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Predicting Pearl Harbor
Billy Mitchell and the Path to War
Ronald Drez
- 272 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Predicting Pearl Harbor
Billy Mitchell and the Path to War
Ronald Drez
About This Book
The story of "a military aviation pioneer and patriot who triedâand failedâto warn [about] an attack on Pearl Harbor almost two decades before it occurred" ( San Antonio Express-News ). Ever since Commodore Matthew Perry's 1853 voyage into Japanese waters, the United States and Japan had been on a collision course. Gen. Billy Mitchell recognized the signs and foresaw the eventual showdown between the two nationsâeighteen years before the tragedy of Pearl Harbor. When he traveled to Japan disguised as a tourist in 1924, what he found was a nation that had embraced a philosophy of isolationism. Japan had defeated China and Russia on the battlefield decades before, due in part to a veil of secrecy. China and Russia were nearly unable to carry out espionage missions against their enemy. Yet Mitchell's predictions were dismissed out of hand, and his attempts to have his theories taken seriously led to scorn and a subsequent court martialing. In this book, primary-source documents, memoirs, and firsthand testimonies deliver an exhaustive background to Mitchell's prescient reports. Historian Ronald J. Drez presents an engaging account of the life and career of the man who not only foresaw the event that brought the United States into the Second World War, but also shaped the future of military air powerâfinally giving credence to the man called the "Cassandra General."