Pearl Harbor: FDR Leads the Nation Into War

by adminWorld War 2

Pearl Harbor: FDR Leads the Nation Into War

Steven M. Gillon

Language: English

Pages: 256

ISBN: 046503179X

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


Franklin D. Roosevelt famously called December 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy.” History would prove him correct; the events of that day—when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor—ended the Great Depression, changed the course of FDR’s presidency, and swept America into World War II. In Pearl Harbor, acclaimed historian Steven M. Gillon provides a vivid, minute-by-minute account of Roosevelt’s skillful leadership in the wake of the most devastating military assault in American history. FDR proved both decisive and deceptive, inspiring the nation while keeping the real facts of the attack a secret from congressional leaders and the public.

Pearl Harbor explores the anxious and emotional events surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbor, showing how the president and the American public responded in the pivotal twenty-four hours that followed, a period in which America burst from precarious peace into total war.

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Materials, especially oil—80 percent of Japanese oil came from the United States. But Roosevelt stopped short of using that leverage, consumed as he was with Europe, and dismissed the idea that Japan represented any real threat to American interests. That changed in 1940 when, encouraged by Hitler’s conquests, a new Japanese government headed by Premier Fumimaro Konoye decided it could solve its problem of dependence on imports by seizing oil fields in the Dutch East Indies, British rubber.

Together eating lunch. Afterward, FDR looked over his stamp collection while Hopkins lounged on the sofa. By this point, Roosevelt suspected that Japan was going to strike, but he was still convinced it would avoid a direct confrontation with the United States and instead nibble around the edges of the European empires in the Pacific. Hopkins recalled numerous conversations with FDR about the subject. He claimed that FDR “really thought that the tactics of the Japanese would be to avoid a.

Six carriers launched at the same time. It took fifteen minutes for all the planes to lift into the air for the first assault. Before taking off, each officer tied a hachimaki around his head. This traditional white cloth, marked with the symbol of the Rising Sun, signified that they were embarking on an important mission that required courage and determination. Once launched, the bombers assumed their aerial positions. The high-level bombers rose to 9,300 feet, with torpedo bombers to their.

Them out. Thus was born one of the most famous lines in presidential oratory: “Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”3 Later that evening, while having dinner with Hopkins and Grace Tully, Roosevelt decided to make additional changes. Apparently, he realized that the address needed some inspiration and some punch. FDR picked up his pencil and scribbled.

Stalin’s patriotic appeals to a shell-shocked nation had slowed the German advance. Fighting the killing cold and the stiffening Russian resistance, the invaders’ losses mounted. On December 5, as the Japanese sailed toward Pearl Harbor, the Soviet army launched a massive counterattack along a 560-mile front. For the past few years, the Nazis had encouraged Japan to attack British and Dutch possessions in Asia, while trying to avoid a direct confrontation with the United States. Hitler’s.

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