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

viii Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
research director of the Republican National Committee during
the 1944 Roosevelt-Dewey presidential election campaign,
that the United States had decrypted the Japanese diplomatic
code in August 1940 and since then had been reading many of
Japan’s SECRET and SUPER-SECRET messages. Th at secret,
of course, could not be divulged so long as the war continued
and we were continuing to decipher Japanese messages and learn
their secrets.
After the war ended in August 1945, Congress established
a Joint Congressional Committee to investigate the attack. As
Chief of the Minority Staff of that Joint Committee my husband
researched the pre-attack background, the earlier investigations,
and the available documents. He helped brief the Republican
Committee members in questioning witnesses as to what was
known in Washington about Japan’s plans before the attack, what
intelligence and materiel had been furnished the Pearl Harbor
commanders, and whether or not they had responded appropriately,
given the available intelligence, materiel, ships, planes, and
men. Th e hearings lasted almost a full year. Th e Majority Report
continued to place considerable blame on the Hawaiian commanders,
Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and General Walter C.
Short. A lengthy Minority Report held that the blame must be
shared by higher-up Washington offi cials.
Upon the conclusion of the Congressional Committee hearings,
my husband continued to research the Pearl Harbor attack.
He interviewed surviving participants, wrote and lectured widely
on the subject. My husband completed this manuscript and wrote
the side heads. We proofed it together and checked all the quotations
and footnotes against the original sources. But then he was
stricken with cancer, a particularly virulent variety. He died on
August 13, 1984, just over a month after the appearance of his
fi rst serious symptoms.
By the time my husband died, his eff orts had yielded a massive
manuscript. When I reread that manuscript after his death, I
decided that, although the names, dates, and documentation were