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

642 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
Marshall Interrogated about
December 7 Events
Mitchell asked Marshall, “Did you have any talk on the
morning of the 7th with Secretary Stimson before the news of
the attack came in?” Marshall didn’t recall talking with Stimson
that morning, couldn’t recall seeing him “before lunch,” although
he knew Stimson “was at the State Department” that morning. 87
A little later Mitchell asked:
Do you remember whether you had been told or telephoned
or informed in any way on the evening of the 6th, late in the
evening, that any arrangement had been made for a meeting
between Secretary Stimson and Mr. Hull on the next
morning?
Marshall had “no such recollection.” 88
Th en how did Marshall know Stimson was at the State
Department on the morning of December 7? Th e meeting of
Stimson and Knox with Hull at the State Department had been
arranged Saturday night after the three secretaries were informed
of the fi rst 13 parts of the Japanese reply. 89 Yet Marshall denied
that he had been “informed in any way on the evening of the 6th”
of the plan for that meeting. And if he knew of that meeting, why
did he not also know about the 13-part Japanese reply that had
sparked it? Marshall testifi ed consistently that he fi rst saw those
13 parts, together with the 14th part, only after he arrived at his
offi ce in the War Department at about 11:30 on the morning of
December 7.
JCC member Cooper asked Marshall if in the weeks before
the attack he had been “kept fully advised as to diplomatic
87 Ibid., p. 1115.
88 Ibid.
89 Ibid., part 33, p. 857.