The fact that Dewey was preparing to spring a nice surprise on FDR shows that partisan politics was alive and well in 1944. But how does it denigrate Dewey's honor to cite the fact that, when cautioned by Marshall, he chose to give up a hot campaign issue rather than risk damaging the war effort?
As to the truth of the tale (that Dewey was going to raise the foreknowledge issue but was dissuaded by Marshall), there are plenty of sources other than Stinnett's book. E.g., here's a quote from a 1956 article in Time:
George Marshall had learned that Dewey knew the U.S. was cracking Japan's code. He feared that Candidate Dewe[y] might accuse the Roosevelt Administration of having blundered into Pearl Harbor even while intercepting messages spelling out the Japanese intention to attack. Marshall was not so much concerned about the political implications as he was about the military dangers: the fact that the U.S. had cracked the Japanese code was a zealously guarded military secret. Marshall begged Dewey to keep quiet about the code, and offered a weekly briefing on top U.S. diplomatic and military secrets.In actual fact, the United States had broken the Japanese diplomatic code (the Purple code) before the war and thus knew that the Japs were going to war against the US. But they hadn't at that point broken the naval codes, and therefore Roosevelt didn't know the details of the planned attack (they thought it would be in the Far East). However, once the war got going, the US did break the naval codes, and the information thus obtained was immensely valuable. What Marshall feared was that Dewey's raising the issue would prompt the Japs to change all their codes.
Here is the text of Marshall's message to Dewey (BTW, it contains an interesting tidbit about the OSS in Portugal):
This is the kind of stuff that is on the same Amazon page as that book your quoted from:TOP SECRETFOR MR. DEWEY'S EYES ONLY
COPY
27 September 1944Colonel Clarke , my messenger to you of yesterday, September 26th,
has reported the result of his delivery of my letter dated September 25th.
As I understand him you (a) were unwilling to commit yourself to any agree-
ment regarding "not communicating its contents to another person" in view
of the fact that you felt you already knew certain of the things probably re-
ferred to in the letter, as suggested to you by seeing the word "cryptograph,"
and (b) you could not feel that such a letter as this to a presidential can-
didate could have been addressed to you by an officer of my position without
the knowledge of the President.As to (a) above I am quite willing to have you read what comes here-
after with the understanding that you are bound not to communicate to any other
person any portions on which you do not now have or later receive factual knowl
-edge from some other source than myself. As to (b) above you have my word that
neither the Secretary of War nor the President has any intimation whatsoever
that such a letter has been addressed to you or that the preparation or sending
of such a communication was being considered. I assure you that the only per-
sons who saw or know of the existence of either this letter or my letter to you
dated September 25th are Admiral King, seven key officers responsible for secur-
ity of military communications, and my secretary who typed these letters. I am
trying my best to make plain to you that this letter is being addressed to you
solely on my initiative, Admiral King having been consulted only after the let-
ter was drafted, and I am persisting in the matter because the military hazards
involved are so serious that I reel some action is necessary to protect the in-
terests of our armed forces.I should have much preferred to talk to you in person but I could not
devise a method that would not be subject to press and radio reactions as to
why the Chief of Staff of the Army would be seeking an interview with you at
this particular moment. Therefore I have turned to the method of this letter,
with which Admiral King concurs, to be delivered by hand to you by Colonel
Clarke, who, incidentally, has charge or the most secret documents of the War
and Navy Departments.In brief , the military dilemma is this :
The most vital evidence in the Pearl Harbor matter consists
of our intercepts of the Japanese diplomatic communications. Over a
period of years our cryptograph people analyzed the character of the
machine the " Japanese were using for encoding their diplomatic messages.
