Marv Soloff wrote:
Then there is the school of thought (as far as I know, undocumented)
that Roosevelt and his advisors knew of the impending Japanese raid on
Pearl Harbor and just let it happen to protect the JN25 "Purple" decode
much in the same manner as Churchill knew that Coventry was going to be
hit and did nothing about it.

Regards,

Marv

The "Roosevelt knew it" school was given a lot of discussion in _At Dawn We
Slept_, by, er, Gordon Prange. For a historian with no obvious ax to grind, he
managed to devastate the arguement. The book is packed away, but the key points:

Japanese security was tight to the point where no radio traffic about the raid
occurred. (unlike Midway, where the Japanese Navy got really sloppy)
Diplomatic messages said something was going to happen, but not where.
There *was* a war warning, but both Kimmel and Short (Naval CincPac and the
General of the Hawaii garrison) took measures to protect against sapatoge, not
air attack.

FWIW, Kimmel was at the forefront of the Roosevelt school--apparently in an
effort to save his sorry tail.

Pete Brooks