NEWS FROM THE FRONT

by

Harry Turtledove

In a variant of “If this goes on...” Harry Turtledove’s latest story takes a chilling look at what could have happened “If this went on.... “He warns us that, as with his tale “Bedfellows” (F&SF, June 2005), which looked at politics from a rather different slant, he agrees with Larry Niven’s contention that it is foolish to infer anything about a writer’s politics from his or her work. Harry’s latest book, a fantasy, Every Inch a King, is just out from Del Rey, and an alternate history, In at the Death, is forthcoming from that same publisher.

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December 7, 1941—Austin Daily Tribune

U.S. AT WAR

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December 8, 1941—Washington Post

PRESIDENT ASKS FOR WAR DECLARATION!

Claims Date of Attack Will “Live in Infamy”

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December 8, 1941—Chicago Tribune

CONGRESS DECLARES WAR ON JAPAN!

Declaration Is Not Unanimous

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December 9, 1941—New York Times editorial

ROOSEVELT’S WAR

Plainly, President Franklin D. Roosevelt has brought this war on himself and on the United States. On July 25 of this year, he froze Japanese assets in the United States. On the following day, he ordered the military forces of the Philippine Islands incorporated into our own—a clear act of aggression. And on August 1, he embargoed export of high-octane gasoline and crude oil to Japan, a nation with limited energy resources of its own. Is it any wonder that a proud people might be expected to respond with force to these outrageous provocations? Are we not in large measure to blame for what has happened to us?

Further proof of Mr. Roosevelt’s intentions, if such be needed, is offered by the August 12 extension of the Selective Service Act allowing peacetime conscription. Pulling out all political stops and shamelessly exploiting his party’s Congressional majorities, the President rammed the measure through by a single vote in the House, a vote some Representatives certainly now regret....

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December 11, 1941—Boston Traveler

AXIS, U.S DECLARE WAR

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December 12, 1941—Los Angeles Times editorial

TWO-FRONT WAR

Having suffered a stinging setback in the Pacific, we now suddenly find ourselves called upon to fight two European enemies as well. FDR’s inept foreign-policy team has much to answer for. Mothers whose sons are drafted may well wonder whether the fight is worthwhile and whether the government that orders them into battle has any idea what it is doing....

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December 22, 1941—The New Yorker

FIASCO IN THE PACIFIC

War Department officials privately concede that U.S. preparations to defend Hawaii and the Philippines weren’t up to snuff. “It’s almost criminal, how badly we fouled up,” said one prominent officer, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The administration really didn’t know what the devil it was doing out there.”

He and other sources sketch a picture of incompetence on both the strategic and tactical levels. Ships from the Pacific Fleet were brought into port at Pearl Harbor every Saturday and Sunday, offering the Japanese a perfect chance to schedule their attacks. U.S. patterns became predictable as early as this past February, said a source in the Navy Department who is in a position to know.

Further, U.S. search patterns the morning of the attack were utterly inadequate. Airplanes searched a diamond extending as far as two hundred miles west of Pearl Harbor and a long, narrow rectangle reaching as far as one hundred miles south of the ravaged base, and that was all. There was no search coverage north of the island of Oahu, the direction from which the Japanese launched their devastating attack.

It has also been learned that a highly secret electronic warning system actually detected the incoming Japanese planes half an hour before they struck Pearl Harbor. When an operator at this base in the northern part of Oahu spotted these aircraft, he suggested calling in a warning to Pearl Harbor. His superior told him he was crazy.

The junior enlisted man persisted. He finally persuaded his superior to call the Information Center near Fort Shafter. The man reported that “we had an unusually large flight—in fact, the largest I had ever seen on the equipment—coming in from almost due north at 130-some miles.”

“Well, don’t worry about it,” said the officer in charge there, believing the planes to be B-17s from the U.S. mainland.

A private asked the officer, “What do you think it is?”

“It’s nothing,” the officer replied. About twenty minutes later, bombs began falling.

In the White House, a tense meeting of Cabinet and Congressional leaders ensued. “The principal defense of the whole country and the whole West Coast of the Americas has been very seriously damaged today,” Roosevelt admitted.

Senator Tom Connally angrily questioned Navy Secretary Knox: “Didn’t you say last month that we could lick the Japs in two weeks? Didn’t you say that our navy was so well prepared and located that the Japanese couldn’t hope to hurt us at all?”

According to those present, Knox had trouble coming up with any answer.

Connally pressed him further: “Why did you have all the ships at Pearl Harbor crowded in the way you did? You weren’t thinking of an air attack?”

“No,” was all Knox said. Roosevelt offered no further comment, either.

“Well, they were supposed to be on the alert,” Connally thundered. “I am amazed by the attack by Japan, but I am still more astounded at what happened to our navy. They were all asleep. Where were our patrols?”

Again, the Secretary of the Navy did not reply.

In the Philippines, the picture of U.S. ineptitude is no better. It may be worse. Another of these secret, specialized electronic range-finding stations was in place in the northern regions of the island of Luzon. It detected Japanese planes approaching from Formosa, but failed to communicate with airfields there to warn them. Some sources blame radio interference. Others point to downed land lines. Whatever the reason, the warning never went through.

