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

34 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
resignations of Secretary of War Woodring and Navy Secretary
Charles Edison, 11 who had opposed FDR’s proposal to transfer to
England some army planes and 50 destroyers 12 and off ered their
posts to two Republicans—Alfred M. Landon and Frank Knox,
the 1936 Republican candidates for president and vice president.
Landon turned down the off er, but Mr. Knox accepted, agreeing
to serve as secretary of the Navy.
Roosevelt then looked for another prominent Republican
who shared his views on foreign policy. He turned to Henry L.
Stimson. As Hoover’s Secretary of State in the 1920s, Stimson had
long wanted the United States to take a fi rm stand against Japan’s
operations on the Asian mainland. His position, recently set forth
in a talk to some of his fellow alumni at the Yale University commencement,
was that the United States should reject so-called
“neutrality” and take a stronger stand against Japan and Germany.
Th e next day, June 18, he expressed similar ideas in a radio talk
and his remarks were reported the following morning on page
one of Th e New York Times. FDR phoned him that very day off ering
him the post of secretary of war. 13 When Stimson asked if the
president had seen the story in the Times,FDR said he had and,
according to Stimson’s diary, he agreed with it. Th us reassured,
Stimson accepted the position. He was sworn in as Secretary of
War on July 10, 1940.
Th ese two new cabinet offi cers soon began to infl uence U.S.
foreign policy; some Navy offi cials even dated our commitment
to war from about July 1, 1940, when Roosevelt dropped Edison
11 Prior to the post-World War II reorganization of the government, when the
military forces were combined under a single Department of Defense, War
and Navy were separate departments, each with full cabinet ranking.
12 James Farley, Jim Farley’s Story (Irvine Calif.: Reprint Services Corp., 1948),
pp. 241–43.
13 Henry L. Stimson and McGeorge Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1947/8), p. 324.