Books: Fifteen Guns

SECRET MISSIONS (433 pp.)—Ellis M. Zacharias—Putnam ($3.75).

At 56, Rear Admiral Ellis M. Zacharias, U.S.N. (rtd.) is a man with several missions, none of them much of a secret any more. One is to put the story of his professional career in what strikes him as the proper public light (despite his specialized knowledge of the Japanese language and Japanese navy, Annapolis-trained Ellis Zacharias remained a captain during World War II, reached flag rank only at his recent retirement). The others are: 1) to plead the case for broader and better U.S. naval intelligence; 2) to blast away at U.S. naval stupidity;...