And U.S. bombers and fighters were caught on the ground, though General MacArthur knew Hawaii had been attacked. They suffered catastrophic losses from Japanese bombing and strafing attacks. With a third of our fighters and more than half of our heavy bombers—again, the B-17, the apparently misnamed Fighting Fortress—lost, any hope for air defense of the Philippines has also been destroyed. Reinforcement also appears improbable. Our forces there, then, are plainly doomed to defeat....

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December 23, 1941—Washington Post

FDR DECRIES LEAKS

Claims They Harm National Security

President Roosevelt used a so-called fireside chat last night to condemn the publication in The New Yorker and elsewhere of information about U.S. military failings. “We are in a war now,” he said, “so the rules change. We have to be careful about balancing the people’s need to know against the damage these stories can cause our Army and Navy.”

He particularly cited the electronic rangefinder mentioned in the New Yorker article. Roosevelt claims the Japanese were ignorant of this device and its potential. (The Post has learned that the apparatus is commonly called radar—an acronym for RAdio Detecting And Ranging.)

A Republican spokesman was quick to challenge the President. “I yield to no one in my support of our troops,” he said. “But this administration’s record of incompetence in military preparation and in the conduct of the war to date must be exposed. The American people are entitled to the facts—all the facts—from which, and from which alone, they can make a proper judgment.”

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December 29, 1941—The New Yorker

DID WAKE HAVE TO FALL?

More fumbling by officials in Honolulu and Washington led to the surrender of Wake Island to the Japanese last Tuesday. Wake, west of the Hawaiian chain, was an important position. Even disgraced Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, who so recently mismanaged the defense of Hawaii, could see this. In a letter dated this past April, which a Navy Department source has made available to The New Yorker, Kimmel wrote:

“To deny Wake to the enemy, without occupying it, would be difficult; to recapture it, if the Japanese should seize it in the early period of hostilities, would require operations of some magnitude. Since the Japanese Fourth Fleet includes transports and troops with equipment especially suited for land operations, it appears not unlikely that one of the initial operations of the Japanese may be directed against Wake.”

He was right about that—he could be right about some things. He also recommended that Wake be fortified. But work there did not begin until August 19, more than three months after his letter. Guns were not emplaced until mid-October. Obsolescent aircraft were flown in to try to help defend the island.

After the first Japanese attack on Wake failed, Kimmel proposed a three-pronged countermove, based on our fast carrier forces. Why he thought they might succeed in the face of already established Japanese superiority may be questioned, but he did. The plan did not succeed.

Bad weather kept one carrier from refueling at sea. Bad intelligence data led to a raid on the Japanese base at Jaluit, which proved not to need raiding. Then sizable Japanese air and submarine forces were anticipated in the area. They turned out not to be there, but it was too late.

The relief force, centered on the Saratoga, was within six hundred miles of Wake Island when the Japanese launched their second attack. They were able to move quickly and think on their feet; we seemed capable of nothing of the kind. They destroyed our last two fighters with continuing heavy air raids, and landed two thousand men to oppose five hundred U.S. Marines.

At this point, Admiral Pye, who replaced Admiral Kimmel before Admiral Nimitz arrived—another illustration of our scrambled command structure—issued and then countermanded several orders. The result was that the relieving force was recalled, and Wake was lost. The recall order provoked a near-mutiny aboard some U.S. ships, but in the end was obeyed.

In another document obtained from Navy Department sources, Admiral Pye wrote, “When the enemy had once landed on the island, the general strategic situation took precedence, and conservation of our naval forces became the first consideration. I ordered the retirement with extreme regret.”

How many more retirements will we have to regret—extremely—in days to come?

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January 1, 1942—New York Times editorial

FREEDOM AND LICENSE

President Roosevelt believes news coverage of the war hampers U.S. foreign policy. Neither Mr. Roosevelt nor any lesser figure in his administration has denied the truth of stories recently appearing in this newspaper and elsewhere. On the contrary. The administration’s attitude seems to be, Even though this is true, the people must not hear of it.

Some in the administration have questioned the press’ patriotism. They have pointed to their own by contrast. Quoting Samuel Johnson—”Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”—in this context is almost too easy, but we shall not deny ourselves the small pleasure. By wrapping themselves in the American flag, administration officials appear to believe that they become immune to criticism of their failures, which are many and serious.

We are not for or against anybody. We are for the truth, and for publishing the truth. Once the people have the whole truth in front of them, they can decide for themselves. If our government claims it has the right to suppress any part of the truth, how does it differ from the regimes it opposes?

One truth in need of remembering at the moment is that, just over a year ago, Mr. Roosevelt was running for an unprecedented third term. On October 30, 1940, a week before the election, he categorically stated, “I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.”

Did Mr. Roosevelt believe even then that he was telling the truth? Given the disasters and the constant missteps that have bedeviled us since we found ourselves in this unfortunate conflict, would it not be better if he had been?

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January 3, 1942—Los Angeles Times

FDR’S POLL NUMBERS PLUMMET

Since the outbreak of war last month, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s personal popularity with American voters has dramatically faded. So has public confidence in his ability to lead the United States to victory. Newest figures from the George Gallup organization make the slide unmistakably clear.

Last December 15, 63 percent of Americans polled had a favorable impression of FDR, while 59 percent thought he was an effective war leader. In a survey conducted on December 29, only 49 percent of respondents had a favorable impression of the President. Faith in his leadership fell even more steeply. Only 38 percent of those responding believed him “effective” or “very effective” as commander-in-chief.

