Predicting Pearl Harbor: Billy Mitchell and the Path to War

by Ronald Drez

Overview

The signs were there, but only he saw them.

From Commodore Matthew Perry's 1853 voyage into Japanese waters to the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States and Japan were on a collision course. Gen. Billy Mitchell recognized the signs and foresaw the eventual showdown between the two nations--eighteen years before the tragedy of Pearl Harbor. Yet his predictions were dismissed out of hand. Mitchell's attempts to have his theories taken seriously led to scorn and a subsequent court martialing. Primary-source documents, memoirs, and firsthand testimonies deliver an exhaustive background to Mitchell's prescient reports. Now, historian Ronald J. Drez finally gives credence to the man called the "Cassandra General."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455623150
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	08/15/2017
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	1,079,792
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ronald J. Drez was a research associate and friend of the late Dr. Stephen E. Ambrose. He served as assistant director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans and has lectured, researched, and written on World War II for years. This is his tenth published book.

Table of Contents

Preface 9

Introduction 13

Chapter 1 Unlocking Pandora's Box 21

Chapter 2 The First Cassandra: Gen. Homer Lea 37

Chapter 3 Mitchell 49

Chapter 4 "Make the Navy Eat Bombs" 67

Chapter 5 Crying in the Wilderness 85

Chapter 6 Niihan: The Forbidden Island 97

Chapter 7 The Plying Trash Pile 113

Chapter 8 Falling on His Sword 129

Chapter 9 Racing to the Abyss 145

Chapter 10 The Dog Robbers 163

Chapter 11 Distant Thunder 181

Chapter 12 Infamy and Treachery 203

Epilogue 225

Notes 239

Index 261