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

330 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
he found the president in the Oval Offi ce, seated, and “as white
as a sheet . . . visibly shaken.” Th e extent of the disaster, news
of which was beginning to trickle in, really shook FDR. Knox
thought Roosevelt “expected to get hit” by the Japanese, but that
“he did not expect to get hurt.” It was not the attack itself, but the
amount of the damage that shocked him. 64
FDR called in his secretary, Steve Early, and dictated a news
release that Early was to give to the press immediately. A half
hour later FDR dictated to Early a second press release. 65
Roosevelt’s oldest son, James, a captain in the Marine Corps
Reserve, was on assignment in Washington at the time, as liaison
between Marine Headquarters and the Offi ce of the Coordinator
of Information. He was off duty that Sunday afternoon when
the White House phoned him at his home in the suburbs; his
father wanted him at the White House right away. He “got there
as fast as [he] could.” As he entered his father’s offi ce, the fi rst
thing FDR said was “Hello, Jimmy. It’s happened.” 66 As Elliott
Roosevelt, James’ next younger brother wrote later, “it was the
target, not the attack, that amazed him.” 67
Mrs. Roosevelt heard of the attack from an usher as her 30
luncheon guests of the day were leaving. FDR was occupied all
that afternoon and evening with meetings, and Eleanor didn’t
have a chance to talk with him until later. When she and the
president did speak together briefl y, it was her opinion that “in
spite of his anxiety Franklin was in a way more serene than he
had appeared in a long time.” She thought
64Admiral Ben Moreell letter to Harry Elmer Barnes, December 17, 1961.
65Sherwood, Th e White House Papers of Harry L. Hopkins, p. 437, and Roosevelt
and Hopkins, p. 431.
66James Roosevelt, Aff ectionately, FDR: A Son’s Story of a Lonely Man (New
York: Harcourt Brace, 1959), pp. 327–28. Also James Roosevelt with Bill
Libby, My Parents: A Diff ering View (Chicago: Playboy Press, 1976), p. 266.
67Elliott Roosevelt and James Brough, A Rendezvous with Destiny: Th e
Roosevelts of the White House (London: W.H. Allen, 1977), p. 304.