Kimmel, Short, and Pearl Harbor: The Final Report Revealed Review

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(More customer reviews)I really have only one problem with this book and that's with the sub-title where it's called the "Final Report." I don't think there will ever be a "Final Report" on Pearl Harbor. This is the report of the tenth investigation into what happened. There are too many revisionist historians who want to get their fifteen minutes of fame by writing a new book that will blame Roosevelt, Churchill, Marshall or whoever they pick on.
This book is a report on the so called Dorn Report written under the direction of Edwin Dorn, then Undersecretary of Defense. Note he was not Navy Department or Department of the Army but above both in the Defense Department. He had no particular axe to grind. He was also young enough that he did not know personally any of the people involved.
The conclusion of the report is that there was no conspiracy (in spite of how much we love conspiracies). Kimmel and Short were given warnings, not the detailed tactical information they both said later that they needed. But it was peacetime. These were officers who had prospered under peacetime rules. Kimmel, on the day before the attack said that he didn't believe an attack was possible. Short was a specialist in training, not fighting. He even had the air crew participating in infantry training to be able to stop the invasion of the beeches he expected.
This report was instigated by the families of Short and especially of Kimmel. They would like these Kimmel and Short exonerated. In truth Kimmel and Short made the classic mistake of trying to determine the Japanese intent rather than their capabilities. Then they based their planning on what they believed this intent to be.
Another recent book, also published by the Naval Institute Press, "Days of Lightning, Years of Scorn" by Charles R. Anderson is a fairly balanced biography of Short. Both are worth adding to your collection.

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The first investigation conducted outside the Army and Navy establishments to address Kimmel and Short's culpability.

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