Pearl Harbor: Facing Facts
By Dr. Stephen J. Sniegoski
<<< ... Meanwhile in 1941, the United States had been making secret military plans with the British and Dutch. Between January and March, joint staff conferences between the Americans and the British took place in Washington. They were extended in April to include the Dutch, in meetings held in Singapore. Out of the discussions came the ABD agreement, committing the conferees to jointly fight the Japanese in Asia if Japanese forces crossed the geographical line of 100° East and 10° North, which approximated the northern extremity of the Dutch East Indies. The agreement covered Japanese movement into neutral Thailand as well as invasions of British and Dutch colonial possessions. In these secret agreements, unknown to either Congress or the American people, Franklin Roosevelt committed the United States to war even if American territory or forces were not attacked.
Though the agreements were only verbal, the British and Dutch took them as an irreversible commitment, while the U.S. armed forces drew up a war plan in harmony with them that became known as WPL 46. The overall agreement was known as Rainbow 5; the part involving the Dutch was known as Rainbow (A-2). The war plans of the Americans, British, and Dutch were predicated on going to war if Japan moved southward.
When the Japanese actually crossed the prescribed geographical line on December 4, three days before Pearl Harbor, the Dutch implemented the ABD and Rainbow-5 (A-2) plans and expectantly awaited the promised help from the U.S. Navy in repelling the Japanese incursion. Thus, Americans became involved in the Pacific phase of World War II whether they approved of it or not. That the general public knew nothing of the pact and that the Roosevelt regime did not actually sign any documents involving the United States are irrelevant; the other signatories took it very seriously and expected Washington to honor the commitment. (See James J. Martin, "Pearl Harbor: Antecedents, Background and Consequences.")
The Dutch exile regime (their homeland was occupied by the Germans) obviously believed the United States would back them up: they would not dare face the mighty Japanese military by themselves. It must be emphasized again — according to the wording of Roosevelt's secret commitment and the war plan based on it, the United States was at war with Japan, de facto, before the Pearl Harbor attack even occurred. ... >>>
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