These figures are based on a survey of 1,127 Americans of voting age who described themselves as “likely” or “very likely” to cast ballots in the next election. The margin for error is ±3 percent.

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January 5, 1942—Chicago Tribune

CAN’T FIGHT WAR WITH POLLS, WHITE HOUSE ALLEGES

A White House spokesman called the latest Gallup Poll figures “irrelevant” and “unimportant.” In a heated exchange with reporters, the press secretary said, “It’s ridiculous to think you can run a war by Gallup Poll.”

This is only the latest in a series of evasions from an administration longer on excuses than results. If Roosevelt and his clique keep ignoring public opinion, they will be punished in a poll that matters even to them: the upcoming November elections.

Reporters also asked why Roosevelt is so sensitive about being photographed in a wheelchair. “Everybody knows he uses one,” a scribe said.

“Is he afraid of being perceived as weak?” another added.

The press secretary, a former advertising copywriter, termed these queries “shameless” and “impertinent.” He offered no explanation for his remarks. Since the war began, the administration has had few explanations to offer, and fewer that can be believed....

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January 8, 1942—Philadelphia Inquirer

DEMONSTRATORS CLASH—COPS WADE IN

Accusations of Police Brutality

Pro- and anti-war demonstrators threw rocks and bottles at one another in an incident in front of city hall yesterday. Shouting “Nazis!” and “Fascists!” and “Jap-lovers!”, the pro-war demonstrators attacked people peacefully protesting Roosevelt’s ill-advised foreign adventures.

Police were supposed to keep the two groups separate. The anti-war demonstrators, who carried placards reading SEND JAPAN OIL, NOT BLOOD and U.S. TROOPS OUT OF AUSTRALIA and FDR LIED, did not respond to the provocation for some time. When they began to defend themselves, the cops weighed in—on their opponents’ side.

“They were swinging their nightsticks, beating on people—it was terrible,” said Mildred Andersen, twenty-seven. She had come down from Scranton to take part in the protest. “Is this what America’s supposed to be about?”

“The cops rioted—nothing else but,” agreed Dennis Pulaski, twenty-two, of Philadelphia. He had a gash above his left eyebrow inflicted by a police billy club. “They’re supposed to keep the peace, aren’t they? They only made things worse.”

Police officials declined comment.

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January 15, 1942—Variety

ANTI-WAR PICS PLANNED

MGM, Fox Race to Hit Theaters First

Major Hollywood talent is getting behind the building anti-war buzz. Two big stars and a gorgeous gal will crank out The Road to Nowhere—shooting begins tomorrow. Expect it in theaters this spring.

A new radio program, Boy, Do You Bet Your Life, airs Wednesday at 8 on the Mutual Network. Its shlemiel of a hero soon discovers Army life ain’t what it’s cracked up to be. Yeah, so you didn’t know that already.

And a New Jersey heartthrob crooner is putting out a platter called “Ain’t Gonna Study War No More.” The B-side will be “Swing for Peace.” Think maybe he’s out to make a point? Us, too.

February 5, 1942—newsreel narration

What you are about to see has been banned by the Navy Department. The Navy has imposed military censorship about what’s going on at sea on the entire East Coast of the United States. That’s one more thing it doesn’t want you to know. Our cameraman had to smuggle this film out under the noses of Navy authorities to get it to you so you can see the facts.

On the thirty-first of last month, that cameraman and his crew were on the shore by Norfolk, Virginia, when a rescue ship brought thirty survivors from the six-thousand-ton tanker Rochester into port. You can see their dreadful condition. Our intrepid interviewer managed to speak to one of them before they were hustled away.

“What happened to you?”

“We got torpedoed. Broad daylight. [Bleep] sub attacked on the surface. We never had a chance. We started going down fast. Next thing I knew, I was in the drink. That’s how I got this [bleep] oil all over me.”

“Did you lose any shipmates?”

“Better believe it, buddy.”

“I’m sorry. I—”

At that point, we had to withdraw, because naval officers were coming up. They would have confiscated this film if they’d been able to get their hands on it. They have confiscated other film, and blocked newspaper reporting, too. The Rochester is the seventeenth ship known to be attacked in Atlantic waters since the war began. How many had you heard about? How many more will there be?

And how many U-boats has the Navy sunk? Any at all?

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February 9,1942—The New Yorker

DOWN THE TUBES

The Mark XIV torpedo is the U.S. Navy’s answer to Jane Russell: an expensive bust. Too often, it doesn’t go where our submariners aim it. When it does, it doesn’t sink what they aim it at. Why not? The answer breaks into three parts—poor design, poor testing, and poor production.

Some Mark XIVs dive down to the bottom of the sea shortly after launch. Some run wild. A few have even reversed course and attacked the subs that turned them loose. Despite this, on the record Navy Department officials continue to insist that there is no problem. Off the record—but only off the record—they are trying to figure out what all is wrong and how to fix it.

The magnetic exploder is an idea whose time may not have come. It was considered and rejected by the German U-boat service, which has more experience with submarine warfare than anyone else on earth. Still, in its infinite wisdom, FDR’s Navy Department chose to use this unproved system.

And, in its infinite wisdom, FDR’s Navy Department conducted no live-firing tests before the war broke out. None. Officials were sure the magnetic exploder would perform as advertised. If you’re sure, why bother to test?

