Now….About That ‘Surprise’ Attack…..

[whitehall]

If FDR wanted the US to get involved in war, why would he choose to get a poorly prepared US military involved in a war on two fronts?

There was no national intelligence network. FDR believed that the Japanese were a tribe of little cross eyed monkeys who would be pushovers once the hostilities started. The media covered for the administration before and after the hostilities started.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Roosevelt knew the attack was coming….one can conjecture as to why he would accept same….but he didn’t know how actually devastating it would be.




And he wasn’t about to accept the blame.


Right after the 'surprise' attack, he “…began a frantic search for scapegoats.

“Their first target was Admiral Husband Kimmel. As his predecessor, Admiral Richardson had done, Kimmel had warned the president about the Navy’s lack of preparation for the war. Roosevelt, however, did not warn Kimmel about the impending attack on Pearl Harbor- not even after he had read the decoded Japanese message on December 6. Ten days after the attack, Kimmel and General Walter Short were both demoted and replaced.”
John Koster, “Operation Snow: How a Soviet Mole in FDR’s White House Triggered Pearl Harbor,” p.158



Kimmel's predecessor had been fired because he would not agree to Washington's decision to keep the fleet in such a vulnerable location as Hawaii.

* Kimmel had been requesting additional ships and aircraft to enable the fleet to defend itself. His requests for additional resources were routinely denied.

* Kimmel was not provided information from U.S. code breaking of significant developments pertinent to his situation. His available force of patrol aircraft in Hawaii was insufficient to conduct effective reconnaissance searches.

Even with some warning of an impending Japanese strike, Kimmel's only practical option would have been to keep the fleet in harbor; venturing forth to engage the enemy would have resulted in even greater losses.
Pearl Harbor Scapegoat



— Stark and Marshall could have warned Kimmel of an imminent attack.

— The difference it could make

◦ Kimmel wrote in his book, “had we had as much as two hours warning a full alert of plans and guns would have greatly reduced the damage…The great intangible, the element of surprise, would have been denied.”

 

[PoliticalChic]