Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This early (1977) appraisal of the Pearl Harbor controversy, manages to open the proverbial Pandora's Box of political shenanigans in the highest reaches of FDR's administration. Although lacking in the most recent disclosures that indicate that FDR knew in advance, and proof that General Short and Admiral Kimmel were denied important advance information and thus warning, this book carries the reader through an appraisal of all the panels and inquiries that were held in the wake of the attack. The book also details the increasingly missing documents requested by the members of the various inquiries, as part of the cover-up.
Kimmel and Short became "political footballs" and scapegoats, who would die troubled men, never having had the satisfaction of receiving a truly impartial hearing from their government. The many investigations that ultimately implicated General Marshall and Chief of Naval Operations "Betty" Stark, gave the illusion that the Roosevelt administration and Congress had scrutinized the surprise attack in great detail and with objectivity. Instead, the results of those inquiries were used to reinforce preconceived notions of guilt or innocence. Instead of employing a more straight-forward approach to the question of responsibility, the Secretary of War Stimpson and Secretary of Navy Knox, and then Forrestal, went to great lengths to protect Marshall and Stark and their immediate subordinates, not to mention ignoring General MacArthur for his own failure to protect his command in the Philippines after receiving advance warning and being responsible for his own Pearl Harbor debacle. (See: "December 8, 1941: MacArthur's Pearl Harbor, Texas A&M University Military History Series, 87" by William H. Bartsch).
The author has done an excellent job of lifting the veil of "national security," which FDR initiated in order to cover-up the Pearl Harbor investigation(s). Martin Melosi has carefully researched the political infighting between the administration and its opponents as they tried to minimized the domestic impact of the attack and keep blame away from themselves.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Shadow of Pearl Harbor: Political Controversy Over the Surprise Attack, 1941-1946
0 comments:
Post a Comment