Combat experience has shown why. Our Mark XIVs run silent and run deep. More often than not, they run too deep: under the keels of the ships at which they’re aimed and on their merry way. Or, sometimes, the magnetic exploder—which is a fragile and highly temperamental gadget—will blow up before the torpedo gets to its target. Manufacturing quality is not where it ought to be—not even close.

Despite this, Navy Department brass is making submariners scrimp with their “fish.” They are strongly urged to shoot only one or two torpedoes at each ship, not a large spread. The brass is sure one hit from a torpedo with a magnetic exploder will sink anything afloat. Getting the hit seems to be the sticking point.

Japan builds torpedoes that work even when dropped from airplanes. Why don’t we? The answer looks obvious. We want to save money. Japan wants to win the war. When fighting a foe who shows such fanatical determination, how can we hope to prevail?

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February 13, 1942—Washington Post

ADMINISTRATION RIPS NAYSAYERS

“We Can Gain Victory,” FDR Insists

President Roosevelt used the excuse of Lincoln’s Birthday to allege that the United States and its coalition partners might still win the war despite the swelling tide of opposition to his ill-planned adventure.

In a national radio address, Roosevelt said, “Those who point out our weaknesses and emphasize our disagreements only aid the enemy. We were taken by surprise on December 7. We need time to get rolling. But we can do the job.”

The President seemed ill at ease—almost desperate—as he went on, “These leaks that torment us have got to stop. They help no one but the foes of freedom. It is much harder to go forward if Germany and Japan know what we are going to do before we do it.”

In the Congressional response to his speech, a ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee said, “The President’s speech highlights the bankruptcy of his policies. After promising to keep us out of war, he got us into one we are not ready to fight. Our weapons don’t work, and we can’t begin to keep our shipping safe. We don’t have enough men to do half of what the President and the Secretary of War are trying to do. And even if we did, what they want to do doesn’t look like a good idea anyhow.”

Peaceful pickets outside the White House demanded that the President bring our troops back to the United States and keep them out of harm’s way. The presence of photographers and reporters helped ensure that White House police did not rough up the demonstrators.

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February 23, 1942—Washington Post

HOUSE REJECTS RATIONING BILL

In an embarrassing defeat for the administration, the House of Representatives voted 241-183 to reject a bill that would have rationed fuel, food, and materials deemed “essential to wartime industries.”

“Why should the American people have to suffer for Roosevelt’s mistakes?” demanded a Congressman who opposed the bill. “If we rationed these commodities, you could just wait and see. Gas would jump past thirty cents a gallon, and there wouldn’t be enough of it even at that price.”

A War Department official, speaking off the record, called the House’s action “deplorable.” The only public comment from the executive branch was that it was “studying the situation.” Had it done that in 1940 and 1941...

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March 17, 1942—San Francisco Chronicle

MacARTHUR BAILS OUT OF PHILIPPINES!

Leaves Besieged Garrison to Fate

General Douglas MacArthur fled the Philippines one jump ahead of the Japanese. PT boats and a B-17 brought him to Darwin, Australia. (Incidentally, Japanese bombers leveled Darwin last month and forced its abandonment.)

“I shall return,” pledged MacArthur. But the promise rings hollow for the men he left behind. Trapped on the Bataan Peninsula in a war they do not understand, they soldier on as best they can. Since Japanese forces surround them, the only question is how long they can hold out.

Roosevelt hopes MacArthur can lead counterattacks later in the war. Given the disasters thus far, this seems only another sample of his blind and foolish optimism....

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March 23, 1942—The New Yorker

CAN WE HUNT THE SEA WOLVES?

German U-boats are taking a disastrous toll on military goods bound for England. In the first three months of the war, subs sank ships carrying four hundred tanks, sixty eight-inch howitzers, 880 twenty-five-pounder guns, four hundred two-pounder guns, 240 armored cars, five hundred machine-gun carriers, 52,100 tons of ammo, six thousand rifles, 4,280 tons of tank supplies, twenty thousand tons of miscellaneous supplies, and ten thousand tons of gasoline. A secret War Department estimate calls this the equivalent of thirty thousand bombing runs.

And the administration cannot stop the bleeding. Blackout orders are routinely ignored. Ships silhouetted at night against illuminated East Coast cities make easy targets. Businessmen say dimming their lights at night would hurt their bottom line.

Although the Navy Department claims to have sunk several U-boats and damaged more, there is no hard evidence it has harmed even one German sailor.

Britain urges the United States to begin convoying, as she has done. U.S. Navy big shots continue to believe this is unnecessary. How they can maintain this in the face of losses so staggering is strange and troubling, but they do.

The issue is causing a rift between the United States and one of her two most important allies. Last Wednesday, Roosevelt wrote to Churchill, “My navy has definitely been slack in preparing for this submarine war off our coast.... By May 1 I expect to get a pretty good coastal patrol working.”

Churchill fears May 1 will be much too late.

“Those of us who are directly concerned with combatting the Atlantic submarine menace are not at all sure that the British are applying sufficient effort to bombing German submarine bases,” said U.S. Admiral Ernest J. King.

As the allies bicker, innocent sailors lose their lives for no good purpose.

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March 24, 1942—New York Times

NEW YORKER OFFICES RAIDED

Magazine’s Publication Suspended

A raid by FBI and military agents shuttered the offices of The New Yorker yesterday. The raid came on the heels of yet another article critical of the war and of the present administration’s conduct of it.

