Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy

by Percy L. Greaves Jr., Bettina Bien Greaves (Editor)

This book by the world expert on Pearl Harbor blows the top off a 70-year cover-up, reporting for the first time on long-suppressed interviews, documents, and corroborated evidence. The bottom line that the attack December 7, 1941 was not unexpected or unprovoked. Nor was it the reason that Franklin Roosevelt declared a war that resulted in massive human slaughter. Instead, this book establishes, in exhaustive detail, that Pearl Harbor was permitted as a public relations measure to rally the public - and the blame shifted from the White House, where it belonged, to the men on the ground who were unprepared for the attack. The author is Percy Greaves (1906-1984). For 70 years, his documents have been the primary source of revisionist scholarship on Pearl Harbor. The documents were prepared under his leadership by the minority on the Congressional commission that investigated Pearl Harbor from 1945 to 1946, because he acted as the main counsel for the Republican minority. He conducted in-person, detailed, comprehensive interviews with all the main players at Pearl Harbor and many people in the security apparatus. The contents of these interviews are corroborated by military records. More than any other person, he was qualified to speak on this subject. He possessed encyclopedic knowledge and had access to research available to no one else. However, for many reasons, the documents were not published. He continued to work on this book for many years before his death in 1984. At that point, his wife Bettina Bien Greaves took up the project. The result is absolutely astonishing. The scenario it describes is not unknown even in our own times. A brutal attack on American soil comes from a foreign source. Death and destruction are everywhere. The nation is furious and thirsty for vengeance. The search is on for the perpetrators and those in government who failed to see it coming. The ruling administration goes to war while manufacturing a cover-up of the details. Congress investigates and eventually produces a report that exonerates the President and the security apparatus that did not work to prevent the attack, while blaming those closest to the disaster. This scenario might apply to 9-11; recall that it was airport security that caught the blame, and not the Bush administration. And then began the "war on terror" that has bloated government security, escalated military conflicts the world over, and grown government power to unspeakable levels. Conspiracy theories abound because government has never really come clean. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 60 years earlier followed a similar trajectory. As with 9-11, Franklin Roosevelt had pursued a range of policies that provoked the attack. It was no secret that he wanted to enter the war. For years, historians have pointed to evidence that FDR possessed intelligence that demonstrated high risk of attack. What if Pearl Harbor was merely the excuse FDR needed to enter the war and not the actual reason? What if he was fully aware that an attack might have been expected? What if the Congressional report that appeared after was more of a cover-up than anything else? Much of his research has never appeared in print - effectively suppressed for 70 years. Even the censored minority report did not include it all. But at long last, the fullness of this report is revealed. The result is this monumental book, completed and edited by Bettina Greaves and published by the Mises Institute. Pearl Harbor is a 1,000-page indictment of the Roosevelt administration, one that finally and devastatingly rips the lid of a case that has been shrouded in mystery for generations.

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, American History, War

937 pages, Hardcover

First published June 21, 2010

Reviews

[Peter J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an important work, in that it further drives home the fact the victors of wars tend to be the writers of their nation’s history books. I grew up taught that the 1940’s era Japanese (as well as the Germans of the same era) were simply ruthless people who had been brainwashed into believing that conquest and national expansion were virtues the most high. The “Allied” nations, on the other hand, were innocent, hapless victims who were violently, undeservedly, and often unexpectedly attacked, while simply minding their own national businesses of economic and cultural development. As I began to study the first hand sources of these events, long after my college days, I eventually realized that what I had been taught wasn’t an accurate depiction of the supposedly “evil” character of the noble German, Japanese, Italian, and Spanish people, the supposed purity of motive of “Allied” leadership, and was a suspiciously, and likely purposefully incomplete revelation of the actions taken by both sides leading up to, during, and after the close of the war.

[Goodi]

Too much detail, I don't care that much.

[Chuck Russo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. A factual, first-sources chronicle of the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and of the stunning, jaw-dropping negligence and incompetence of officials and actors at nearly every level of the military and the FDR administration, including the much revered George Marshall. Strongly recommended reading for anyone interested in Pearl Harbor, including those who may be attracted to conspiracy theories -- this book provides food for thought on both sides, but the bulk of evidence presented here indicates nearly everyone was surprised.

[Kathleen]

Will hopefully finish this at a later date...