Taking U Back In Time

[Sapporo Guy]

It's hard to comment. Because I have connections on ALL 3 sides.

America was still an isolationist nation that was opposed to getting involved in world affairs

I tend to think that FDR needed a reason to join the war. Thereby, leaving enough target partice in the harbor to piss off you folks (I say "you folks" because I was born few days before the moon walk (not wacko jacko ). 8 destroyers is a price to be paid.

Sneak attack ??? Come on ... radar was in it's infancy but still a huge flying mass like that would be detected, besides did the US have spies Interesting point that enough of the fleet was out on practice ...


As for the gold standard ... I wondered if this was a mistake. Conspiracy theories point this as a possible reason why JFK got it. Anyway, Gold has remained relatively stable in price. Economicaly which is better I wonder ??? A floating dollar or a currency based on pure gold.


As for learning something, I don't understand why "no" posts indicate being ignorant. If you had like close to zero hits ... then please go ahead. Also, It's very hard to post anything without a direct question. On top of which, it's very hard to argue against known history.


However, I like your writting style and can appreciate your life experiences.

Did you enlist? Where you drafted?
Either way, I would imagine you being an educated man would have been an officer

Thanks for sharing Tabs

[Racerbvd]

Tabs, great post, I'm going to post it on another board to try and educate some commies over there.
My father too grew up during the depression, and you hit everything right on the head!!

[tabs]

Originally Posted by Sapporo Guy

It's hard to comment. Because I have connections on ALL 3 sides.




I tend to think that FDR needed a reason to join the war. Thereby, leaving enough target partice in the harbor to piss off you folks (I say "you folks" because I was born few days before the moon walk (not wacko jacko ). 8 destroyers is a price to be paid.

Sneak attack ??? Come on ... radar was in it's infancy but still a huge flying mass like that would be detected, besides did the US have spies Interesting point that enough of the fleet was out on practice ...


As for the gold standard ... I wondered if this was a mistake. Conspiracy theories point this as a possible reason why JFK got it. Anyway, Gold has remained relatively stable in price. Economicaly which is better I wonder ??? A floating dollar or a currency based on pure gold.

.

There is not enough Gold in the whole world to support as many $$ as there are out there.


FDR was looking for a way to get in the fight against Germany. He was not looking for a war with Japan, it would be the WRONG WAR. As such he was preoccupied with Germany and not paying close attention to the Nippers. At the time the West was very dismissive of the little yellow men. Bucked toothed and near sighted wearing coke bottled glasses was the image. It was a huge surprise to the US that the Nippers had an airplane as advanced as the Zero.

The US had just broken the Jap diplomatic codes and the Navy Codes were to follow soon after Pearl. Yet the decoding and passing information up the chain of command was slow and tedious at best. It just wasn't the slam dunk in decoding everyone thinks, then which transmissions are important and which are not? The US was aware that something was up, but thought that the Philiphines would be the target of the attack. It was beyond the the thinking that hte Nippers would be so audious as to attack Pearl Harbor. Also the Nipper fleet was under TOTAL radio silence in its approach to Pearl Harbor, and the Nips were deceptive with radio traffic indicating the fleet was still in home waters. As for radar it was VERY NEW and not given much thought. The radar station saw a mass of airplanes coming in, however it was thought to be the B-17's enroute from CA that mornining. The radar station was ordered to shut down at 7:30 AM and the men assigned to it to return to base. That and there was no real linkage to any central communications that would have alerted the aviation forces to interecept. This was catch as catch can organization. Radar was a new fangled contraption that had not been proven to be effective, something nobody knew what to do with.

Many people have speculated that FDR knew of the attack, one of them the best selling historiian and author John Toland. However it is very cynical to think that FDR could or would be so callous as to sacrafice 8 Battleships and the Pacific fleet. Such a loss would and could jeapordize America's success in a war with Japan.

The big mistake the Japs made a t Pearl was not returning for a 3rd strike to hit the Oil Storage Tanks at Pearl. That in the scheme of things was far more important than the ships lost. For without the Oil Storage capacity the ships would have to refuel on the West Coast of the US. That meant the fleet would have to relocate to the West Coast leaving Hawawi open to further Japanese attack. This fact alone would indicate that no commander in his right mind would allow an attack to proceed without a defense being mounted.

Further the 2 Aircraft Carriers were on a mission to supply a small number of Wildcat fighters to Wake Island when Pearl was attacked. The US was trying to beef up its military presence there. As it was the Nips took the Island within a coupla weeks of the wars start.