Based on this a corresponding machine was built by us which deciphers
their messages. Therefore, we possessed a wealth of information re-
garding their moves in the Pacific, which in turn was furnished the
State Department - rather than as is popularly supposed, the StateDECLASSIFIED
E.O. 11552 Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E)
Authority ___ [ NND 750046] ____
By __[??]__ NARS, Date _[2/4/74 __
TOP SECRET{PAGE BREAK}
TOP SECRETDepartment providing us with the information - but which unfortunately
made no reference whatever to intentions towards Hawaii until the last
message before December 7th, which did not reach our hands until the
following day, December 8th.Now the point to the present dilemma is that we have gone
ahead with this business of deciphering their codes until we possess
other codes, German as well as Japanese, but our main basis of informa-
tion regarding Hitler's intentions in Europe is obtained from Baron
Oshima's messages from Berlin reporting his interviews with Hitler and
other officials to the Japanese Government. These are still in the
codes involved in the Pearl Harbor events.To explain further the critical nature of this set-up which
would be wiped out almost in an instant if the least suspicion were
aroused regarding it, the battle of the Coral Sea was based on de-
ciphered messages and therefore our few ships were in the right place
at the right time, Further, we were able to concentrate our limited
forces to meet their naval advance on Midway when otherwise we almost
certainly would have been some 3,000 miles out of place. We had full
information of the strength of their forces in that advance and also
of the smaller force directed against the Aleutians which finally
landed troops on Attu and Kiska.Operations in the Pacific are largely guided by the informa-
tion we obtain of Japanese deployments. We know their strength in var-
ious garrisons, the rations and other stores continuing available to
them, and what is of vast importance, we check their fleet movements
and the movements of their convoys. The heavy losses reported from
time to time which they sustain by reason of our submarine action,
largely result from the fact that we know the sailing dates and routes
of their convoys and can notify our submarines to lie in wait at the
proper points.The current raids by Admiral Halsey's carrier forces on Jap-
anese shipping in Manila Bay and elsewhere were largely based on timing
on the known movements of Japanese convoys, two of which were caught,
as anticipated, in his destructive attacks.You will understand from the foregoing the utterly tragic consequences
if the present political debates regarding Pearl Harbor disclose to the enemy,
German or Gap, any suspicion of the vital sources of information we possess.The Roberts' Report of Pearl Harbor had to have withdrawn from it
all reference to this highly secret matter, therefore in portions it neces-
sarily appeared incomplete. The same reason which dictated that course is
even more important today because our sources have been greatly elaborated.- 2 -
TOP SECRET{PAGE BREAK}
TOP SECRETAs another example of the delicacy of the situation, some of Dono-
van's people (the OSS) without telling us, instituted a secret search of the
Japanese Embassy offices in Portugal. As a result the entire military attaché
Japanese code all over the world was changed, and though this occurred over a
year ago, we have not yet been able to break the new code and have thus lost
this invaluable source of information, particularly regarding the European
situation.A further most serious embarrassment is the fact that the British
government is involved concerning its most secret sources of information,
regarding which only the Prime Minister, the Chiefs of Staff and a very
limited number of other officials have knowledge.A recent speech in Congress by Representative Harness would clearly
suggest to the Japanese that we have been reading their codes, though Hr.Har-
ness and the American public would probably not draw any such conclusion.The conduct of General Eisenhower's campaign and of all operations
in the Pacific are closely related in conception and timing to the information
He secretly obtain through these intercepted codes. They contribute greatly
to the victory and tremendously to the saving in American lives, both in the
conduct of current operations and in looking towards the early termination
of the war.I am presenting this matter to you in the hope that you will see
your way clear to avoid the tragic results with which we are now threatened
in the present political campaign.Please return this letter by bearer. I will hold it in my most
secret file subject to your reference should you so desire.Faithfully yours,
(Sgd) G. C. MARSHALL
- 3 -
TOP SECRET
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Of what relevance are Amazon's forums to the current discussion?
The book you pointed to denigrates both Dewey and FDR and suggests that FDR was complicit in the attack on Pearl Harbor and that Dewey had to be constrained from leaking information about the Japanese Code; neither of which was true.
Of what relevance are Amazon's forums to the current discussion?
The same idiots who think that Bush knew about 9/11 are the same idiots who would buy into the book you quoted from. It is anti-American revisionism. And posting a stupid fake speech by Thomas Dewey in order to make a point about demcratic treachery is not funny and it is in bad taste.
I still don't know why the Admin Moderator hasn't pulled this thread. I'll ping him again.