World War II Chronicle: Chicago Tribune leaks war plans while the Japanese close in (1941)

Unto the Breach ^ | Dec. 5, 2022 | Chris Carter

[fugazi]

F.D.R.’S WAR PLANS! GOAL IS 10 MILLION ARMED MEN; HALF TO FIGHT IN AEF

These are the headlines published in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune. Considering Dec. 7 is now just two days away, the leak of our highly classified war strategy to defeat Nazi Germany is a brief but fascinating story of the American charter of World War II. You may find it interesting to read about the story in real-time in our newspaper (see pages two and eight in today’s edition), or skip to the end to find out more on those involved.

You can see from War Secretary Henry L. Stimson’s comments the administration is downplaying the importance of the leaked plans. They have to.

What leaked to the Chicago Tribune was not theory; it was our official, in-place war strategy.

As an American living in 1941, I think I would be livid if our government had no plan for war against countries whose forces had already attacked us regardless of my support for isolationism. Yes, our armed forces had basic war plans for many nations — even our neighbors and allies, who may have had plans to defeat us as well. We will cover these plans in a forthcoming post.

You may be thinking this report probably didn’t contain anything our enemies didn’t already know. Berlin surely had an idea how many tanks and planes were rolling out of the factories each month, but they didn’t know with any certainty how we planned to attack, how many men would mobilize, and perhaps most importantly, how long until Hitler had to account for American troops in his war plans.

Did the American public deserve to know, as Chicago Tribune owner and publisher Robert R. “Colonel” McCormick1 determined

[Broker]

FDR knew. Ambassador Grew sent the warning written by Max Bishop who heard it from the well informed Peruvian attaché. Look that up. Ambassador Max W S Bishop knew FDR needed a Pearl Harbor, to his last breath

[PrinceOfCups]

Bookmark

[Jimmy Valentine]

I recommend to you a very good book on this subject, “Day of Deceit”. It covers events leading up to the attack very well. Kimmel was a very good admiral but was left in the dark and later hung out to dry.

[SauronOfMordor]

FDR goaded the Japanese to attack our fleet at Pearl Harbor. What he missed was how very capable the Japanese were. Kimmel was deliberately kept in the dark and took the blame.

I think the Japanese did us a favor at Pearl Harbor. They sank some obsolete battleships at anchor, and destroyed a bunch of obsolete planes on the ground. But the trained pilots and sailors mostly survived (which they WOULDN'T HAVE if they'd tried to meet the Japanese at sea).

The important ships, the carriers, were nowhere near Pearl on Dec 7, and the planes were replaced with newer models that could actually survive against the Zeros.

[larrytown]

FDR was a closet Red. So was Averell Harriman.

I'm not so sure I'd go so far as to say FDR was a red (closet or otherwise), but many of his people and those in government bureaucracy were.

A LOT of people in government then (and likely some today) ascribed to the idea that human governance structures were evolutionary - that government was constantly evolving into some 'perfect' thing, and that socialism/communism was the inevitable path.

FDR wasn't so much as 'red' as an power wielder and manipulator, who was intent on running the government as his personal possession. If the 'reds' would do what he wanted, then he used the reds.

The ego of that political monster was off the chart - he ran for his fourth term in '44 pretty much knowing he was terminally ill.