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

Administration Directed Supplementary Investigations 601
said certain messages had been destroyed under orders from
Marshall and Bissell, 103
Spalding: I did not tell him that in substance, answering specifi
cally your question, but I did tell him certain things. But at
no time was the name of Gen. Marshall ever brought into the
conversation. . . . I wish it to appear in my testimony that it is my
full belief that the Secretary of War, Mr. Stimson, and the Chief
of Staff , Gen. Marshall, are not involved in any way whatsoever
with the testimony which I am about to give, and it is my
belief that neither one knew anything of it. . . .We [Spalding
and Bissell, when at Ft. Bragg in the summer of 1943] talked
about the Pearl Harbor incident. I remember expressing to
him my failure to understand how Sherman Miles and the
Navy could fail to discover that those Japanese vessels had left
home ports. . . . I remember shooting off my mouth about
Sherman Miles, for whom I didn’t have a very high regard
professionally . . . and Bissell said that certain messages had
been received and were in the fi les of G-2 and he deemed
it most necessary to destroy them. I got the impression that
these messages were derogatory to the War Department and
that he [Bissell] on his own responsibility destroyed them. I
had the impression that they were secret information which
it was most desirable that the president, Congress, the public,
Mr. Stimson and Gen. Marshall not know about. I had a feeling
that Bissell destroyed them without even Gen. Raymond
Lee, the G-2 at that time, knowing they were in existence. . . .
Bissell having told me that he had destroyed what I would call
vital records which, if known, would be very unpleasant for
the War Department. Bissell was the only man who ever told
me anything that I remember. I hope it is clear in here that I
wouldn’t want anything I say to transgress the integrity of Mr.
Stimson or George Marshall. Th ey are two of the fi nest men in
the world and they would hew to the line I know. 104
103 Ibid., p. 90.
104 Ibid., pp. 90–93.