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

Safeguarding Military Information 613
authorization by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and
the Secretary of the Navy.” 7
Admiral Kimmel read a brief fi ve-line notice about this bill in
the New York Herald-Tribune, March 31, and immediately wrote
his chief counsel, Charles Rugg, to investigate. Several days later
Rugg fi nally obtained a copy of the bill and notifi ed Kimmel and
Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan. Rugg said that “its passage
would close the door to any investigation of Pearl Harbor.” 8
Senator Th omas stated that this bill “provides for fi lling a gap in
regard to the punishment of persons who may divulge military
secrets. . . . Th e bill is sponsored by both the Army and the Navy.
It is a measure which is necessary in peacetime, but at the present
time it is extremely necessary.” Without any further discussion or
debate, the bill was passed by voice vote; no roll call was taken.
Kimmel was “desperate because if the House passed the bill, that
was the end of all disclosures about Pearl Harbor.” 9
Senator Ferguson had been out of the country when the bill
came before the Senate on April 9. On his return to Washington
he entered “a motion to reconsider the votes” by which the bill
had been passed. He said it was “very important that the Senate
should give further consideration to the measure, and that it
should be amended.” 10 Ferguson’s motion was agreed to on April
11, and S.805 was temporarily set aside.
7Congressional Record. 79th Cong., 1st sess., 1945, vol. 91, part 3, p. 3196.
8Husband E. Kimmel, Admiral Kimmel’s Story (Chicago: Henry Regnery,
1955), p. 127.
9Ibid., p. 127.
10Congressional Record. 79th Cong., 1st sess., 1945, vol. 91, part 3, p. 3267.