Ran across this in my Facebook feed yesterday. It was a post from RantPolitical. Its nothing more than Pearl Harbor revisited, a post of interesting facts surrounding the Japanese attack.
Yet first “fact” presented (screenshot below) was an accusation President Roosevelt knowingly led America into war. The announcement just this week that the Defense Department will exhume the remains of our fellow patriots killed aboard the USS Oklahoma.
For over 40 years the US Government classified a secret study by the RAND Corporation regarding our growing role in Vietnam’s internal conflict. Simply known as The Pentagon Papers the 48 volume study was commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. The formal report titled United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense was leaked to the New York Times by Daniel Ellsberg, a RAND analyst who previously served as a US Marine first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in Vietnam in the 1950s.
So where does this all lead? One thing about History: In time when evidence is presented through the process of discovery, a deeper analysis can be established.
Relations between the U.S. and Japan were frail (at best) as Japan expanded war into Indo-China by defeating the French. Its clear war was in the air. Yet The Pentagon Papers reveal numerous communications between U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Kichisabura Nomura, Japan’s Ambassador to the U.S. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor Roosevelt famously announced to Congress:
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.”
Volume V-B1: The Roosevelt Administration 1940-1945 also contains a classified memorandum sent by President Roosevelt to Japanese Emperor Hirohito saber rattling the Emperor regarding Japan’s occupation of Saigon. Roosevelt suggested unless Japanese forces withdraw he would consider sending the U.S. military to Saigon to confront Japanese troops and restore French rule in Indo-China. This memorandum (beginning on page 27 of Volume V-B1) was transmitted to the Government of Japan on December 6, 1941.
War between Japan and the U.S. was literally hours away. The declining dialog clearly indicate war was only a matter of time. Is it enough to suggest a conspiracy that Roosevelt was leading America into war? That may still be a debate issue. However to label it “fringe fanaticism” with little evidence…I recommend reading the entire V-B1 volume in detail.