Final Secret of Pearl Harbor [Hardcover]

R. A. Theobald (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Devin-Adair Pub; 5th edition (June 1977)
• ISBN-10: 0815955030
• ISBN-13: 978-0815955030
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,815,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Did FDR Sacrifice American Lives to Enter WWII?, December 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Final Secret of Pearl Harbor (Hardcover)

Rear Admiral Robert A. Theobald makes the case (and a very good one) that Franklin Delano Roosevelt deliberately left Pearl Harbor commanders in the dark with regard to the threat of a Japanese attack in order to rally the American people into entering World War II.

I believe this book makes it abundantly clear that something was amiss in the way the Roosevelt administration handled the intelligence data that indicated Japan was preparing to attack the United States.

While other localities of military interest were fully cognizant of the ongoing evidence, the Pacific Fleet in Hawaii was kept out of the loop. Additionally, Pearl Harbor itself was given orders that were inconsistent with military intelligence and in fact suggest that Pearl Harbor was purposely weakened in order to make it more vulnerable (and hence attractive) to a Japanese attack.

The military officials who were responsible for informing Pearl Harbor of the unfolding events either were collectively incompetent or were given strict orders not to propagate pertinent information to Hawaii. And since many of these commanders reported directly to Commander-in-Chief FDR, Theobald believes (and I concur) that it was FDR's intention to ensure a Pearl Harbor slaughter of sufficient magnitude to change public opinion towards favoring entry into World War II.

On the evidence alone, I believe Rear Admiral Theobald makes a case sufficient to render a guilty verdict on FDR. But it is even more compelling given the documented corruption of FDR throughout his years in office. Of course, his most damnable action was the Yalta Betrayal where he agreed to enslave Eastern Europe to appease Uncle Joe Stalin.

It is sad that America has erected a memorial to FDR in Washington, D.C. The sacrificing of American military men and women in order to effect public opinion is unforgivable and traitorous. FDR's mythic legacy should be tossed onto the ash heap of history where every other evil and false ideology is placed.

Book is online @ http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/FinalSecret/index.html

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Theobald's Book is the Revenge Of a Man Fired For Disobedience!, March 20, 2009

By 

C. J. Gillis (Fitchburg, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Final Secret of Pearl Harbor (Hardcover)

This book was published before a WW II secret called "Magic" was declassified. It was written by a US Navy admiral who was sent by Admiral Chester A. Nimitz to defend Alaska, using intel gleaned by Magic code-breaking of Japanese messages. Theobald didn't do what he was told to do, and was fired.

If you ever see the movie "Tora Tora, Tora", you will see that in the weeks leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, even President Roosevelt wasn't given access to Magic intel. Then he was, too late. If the research for that book and movie is correct, that hint alone smashes the premise of the first chapter of Theobald's book to dust. That movie also shows many other reasons why this Japanese attack worked as well, and ill, as it did.

If you want to have enough knowledge to decide for yourself who was really at fault for the disaster at Pearl Harbor, read Admiral Edward Layton's wonderful book, "And I Was There". Layton was the Naval Intelligence officer for Admirals Kimmel and Nimitz. He didn't publish his book until Magic was declassified, and he could tell the truth as he experienced it in Nimitz's Hawiian headquarters.

Layton passed Joseph Rochefort's code-breaking information about planned invasions of Midway and Alaska on to Admiral Nimitz. Nimitz passed the relevant information on to Theobald. Admiral Theobald ignored this intel and didn't bother to tell Nimitz that he intended to ignore it.

US Army Major General Simon Bolivar Buckner, based on two years of experience in building military defenses in the Alaskan area, wanted to build an air base on Kiska in expectation of an invasion. Theobald over-rode Buckner's advice and sailed his surface ships to Kodiak, Alaska, based solely on his own whims.

The Japanese attacked Dutch Harbor and invaded Kiska and Attu. Thirty-five American lives were lost, and our military facilities at Dutch Harbor were damaged. The Japanese built air bases and underground personnel huts on those cold, wet, foggy, islands, and thousands of American and Japanese servicemen suffered for years sailing through fog and sleet until we invaded the islands to take them back, only to find that the Japanese had gone away only a few days or weeks before.

Admiral Theobald was quietly "retired", fired, for disobeying direct orders from Nimitz, his superior officer, although no one called it firing to preserve the secret of our Magic code-breaking efforts. Theobald sat out the rest of the war and fumed. This book is the result. Would you give these rumblings of a loser any more credence or thought than a snort? I wouldn't.

After reading Layton's book, my opinion of who was at least partly responsible for the December 7, 1941 disaster of Pearl Harbor is: US Navy Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner, who interfered in the intelligence chain of command regarding who should work on our code-breaking efforts, and who should have access to the information gleaned.

Turner was also partly responsible for the debacle called "the Battle of Savo Island" the night after we invaded Gualdalcanal in August 1942. He ignored radar intelligence, saying "I'm my own intelligence officer. I don't trust radar". He also called many of the ships captains under his command at Savo to a conference, and didn't make sure that other captains and ships knew that they weren't where they had been assigned. The Japanese navy sank a lot of American ships that night, brilliantly.

Admiral Turner's penance: he was assigned for the rest of the war to Amphibious Force, South Pacific Force, organizing amphibious actions the south, central and western Pacific, some of it working for General Douglas MacArthur. Admiral Ernest King, who ran our Navy during WW II, was a furious, irascible man. I think that he must have had a wicked sense of humor which he never showed, as more than one admiral that he couldn't fire outright for 'political' reasons ended up in the back of beyond in the SouthWest Pacific Ocean Areas forced a lot of his time working under Douglas MacArthur.

Turner finally redeemed himself because his overwhelming drive was just what was needed to power up our amphibious forces, as MacArthur's army isolated Japanese sailors and airmen on jungle islands where they couldn't be resupplied. Turner died an honored man, because no one figured out how much responsibility he had had for the disaster of December 7, 1941.

However, the more you read about Pearl Harbor, the more reasons you will find for the disaster. Theobald was foolish and cruel to try to blame FDR for destroying a US Navy that he had loved and worked to build when any military spending was unpopular, as so many reasons exist which together compounded this disaster.