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

Joint Congressional Committee, Pearl Harbor Attack: Part 1 621
of all the facts connected with the Pearl Harbor disaster.” 13 Yet
the congressional committee was soon embroiled in politics.
Th e makeup of the committee, with six Democrats and four
Republicans, was stacked in favor of the administration. Th e
Republicans maintained that their access to government records
was being restricted and that the Democratic majority was trying
to curb, by strict party-line vote, the scope of the inquiry. No
provision was made for a staff to assist the Republican members.
Th e Democrats claimed the Republicans were anxious to use the
inquiry to smear Roosevelt, while the Republicans implied the
Democrats were trying to shield the Roosevelt administration.
House Majority Leader John W. McCormack accused the committee
minority of “witchhunting.” 14
Th is account of the Congressional hearings is pretty much
factual and non-partisan. Th e events are presented more or less
in the order in which the witnesses to them appeared before the
Committee. Some witnesses contradicted other witnesses, some
even contradicted their own earlier testimony, and the recollections
of others were often confused or hazy. Pressure may have been
used to persuade some witnesses to change their stories. JCC Committee
members often encountered diffi culty in obtaining access to information.
Also, friends of the administration sometimes tried to sidetrack
the probing into sensitive issues by disrupting the proceedings.
Th us a study of the hearings alone yields a rather disjointed
picture. Only after trying to reconcile the various contradictions
and confusions and arranging the events revealed chronologically,
as has been done in the fi nal chapter of this book, is it possible to
recognize the roles played by the several principals involved in the
Pearl Harbor disaster—their actions, inactions, their negligence
and dilatoriness.
13Congressional Record, September 6, 1945, reprinted in Joint Committee, Pearl
Harbor Attack, part 1, p. 22.
14Th e New York Times, November 15, 1945, p. 3.