On Thursday, October 6, 2016 at 1:25:43 PM UTC-4, wrote:
Thank you for carefully avoiding taking responsibility for the question you asked, or for clarifying the basis on which it was asked.

Of course, by making several statements, I must also ask where "rockets" or the 1941 equivalent thereof, would have stopped the US from entering into WWII, or is that a conspiracy too? Keep in mind that the conspiracy theorists believe that Roosevelt know all about the attack and allowed it to happen to get the US into to war... Is that your position as well?


Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

I want to preface what I'm about to say in that I believe most conspiracy theorists are effing insane..

However: I do believe that Roosevelt and the U.S. military knew an attack was imminent. Roosevelt was elected on a non-intervention platform that was extremely popular at that time, particularly since WWI was still in recent memory. The anti-war movement in America was quite large and vocal. By the time 1941 rolled around, it was clear that Nazi Germany would likely defeat England and we'd be fighting them eventually, and mostly by ourselves. The Lend-Lease act was helping England but without direct help from the U.S., it wouldn't be enough. The only way Nazi Germany could be defeated was with an expansion of the war (sounds silly, doesn't it?).

Roosevelt did not want to declare war on the Axis without direct provocation, and the "surprise" attack by Japan provided that. The sneak attack changed America's perception of the war overnight and recruitment offices were flooded the next day and continued on.

But I also want to be clear in that I believe that no one in the U.S. military or Roosevelt himself could have possibly foreseen the devastation that that attack on Pearl delivered. The only thing "surprise" about the Dec 7th attack was the brilliance planning and execution of it.

John
Wolcott, CT