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

834 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
Under date of August 28, 1945, President Truman issued
an order similar to the April proposal. 14 Th is order was relaxed
somewhat in October 1945, when its application was limited to
the state, war, and navy departments; also the secrecy of records
was relaxed “only so far as ‘the Joint Committee’ was concerned.”
Th e opportunity to search the records was still denied to individual
members of the committee. Moreover, the order
contained the unfortunate phrase “any information in their
[the government’s] possession material to the investigation,”
which provided a cloak for those reluctant to yield information
requested by members of the Committee. It was always possible
to confront individual members with the view that the
papers, data, and information desired was not “material to the
investigation.” . . .
In an order of November 7, 1945, President Truman relaxed
restraints on executives of the Government in order that they
may speak freely to individual members of the Committee but
the order closed with the direction: “Th is does not include any
fi les or written material.” 15
Brewster and Ferguson charged in their report that when they
asked to have a search made for missing records, “Vigorous and
public denial was made—presumably on Executive authority—
that any records were missing.” Yet when it developed that some
records actually were missing
most inadequate explanations were supplied. How any public
interest could possibly have been prejudiced by aff ording any
14 Joint Committee, Report of the Joint Congressional Committee on the Investigation
of the Pearl Harbor Attack and Additional Views of Mr. Keefe Together with
Minority Views of Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Brewster, p. 498.
15 Ibid.