New Book by Ed Steers - "Hoax"

[Thomas Thorne]

I believe the Pearl Harbor revisionist theory presumes FDR had a psychic quality he did not have.

He could hardly have appreciated that the BB's sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor were obsolete or that stormy weather would have prevented Enterprise from being a sitting duck. He did not know the Japanese planners made no provision for attacking the tank farms and dry dock and repair facilities although every pre-war attack on Pearl Harbor war game or even Hector Bywater's novel supposed such an attack-which would have had far greater consequences than the actual onslaught-would take place without the US Fleet even being there.

As no one can fairly accuse Short and Kimmel of being participants in the conspiracy how could Roosevelt have presumed that their reaction to the War Warnings would have more casual than their counterparts in California and the Canal Zone?

An underlying premise to Pearl Harbor revisionism is the idea that without a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor there would have been no war. Yet if bad weather had prevented Pearl Harbor, Japanese attacks on the Philippines would have resulted in war. FDR was preparing a message to Congress asking for a declaration of war if Japan only attacked British Malaya. Certainly the Japanese were committed to attacking Pearl Harbor even without the element of surprise and an attack against alert U.S. military and naval forces would have aroused the American people.

Remember that bad things can happen without permission.
Tom