In the following excerpt, Bierstedt faults "the conclusions to which the author of The Caine Mutiny felt constrained to come at the end of his book."

The Caine Mutiny was published on March 19, 1951. After a somewhat sluggish start it found its way to the best-seller list of the New York Times and to the surprise of almost everyone, including a publisher who had rejected the manuscript, it remained there for one hundred twenty-three weeks. Domestic sales in various editions are well over the three million mark. It has been translated into sixteen foreign languages; it has been syndicated in forty-one American newspapers; it has been distributed by no less than four book clubs; and its author has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize. The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, a play prepared by the author himself, opened on Broadway in January of 1954 and is still [November, 1954] playing to capacity...