“We are going to close this treason down,” said FBI spokesman Thomas O’Banion. Mr. O’Banion added, “These individuals are spreading stories nobody’s got a right to know. We have to put a stop to it, and we will.”

He did not dispute the truth of the stories published in The New Yorker.

ACLU attorneys are seeking the release of jailed editors and writers. “These are important freedom-of-speech and freedom-of-the-press issues,” one of them said. “We’re confident we’ll prevail in court.”

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March 26, 1942—Philadelphia Inquirer

PEACE SHIPS SAIL

Reaching out to Germany and Japan

More than fifty American actors, musicians, and authors sailed from Philadelphia today aboard the Gustavus Vasa, a Swedish ship. Sweden is neutral in Roosevelt’s war. Their eventual destination is Germany, where they will confer with their counterparts and seek ways to lower tensions between the two countries.

Another similar party also sailed today from San Francisco aboard the Argentine ship Rio Negro. Like Sweden, Argentina has sensibly stayed out of this destructive fight. After stopping in Honolulu to pick up another anti-war delegation there, the Rio Negro will continue on to Yokohama, Japan.

“We have to build peace one person at a time,” explained Robert Noble of the Friends of Progress. His Los Angeles-based organization, along with the National Legion of Mothers and Women of America, sponsored the peace initiative. Noble added, “The Japanese did the proper thing under the exigencies of the time when they bombed Pearl Harbor. Now it is all over in the Pacific, and we might as well come home.”

Noble has been arrested twice recently, once on a charge of sedition and once on one of malicious libel. The government did not bring either case to trial, perhaps fearing the result.

Some of the travelers bound for Germany and Japan have volunteered as human shields against U.S. and British bombing. There is no response yet from the governments under attack to their brave commitment.

Bureaucrats in the Roosevelt administration have threatened not to allow the peaceful performers and intellectuals to return to the United States. Travel to their destinations is technically illegal, though a challenge to the ban is underway in the courts. This vindictiveness against critics is typical of administration henchmen.

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April 3, 1942—transcript of radio broadcast

THIS IS LONDON

People in the States ask me how the morale situation is over here. They ask whether the English have as many doubts about which way their leaders are taking them as we do back home.

The answer is, of course they do. If anything, they have more. They’ve been hit hard, and it shows. Nearly two years ago, Germany offered a fair and generous peace. A sensible government would have accepted in a flash.

But Churchill had seized power a few months earlier in what almost amounted to a right-wing coup. He refused a hand extended in friendship, and his country has taken a right to the chin. London and other industrial cities have been bombed flat. Tens of thousands are dead, more wounded and often crippled for life.

“Look at France,” a cab driver said to me the other day. “They went out early, and they have it easy now. We just keep getting pounded on. I’m tired of it, I am.”

Calls for British withdrawal from Malta and North Africa grow stronger by the day. Sooner or later—my guess is sooner—even Churchill will have to face the plain fact that he has led his country into a losing war....

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April 5, 1942—AP story

THE PHILIPPINE FRONT

Sergeant Leland Calvert is a regular guy. He was born in Hondo, Texas, and grew up in San Antonio. He is twenty-nine years old, with blond hair, blue eyes, and an aw-shucks grin. He is a skilled metalworker, and plays a mean trumpet. He’s a big fellow—six feet two, maybe six feet three. Right now, Leland Calvert weighs 127 pounds.

That is how it is for the Americans stuck on the Bataan Peninsula. That is also how it is for the Philippine troops and civilians crammed in with them. There are far more people than there are supplies, which is at the heart of the problem.

“I don’t know who planned this,” Calvert said in an engaging drawl. “I don’t reckon anybody did. Sure doesn’t seem much point to it. Hell, we’re licked. Anybody with eyes in his head can see that.”

Way back in January, rations for 5,600 men in the 91st Division were nineteen sacks of rice, twelve cases of salmon, three-and-a-half sacks of sugar, and four carabao quarters. A carabao is a small, scrawny ox. Well, everybody and everything on the peninsula is scrawny now. Feeding 5,600 people with those supplies makes the miracle of the loaves and fishes look easy as pie.

And that was January. Things are much worse now. Sergeant Calvert has eaten snake and frog—not frog’s legs, but frog. “Snake’s not half bad,” he said. “I drew the line at monkey, though. I saw a little hand cooking in a pot, and I didn’t think I could keep it down.” I asked him about the monkey’s paw story, but he has never heard of it.

Disease? That’s another story. Leland has dysentery. He has had dengue fever, but he is mostly over it now. He is starting to get beriberi, which comes from lack of vitamins. Beriberi takes the gas right out of your motor. I ought to know—I have it, too. Leland does not think he has got scurvy, but he knows men who do.

He has got malaria. Most people here have got it. Again, I am one of them. The doctors are out of quinine. They are also out of atabrine, which is a fancy new synthetic drug. And they are plumb out of mosquito nets. Something like a thousand people are going into the hospital with malaria every day now. Without the medicines, there is not much anyone can do for them.

“If I knew why we were here, I would feel better about things,” Leland said. “This all seems like such a waste, though. We’re fighting for a little stretch of jungle nobody in his right mind would want. What’s the point?”

Seems like a good question to me, too. It doesn’t look like anyone here has a good answer. I don’t know when I’ll see that Girl again. I don’t know if she’ll ever see me again. I wish I could say the effort here is worth the candle. But I’m afraid I’m with Leland Calvert. This all seems like such a waste.

