PEARL HARBOR: THE BACK STORY – DICK MORRIS TV: HISTORY VIDEO!

Dick Morris.Com ^ | December 10,2011 | Dick Morris

[Hojczyk]

In this video commentary, I discuss how FDR knew the Japanese would have to attack us and draw us into the war…and counted on it.

http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/pearl-harbor-the-back-story-dick-morris-tv-history-video/

[GeronL]

Soner or later the Japanese or the Germans would have done it. We knew we would be drawn in eventually, it was no secret. No one knew when or where any attack would happen, they didn’t think Japan even had the ability to project force all the way to Hawaii apparently.

[hosepipe]

And Truman knew there were many communists in Roosevelts administration..
AND DID NOTHING ABOUT THEM...... NOTHING!... on purpose..

[fso301]

Morris should stick to political punditry.

[BatGuano]

I can't agree with “no one knew where or when”. We knew that Japan had the carrier forces to attack Hawaii and had broken their code, The whereabouts of the Japanese carrier force was unknown, which should have put us on a heightened alert but FDR, Marshall, et al. were welcoming an attack. FDR was truly upset when he gave his “day of infamy” speech because he didn't think that the attack would cripple us so.
He was rarely double crossed and was pissed off! It was FDR's saying, “In politics, nothing happens by accident”.

Read “At Dawn We Slept”, the commission blamed the Army and the Navy (Admirals and Generals are expendable)but never even mentioned the White House. My guess is that it was a set up to put the blame in Hawaii.

[al44]

Get a hold of “And I Was There” by Admiral Layton. He was the intelligence officer to Kimmel (and later Nimitz), and offers a great perspective of the state of codebreaking and intelligence before and after Dec. 7.

I don't believe we had broken the Naval operational code by then, only the diplomatic code. We could read the “East Wind Rain” message, but couldn't put a location of where the attack would be.

[fso301]

I can't agree with “no one knew where or when”. We knew that Japan had the carrier forces to attack Hawaii and had broken their code,

Japan had a naval force that could strike pretty much anywhere in the Pacific and Indian Ocean. Hawaii is but one speck in that vast expanse of potential targets.

The whereabouts of the Japanese carrier force was unknown,

Incorrect. Through masterful radio deception, the Japanese main fleet was believed by U.S. intelligence to be in home waters.

which should have put us on a heightened alert

U.S. forces in Hawaii had recently been on high alert. U.S. forces in the Philippines were on high alert. MacArthur had all available aircraft in the air but the timing was a few hours off. The Japanese struck the airfields after the planes returned to base to refuel.

FDR, Marshall, et al. were welcoming an attack.

That FDR was seeking a way to join the war in Europe is no secret. The Japanese were of secondary concern to FDR.

FDR was truly upset when he gave his “day of infamy” speech because he didn't think that the attack would cripple us so. He was rarely double crossed and was pissed off! It was FDR's saying, “In politics, nothing happens by accident”.

If FDR was pissed, it was most likely because with ample indication of imminent hostilities, U.S. commanders at Pearl allowed themselves to be so unprepared.

Read “At Dawn We Slept”, the commission blamed the Army and the Navy (Admirals and Generals are expendable)but never even mentioned the White House. My guess is that it was a set up to put the blame in Hawaii.

The only ones surprised by the attack were U.S. commanders at Pearl harbor.

[BatGuano]

My Uncle was an anti-aircraft gunner, stationed at Schofield Barracks. In late November they received orders from San Francisco to store all ammunition underground. When the field was attacked, he was in Honolulu on a weekend pass. He made it back to the base but had nothing to return fire with. I don't recall if the airfield was attacked during both waves or not.

To the day he died, he maintained that someone at the top knew something bad was about to happen in Hawaii. He was transferred to the ETO in 1944.

I'll try to find the book, thanks.

Diplomatic code and Purple (operational)code were not the same. Also, as in Germany, our intel was always reluctant to indicate to the enemy that we did have their code, ie. “Enigma” machine, we had to appear lucky.

