Who would you want as President

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by eurobounce

No it is not ridiculous. You mean to tell me that Japan can move their navy within miles from Hawaii without FDR knowing? Come on.....it is widely accepted by WWII historians that FDR knew about the attack on Peral Harbor. What he didn't know was when. FDR was struggling to pull the US out of the depression. He also wanted the US to play more of a global role than being an isolationist country (which is what we were up until WWII). You have to remember that the US was neutral up until WWII.

i disagree that this is widely accepted. i know there has been some who suggested there is more to the pearl harbor story, just like some believe oswald didn't act alone.

there were those who believed we should pander to hitler (charles lindbergh leaps to mind) as well as those who were isolationists. but how letting japan attack was going to send us to europe, i don't know.....
the u.s. wasn't necessarily neutral, not with our lend-lease program. we hadn't achieved superpower status, that came with the war.
but in all my readings about the war, and all the shows i've seen on history and discovery, i have not seen anything that tells me FDR allowed us to be hit like that and not be prepared.

after all, if he knew--we wouldn't have gotten our navy destroyed, we'd have been ready for this attack. japan would still have been the bad guy--and we still would have had people in an uproar that they tried to attack.

as for japan moving their navy without us knowing--you are aware how old radar is, and what it really came into wide use? you also know how huge the pacific ocean is....not hard to imagine them moving that close.