On Mon, Feb 07, 2005 at 11:27:22AM -0500, Ken Koester wrote: > Jeff Gibbons wrote: > > Now the interesting thing is, there is evidence that some feel that > > the US was aware that the Japanese had an attack planned, and allowed > > it to happen, thus causing a public outcry that would allow a military > > response towards Japan. > I don't think there is *any* credible evidence that US planners were > aware of this. Folks have tried to show this for decades (mostly > because they don't like Roosevelt), but I've seen nothing that can even > be stretched into such a conclusion. Better just to face it: the IJN > got away with a sneaky. It isn't the first time the US military has > been caught off guard, and it wasn't the last. I'm with Ken on this one. Having read fairly extensively on the topic, there are no events I found which can't be adequately explained by stupidity rather than the conspiracy Jeff refers to. This isn't to say that such a conspiracy isn't possible; there's a much better case that this sort of thing happened with the Maine (tho IMHO that one's not conclusive). But for Pearl Harbor the case just isn't there. Note too that the Pearl Harbor attack one of the most thoroughly researched events in US history. If there were a scrap of real proof, it would almost certianly have surfaced by now. For a pretty good read on the topic, try 'At Dawn We Slept' by Gordon Prange et. al. It's still in print after 14 years, which is no small comment on it. If memory serves, Prange also absolves the base commander, who was made a scapegoat for the attack. There were certianly failures by others, but the base commander wasn't nearly as culpable as others up the line. Steve -- "In my darker moments I consider creating the eeyore fan club with a theme song by Leonard Cohen, logo by Edvard Munch and costumes by Tim Burton." -- anonymous, forwarded by Ellen.