Posted on 12/07/2005 8:04:14 AM PST by MNJohnnie
The 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant.
Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed deterrent to Japanese agression. The Japanese military, deeply engaged in the seemingly endless war it had started against China in mid-1937, badly needed oil and other raw materials. Commercial access to these was gradually curtailed as the conquests continued. In July 1941 the Western powers effectively halted trade with Japan. From then on, as the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and mineral-rich East Indies and Southeast Asia, a Pacific war was virtually inevitable.
By late November 1941, with peace negotiations clearly approaching an end, informed U.S. officials (and they were well-informed, they believed, through an ability to read Japan's diplomatic codes) fully expected a Japanese attack into the Indies, Malaya and probably the Philippines. Completely unanticipated was the prospect that Japan would attack east, as well.
The U.S. Fleet's Pearl Harbor base was reachable by an aircraft carrier force, and the Japanese Navy secretly sent one across the Pacific with greater aerial striking power than had ever been seen on the World's oceans. Its planes hit just before 8AM on 7 December. Within a short time five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged. Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out and over 2400 Americans were dead. Soon after, Japanese planes eliminated much of the American air force in the Philippines, and a Japanese Army was ashore in Malaya.
Bahbah, you forgot YaYa123. She should give classes. I know I need them!!
Oh, you are right. She is an absolute wiz. Smacking forehead.
I am pretty sure this will be repeated on C-span tonight...so I will make a point to listen again...
and I will let you know..but, I would appreciate it if you or any other freepers would look out for it also...so we can have more than MY poor memory to go by!!
LOL
LOL.... ROTFLMAO ....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/07/AR2005120701588.html
Here is the transcript of his speech...if you read WAY down about 20 paragraphs...start where he starts talking about what happened in 1991...that is when I started listening to his speech..
further down, he references the Defense vs. State depts.
I found it a little bit ago and pinged you to it :) It appears that State wanted to take over the "aftermath." I can't help but think that would have been a total disaster.
I just posted to you on the Murtha thread...
Okay..so I DID take it out of context. I knew it didn't make sense..BUT, the aftermath that Murtha was talking about, was the aftermath of taking Baghdad, because he mentioned the looting...
What would the State Dept. do at that point, TALK Saddam into turning himself in? Negotiate the Baathists into becoming DEMOCRATS???
I just don't get it...
Ron Reagan's show is cancelled! LOLOL
Didn't know "Non" Reagan (not a jr) had a show.
I was listening to sixth grader David Wade give his wussy response to Mellman..."political hack Mellman"? "draft dodging, donut eating Rush Limbaugh"?
(this wouldn't be the same person who, in his overdue concession speech the day after the election, lectured the President about the "dangers of division", would it?)
and "draft dodging, donut eating Limbaugh"? Sounds more like Bill Clinton to me...or that buffoon Howard Dean, who got a military medical deferment and was soonafter spotted...SKIING? boy, i wanted to be a driveby caller to Rush's show today...
Here's an important stat. The last 40 years, as of 2008: 10 presidential elections. 3 democrat winners (too many). One was so successful that it resulted in two Republican landslides.
woof
Because it would not have made any sense???
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