovered years after the publication of the official histories of World War II known as the Green Books, Gole shows that the United States was prepared intellectually from the mid-1930s to mobilize people and things for another world war.-- Publisher's Catalog.

1American Military Preparedness between the World Wars -- 3 -- 2 Army War College, Strategic Continuity, and Service Preferences -- 17 -- 3 Plans and Planning -- 27 -- Part II Participation with Allies and Two-Front War -- 4 1934: War with Japan -- 39 -- 5 1935: The Nazi Confederation -- 48 -- 6 1936: The Central Coalition -- 58 -- 7 1937: Europe and the Pacific -- 67 -- Part III Defending the Western Hemisphere and Orange Revisited -- 8 1938: Orange and Purple -- 81 -- 9 1939: Orange and Purple Again -- 94 -- 10 1940: School's Out -- 104 -- 11 War College Plans and "Official" Plans -- 113 -- 12 Professionals in a Small Army -- 122 -- 13 AWC Graduates in the Transition from Peace to War -- 133 -- A AWC Graduates 1934-1940 Who Served in WPD 1935-1945 -- 159 -- B AWC Graduates 1934-1939 in High-Level Staff Jobs, March 1940 -- 161 -- C AWC Graduates 1934-1940 in High-Level Staff Jobs, November 1941 -- 163 -- D Eisenhower's OPD Roster by Rank, 3 April 1942 -- 165 -- E Colors, War Plans -- 166 -- F War Planning Process -- 167 -- G AWC Graduates 1934-1940, by Year -- 170 -- H AWC Graduates 1934-1940 Who Attained Flag Rank -- 180.