"I guess stupid is easier to see in hindsight."
It's important to remember that in 1940, the Pacific Fleet Commander was Admiral James O. Richardson.
In late 1940 Richardson was fired by President Roosevelt because of his protests over the fleet's assignment to Pearl Harbor.
But note that what Richardson protested was the administration's refusal to allow him to protect and maintain the fleet against possible attack.
The "not possible to defend" referred to below means: not possible given the resources and policies FDR imposed on Richardson.
In other words: Richardson refused to be a sitting duck in Pearl Harbor.
So FDR found another admiral to be his sitting duck.
"Richardson protested this redeployment to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and to other politicians in Washington, arguing that the burden of defending a perimeter so far removed was not possible, despite Japan's attack on China and whatever promises had been made to the British to come to their aid if attacked.
On October 26, 1940, a White House leak to the Washington-based Kiplinger Newsletter predicted that Richardson would be removed as Commander in Chief. He was replaced by Admiral Husband E. Kimmel in February 1941."Richardson is consequently a main focus of historical fact seekers, who claim pre-war intelligence that heavily suggested Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy in early December was deliberately withheld from the military commanders at Pearl Harbor by the Roosevelt administration.[1]
As of 2010, the CIA refuses to release many of the JN-25 codes deciphered before December 7, 1941."
Thanks, I didn’t know that. Given that additional information, it seems to me the the admiral that took his place should have given some thought to his position that Pearl was too close to harms way. Just lining up the ships and planes seems odd with possible sabotage the only reason to gather stuff.....what able other possibilities?
It all seems just strange.
Roosevelt did not need a “sitting duck” nor was that what he was looking for.
Everybody knew war was coming. Were were trying to throw everything we could into the Philippines before war broke out. But the minute the first Japanese bomb hit Manila, Clark Field, or Cavite, we were at war.
The goal of Japan’s war was to size the oil fields of the Dutch East Indies. The Pearl Harbor Raid was conceived by the Imperial Japanese Navy with the goal crippling the US Battle Fleet to buy time for the East Indies Campaign.
President Roosevelt was not involved with it in any way shape or form. Indeed he did not need it, because the moment Japan decided to attack the Dutch East Indies, Japan decided on war with the US and the British Empire. Because you have to hold Singapore and the Philippines to hold the DEI.
I agree with the general premise that FDR knew an attack was imminent and will add, so did the Army and Navy, but I was struck by this wiki source so I had to look at it a bit closer. The first statement that says that intelligence stated that Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked is incorrect if referenced to its own source. The source which is an article by Thomas Fleming states that there was a lot of signs that the Japanese were going to attack but does not give any specifics to exactly where. And Thomas is right. FDR did know we were going to be attacked, but not necessarily at Pearl. The intel at the time had reports of a fleet leaving Shanghai headed south which led them to think that the Philippines was the target....which it was. They did not have intel of the fleet headed to Pearl and even if they were reading every scrap of JN-25 it wouldn't have enlightened them to that fleet because they were under radio silence. Now according to Crane Files there was no JN-25 traffic being read at all in the months prior to Pearl Harbor, so the assertion that the CIA is withholding information is likely bogus and stands to reason why it says [citation needed]. This is why I never cite Wikipedia. It is a good place to get a jump off point for further research, but more often than I would like the details in their write ups leave something to be desired.