<<actually provoked it by denying the Japanese access to vital raw materials.>> They had been "provoking" it then since 1937, when the US warned the Japanese about the "incursion" into China. The American people were incensed over the Japanese bombing and subsequent massacres at Nanking.
<<Many people in government at that time knew about the attack beforehand>> Many? Not hardly. Advisers, Sec'y of State, War, a few highly-placed military (Admiral King was informed to expect some "military activity"), but no one knew about the targets. With US war preparedness, it isn't likely that we could have done much about anything, anyway. Fact is, the Navy believed that their forces were left in grave condition, when they were actually extremely lucky - the Japanese missed the submarine pens, the fuel storage and, above all, the aircraft carriers, which were on scheduled maneuvers. At the time, neither the Japanese nor the US appreciated the importance of the carrier in strategic terms.
<<before the whole world he even turned away the refugee Jews on the S.S. St. Louis>> I don't think that Roosevelt had the authority to allow them entry.
<<You are quite wrong about the Navy>> No, I'm not.
<<many cite the evidence that most of the fleet was sent out of Pearl Harbor shortly before the attack.>> Who cites this? The meat of the fleet (or so it was believed) was at anchor; as I said neither side understood the importance of the carrier (and to greater extent the submarine) in the coming war; had they known, the Japanese would have bombed the submarine pens first (they PURPOSELY went after the BBs first).
RE Goldwater: <<It didn't matter, because the media had already destroyed him when he made that "extremism" quote from Cicero.>>
Told ya it was lousy politics<vbg> |
