Editing Chester W. Nimitz (section)

===Post war===
On 26 November 1945, Nimitz's nomination as [[Chief of Naval Operations]] (CNO) was confirmed by the US Senate, and on December 15, 1945, he relieved Fleet Admiral [[Ernest J. King]]. He had assured the President that he was willing to serve as the CNO for one two-year term, but no longer. He tackled the difficult task of reducing the most powerful navy in the world to a fraction of its war-time strength while establishing and overseeing active and reserve fleets with the strength and readiness required to support national policy.

For the postwar trial of German Grand Admiral [[Karl Dönitz]] at the [[Nuremberg Trials]] in 1946, Nimitz furnished an [[affidavit]] in support of the practice of [[unrestricted submarine warfare]], a practice that he himself had employed throughout the war in the Pacific. This evidence is widely credited as a reason why Dönitz was sentenced to only 10 years of imprisonment.<ref name="NTrials">[http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/juddoeni.asp Judgement: Dönitz] the [[Avalon Project]] at the [[Yale Law School]].</ref>

Nimitz [[Hyman G. Rickover#Naval Reactors and the Atomic Energy Commission|endorsed an entirely new course]] for the US Navy's future by way of supporting then-Captain [[Hyman G. Rickover]]'s chain-of-command-circumventing proposal in 1947 to build {{USS|Nautilus|SSN-571|6}}, the world's first nuclear-powered vessel.<ref>{{citation |author=Wallace, Robert |title=A Deluge of Honors for an Exasperating Admiral |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rVMEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Accordingly+Rickover+bypassed+several+echelons%22&pg=PA109 |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |issn=0024-3019 |date=September 8, 1958 |page=109 |volume=45|issue=10 }}</ref> As is noted at a display at the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas: "Nimitz's greatest legacy as CNO is arguably his support of Admiral Hyman Rickover's effort to convert the submarine fleet from diesel to nuclear propulsion".