At 11:51 AM 2/7/2005 -0500, Steve Simmons wrote: >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. I'm a huge Prange fan. But I wouldn't say 'exonerated.' He clearly liked Admiral Kimmel and had sympathy for the fact that plenty of people were caught just as off balance by the surprise attack. But bottom line, the man got an official communique with the actual words "this message is to be considered a war warning" more than a week before Dec. 7. Bottom line: the man was in charge of a military fleet at an extremely forward military base. There was a very large war going on, even though the US was not yet involved. Who did he _think_ his fleet was out there to confront, New Zealand? Of the three commanders who got knocked around that day I have most sympathy for Kimmel. Though I'd still call it gross negligence to get blindsided like that. Measurably less sympathy for General Short and his nice neat rows of planes. Least sympathy of all for MacArthur, who was way way closer to Japan, had several hours warning that Pearl Harbor _had already been attacked,_ and still somehow managed to get caught with his planes on the ground. In some countries he'd've been shot for that one. Frankly I'm not sure why he wasn't. I can't imagine they could have predicted at that point what a good Shogun he'd make for occupied Japan several years later. Louann, who'd take Nimitz and his quiet games of horseshoes over the prima donna any day.