[lbo-talk] "Knee-Jerk Anti-Imperialism" Re: Two Takes

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Tue Apr 15 04:33:30 PDT 2003


On Sun, 13 Apr 2003, Chip Berlet wrote:


> > FDR withheld intercepted Japanese messages from Kimmel and Short.
>
> Most historians say this claim is simply bogus, because there is no
> evidence linking the messages to any awareness by Roosevelt.

Just to clarify, as someone who's never really gone into this -- does this mean most historians accept that Japanese messages were intercepted that clearly indicated an attack on Pearl Harbor was imminent? And that the anti-conspiracist defense rests on the claim that these messages were unnoticed by anyone important at the time?

Or do the anti-conspiracy historians claim that these messages were substantially unclear and unreliable and were either lucky hits or rumors that were true in the same way that in a store full of stopped clocks, one will always be telling the right time?

In other words, do the anti-conspiracy historians accept the back-up claim that there was a clearly culpable intelligence breakdown?

Michael



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