What did Harding do to the Navy?
During the War we began a building program that would have made our Navy the largest in the World, one exceeding even the Royal Navy. At the Washington Conference we agreed to limit the size of our battleship fleet in line with the British and other national navies. Our navy had in fact played a limited role in the war, but we had greatly gained in experience, and with the big ships under construction, we would soon have outmatched the Royal Navy in every category. Ironically, we probably would not have developed the aircraft carrier the way we did if the Battleship admirals had got the ships they wanted. Then neither would the Japs who had to swallow a much smaller tonnage allowance. Without the limitations of the Washington conference,WWII would have been fought differently. And there would have been no Pearl Harbor.