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

640 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
where he was when he heard the news of the attack. And yet that
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor so shocked the rest of the country
that almost everybody remembers vividly precisely where they
were when they heard the news.
Marshall said information about the attack “then came in in
fuller detail, and telephone communication was established.” He
talked on the phone with Short’s chief of staff , Colonel Phillips.
General Short “had gone to his command post and therefore was
not able to talk to me directly.” Marshall volunteered: “You could
hear the explosions at the time.” 82
JCC Counsel Asks Marshall about
His Command Structure
Did you have your staff organized at that time so that if an
especially signifi cant or important intercept was made of a Jap
message, was there anyone on duty who had authority, if they
were unable to reach you, to send a warning message out?
Marshall said he didn’t “think there was a set-up for that special
purpose.” Th e War Department “had an arrangement there
whereby the offi cer on the receiving end . . . knew where the principal
people were, where to reach them.” In his own case, Marshall
said that during that period and for about a year thereafter, he
always maintained an orderly at the house at the telephone. If
I left the house to go to a moving picture, which was about the
only place I went, [the orderly] was there and knew where to
reach me. 83
Mitchell then asked him,
82Ibid., pp. 1109–10. Emphasis added.
83Ibid., p. 1114.