The author was the last cabinet-level U.S. Secretary of the Navy and the first U.S. Secretary of Defense. His diaries are from 1944 to 1949 and were censored before publication in this book.

The end of the Roosevelt administration -- The final months of war -- Foretaste of the Cold War -- Problems of unification -- The Cold War grows warmer -- Setting new courses -- Soviet policy and American defense -- First Secretary of Defense -- "Playing with fire" -- The March crisis -- The effort to rearm -- The Berlin blockade and the atomic bomb -- The battle of the budget -- The diaries end -- Principal officers.