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

750 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
Until the August 1945 release to the press of the SECRET
Army and Navy Pearl Harbor reports, the public had heard little
or nothing about “Winds Code.” Saff ord gave Hart a list of “15
reliable witnesses” he believed had seen the “Winds Execute.” 67 In
a May 14, 1945, memorandum to Lieutenant Commander John
F. Sonnett, assistant attorney general in the Navy who had served
as counsel to the Hewitt investigation, Saff ord listed 26 offi cers
who he believed had known of its interception on December 4,
1941. 68 But when questioned, they denied it. Most of the people
who had been in a position before the attack to know of the
“Winds Execute,” if it had existed, swore they had never seen
it. 69 In spite of their testimony, Saff ord believed that McCollum,
Wilkinson, Hewitt, and Noyes, among others, knew it had been
intercepted.
By the time Saff ord appeared before the committee, he could
not name a single person whom he could confi dently expect to
corroborate the pre-attack receipt of the message; he “would
rather not attempt to estimate what any other witness is going
to say on the stand.” 70 Ferguson then cited three or four persons
involved in the Pearl Harbor investigations other than Saff ord
who admitted to having seen a “Winds Execute” prior to the
attack. He quoted specifi cally from the testimony of Assistant
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ingersoll before the Hart
Inquiry and the Naval Court of Inquiry 71 —Saff ord said this “was
the receiving stations were free to destroy their copies if they wished. Or they
could retain them temporarily for reference.
67Ibid., p. 3727.
68Ibid., p. 3611; part 18, p. 3347, Exhibit 151.
69Ibid., part 8, pp. 3759–60.
70Ibid., p. 3727.
71Ibid., pp. 3788–90, Ingersoll testimony before the Hart Inquiry. Concerning
others who admitted having seen a “Winds execute” prior to the attack, Ferguson
cited an affi davit by a Colonel Moses W. Pettigrew referring to an “implementation
message” which he had seen “on or about the 5th of December 1941.”