pcr writes about pearl harbor not being a surprise in any way, and since i just finished a book that proves it bigtime, called: a day of deceit, i have to fully agree with all he says here, and if you get the book you'll discover how fully true it is;

Pearl Harbor:  An Orchestrated Event?

Paul Craig Roberts

In November, 1944, US Secretary of War, Henry Stimson snapped to the US Secretary of the Treasury that he was worn out “from working the last two weeks on the Pearl Harbor report to keep out anything that might hurt the President.” — Churchill’s War, Vol. II

December 7, 2020.  Today is the 79th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the event that brought the US into the war against Germany and Japan. Eight American battleships were sunk or put out of action, and about 3,600 American sailors were killed or wounded.

Washington needed scapegoats, and Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Walter Short were saddled with the blame for American unpreparedness for the Pearl Harbor attack. As time passed circumstantial evidence came to light that President Roosevelt knew of the attack and permitted the devastation in order that the American people would be so outraged by the attack as to give up their resistance to being dragged into another European war.  The controversy continued for some years.  I am unsure that it was ever resolved.

When I was a Wall Street Journal editor, the chief intelligence officer of the US Pacific Fleet at the time of the Japanese attack, Admiral Edwin T. Layton, published a book, And I Was There. Layton proved to my satisfaction that foreknowledge of the attack was known in Washington, perhaps not specifically that Japan would attack Pearl Harbor, but it was definitely known that Japan was about to attack in force.  Layton attributed Pearl Harbor’s vulnerability to the tendency of Washington to monopolize naval intelligence and not share it with operational commanders.  Whether or not Layton believed this or simply could not say that the warning was withheld in order to clear the obstacle to war, I cannot say.  Nevertheless, for Washington to know an attack was forthcoming and still take no action to put Pearl Harbor on high alert or send the fleet to sea is puzzling.  Kimmel’s predecessor had been fired because he would not agree with Washington’s insistance on keeping the Pacific Fleet in such a vulnerable location as Pearl Harbor while the likelihood of war increased.

The publisher of Layton’s book sent me a copy.  As a Wall Street Journal editor with a column of my own, I assumed I could write a review of Admiral Layton’s book, but I was prohibited......read more......