[Mr. Jeeves]

What was interesting is that the Japanese were well aware of it, and based their entire defense of the Pacific on the concept that the Americans - once they had suffered too many casualties on remote and useless islands for domestic politics to tolerate - would simply declare victory, state that Hawaii and the rest of the Pacific were now safe from Japanese aggression, and give up any thought of taking the war all the way to Tokyo.

Had Walter Cronkite been as senior and influential back then as he was in the 60's, they might have gotten their wish. Fortunately, the sacrifices the Marines made at Tarawa pissed off enough of the American public to re-invigorate the will to win that Pearl Harbor had initially ignited.

[henkster]

The Germans were also aware of it. But they didn’t count on the Russians being our blood proxies.