dschardt

December 4, 1941 memo

I think it has already been established that there were enough warnings about an impending attack towards Hawaii, or at least enough to warrant better preparedness. But I suppose here is another piece backing the claim up.


Sorry if this has been posted before, but I did not see any threads about it.

Kinan

It wouldn't surprise me at all, Roosevelt wanted to enter the war and he couldn't convince the American people unless such attack happens.
the 3 major carriers were far from Pearl Harbor at the time of the strike, so he knew about the attack.

diddyriddick

How many times.....

No. Roosevelt did NOT know about the attack beforehand. There isn't a single primary source that indicates that Roosevelt knew in advance that the Kido Butai was going to bomb Pearl Harbor. It's simply a myth. What we do have is very hard proof that both Short AND Kimmel made mistakes that cost America dearly.

The Roosevelt-wanted-us-in-the-war hypothesis just doesn't work. By all accounts, Roosevelt DID believe that America would be at war with Germany and perhaps Italy. But the evidence strongly suggests that he was trying to avoid war with Japan. So.....What kind of fool would provoke war with Japan so that he can fight Germany? Germany had no obligation to Japan under the Tripartite pact. He very easily could have gotten war with Germany with continued aggressive Atlantic Fleet action-not unlike the events which led to WWI for America. The article in question also notes that the administration debated war with Germany as well on the night of the attack, but the they chose not to. Why not?

The 3 carriers in question WERE far away from PH. But not because Roosevelt sent them. The CNO, through Kimmel, ordered reinforcements sent to Wake Island. Carriers were the means of getting them there. Again, there is absolutely no evidence of any kind of tampering from the White House.

What EVERYBODY in both Tokyo and Washington knew was that war in the Pacific was going to happen. Where they were tragically mistaken was in ignoring the possibility that PH was the target. In fact, Washington issued a war warning to all commands a week before PH. A commander in chief shouldn't have to instruct every command what to do under those circumstances.

Mistakes were made at every level. But there is simply no justification for the revisionists here.



PS. Thank you for the article. I'll be looking for the book.

pikeshot1600

Revisionism sells books. Conspiracy theories sell books. It is 70 years almost to the day of the P.H. attack. Marketing scheme - that is all.

Carlisle Blues

Ok so Roosevelt wanted the USA in the war, which would have entailed naval battles so he let the enemy bomb the hell out of his naval assets... That is worrisome.

dschardt

Shhhh...logic never sits well with conspiracy theorists.

dschardt

Btw, im not a revisionist on this, just thought it added another piece to the mistakes made by the U.S. during the run up to war.

Sankari

I agree with diddyrick. Roosevelt entered the war against Japan with great reluctance under intense provocation. Pearl Harbour forced his hand, but he knew nothing about it before the event.

yakmatt

"similar to Clinton and Bush and 9-11"

That sounds right. Stuff gets missed all the time. It's human nature.

Carlisle Blues

Who knew...
The Perilous Fight . Pearl Harbor | PBS