Why Did FDR Fail to Relieve MacArthur and 151,000 Troops Fighting the Japanese in the Philippines?

Breitbart ^ | 4 Aug 2013 | Diana West

[cutty]

According to Soviet intelligence reports, we now know that one of FDR’s top officials, the Treasury Department’s Harry Dexter White, was a Soviet agent, who, among many other deceptions, subverted relations between the US and Japan by inserting “ultimatum” language into the cable flow that actually spurred the Japanese attack. This was language written in Moscow, passed to White by a Soviet handler in Washington, D.C., and dropped into a State Department communiqué sent to Japan.

This brilliantly executed influence operation doesn’t live in infamy – at least not yet.

...

“A continuous stream of fighter and pursuit planes is traversing the Pacific,” FDR cabled MacArthur is early 1942, one of the extravagant lies FDR told to the people and forces under Japanese siege. No planes were on their way. Nothing was coming. .. Truth, John Hersey later wrote, would come “in mean little doses.”

...

the US continued to sustain catastrophic losses while shipping Lend Lease supplies to Stalin through the Nazi U-boat-infested North Atlantic.

Could the decision to abandon US forces to death or the horrors of Japanese POW camps by giving uninterrupted priority to the Red Army have had anything to do with the influence of the scores of Soviet agents and assets within reach of the levers of power inside the US government? How about the man driving military supply policy, the man behind Lend Lease?

That man was Harry Hopkins and he was without question FDR’s top wartime advisor. As George Marshall would state in 1957 to his official biographer Forrest Pogue: “Hopkins’s job with the president was to represent the Russian interests. My job was to represent the American interests.”

Was Hopkins representing Russian interests at a time of American need?

Who was Harry Hopkins?

[Hoplite]

The lack of an education in history renders people susceptible to the most egregious nonsense.

[NonValueAdded]

Looking forward to the next installment!

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Damning statement by Marshall.

[montanajoe]

I think MacArthur's ego may have also had something to do with it..he underestimated the strength of the Japanese in the Philippines both in 1941-2 and again in 1944-45..

[JoeDetweiler]

I am so glad to see this get attention. I have run accross so many people who are willing to denigrate MacArthur, calling him “Dugout Doug” and the such; but refuse to believe a word when I discuss how Saint Roosevelt broke numerous promises to the General and abandoned our troops in the Philippines!

[Mark17]

As George Marshall would state in 1957 to his official biographer Forrest Pogue: “Hopkins’s job with the president was to represent the Russian interests. My job was to represent the American interests.”

I think I would trust General Marshall before I would trust Hopkins.

[Wiggins]

The size of the US Military at the outbreak of WWII and the long supply distance were the biggest reasons the Philippines couldn’t be held onto or reinforced. There was a lack of combat ready troops when the war broke out and the US Navy had been devastated at Pearl Harbor.

[allendale]

The cable story makes no sense. The Soviets feared that if Japan became involved in the broader war, they would probably be forced to fight the Japanese. What is interesting is why did Hitler declare war on the US but did not demand Japan declare war on the Soviets? Hubris or just another monumental German blunder?

[Chainmail]

I suspect there were many, many little bits of treason by embedded Soviet agents during all of FDR’s reign.

[yldstrk]

I despise FDR; we was an enemy of the US

[GeronL]

Logistics probably is the answer. The US was fighting wars on both sides of the world.

[capt B]

Not a lack of education in history but history as told by the leftist/communist/communist sympathizers/dupes etc in academia, media, entertainment,politics,et al. it’s been a constant since the 1930’s

[yldstrk]

he was an enemy of the US

[jmacusa]

Relieve them with what? A Pacific Fleet that had mostly been turned into smoldering scrap at Pearl Harbor? A massive army we didn't yet have? A manufacturing base still largely idled by The Depression? The ‘’Battling Bastards of Bataan/ No Mama, No Papa/No Uncle Sam’’ were sacrificed on the altar of ‘’The New Deal’’. FDR, the granddaddy of the welfare state gutted the military in favor of entitlement spending and ignored the growing threat of rising German nationalist expansionism in Europe and Imperialist Japanese expansionism in Asia, believing that material embargoes and strongly worded denouncements from The League of Nations would check fascist aggression. To be fair FDR isn't entirely to blame. The appeasement by England and France added to the delusion of reigning in Hitler and Tojo. The fall of the Philippines, the desperate defense of Corregidor and the horror of The Bataan Death March are a sad and trenchant example of the folly of military unpreparedness for any great nation.

[GeronL]

bump

[yldstrk]

I think the Philippines is closer than Russia

[fabian]

wow..pure treachery...

[capt B]

Trust Marshall before Hopkins. Marshall was a Hopkins(communist agent) appointee, jumping over many senior officers to his position.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

I agree. Also worth noting is the fact that the leadership of the US Navy at the beginning of WWII was abysmal. We hadn't fought a fleet action in over 50 years, our own commanders didn't know how their ships, weapons or men would perform in combat and above all, our officers were too cautious.

Note the non-relief of Wake Island, the performance of the ABDA command in Indonesian waters and the torpedo problem our submarines faced.

No way the US Nave of 1941 would have cut through to the Philippines.