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Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor is a book by Robert Stinnett alleging that the Roosevelt administration deliberately provoked and allowed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in order to bring the United States into World War II. Stinnett claimed to have found information showing that the attacking fleet was detected through radio and intelligence intercepts, but that the information was deliberately withheld from Admiral Kimmel, the commander of the base.

First released in December 1999, it received a nuanced review in the New York Times and is frequently referenced by proponents of advance knowledge theories. Historians of the period, however, in general reject its thesis, pointing to several key errors and reliance on doubtful sources.

Stinnett's proposition

Stinnett's starting point is a memorandum written by Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. McCollum in October 1940, which was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. McCollum, who was head of the Far East desk of the Office of Naval Intelligence at the time, discussed the strategic situation in the Pacific and ended with a list of eight actions directed at the Japanese threat. Stinnett characterizes the actions as "provocations" and states his belief in McCollum's point F ("Keep the main strength of the U.S. fleet now in the Pacific in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands") was intended to lure the Japanese into attacking it. Stinnett asserts that the overall intent was to provoke an act of war which would allow Roosevelt to enter into active conflict with Germany in support of the United Kingdom. This would be contrary to Britain's best interests, and Churchill and Roosevelt knew it; Hitler certainly did.

Short and Kimmel were ordered to remain in a defensive posture with respect to the Japanese. Stinnett claims that intelligence intercepts were deliberately withheld from them in order to prevent them from mounting an adequate defense. He also claims radio traffic was intercepted from the fleet as it approached Hawaii, allowing it to be tracked, but that again this information was withheld so that the defenders would be unprepared. All of this, says Stinnett, was directed from the White House itself with Roosevelt's knowledge and at his behest.

Reception

Most, if not all, scholars of this topic are dismissive of Stinnett's claims, as many of his claims appear to be baseless. An article in Salon quotes CIA historian Donald Steury:

concocted this theory pretty much from whole cloth. Those who have been able to check his alleged sources also are unanimous in their condemnation of his methodology. Basically, the author has made up his sources; when he does not make up the source, he lies about what the source says.

Nor has evidence of the enormous conspiracy required to substantiate his claim, which has to number in the low hundreds, been uncovered. Stinnett's evidence the memo went to Roosevelt is illusory. His promise to provide all his documents and recordings and thereby prove his allegations, made when Day of Deceit was published, as of 27 June 2009 remained unfulfilled. Certain points in Stinnett's argument were disputed by many reviewers. His characterization of the McCollum memorandum was not accepted by Conrad Crane, who wrote:

A close reading shows that its recommendations were supposed to deter and contain Japan, while better preparing the United States for a future conflict in the Pacific. There is an offhand remark that an overt Japanese act of war would make it easier to garner public support for actions against Japan, but the document's intent was not to ensure that event happened.

In actuality, Stinnett attributes to McCollum a position McCollum expressly refuted. Furthermore, McCollum's own sworn testimony also refutes it. Furthermore, he ignores the fact a war between the U.S. and Japan is contrary to President Roosevelt's desire to aid Britain, and Prime Minister Churchill's desire to avoid "another war".

Philip Zelikow, writing in Foreign Affairs, objected to Stennitt's claim that the Japanese naval code was being read at the time (the JN-25 code was changed shortly before the attack and was not decrypted again until May 1942), an objection also raised by Crane. A review posted on the U.S. Naval Cryptologic Veterans Association website addresses the intelligence issues in greater detail and disputes claims that the fleet was detected through direction finding; the author also criticizes Stinnett's use of testimony from Robert Ogg, originally identified as "Seaman Z" by Toland in his 1986 book. Indeed, Ogg expressly denies saying what Toland quotes him as saying. In their annotations on the 1995 Pentagon study of the attack, Frederic Borch and Daniel Martinez, chief historian at the USS Arizona Memorial, also dispute these claims and call his claims "totally false".

Stinnett's claims of "intercepts" are contradicted by Japanese testimony, which unequivocally state there were none, and even transmitter keys were removed from radios of ships in the task force. (The claim of a need for "low-power radio" made by Stinnett ignores standard fleet practise under radio silence, use of flag or blinker.) Morover, his "intercepts" do not amount to direction finding bearings, contrary to his claims, while his document allegedly showing the plot of these nonexistent bearings contains nothing of the kind.

"If there was this vast and humongous conspiracy", its members had to number in the hundreds. Among them would have to be Lt. Kermit Tyler who, on the morning of 7 December, was contacted about a radar contact on an inbound flight, and told the operators to forget about it. One would also have to include the Navy duty officer, who was asleep when Ward first tried to report a minsub contact, thereby losing over three hours' warning. It would also include the officer who ordered AAF fighters be parked in close proximity to avoid sabotage. Also included would be the senior antiaircraft officers, who ordered ammunition to be locked up far from the guns.

Furthermore, Stinnett makes numerous and contradictory claims of the number of messages originated by the Kido Butai, attributing to it messages from shore stations, Yamamoto's flagship (which was not accompanying the task force), deception measures, and traffic from before the task force even sailed. Moreover, he finds "not a single one" originating from the Kido Butai after it sortied 26 November.

