Day of Infamy

[Case]

My high school history class says Pearl Harbor is an invention of Right Wing Warmongers or left winged isolationalists

In 1941 the left wingers were the warmongers and the right wingers were isolationists (broadly speaking).

There are two major problems with the claim that the carriers were sent to sea 'to keep them safe'.
Firstly, in 1941 the USN (and the very traditionally minded [in this case] FDR) considered battleships to be far more important then carriers. As such, if any ships were to be sent to sea for 'safe keeping' it would have been the 'war-winning' battleships, and not the carriers.

Secondly, if the carriers were at sea for 'safe-keeping', then the USN was totally incompetant. On the 7th of December all the carriers were individually sailing into the central Pacific [towards Japan!] under light escort. Had the Japanese stumbled across an American flat-top they would have had little problem sinking it.

Personally, I see the Pearl Harbour conspircy as the last vestige of the pre-war attitudes towards the Japanese. It seems that some people still can't accept the fact that Americans were outsmarted and out-fought by the Japanese, and have to resort to pathetic claims that the USN was stabbed in the back by Roosevelt.

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

That is a very interesting take on it Case.

Your first sentence and your last are a refreshing new perspective on things, neither of which I have much considered. Of course I have known a part of the right wing to be isolationist (eg Pat Buchanan) but these days they seem to be the most interested in "helping out" all over the world. I think part of it has to do with the party in power as well though- Clinton in his third term would not have much right wing support for war in Iraq (BELIEVE IT) and FDR did not have much right wing support in the war against Fascists.

It is just as interesting to me that about 2/3 of the people responding to the poll believe that something was up.

 

[joespaniel]

People like to believe there is a conspiracy where there is none.

On those rare occaisions when there actually is a conspiracy, its always right in front of your nose. Like Enron, Worldcom, Iran-Contra, Watergate...

There was no conspiracy on the part of FDR to bring the US into the war by allowing our boys to be slaughtered. He was a sneaky politician like all the others, not a murderous fool.