This is the first time in paperback for this standard biography of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, who was the controversial architect of the American victory in the Pacific. Once asked if it was he who said, 'When they get in trouble they send for the sonsabitches,' King replied that he was not, but that he would have said it if he had thought of it. Never accused of having a warm personality, Ernest J. King commanded the respect of everyone familiar with his work. His is one of the great American naval careers, his place in history forever secured by a remarkable contribution to the Allied victory in World War II . 'Lord how I need him,' wrote Navy Secretary Frank Knox on December 23, 1941, the day he summoned King to take control of the Navy at its lowest point, in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor.