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

554 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
had changed their military code all over the world, thus depriving
us of an invaluable source of information.
You will understand from the foregoing, the utterly tragic
consequences if the present political debates regarding Pearl
Harbor disclose to the enemy, German or Jap, any suspicion of
the vital sources of information we possess. 9
As a patriotic American, Dewey honored this request.
Shortly after this, Republican Senator Homer Ferguson of
Michigan, unaware of the reason for Dewey’s silence, also scheduled
a speech on the pre-war reading of the Japanese codes.
Dewey called Ferguson to Albany and asked him not to say anything
about it. Th ere was no further reference to the matter during
the political campaign.
One crisis for the administration was safely over. But another
loomed.
APHB and NCI Reports Completed
Two Weeks Before November 7 Election
While the NCI and APHB investigations were going on,
FDR became “worried for fear there would be an adverse report
by the Grunert [APHB] Committee just before Election.” 10
Stimson was worried too. Th e forces in Congress which had led
to the inquiry were “largely political,” he said, and were “trying
to embarrass the president.” So Stimson had spent considerable
time preparing for his appearance before the board in the
hope of showing “how baseless the charges are that we people in
Washington were negligent in any way.” 11
9Ibid., pp. 1128–35.
10Stimson, Henry L. Diary. Yale University Library. Volume 48, p. 101,
September 21, 1944.
11Ibid., p. 102.