The Day of Infamy

In the 1920’s and ‘30’s, we the people of the United States still retained vivid memories of the horrors of World War I—“The War to End all Wars.” Two decades later, when WWII erupted in Europe, we held a strict non-interventionist attitude to getting entangled into another one. A Gallup poll revealed that 88 percent were solidly against it.

In a 1940 election year speech, our notorious President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced a campaign promise, “I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.”

But FDR had other ideas. He was salivating for a war. But how could he do it? He knew that neither the people nor Congress would approve a war. It could never happen—unless the other side shot first and did terrible slaughter and destruction.

After the beginning of WWII in Europe, FDR attempted to provoke Germany by freezing its assets, sending destroyers to Britain, and even depth-charging U-Boats. But Germany was wise enough not to respond; they wanted no entanglement with the United States after being decisively defeated in WWI.

FDR switched his focus to Japan. Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. McCollum offered him eight provocative options, “If by these means Japan could be led to commit an overt act of war, so much the better.”

FDR quickly implemented them. He blocked Japan from using the Panama Canal, froze its assets in America, embargoed oil and other vital needs, sent warships close to its homeland, demanded it withdraw from China and Indochina, and offered various military threats.

FDR’s bait was our Pacific Fleet. Over the objections of Admiral J.O. Richardson, FDR moved it from our West Coast to Pearl Harbor, which was vulnerable to attack from all directions. Richardson said, “I came away with the impression that, despite his spoken word, the President was fully determined to put the United States into the war if Great Britain could hold out until he was reelected.” FDR quickly relieved Richardson of his command.

In 1940, America cracked Japan’s “Purple” code and was able to intercept and read its secret diplomatic messages. The War Department in Washington knew every action Japan was up to, but this information was withheld from America’s servicemen and, of course, Admiral Kimmel and General Walter C. Short in Hawaii.

In January, 1941, right at the beginning of his third term, FDR sent his advisor Harry Hopkins to see Winston Churchill. Hopkins told him, “The President is determined that we shall win the war together. Make no mistake about it. He has sent me here to tell you that at all costs and by all means, he will carry you through, no matter what happens to him—there is nothing he will not do so far as he has human power.” Soon afterward, British-American staff talks began under “utmost secrecy.”

Robert Sherwood, FDR’s biographer, said: “If the isolationists had known the full extent of the secret alliance between the United States and Britain, their demands for impeachment would have rumbled like thunder throughout the land.”

This almost happened when code clerk Tyler Kent discovered the secret plot. He smuggled documents out of the US Embassy in London to show to the American people. But he was caught, tried, and imprisoned until the end of the war.

By November, 1941, Japan’s Purple code messages revealed its military actions were heating up while diplomatic deadlines were being pushed forward.

On November 25, the U.S. Navy forbade all US and Allied shipping in the North Pacific and diverted it into the South Pacific. This prevented any accidental observation of Japanese ships, carriers, and planes and the subsequent alerting of people at Pearl Harbor.

Finally, on December 7, FDR got his wish—carnage and devastation—4000 casualties (2400 deaths) in less than 90 minutes and every ship in the harbor sunk. FDR announced it was a sneak attack by the Empire of Japan. Sneak attack? Really?

But it was “a date that will live in infamy”—created and covered up by a President who will live in infamy—a contemptible liar who proclaimed, “I hate war,” and then did everything in his power to condemn our people to engage in one.

SOURCES

1. Pearl Harbor: Hawaii Was Surprised; FDR Was Not, The New American, Saturday, 07 December, 2013

2. Did FDR Provoke Pearl Harbor?, Patrick J. Buchanan, December 9, 2013, http://www.LewRockwell.com

3. Top of Form

Bottom of Form

FDR, Pearl Harbor and the U.N., John V. Denson, July 27, 2007, http://www.LewRockwell.com

4. Sacrifice at Pearl Harbor, Documentary, BBC, History Channel