[fso301]

Soner or later the Japanese or the Germans would have done it. We knew we would be drawn in eventually, it was no secret. No one knew when or where any attack would happen, they didn’t think Japan even had the ability to project force all the way to Hawaii apparently.

Too bad it couldn't have been for another year. That might have allowed enough time for the Germans and Russians to bleed each other white.

[GeronL]

I saw that someone posted a copy of the FDR speech and some things were crossed out and replaced. It made the speech a lot more direct and a lot better, IMO. I guess speechwriters didn’t improve because I heard Reagan would change out a lot of weasel words too.

[fso301]

My Uncle was an anti-aircraft gunner, stationed at Schofield Barracks. In late November they received orders from San Francisco to store all ammunition underground

Which would correspond to U.S. forces going off high alert due to a belief that an attack would not occur while Japanese diplomatic efforts were underway in Washington DC.

[BatGuano]

Read the book and my following post re my uncle.

[GeronL]

bump

[al44]

I always thought that the military establishment had their eyes on the Phillipines as the target. The fact that our planes were destroyed on the ground at Clark field a day later always struck me as criminal.

[GeronL]

A lot of people think there was total incompetence in the Philippines.

[BatGuano]

That would be placing more trust in the Japanese than any reasonable person would at that time.

[Oatka]

Kemp Tolley in Cruise of the 'Lanikai" " swore that Roosevelt was trying to generate an incident with the Japs to get into war with them. Others have, to me, convincingly shown that Roosevelt wanted into the European war to the extent that he pussy-footed around the Japs, hoping they'd make the first move.

The Americans also abandoned the "let the Philippines go" at MacArthur's urging and moved a lot of war material there as a first line of defense, and thought sure the attack would come there - or in Malaya, but NEVER on stripped-down Hawaii. They also thought, along with some Japanese, that Japan would never be stupid enough to attack America.

However, their military had brainwashed themselves into thinking they could demoralize us with the Pearl Harbor attack and that by time we recovered, they have fortified all their forward bases to the point we wouldn't attack and instead sue for peace. The error in timing their declaration of war did nothing but piss us off. One wonders how united this country would have been if the attack had not turned out to be a "sneak attack".

Roosevelt must have dropped to his knees and thanked God when Hitler made the idiotic/suicidal declaration of war on the U.S. I think that after Pearl harbor, we would have been so pissed at the Japs that if Hitler had held off, we would have figured he was the Europeans' problem and gone full-bore after Japan.

I understand that he thought that by jumping in, the Japs would attack Russia and take the heat off him on that front, little realizing their interest lay in the southern oil fields of the Dutch East Indies.

Great scenarios for an alternate universe.

[AlexW]

There has been an interesting program about Pearl Harbor,
running on one of my satellite channels...History Channel, I guess, or Natl. Geo.
Covers time before, during, and after the attack, with plenty of old film footage.
I find it amazing that there was no intel that saw the attack coming, or that it was ignored.

[fso301]

Read the book and my following post re my uncle.

I haven't read the book but as I already pointed out, forces at Pearl had been on high alert but stood down in November when the Japanese peace delegation went to Washington.

The battleship was still thought of as king of the sea and U.S. navy thinking was that patrols would detect an approaching enemy fleet in time for the American fleet to set sail and met it in classic manner on the high seas.

That U.S. fighters were lined up wingtip to wingtip was to make them easier to protect against saboteurs.

[fso301]

I always thought that the military establishment had their eyes on the Phillipines as the target.

True and that's because the Philippines lay in the path of the Japanese southward drive for raw materials in SE Asia and Indonesia.

The fact that our planes were destroyed on the ground at Clark field a day later always struck me as criminal.

You have to be careful here and go back to original sources. If I remember correctly, MacArthur was notified of the attack on Pearl Harbor but had not yet received orders to commence offensive action. Therefore, he didn't have the freedom to order a B-17 strike against Formosa.

The radar crew at Clark were inexperienced and the set may not have been properly working either. A network of ground based Filipino aircraft spotters were also used but for whatever reason, failed to sound the alarm in time.

MacArthur ordered the fighters up, but the timing was off and most were on the ground refueling when the Japanese bombers appeared over Clark.