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April 14, 1942—Honolulu Star-Bulletin

ADMINISTRATION PURSUES VENGEANCE POLICY

According to a Navy Department source, two aircraft carriers and several other warships sailed from Midway yesterday, bound for the Japanese home islands. Aboard one of the carriers, the Hornet, are U.S. Army B-25s. Pilots have secretly trained in Florida, learning to take off from a runway as short as a flight deck.

The theory is that the B-25s will be able to strike Japan from farther out to sea than normal carrier-based aircraft could. Most of Roosevelt’s theories about the war up till now have been wrong, though. Maybe the planes will go into the drink. Maybe the Japanese will be waiting for them. Maybe some other foul-up will torment us. But who will believe this force can succeed until it actually does?

Given the administration’s record to date, in fact, many people will have their doubts even then. As a wise man once said, “Trust everybody—but cut the cards.”

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April 21, 1942—Washington Post editorial

BLAMING THE TOOLS

Everyone knows what sort of workman blames his tools. Franklin Roosevelt claims that, if a Hawaiian newspaper had not publicized the plan of attack against the Japanese islands, it might have succeeded. He also claims we would not have lost a carrier and a cruiser and had another carrier damaged had secrecy not been compromised.

This is nonsense of the purest ray serene. The Navy tried a crackbrained scheme, it didn’t work, and now the men with lots of gold braid on their sleeves are using the press as a whipping boy. This effort, if we may dignify it with such a name, was doomed to fail from the beginning.

Reliable sources inform us that the Army pilots involved were not even told they would attempt to fly off a carrier deck till they boarded the Hornet. The Japanese have twice our carrier force in the Pacific. Why were we wasting so much of our strength on what was at best a propaganda stunt? Are we so desperate that we need to throw men’s lives away for the sake of looking good on the home front?

Evidently we are. If that is so, we should never have gotten involved in this war in the first place. Our best course now, plainly, is to get out of it as soon as we can, to minimize casualties and damage to our prestige. We have already paid too much for Roosevelt’s obsessive opposition to Japan and Germany.

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April 25, 1942—New York Times

READING THE OTHER GENTLEMAN’S MAIL

U.S., British Codebreakers Monitor Germany, Japan

“Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail.” So goes an ancient precept of diplomacy. But for some time now, the United States and Britain have been monitoring Germany and Japan’s most secret codes.

War Department and Navy Department sources confirm that the U.S. and the U.K., with help from Polish experts, have defeated the German Enigma machine and the Japanese Type B diplomatic cipher machine.

The most important codebreaking center is at Bletchley Park, a manor fifty miles north of London. Other cryptographers work in the British capital, in Ceylon, and in Australia. American efforts are based in Washington, D.C., and in Hawaii.

Purple is the name of the device that deciphers the Type B code. It is not prepossessing. It looks like two typewriters and a spaghetti bowl’s worth of fancy wiring. But the people who use it say it does the job.

Getting an Enigma machine to Britain was pure cloak-and-dagger. One was found by the Poles aboard a U-boat sunk in shallow water (not, obviously, anywhere near our own ravaged East Coast) and spirited out of Poland one jump ahead of the Germans at the beginning of the war.

Why better use has not been made of these broken codes is a pressing question. No administration official will speak on the record. No administration official will even admit on the record that we are engaged in codebreaking activity.

Only one thing makes administration claims tempting to believe. If the United States and Britain are reading Germany and Japan’s codes, they have little to show for it. Roosevelt dragged this country into war by a series of misconceptions, deceptions, and outright lies. Now we are in serious danger of losing it.

* * * *

April 26, 1942—Chicago Tribune

WHITE HOUSE WHINES AT REVELATIONS

In a news conference yesterday afternoon, Franklin D. Roosevelt lashed out at critics in the press and on the radio. “Every time sensitive intelligence is leaked, it hurts our ability to defeat the enemy,” Roosevelt claimed.

As he has before, he seeks to hide his own failings behind the veil of censorship. If the press cannot tell the American people the truth, who can? The administration? FDR sure wants you to think so. But the press and radio newscasters have exposed so many falsehoods and so much bungling that no one in his right mind is likely to trust this White House as far as he can throw it.

* * * *

May 1, 1942—Los Angeles Times

FDR’S POLL NUMBERS CONTINUE TO SINK

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s popularity is sinking faster than freighters off the East Coast. In the latest Gallup survey, his overall approval rating is at 29 percent, while only 32 percent approve of his handling of the war. The poll, conducted yesterday, was of 1,191 “likely” or “very likely” voters, and has an error margin of ±5 percent.

Polltakers also recorded several significant comments. “He doesn’t know what he’s doing,” said one fifty-eight-year-old man.

“Why doesn’t he bring the troops home? Who wants to die for England?” remarked a thirty-one-year-old woman.

“We can’t win this stupid war, so why fight it?” said another woman, who declined to give her age.

Roosevelt’s approval ratings are as low as those of President Hoover shortly before he was turned out of office in a landslide. Even Warren G. Harding retained more personal popularity than the embattled current President.

