(December 6, 2018 at 1:17 pm)Minimalist Wrote: The operators did report the blip up the chain of command however the officer on duty had been told of a flight of B-17's coming in that morning ( they arrived in the middle of the attack ) and assumed that was what they had detected.
None of which excuses the failure of the Navy to have a combat air patrol up over the base or of the Army for parking the planes wing-to-wingtip to guard against saboteurs.
And yes, Roosevelt did expect a Japanese attack. On the Philippines, and they were tracking the Japanese invasion force heading south towards Malaya.
Nobody is disputing that. The documentary said that FDR was expecting inevitable war and a declaration of war. But anyone saying FDR let it happen is too much of a stretch for me. Both sides expected it, just not the US and Pearl Harbor. It didn't help that the diplomats sent to give FDR Japan's declaration failed to make that clear. Thus the famous line by one of their military, "I think we've woken a sleeping Giant".
