Bluesman Mike Lindner Wrote:As far as Unconditional Surrender went, Ken,let's get real here: nothing else was in the cards after Pearl Harbor and the Germans fucking up AGAIN. What terms would have offered?
What terms would
who have offered whom? What are you talking about here?
Quote:Would they have had any chance of being accepted by your military chiefs and a civilian population (especially England) just TIRED of this shit? Lemme know, cause I really am curious.
MY military chiefs?
If you are speaking of the American population being tired of "this shit," what the American population was actually tired of was the U.S. government getting them involved in foreign wars. Which is precisely why FDR had to work so hard to get the United States attacked! There was no other way to get the American people upset enough to go to war. First he tried to get Germany to declare war on the U.S.. When that didn't work, he turned his attention on Japan. Fortunately, FDR was able to sucker Japan into attacking our aged and decrepit battle ships at Pearl Harbor.
Ask yourself, why would FDR change the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet from San Diego to Pearl, if not to make it a simultaneous threat and attractive target?
Actually, Japan messed up. They should have forgotten about the ships, and have attacked instead, the 5 Million barrels of oil stores, the dry-docks, machine shops, and repair facilities at Pearl. Now
THAT would have been a set-back.
Churchill was horrified when FDR announced his demand for unconditional surrender, because it would prolong the war. (Casablanca, February, 1943.) Germany made a negotiated peace in 1918, and look what happened to them ... they were raped at Versaille. Put yourself in Germany's place and imagine what would happen to you if you surrendered WITHOUT conditions! On the German side of the war, the demand for unconditional surrender jerked the rug out from under the anti-Hitler groups in Germany. (Although some still did try to oust him. Hitler was wounded in an assassination attempt in June of '44. Field Marshall Rommel was in on that one.)
As far as Japan was concerned, on July 27, 1944, FDR steamed to Honolulu to meet with Admiral Nimitz, (who was headquartered there) and General MacArthur (who had flown up from Australia). MacArthur and Nimitz told FDR that Japan could be defeated through sea and air power alone, without an invasion of the Japanese homeland. By the end of October, 1944, the U.S. had destroyed the Japanese fleet, was retaking the Phillipines, was bombing Japan from Guam, Tinian, and Saipan, and Japan had started sending out surrender feelers. Those surrender feelers were placed on FDR's desk on January 22, 1945. They disappeared. It was suspected that Roosevelt destroyed them, as he was leaving the next day to buy Stalin's entry into the war. Fortunately, a copy was made of them. They were published in the Chicago Tribune shortly after the war ended. Needless to say they created quite a stir. General MacArthur was asked about their authenticity. He confirmed that they were authentic.
If you really are interested in this topic, I suggest you read:
1. INFAMY, by John Toland
2. DAY OF DECEIT: the truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor, by Robert B. Stinnet
3. I WAS THERE, by Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy (Chief of staff to FDR and Truman ... our highest ranking military officer of World War II.)
4. HOW THE FAR EAST WAS LOST: American Foreign Policy and the creation of Communist China, 1939 to 1945, by Anthony Kubek
Day Of Deceit is still in print, but the rest are available through abebooks.com.
Actually, you might want to get HOW THE FAR EAST WAS LOST first, as it covers a good deal of the material presented in the other books. And not all of it is about the war in the Pacific.
Ken V.