United States Army Quotes
... Japanese future action unpredictable but hostile action possible at any moment. If hostilities cannot be avoided, the United States desires that Japan commit the first overt act. This policy should not be construed as restricting you to a course of action that might jeopardize your defense. Prior to hostile Japanese action you are directed to undertake such reconnaissance and other measures as you deem necessary but these measures should be carried out so as not to alarm civil population or disclose intent.
Some say that President Roosevelt had instructed the war department to issue warnings to the military forces in the Philippines and the Pacific. Military intelligence argued against the Japanese attack on the Philippines—and did not think any attack anywhere very likely. When the president insisted, warnings went out and this is what was sent to General Short. The warning was ambiguous and Short did very little and was caught unprepared shortly thereafter. How much reliance should be placed on intelligence estimates has been a question that has been argued before World War II and after.
U. S. Army, Pre-Pearl Harbor message to General Short, Army commander of Pearl Harbor
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
General Gerow was army chief of staff George Marshall’s deputy. President and the Secretary of state or worried that Japan might attack American forces in the Pacific. They thought the Philippines might be in imminent danger. Military intelligence did not agree with their political assessment. So the army temporized by drafting a general alert to all Pacific forces. FDR wanted a more specific war warning sent and the Secretary of War to carry the message. The army did then send a mild warning message to the Philippines as well as other facilities and an even milder message to Pearl Harbor. See {589278}. The commanding general and Admiral of Pearl Harbor paid little attention to the ambiguous message and ten days later the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The Philippines were invaded subsequently.
Plan Orange was the code name of the united states plan for possible war with Japan. In this ironic quotation, American military planners realized five years before Pearl Harbor that surprise attack was the major vulnerability. We were surprised and had no help from our intelligence service which despite the recommendations was almost nonexistent.
He was describing a meeting that he and General Marshall had conducted with FDR, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and others. In less than two weeks, the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor without any declaration of war, as Marshall had predicted.
Germany had some world class physicists. Our scientists, military intelligence people, and political leadership assumed that the Germans were also seeking to develop the Atomic Bomb. Ironically, it turned out that they were not, and what Truman reported in this quotation was untrue (although that was not fully known at the time.) Einstein and several of the scientists who were early pioneers in modern physics were Jewish, and Hitler referred to the study of nuclear fission and fusion as “Jewish Science.” As a result, the German government did not commit the resources to the development of an atomic bomb. Instead, they were betting on the development of the Jet Airplane which they succeeded in deploying against the Allies at the end of the war. But they did not have enough or enough pilots left alive to fly them, and Germany was overrun by the Allied Troops. Prior to Truman’s erroneous report about the German development of an atomic bomb, there had only been one piece of evidence that the Germans were not developing one. An OSS secret agent, Moe Berg, had talked with Werner Heisenberg, at a Swiss scientific conference during the war. He was going to assassinate the greatest of the German physicists if Berg thought he was working on a nuclear device. Berg concluded from his discussions that Heisenberg did not know enough about nuclear fission to have been working on that. Berg did not kill Heisenberg, and reported that he did not think the Germans were developing a bomb as if they were Heisenberg would have been deeply involved. However, the American intelligence people and the American scientists, did not trust Berg’s analysis and conclusion. Berg was not a trained scientist. He was a professional baseball player—the NY Yankee backup catcher to Bill Dickey. He was a college graduate, a brilliant guy and a very fast learner who had studied physics books and papers before his assignment. Berg turned out to have been right, but that was not confirmed until a few years after the war. Truman had relied on an incorrect intelligence estimate when he made this quotation. It was not the first such error of intelligence analysis in American history and it would not be the last.
President Roosevelt and Secretary of state Cordell hull felt that a Japanese invasion of the Philippines was a likelihood. The army chief of staff disagreed citing his intelligence reports. Japan of course attacked Pearl Harbor and then invaded the Philippines. Marshall, perhaps America’s greatest military administrator, turned out to be wrong while the President and Secretary of State proved more accurate in their assesment of the Japanese threat. This quotation stands as a testament to the fact that the intelligence fiascoes of the Iraq war are not unique in American military history.
With a professionalized all volunteer military, most of whom came from just a few socio-economic strata of our society, wars at the time were fought and the risks and burdens borne by a small part of American society. The rest of society, unlike the Second World War did not experience any change in their style or standard of living.
As an educational and military leader, he saw the importance of each in a nation’s welfare.
Quintus Horatius Flaccus
America, England, Germany and France Many Japanese leaders predicted war between the Great Powers while America and its European Allies did not see the danger as clearly. Shortly after 1936, Hitler began the Second World War. Japan was indeed prepared. Hiranuma became one of the Japanese extremists and after WWII was convicted of war crimes and given a life sentence.
- Born: June 14, 1775
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The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution. As the oldest and most senior branch of the U.S. military in order of precedence, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—before the United States of America was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself to be a continuation of the Continental Army, and thus considers its institutional inception to be the origin of that armed force in 1775.
