Haines, a novelist, served during World War II as an intelligence officer on the staff of the U.S. Eighth Air Force in England between 1942 and 1945. From his experiences he wrote "Command Decision" as a stage play in 1945 but was unable to sell it. He followed suggestions that he first publish it in novel form and the book became both a best-seller and critical success. Dialogue describing the infighting to build strategic airpower over the two decades preceding U.S. participation in World War II, particularly spoken by General Kane, are thinly disguised versions of actual events and personages.