He Didn't Know: Franklin Roosevelt, Pearl Harbor, and the Myth that Never Dies

He Didn't Know: Franklin Roosevelt, Pearl Harbor, and the Myth that Never Dies

Disregard for the laws of evidence undermines the structure of Occidental justice so laboriously erected over the centuries. If contemporary documents and sworn testimony can be disregarded in favor of unsupported charges and personal venom, no citizen is safe. —Dr. Donald Goldstein This book was inspired in part by the late author Vincent Bugliosi’s majestic work Reclaiming History . Published in 2007, it was the culmination of ten years of intense and comprehensive research into the countless conspiracy theories (at least all those up to that time) regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. The book is 1,461 pages long, and the last paragraph in it notes as follows: The purpose of this book has been twofold. One, to educate everyday Americans that Oswald killed Kennedy, and acted alone, paying for his own bullets. And, to expose, as never before, the conspiracy theorists, and the abject worthlessness of their allegations. In this shorter but hopefully equally convincing work, Patrick D. Weadon, like Bugliosi, seeks to put an end and to expose the “abject worthlessness” of another long-held conspiracy theory, namely that Franklin D. Roosevelt, the thirty-second president of the United States, had foreknowledge of the attack by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 Within the book's pages are listed the works of scholars who have, in many respects, dedicated their academic and professional lives to this question—Gordon Prange, Dr. David Kahn, Stephen Budiansky, Christopher Andrew, Dr. Frederick Parker, Robert Hanyok, and others. These individuals spent untold hours in libraries, archives, and other pertinent depositaries of documents and information related to the days and months leading up to the attack, and the pages of their work would easily surpass that of Bugliosi. All of them come to the same conclusion—namely, as the title of this book claims, “he (FDR) didn’t know.” In addition to debunking the myths related to FDR and Pearl Harbor, the book attempts to make the point that conspiracy inspired thinking is damaging and dangerous to a democratic republic in general.