* * * *

May 3, 1942—Washington Post

VEEP BREAKS RANKS WITH WHITE HOUSE

Demands Timetable for War

In the first public rift in the Roosevelt administration, Vice President Henry Wallace called on FDR to establish a timetable for victory. “If we can’t win this war within eighteen months, we should pack it in,” Wallace said, speaking in Des Moines yesterday. “It is causing too many casualties and disrupting the civilian economy.”

Wallace, an agricultural expert, also said, “Even if by some chance we should win, we would probably have to try to feed the whole world afterward. No country can do that.”

Support for Wallace’s statement came quickly from both sides of the partisan aisle. Even Senators and Representatives who supported Roosevelt’s war initiative seemed glad of the chance to distance themselves from it. “If I’d known things would go this badly, I never would have voted for [the declaration of war],” said a prominent Senator.

White House reaction was surprisingly restrained. “We will not set a timetable,” said an administration spokesman. “That would be the same as admitting defeat.”

Another official, speaking anonymously, said FDR had known Wallace was “off the reservation” for some time. He added, “When the ship sinks, the rats jump off.” Then he tried to retract the remark, denying that the ship was sinking. But the evidence speaks for itself.

* * * *

May 9, 1942—Miami Herald

MORE SINKINGS IN BROAD DAYLIGHT

U-Boats Prowl Florida Coast at Will

The toll of ships torpedoed in Florida waters in recent days has only grown worse. On May 6, a U-boat sank the freighter Amazon near Jupiter Inlet. She sank in eighty feet of water.

That same day, also under the smiling sun, the tanker Halsey went to the bottom not far away. Then, yesterday, the freighter Ohioan was sunk. So was the tanker Esquire. That ship broke apart, spilling out ninety-two thousand barrels of oil close to shore. No environmental-impact statement has yet been released.

There is still no proof that the U.S. Navy has sunk even a single German submarine, despite increasingly strident claims to the contrary.

* * * *

May 11, 1942—Washington Post

MOTHER’S DAY MARCH

War Protesters Picket White House

Mothers of war victims killed in the Pacific and Atlantic marched in front of the White House to protest the continued fighting. “What does Roosevelt think he’s doing?” asked Louise Heffernan, forty-seven, of Altoona, Pennsylvania. Her son Richard was slain in a tanker sinking three weeks ago. “How many more have to die before we admit his policy isn’t working?”

A mother who refused to give her name—”Who knows what the FBI would do to me?”—said she lost two sons at Pearl Harbor. “It’s a heartache no one who hasn’t gone through it can ever understand,” she said. “I don’t think anyone else should have to suffer the way I have.”

Placards read END THE WAR NOW!, NO BLOOD FOR BRITAIN!, and ANOTHER MOTHER FOR PEACE. Passersby whistled and cheered for the demonstrators.

* * * *

March 12, 1942—Los Angeles Times

JAPAN BATTERS U.S. CARRIERS IN CORAL SEA

The Navy Department has clamped a tight lid of secrecy over the battle in the Coral Sea (see map) last week. Correspondents in Hawaii and Australia have had to work hard to piece together an accurate picture of what happened. The Navy’s reluctance to talk shows that it considers the engagement yet another defeat.

One U.S. fleet carrier, the Lexington, was sunk. Another, the Yorktown, was severely damaged, and is limping toward Hawaii for repair. American casualties in the battle were heavy: 543 dead and a number of wounded the Navy still refuses to admit.

In addition to the carriers, the U.S. lost a destroyer, a fleet oiler, and 66 planes. Japanese aircraft hit American ships with 58 percent of the bombs and torpedoes they dropped. Prewar predictions of bombing accuracy were as low as 3 percent.

Navy sources claim to have sunk a Japanese light carrier, and to have damaged a fleet carrier—possibly two. They assert that seventy-seven Japanese airplanes were downed, and say Japanese casualties “had to have been” heavier than ours. Given how much the Navy exaggerates what it has done in the Atlantic, these Pacific figures also need to be taken with an ocean of salt.

* * * *

May 15, 1942—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

WALLACE SAYS FDR LIED

President Expected War, VP Insists

Vice President Henry Wallace broke ranks with Roosevelt again in a speech in Little Rock, Arkansas. “Roosevelt looked for us to get sucked into this war,” Wallace said. “He was getting ready for it at the same time as he was telling America we could stay out.

“I see that now,” the Vice President added. “If I’d seen it then, I never would have agreed to be his running mate. The USA deserves better. How many women—and men—are grieving today because the President of the United States flat-out lied? And how much more grief do we have to look forward to?”

Stormy applause greeted Wallace’s remarks. Arkansas is a longtime Democratic stronghold, but FDR’s popularity is plummeting there, as it has across the country. After Wallace finished speaking, shouts of “Impeach Roosevelt!” rang out from the crowd. They were also cheered.

Asked whether he thought Roosevelt should be impeached, Wallace said, “I can’t comment. If I say no, people will think I agree with his policies, and I don’t. But if I say yes, they will think I am angling for the White House myself. The people you need to talk to are the Speaker of the House and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.”

A reported also asked Wallace if he would seek peace if he did become President. “A negotiated settlement has to be better than the series of catastrophes we’ve suffered,” he replied. “Why should our boys die to uphold the British Empire and Communist Russia?”

* * * *

May 16, 1942—Washington Post

IMPEACHMENT “RIDICULOUS,” FDR SAYS

Beleaguered Franklin Roosevelt called talk of impeachment “ridiculous” in a written statement released this morning. “I am doing the best job of running this country I can,” the statement said. “That is what the American people elected me to do, and I aim to do it. We can win this war—and we will, unless the ingrates who stand up and cheer whenever anything goes wrong have their way.”

