Books in Brief: The Arnheiter Affair

The Arnheiter Affair, by Neil Sheehan (Random House, 304 pp., $7.95). On December 22, 1965 Marcus Aurelius Arnheiter assumed command of the USS Vance. On March 31, 1966 he was summarily relieved of his command because of “certain irregular practices . . . and policies . . . seriously detrimental to the morale and combat efficiency of his command.” And so began the controversy over Captain Arnheiter. One side said he was a good, if tough, commander whose career was ruined by a few cunning officers; the other said he was Captain Queeg come to life. At the beginning, Neil Sheehan, yes, Pentagon Papers Sheehan, tells us he was on Arnheiter’s side, thinking the officers who brought about their captain’s removal “milksops and neurotic.” Now, after interviews with the captain and crew of the Vance, Sheehan has changed his mind. The captain, we learn, was deceptive and secretive; the crew was extraordinarily loquacious—those of the crew who disliked the captain, the only ones we hear from. The trouble is, no matter how sympathetic Sheehan now is, the officers still sound like “milksops and neurotics.” The only defense of Arnheiter comes at the end of the book—in one of the appendices, a letter from Captain Richard Alexander to the Secretary of the Navy. After examining the entire case, Alexander found that Arnheiter’s only offenses were two minor ones that should never have been grounds for dismissal. His major offense, Alexander notes, was that he was a diligent officer stuck with deceitful, disloyal and conniving officers. Alexander seems to have a point, but it didn’t do Arnheiter or himself any good. Both have left the Navy.