Oddly enough, not everybody finds agreement with the above notions' that the book is made-up fiction, based on poorly interpreted information, or written by some fly by the night fool with little to no knowledge of the very controversial and complex topic he is talking about. A look at published comments by historians, book reviewers, and journalists contemporary to publication of the book Day of Deceit below:

Lynwood Abram of Houston Chronicle wrote "Stinnett makes points that disturb conventional thinking about the Pearl Harbor attack."

Rupert Corwell reviewed the book for The London Independent, "Robert Stinnett has come as close as any mortal will to proving not only that the president had a pretty shrewd idea the Japanese planned the attack, but that he did everything in his power, short of declaring war, to make sure they would. After almost 60 years--and the destruction of intelligence documents--a single 'smoking gun' will never be found. But the case put together by Stinnett during 13 years of research, painstaking use of Freedom of Information Act, and interviews with participants, is more than persuasive."

On Dec. 7, 1999 Bruce Bartlett of The Wall Street Journal wrote "A fascinating and readable book that is exceptionally well presented."

On Jan. 30, 2000 Ed Halloran wrote for the Rocky Mountain News "Thanks to Stinnett's thorough research, those who will debate this topic in the future will have a fuller picture of the real story behind the 'Day of Infamy.'"

Michael D Hull of World War Two Magazine, Jan 2001 Vol. 15 Issue 5 p66 wrote "Explosive, revealing, and disturbing, Day of Deceit gets to the heart of the debate about America's leadership as the nation was swept into the war. A triumph of historical scholorship and a valuable contribution to the record of World War II."

John Attarian wrote in The Detroit News "Backed by 17 years of research and using more than two hundred thousand interviews and newly declassified documents, Stinnett makes devastating revelations...He is a model researcher...Dec. 7, 1941, is indeed 'a date that will live in infamy. Thanks to Stinnett, we now know where the infamy really lay. A sobering blockbuster, an absorbing read, and a model of revisionist history, Day of Deceit does much to unmask the awful truth about Pearl Harbor. All Americans interested in our entry into World War II--or concerned with our governments trustworthiness--should read it."

Richard Bernstein, The New York Times Book Review wrote "It is difficult, after reading this copiously documented book, not to wonder about previously unchallenged assumptions about Pearl Harbor."

Kirkus Reviews said "An explosive, well-written look at the events leading up to the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, Including FDR's provocation of the attack, by a WWII veteran and longtime journalist...Stinnett has left no stone unturned in this account, which should rewrite the historical record of WWII."

References

1. Bernstein, Richard (December 15, 1999). "Books of the Times: On Dec. 7, Did We Know We Knew?". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
2. ^ Greer, Judith (June 14, 2001). "Dive-bombing FDR". Salon. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
3. ^ "Book Reviews: Day of Deceit". Parameters. US Army War College. Spring 2001. {{cite journal}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
4. Gilbert, Felix. Hitler Directs his War (New York, Oxford University Press, 1950).
5. Young
6. Young, pp.14-16.
7. Young, p.2.
8. Young, p.16.
9. Young, Richard E., Admiral. "A Deceitful Book", review of Day of Deceit. Amazon.com (retrieved 02.34 on 9 March 2011); McCollum, Arthur H., Rear Admiral. "The Calamitous 7th", The Saturday Review of Literature, 29 May 1954.
10. Pearl Harbor Investigations, Part 8, pp.2447-3443.
11. Haughler, Hervie. Codebreaker's Victory (New American Library, 2003)
12. Prange et al., At Dawn We Slept, p.861.
13. Zelikow, Philip (March/April 2000). "Capsule Reviews: Day of Deceit: The Truth About F.D.R. and Pearl Harbor". Foreign Affairs. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
14. Jacobsen, Philip H. "A Cryptologic Veteran's Analysis of "Day of Deceit"". USNCVA.
15. Young, p.8.
16. Borch, Frederic (2005). Kimmel, Short, and Pearl Harbor: the final report revealed. Naval Institute Press. pp. 78–79. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
17. Prange, Gordon W., Goldstein, Donald, and Dillon, Katherine. Pearl Harbor Papers, pp.17ff; Prange et al., At Dawn We Slept (McGraw-Hill, 1981, pp.166-167, 227, 441, 548, & 573; Gannon, Michael. Pearl Harbor Betrayed (Henry Holt & Co., 2001), pp.182-183, 185, 204, & 208; Kahn, David. The Codebreakers (Macmillan, 1967); Young, p.7.
18. Young, pp.8-9.
19. Stinnett, pp.52 & 305.
20. Young, p.9.
21. ^ Young, p.14.
22. ^ Young, p.15.
23. Prange et all. At Dawn We Slept? December 7th, 1941?
24. Young, pp.10-11; Stinnett, passim.
25. Young, p.11.

External links

• The Independent Institute December 7, 2000 article "December 7, 1941: A Setup from the Beginning" by Robert Stinnett
• FDR Pearl Harbor Conspiracy (Containing interview with Robert Stinnett)
• Fooling Most of the People Most of the Time (Containing an hour long interview with Robert Stinnett)

• 2001 books
• History books about World War II
• Conspiracy theories
• Attack on Pearl Harbor