Let's make fun of Trump, bash him, etc. while we can!

[Bob Butler 54]

A brief insert on the US entry into World War II.  In 1940, US Naval Intelligence thought it prudent for the US to get involved in World War II, but FDR had made promises not to get involved.  Thus, it was considered expedient to provoke Japan into an overt act such as the Pearl Harbor strike.  This would allow entry into the war without losing FDR political capitol and getting the firm backing of the US People.  Naval Intelligence proposed eight steps that might be taken to provoke Japan.

It was never proven that FDR saw the McCollum Memo and there were denials that the US was deliberately seeking entry in the war, but all eight steps recommended to provoke war were taken shortly after the memo was written and the intended result, the Pearl Harbor raid, did occur.

Coincidence?  I don't think so.  The Wiki article on the McCollum Memo includes...

Wiki Wrote:The Eight-Action plan
The McCollum memo contained an eight-part plan to counter rising Japanese power over East Asia:

A. Make an arrangement with Britain for the use of British bases in the Pacific, particularly Singapore
B. Make an arrangement with the Netherlands for the use of base facilities and acquisition of supplies in the Dutch East Indies
C. Give all possible aid to the Chinese government of Chiang-Kai-Shek
D. Send a division of long range heavy cruisers to the Orient, Philippines, or Singapore
E. Send two divisions of submarines to the Orient
F. Keep the main strength of the U.S. fleet now in the Pacific[,] in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands
G. Insist that the Dutch refuse to grant Japanese demands for undue economic concessions, particularly oil
H. Completely embargo all U.S. trade with Japan, in collaboration with a similar embargo imposed by the British Empire

Likewise, in an analytical reading - using the structure and process model from Power and Interdependence, Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, 1977, p.18, should the U.S. fully implemented (which it did) all eight-actions-plan as outlined, and should Japan sense its increase vulnerabilities, then “it may use military force to attempt to redress that situation as Japan did in 1941; ...”[7] In a historical perspective, a more open (absence of prearranged agenda) reading of McCollum memo (Arthur H. McCollum), with a strong foreign pressure (at the time, and traditionally as a young nation, the general U.S. public sentiment was not to get involved in foreign wars) from its allies, would suggest that the United States administration needed a Pearl Harbour like attack at home to ... the war that was happening in Europe.

Note, I still have my picture of FDR up as my avatar.  Secretly provoking war isn't the sort of thing one wants to do, but it may easily be considered necessary in this case.  Today Hitler is a boogie men a lot of us will use to spice up our forum entries.  What should a leader have done to make sure he was stopped?  No smoking gun has been found and I doubt one ever will, but I suspect the McCollum note's influence was real.  I wouldn't want such a stunt pulled again, but definitely would respect FDR's decision to provoke if the decision was indeed made by him.

It certainly adds extra poignancy to the reports of a grieving FDR slumping at his desk after the reports of the attack came in.  By some coincidence, the carriers just happened to be at sea.  It was thought that aircraft couldn't do that much damage to battleships.

One of my favorite accounts of the war is Edward Stafford's The Big E, which follows the carrier USS Enterprise through the war.  Lots of real action from later in the war, of course.  The Enterprise got just about every battle star available in the Pacific.  Of interest, for some reason, most unusually, the carrier was on full war footing when she sailed from Pearl just before the attack, sending armed aircraft on full patrols as the ship sailed out of harm's way.

Lots of inconclusive evidence of funny stuff going one, quite capable of convincing folk who want to be convinced.