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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: haqihana who wrote (113959)	5/16/2005 11:00:29 PM
From: DavesM	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793964

Haqihana, re: "FDR needed a war badly to bring the nation out of the Great Depression." While we can debate whether or not your statement is correct, it is clear that if WWII had lifted the United States out of the Great Depression it was before the attack on Pearl Harbor. By 1940, GDP was roughly equal to the GDP in 1929; and by 1941 GDP was clearly higher than before the beginning of the Great Depression (Lend Lease?). I also find it a little hard to have any sympathy for any disrespect facist Japan may have felt. From what I could find, the three carriers of the Pacific Fleet were not at Pearl because: 1. the Saratoga was in San Diego. 2. The Lexington was a few hundred miles off of Midway (transporting aircraft to Midway Island). 3. The Enterprise was a couple hundred miles outside of Pearl after having transporting aircraft to Wake Island. Preparing for war. navsource.org One could question the wisdom of moving the Pacific Fleet to Pearl Harbor, but it is important to realize that the United States had another fleet stationed near the Philippines (then probably considered the primary target of Japanese). That fleet, the Asiatic Fleet, in theory would have been much better served by reinforcements stationed at Pearl Harbor rather than San Diego. The problem with Pearl Harbor, is that the commanders made a huge mistake. They feared the loyalty of many of their own troops more than the Japanese Imperial Navy. Even with the knowledge that the British had just recently used an air attack from carrier based aircraft to destroy a fleet (at its home base).