Quote:
Originally Posted by LancYorkYankee
A comment on the Pearl Harbor conspiracy. My view is that Roosevelt was itching to get us in to get us out of the depression. That's why all our Battleships were lined up so nicely in the harbor and all the planes were set right next to each other. At the same time. all our crucial aircraft carriers were far from the carnage.
IMO, Britain had an absolute right to be pee'd off by America's lack of involvement. To sit back and watch the bombing of London. Terrible. We should have had forces over there in England before the Battle of Britain (Probably as we saw what was going on at Dunkirk!). Hence either preventing it from happening or to at least render material force.
Brian
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I don't think so. I know that supporters of Adm. Husband Kimmel have tried and maybe still trying are (that's my Yoda immitation) to clear his name. I am aware that the theory is that Washington witheld intelligence, sort of like the Brits dropping lightly armed paras onto the 21st. Panzer Division even tho' aerial photos showed they were there. But Pearl Harbor was a FUBAR, and if one includes Gen. Short, a JANFU. The Japanese learned from the Brits and their attack on Taranto. The US didn't.
What makes this slightly relevant to this discussion is the "waking the sleeping giant" aspect. In this sense the Japanese attack on Pearl is one of the root causes of modern US militarism and imperialism. In 1940 ... from May/June on anyhow ... the US could not have rendered any "material force" help. They were as unprepared for the Germans as Stalin was.
And a brief (fairly) quote: "Half a century has passed, and the time has come to sweep away the myths and reveal the no less inspiring gleam of that complex and frightening time in which evil was in the ascendant, goodness diffident, and the British -impetuous, foolish, and brave beyond measure - the world's only hope." (And Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders too)