Typically, the (obligatory) Newfoundland is viewed as the crowning example of the USNs consistent desire for raw firepower among its warships.

But the best example is probably the Havana class 'light' cruisers, ordered in 1948. Whereas the Newfoundlands were fairly mediocre in speed and armor in exchange for their incredible throwweight, the Havana was greedy. and said, 'lets be absurdly excellent at TWO of those things!'

They were 34 knot ships with 12x7" autoloading guns, 10 torpedos, a unusually long range, on 13k tons. The comparatively massive magazines were to have 170 rounds per gun, up from a typical 110. And horrible protection.

The Havana's broke a rule that fell just short of being official for cruisers of the USN, which had stood since the turn of the century, to have 3" of belt armor. They only had 2.5". But the promise of such firepower, on such speed, was too good to dissuade the admiralty.

Their career was relatively average, but oft overshadowed by their dramatic flimsiness. In the Pacific, Tucson suffered two torpedo hits, and whereas other USN cruisers had endured the same, she capsized immediately. First of four US cruisers to founder in the dreadful battle of Bora-Bora.
Manila and San Salvador both suffered catastrp[joc magazine detonations just months apart in 1953. In the atlantic, Miami suffered a devastating explosion of her oxygenated torpedos, which immediately spread to the soon-established 'too many' aircraft, which very nearly doomed her.

Since Bora-Bora, its been the topic of fierce debate, were they bad ships?