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Hitler Attacks Pearl Harbor: Why the United States Declared War on Germany

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It is amazing how Hill's small book overwhelmingly and convincingly marshals massive evidence to debunk the myths surrounding Pearl Harbor yet receives almost no recognition so far from the history professions. By enlisting FDR's speeches, the Congressional Record, a large number of important newspapers as well as various polls, etc. he proves that between 60 to 70 percent of all Americans believed that Hitler and the Germans were behind the attack on Pearl Harbor, that the Nazis planned it, financed it and partially carried it out. This myth, if not giant lie, foisted upon America, was believed by most until May 8, l945 when captured German documents proved no connection whatsoever. So, what to do now? Well, historians then reformulated America's war declaration against Germany to be the result of Hitler's Dec. ll war declaration against the U.S. This diplomatic historian, for the first time, read Hitler's presumed war declaration, found it surprisingly informative and more of a defensive declaration against the undeclared war FDR initiated against Hitler and against the assault FDR planned against Europe according to Plan Rainbow Five which envisioned a l0 million member armed forces for America by '43 of which 5 million would invade Europe to get Hitler. This secret plan was leaked on Dec. 4, '41 to the Chicago Tribune and Hitler made reference to it in his presumed war declaration on Dec. ll. After America's war declaration against Germany, the German Foreign Office clarified the fact that H's speech was not a war declaration at all. It was merely a clarification of facts, but it was to no avail. FDR was able, a according to Hill, to transform a pre-Dec.7 limited naval war against Germany into a TOTAL WAR.
Hill's book was favorably reviewed in the American Historical Association Review, yet it still has not received much recognition in spite of its objective and apolitical approach to assess and evaluate correctly a crucial event of the 20th century.
Historians interested in analyzing the causes and background of major wars might want to compare the fact that 60 to 70 percent of all Americans believed Hitler to be behind the attack on Pearl Harbor with the fact that about the same percentage recently believed Saddam Hussein was connected with 9-ll--a myth that is being dismantled more rapidly than the post-Pearl Harbor myth.

HITLER ATTACKS PEARL HARBOR: WHY THE UNITED STATES DECLARED WAR ON GERMANY
RICHARD F. HILL
LYNNE RIENNER PUBLISHERS, 2003
HARDCOVER, $49.95, 240 PAGES, ILLUSTRATIONS, APPENDICES


Two days after the Pearl Harbor attack, FDR delivered a radio address that is scarcely remembered, almost certainly for good cause. In it, he accused Hitler of a string of disreputable schemes that had influenced the Japanese to attack America. The speech was a skein of bold lies and vulgar exaggerations of historical fact, transparently intended to bait Hitler into declaring war. "We know that Germany and Japan are conducting their military and naval operations with a joint plan." "Germany and Italy consider themselves at war with the United States without even bothering about a formal declaration." Then came a wholly fabricated tale of intrigue: "Your government knows Germany has been telling Japan that if Japan would attack the United States, Japan would share the spoils when peace came. She was promised by Germany if she came in she would receive the control of the whole of the Pacific area and that means not only the Far Easr but all of the islands of the Pacific and also a stranglehold on the west coast of North and Central and South America."

The facts were quite the opposite. Germany and Japan never had a common naval plan; the Germans being as shocked as nearly every American by the attack. Japan had never been interested in attacking the west coasts of North and Central and South America; her goal was a new order in the Far East as defined by the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was an early morning visitor to Hitler's Berlin headquarters that same day. He brought the news that General Hiroshi Oshima, Japanese ambassador to the Third Reich, was demanding an immediate declaration of war against the U.S. Ribbentrop told Hitler that he didn't believe that Germany was bound to do so, since the Triparte Pact obligated such action only in the event of a direct attack on Japan. Hitler's response was that he couldn't accept this loophole: "If we don't stand on the side of Japan, the pact is politically dead, " Hitler responded. "But that isn't the main reason. The chief reason is that the U.S. already is shooting at our ships. They have been a forceful factor in this war and through their actions have already created a situation of war."

There were other arguments for Hitler's precipitate action: his move would be a useful propaganda tool for Goebbels, since a new, powerful ally would be a morale builder after the recent defeats of the Wehrmacht by the former Soviet Union; and Japanese help would offset any disadvantages brought about by America's entry into the war. Furthermore, he could turn loose Admiral Doenitz's U-Boat fleet off the east coast of the U.S.

Ribbentrop, however, considered Hitler's fateful decision a gigantic mistake. He knew that it had solved one of FDR's main domestic problems. The president wouldn't have to issue a declaration of war on Germany, and generate a flood of opposition from the many Americans who had been opposed to U.S. entry into the war. Perhaps even more important, America's unity-gained by the attack on Pearl Harbor-would be solidified. Most historians would later agree with Ribbentrop, that next to Hitler's invasion of the former Soviet union, his unilateral declaration of war against the U.S. had been his greatest blunder.

On December 11, 1941, Hitler addressed an expectant Reichstag, declaring that FDR was as "mad" as Woodrow Wilson. "First he incites war, then falsifies the causes, then odiously wraps himself in a cloak of Christian hypocrisy and slowly but surely leads mankind to war, not without calling God to witness the honesty of his attack....I have therefore arranged for passports to be handed to the American charge d affaires today...." Wild cheering interrupted his speech. Hitler waited for quiet before he concluded-Germany was "at war with the United States, as from today." FDR finally had his war with Germany!

The information conveyed in this book finally demolishes the notion that one of Hitler's worst and most mind-boggling of mistakes was to declare war on the U.S. on 11 December 1941, thereby bringing about total war against the U.S. Think how history would've been different, we are told, if Hitler hadn't so foolishly declared war on us. This book clealry demonstrates through marshalling of the very real evidence of political speeches, newspaper editorials, and public polling data that virtually all Americans were convinced that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was directly instigated by Hitler, and therefore a U.S. total war on Nazi Germany was inevitable the instant the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.



Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida

The information conveyed in this book pretty much demolishes the notion that one of Hitler's worst and most mind-boggling of mistakes was to declare war on the US on 12-11-41 thereby bringing about total war against the US. Think how history would've been different, we are told, if Hitler had not so stupidly declared war on us.

This book demonstrates through marshalling of the very real evidence of political speeches, newspaper editorials, and public polling data that virtually all Americans were convinced that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was directly instigated by Adolf Hitler, and therefore a US total war on Nazi Germany was inevitable the instant the Japanese attacked Hawaii.

As another reviewer has said, the parallel between the falsity of this cassus belli with the notion that Saddam Hussein was somehow linked to the 9-11 bombings is uncomfortably close. An interesting question to ponder is this: what if all America KNEW on Dec. 7th that Hitler and the Nazis were inactuality scrambling for the nearest Atlas to find out where Pearl Harbor was when they first heard the news of the attack; that the Germans were as surprised if not moreso than we were by the attack. Would a big expeditionary force still have been sent to Europe?

The only negative in this book is that the author can be repetitious of certain facts and arguments. It has the feel of a paper or article that has been crudely stretched out to justify a book-size publication, though it is a pretty small book for all that. A good editor might have come in handy.

Otherwise, highly recommended.