Effort to Clear Top Admiral at Pearl Harbor Rejected

The Cincinnati Enquirer ^ | Saturday, June 29, 2002 | staff writer

[yankeedame]

Saturday, June 29, 2002

Effort to clear top admiral at Pearl Harbor rejected

The Associated Press LOUISVILLE — The White House has rejected a congressional effort to clear the military record of the Kentuckian who was the top admiral at Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Andrew Card Jr., chief of staff to President Bush, has written to lawmakers that “there is no new or extraordinary evidence available” to restore Rear Adm. Husband Edward Kimmel and his Army counterpart at Pearl Harbor, Maj. Gen. Walter Short, to their highest World War II ranks.

The letter was a disappointment to Ned Kimmel, 80, of Wilmington, Del., the admiral's last surviving son.

“I'm sort of at the end of my rope on this,” Mr. Kimmel said.

He and other family members — along with allies that include the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and the Veterans of Foreign Wars — have fought for years for vindication of the commanders.

Rear Adm. Kimmel, raised in Henderson, Ky., and Maj. Gen. Short were the only officers not allowed to retire at their highest rank held during the war.

Critics say the two officers were lax in making defense preparations and were inattentive to attack warnings. Supporters say they were scapegoats for U.S. intelligence errors and miscalculations in Washington.

[Raymond Hendrix]

I'll look at this later...

[backhoe]

Pearl! Dec. 7, 1941- what really happened?

[swarthyguy]

It's a shame. All evidence seems to indicate they did the best with the information they had.

[aristeides]

An injustice perpetuated. I wonder what bureaucratic interests are served.

Andrew Card Jr., chief of staff to President Bush, has written to lawmakers that “there is no new or extraordinary evidence available” to restore Rear Adm. Husband Edward Kimmel and his Army counterpart at Pearl Harbor, Maj. Gen. Walter Short, to their highest World War II ranks.

This retired naval signals intelligence officer would call the evidence revealed in Robert Stinnett's Day of Deceit and, even more, Timothy Wilford's Pearl Harbor Redefined: USN Radio Intelligence in 1941 both new and extraordinary.

I wonder if the White House had access to the intelligence that is still being kept classified.

[swarthyguy]

Actually, DandyCandyAndy, there is both new and extraordinary evidence, but that means a lot of laundry gets aired. Obviously a no-no.

[cynicom]

During peacetime, it is very difficult to obtain and hold star rank. The usual method is to climb over the bodies of others that have been waylaid and cut out of the process. I would have to suspect the same of Short and Kimmel.

Also in 1919, the War Dept. developed plan yellow, which forecast that Japan would one day move south in force, looking for oil and other resources. Surely these two must have been aware of the thinking twenty years prior.

Most likely they paid the price as scapegoats for higher ups, but that does not diminish the fact that they were in all facets a part of the process.

[aristeides]

Actually, airing that dirty laundry could not be more relevant. If we're trying to decide how to respond to the intelligence failure of 9/11, what could be more important than determining whether there was an intelligence failure at Pearl Harbor?

[elephantlips]

This has been bothering me for a long time, ever since I noticed a trend to smear historical figures. Over time it is a normal tendancy to elevate heroes beyond the deeds they actually performed. But I do not believe that these current efforts are intended to "balance" the scales. Most recently there has been a focusing in on two men from America's history: Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.
It now seems that 'ole Abe was a racist. Have you noticed that nearly everyone is a racist. It's the word you use like we toss around the "f" word. It fills empty spaces in our rhetoric when we cannot think of anything else to say. It has shock value, although even that is wearing out rapidly, so we throw it in easily. As for Roosevelt, "he knew all along about the Japanese attack, he just wanted America in the war and this was the best way to accomplish that, so he didn't warn Pearl Harbor." What reality must we suspend to accept that this man who Americans cared so much about, deliberately allowed thousands to die and thousands more to be wounded and mutilated just for his purposes. The moral depravity required to commit such an act is just not in evidence. The same goes for Lincoln. No man so impassioned for his country and its citizens could have perpetrated a civil war which aided the emancipation of the slaves while being a racist. Books have been written about these men, especially Lincoln which reflect opinions and wisdom far beyond my limited knowledge. My reason for this post is to point out the continued efforts of some to diminish this country's men and motives. It is hardly in our best interest to aid these commentaries with our attention. Their motives are the ones that are highly suspect.

[swarthyguy]

Agreed. But flip things around, Pearl Harbor was the result of a successful intel operation. Provoking and goading the Japanese; forcing their hand. In that sense, McCollum's memo was successfully implemented.

[aristeides]

So do you want feelgood myths not to be challenged even when they are untrue?

[aristeides]

But the supposed intelligence failure at Pearl Harbor was used as the excuse for setting up the CIA. Deny that there was an intelligence failure at Pearl Harbor, and that has implications for our current intelligence setup.

[NormsRevenge]

At Dawn We Slept by Gordon W. Prange is an excellent book for starters as to what happened or didn't happen. FDR knew.

[aristeides]

I too believe that FDR knew, but I don't think that's what Prange wanted his readers to conclude.

[section9]

FDR might have "known", but the fact is, he probably didn't know enough.

Kimmel and Short got canned because they were the senior officers present when this disaster happened. Kimmel was actually regarded as a promising Admiral.

Thankfully, we fought the war with Chester Nimitz.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[NormsRevenge]

Agreed, Prange presents his information he gathered over years in a clear manner and didn't point fingers. He was not a PC historian by any means. IMHO, FDR knew something was imminent and there was intelligence suggesting what that something might be.

[elephantlips]

Because someone writes contradictory verbage about these "feelgood myths" dosn't make it true. So far all I have read is speculation with little or no real proof. If this was being done to you personally, i.e. someone "speculating" that you had done something heroic with highly suspicious motives and that you were actually a heinous individual, how do you think you would react?

[swarthyguy]

"So far all I have read is speculation with little or no real proof. "


Read Robert Stinnett's Book. It's got a lot more than speculation. Capt McCollum's memo lays out a step by step plan to force the hand of the Japanese.

[1234]

in the last 12-18 mos. i have read on FR threads that intelligence and other stuff from 1941 is STILL CLASSIFIED-you got any contacts for findin out 'bout this OR do you know anything 'on said subject' in your role as a former intelligence officer?

[NormsRevenge]

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