The conventional wisdom on this forum and elsewhere is that Admiral King dropped the ball on organizing convoys on the US East Coast upon war with Germany. However, Clay Blair in his book "Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters, 1939-1942" argues that this view is false. He makes the following points:
FDR prioritized small craft and landing craft over proper ASW vessels, leaving the US Navy lacking the latter when war broke out.
The US had given 50 old destroyers and 10 coast guard cutters to Britain.
The US had a policy of heavily escorting troopships, both in the Atlantic and Pacific, and this led to zero troopship losses.
American destroyers were needed in the Pacific and also in the European theater to escort American capital ships helping to supply Malta and contain the German surface ships.
Potential ASW air units were under the control of the US Army, which preferred "offensive" hunter-killer searches for U-Boats to "defensive" escorting of convoys.
Is Blair correct?