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

364 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
ships at Pearl Harbor. 1 Stark answered by giving exact details:
Four ships sunk—the Arizona, California, West Virginia, and
Olgala—two ships capsized—the Oklahoma and the Utah—and
12 other ships damaged, some heavily. 2
Walsh immediately called a meeting of the Senate Naval
Aff airs Committee. Senator Harry Flood Byrd of Virginia and
several others advised Walsh to go directly to the president.
“[A]sk him to tell the truth to the American people.” Walsh
“agreed that the truth should be told, but,” as a former member
of the America First Committee who had opposed Roosevelt’s
foreign policy, he “was hesitant at fi rst to be the one to go to the
president with such a request. After further urging, however, he
agreed to do so.” 3 When Walsh asked FDR to tell the American
people the truth about Pearl Harbor, the president “fl ew into a
rage.” He demanded Walsh divulge the source of his information.
Walsh acknowledged that “it came directly from the Navy and
Admiral Stark.” Roosevelt responded, “Stark should never have
given out the facts about Pearl Harbor,” not even to the chairman
of the Senate Committee on Naval Aff airs. Th en referring to the
battleships sunk, Roosevelt said, “Why in hell should we admit
that they’re sunk? Th ey’re resting in only a couple of feet of water;
we’ll raise ‘em!” 4
On December 10, Walsh publicly acknowledged that President
Roosevelt must be the judge of information about war operations
to be given to the American public. “For that reason, the committee
will make no eff ort to question naval offi cials on the extent
of ship losses at Pearl Harbor.” He was satisfi ed, he said, that the
1 Th e New York Times, December 10, 1941, p. 7.
2 79th Cong., 1st sess. Joint (Congressional) Committee on the Investigation
of the Pearl Harbor Attack. Pearl Harbor Attack, 39 vols. (Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Government Printing Offi ce, 1946), part 5, p. 2210; part 6, p. 2674.
3 Charles A. Lindbergh, Th e Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh (New
York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1970), p. 595.
4 Ibid., pp. 595–96.