Clarke credits Mahan's writing with helping persuade Congress that the United States needed a navy. He criticises the subsequent concentration on large warships as expressions of national status for neglecting smaller combatants. Battleships and their supporting cruisers and destroyers depended on one another, so acquiring the largest ships alone could not produce a balanced fleet.
Notable Point · 1:20:16-1:20:45
Mahan's naval influence and the neglected fleet screen
The preference for large American warships left their supporting screen neglected in this assessment of Mahan's naval influence.