Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy - Ludwig von Mises ...

162 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
a world-wide agreement, covering all areas, land, sea, and air,
of the entire world in which it was conceived that the British
Commonwealth and the United States might be jointly
engaged in action against any enemy.
In line with the so-called ABC-I agreement,
a joint Army-Navy plan was prepared after a great many talks
with the Army . . . [and] was approved by the Secretary of
the Navy on May 28, 1941, and by the Secretary of War on
June 2, 1941. It bore the short title “Rainbow No. 5.’” On the
basis of the Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan the Navy
Department promulgated the Navy Basic War Plan on May
26, 1941. Th is plan bore the short title “WPL-46”. . . . Th e War
Plan of the Pacifi c Fleet was distributed on July 25, 1941. 2
It had been customary to name an operating plan by the color
code name assigned to the potential enemy concerned. Japan had
traditionally been designated “orange,” other countries “blue,”
“red,” and so on. However, as ABC-I contemplated action against
several enemy nations, it wasn’t feasible to designate its operating
plan by a single color. Hence the code name “Rainbow.” 3
Several Rainbow operating plans, each numbered consecutively
and each providing for a diff erent contingency, were developed
to implement the ABC-I agreement. Th e fi rst four were eventually
set aside. It was Rainbow No. 5 that the Navy issued in May
1941 and sent out to the fl eet commanders, including Kimmel in
Hawaii, for distribution in July 1941 to the various task forces.
Th e ABC-I agreement called on the United States to employ
its Pacifi c Fleet “off ensively in the manner best calculated to
2 Ibid., part 6, p. 2502; also Joint Committee, Pearl Harbor Attack, part 17, pp.
2568–600, Exhibit No. 114 (Pacifi c Fleet Operating Plan—Rainbow Five).
3 Mark Skinner Watson, Th e War Department: Chief of Staff : Prewar Plans and
Preparations (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, Historical Division,
1950), pp. 103–04.