The Pearl Harbor Secret: Why Roosevelt Undermined the U.S. Navy

by
Sewall Menzelauthor

Sewall Menzel, PhD, is a political-military analyst and scholar with a degree in history from

The Citadel and a doctorate in international relations from the University of Miami.

The Pearl Harbor Secret: Why Roosevelt Undermined the U.S. Navy

20200531

Praeger

Pages 432
Topics Codebreaking;Einstein, Albert;Germany's Declaration of War;Japanese Navy;Kimmel, Husband E.;Pearl Harbor Attack;Pearl Harbor Strike Force;Oil Embargo;Roosevelt, Franklin D.;Yamamoto, Isoroku;U.S. Naval Intelligence;Military History: Military Leadership;American History: Conflict

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  • eBook

    9781440875861

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents

The Pearl Harbor Secret: Why Roosevelt Undermined the U.S. Navy

Author(s): Menzel, Sewall;
Contributors: Menzel, Sewall;
Abstract:

This book provides a penetrating look into U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's brilliant strategy to bait Adolf Hitler into declaring war on America in order to defeat Germany militarily, thus preventing the Nazis from developing the atomic bomb.

In late 1939, President Roosevelt learned that Hitler was attempting to develop an atomic bomb to use against the United States. The president responded by directing his own scientific community to develop an atomic bomb and began making plans to go to war with Germany. However, he was hampered by public opinion, with 80 percent of the American people against U.S. involvement in another ground war in Europe.

Roosevelt seized an opportunity in 1940, when Japan and Nazi Germany formed a military alliance. To bait Germany into war, FDR shut down Japan's war-making economy, prompting Tokyo to attack Pearl Harbor. A few days later, Hitler declared war on America.

Using declassified documents, this book shows how Pearl Harbor was not about Japan; it was about the United States going to war with Germany. It reveals how the U.S. Navy's intelligence gathering system could break virtually any Japanese naval code, but Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, was kept in the dark about the impending Pearl Harbor attack by his own government.


  • Shows how Roosevelt had the courage and insight to see the threat that a Nazi atomic bomb posed to the United States and outlines his strategy to bait Germany into declaring war on America
  • Explains how Japan's Bushido Code, which demands "death before dishonor," influenced Tokyo's decision to launch a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor
  • Demonstrates how the U.S. Navy's intelligence gathering system was second to none in terms of code breaking and locating the Imperial Japanese Navy's warships
  • Uses declassified top-secret documents and other primary sources to prove that Roosevelt could have prevented the Pearl Harbor attack

SortTitle: pearl harbor secret: why roosevelt undermined the u.s. navy
Author Info:
Sewall Menzelauthor

Sewall Menzel, PhD, is a political-military analyst and scholar with a degree in history from

The Citadel and a doctorate in international relations from the University of Miami.

eISBN-13: 9781440875861
Cover Image URL: ~~FreeAttachments/9781440875861.jpg
Print ISBN-13: 9781440875854
Imprint: Praeger
Pages: 432
Publication Date: 20200531