[Mudboy Slim]

"This element of real life- knowing, but not being able to to do anything about it-"

Did this book you referenced give an opinion on exactly how much FDR knew about Pearl Harbor prior to 12/7/41?

FReegards...MUD

[Travis McGee]

The intell FDR was reading prior to 1941 was diplomatic stuff mostly from the Jap embassy in Berlin to Tokyo etc and concerned Jap-German coordination vis a vis Russia, India etc. The Jap military kept Pearl Harbor such a close hold secret that they didn't use their diplomatic crypto channels in any way to describe the when where and how of the attack. Prior to Dec 7 1941, the Army and Navy crypto depts were a mess, disjointed and uncoordinated, assuming that other depts already had info etc, many of the same "FBI-CIA" type problems we had prior to 9-11. IOW, intell was analyzed poorly and haphazardly and the routing of it was a joke. After Pearl Harbor this all changed big time.

What FDR did know for sure was that the Japs intended to invade South Asia, and would avoid taking on Russia, and that they were coordinating overall strategic moves with Germany, and that America would not be able to stay out of the war because Germany would declare war on America if Japan and America went to war. He knew this because the diplomatic traffic was the area of best analysis. The moves of the Jap fleet were another matter.