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Standard of Judgment

A short piece on Newsday.com by Pinkerton asks a great question:

If you knew that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had received a memo a month before Pearl Harbor entitled, "Japanese Determined to Attack the United States in the Pacific," and that he had done nothing about that information, would that knowledge change your perception of FDR as a wise war leader?

The answer is simple, of course. Frankly, I think the answer is pretty simple for Bush's reaction too. The media seems to be actually covering this story...lets see where it goes.

Posted on April 11, 2004 10:47 AM

Comments

Have you read Day of Deceit?

If you haven't, I can lend it to you. It's pretty fascinating stuff. Operating, of course, on the possibility that FDR DID know and did nothing, since they needed, well, their own Pearl Harbor to get into WW2.

Or is that what that article was about?

Posted by Lisa B-K on April 12, 2004 06:48 PM

General historic consensus is that FDR knew that we would be engaged in the Pacific, and prepared as well he could given the public reluctance to think about such things.

Posted by Buck on April 14, 2004 07:13 AM

Pearl Harbor: Intelligence indicating Japanese plans to attack was withheld from military forces responsible for security. COs were eventually cleared based on this fact.

PNAC: A Pearl Harbor type attack on "the homeland" would be very helpful in preparing the public for war.

11Sep2001: Intelligence indicating terrorist plans to attack was ignored or suppressed. Military forces responsible for security failed to respond. Everything changed. History died.

Posted by truthfreak on April 14, 2004 01:35 PM

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