Roosevelt’s statement also lambasted his breakaway Vice President, Henry Wallace. “He is doing more for the other side than a division of panzer troops,” it said.

Wallace replied, “I am trying to tell America the truth. Isn’t it about time somebody did? We deserve it.”

House Speaker Sam Rayburn declined comment. A source close to the Speaker said he is “waiting to see what happens next.”

* * * *

May 26, 1942—Honolulu Star-Bulletin

YORKTOWN TORPEDOED, SUNK

Loss of Life Feared Heavy

A day before she was to put in at Pearl Harbor for emergency repairs, the carrier Yorktown was sunk by a Japanese sub southwest of Oahu. The ship sank quickly in shark-infested waters. Only about 120 survivors have been rescued.

The Yorktown’s complement is about nineteen hundred men. She also carried air crew from the Lexington, which went down almost three weeks ago in the Coral Sea. Nearly as many men died with her as did at Pearl Harbor, in other words.

The plan was to quickly fix up the Yorktown and send her to defend Midway Island along with the Hornet and the Saratoga. Midway is believed to be the target of an advancing fleet considerably stronger than the forces available to hold the island. Now the two surviving carriers—one damaged itself—and their support vessels will have to go it alone.

If the Japanese occupy Midway, Honolulu and Pearl Harbor will come within reach of their deadly long-range bombers.

* * * *

May 28, 1942—Honolulu Advertiser editorial

STAR-BULLETIN SHUT DOWN

Censors’ Reign of Error

Because bullying Navy and War Department censors unconstitutionally closed down our rival newspaper yesterday, it is up to us to carry on in the Star-Bulletin’s footsteps. We aim to tell the truth to the people of Honolulu and to the people of America. If the maniacs with the blue pencils try to silence us, we will go underground to carry on the fight for justice and the First Amendment.

From where we sit, the fat cats in the Roosevelt administration who think they ought to have a monopoly on the facts are worse enemies of freedom than Tojo and Hitler put together. In dragging us into this pointless war in the first place, they pulled the wool over the country’s eyes. They thought they had the right to do that, because they were doing it for our own good. They knew better than we do, you see.

Only they didn’t. One disastrous failure after another has proved that. Up till now, the USA has never lost a war. Unless we can wheel FDR out of the White House soon, that record won’t last more than another few weeks.

* * * *

May 29, 1942—Cleveland Plain Dealer

DEMONSTRATORS CLASH DOWNTOWN

Pro- and Anti-war Factions, Police Battle in Streets

Thousands of protesters squared off yesterday in downtown Cleveland. Police were supposed to keep the passionately opposed sides separate. Instead, they joined the pro-FDR forces in pummeling the peaceful demonstrators who condemn the war and, in increasing numbers, call for Roosevelt’s impeachment and removal from office.

Anti-war demonstrators far outnumbered the President’s supporters. Those who still blindly back Roosevelt, however, came prepared for violence. They were armed with clubs, rocks, and bottles, and were ready to use them.

“War! War! FDR! Now the President’s gone too far!” chanted the peaceful anti-war forces. Another chant soon swelled and grew: “Impeach Roosevelt!”

FDR’s supporters then attacked the anti-war picketers. Vicious cops were also seen beating protesters with billy clubs and kicking them on the ground (see photo above this story). Some protesters withdrew from the demonstration. Others fought back, refusing to be intimidated by Roosevelt’s thuggish followers or by the out-of-control police.

“This can only help our cause,” said a man bleeding from a scalp laceration and carrying a NO MORE YEARS! sign. “When the country sees how brutal that man in the White House really is, it will know what to do. I’m sure of it.”

* * * *

May 31, 1942—Honolulu Advertiser

HORNET, SARATOGA SAIL FOR MIDWAY

America’s two surviving fleet carriers in the Pacific left Pearl Harbor yesterday. Sources say they are bound for strategic Midway Island, about one thousand miles to the northwest.

With the carriers sailed the usual accompaniment of cruisers and destroyers. The ships made a brave show. But how much can they hope to accomplish against the disciplined nationalism of Japan and the determined bravery of her soldiers and pilots and sailors?

This strike force seems to be Roosevelt’s last desperate effort to salvage something from the war he blundered into. The odds look grim. Japan may be low on scrap metal and oil thanks to FDR, but she is long on guts and stubbornness. If the Navy fails here, as it has failed so often, the outlook for Hawaii and for the west coast of the mainland looks bleak indeed.

* * * *

June 1, 1942—Official proclamation

HONOLULU ADVERTISER NO LONGER TO BE PUBLISHED

WHEREAS, it is provided by Section 67 of the Organic Act of the Territory of Hawaii, approved April 30, 1900, that the Governor of that territory may call upon the commander of the military forces of the United States in that territory to prevent invasion; and

WHEREAS, it is further provided by the said section that the Governor may, in case of invasion or imminent danger thereof, suspend the privilege of habeas corpus and place the territory under martial law; and

WHEREAS, the Honolulu Advertiser has egregiously violated the terms of censorship imposed on the territory following December 7, 1941;

NOW, THEREFORE, I order the said Honolulu Advertiser to suspend publication indefinitely and its staff to face military tribunals to judge and punish their disloyalty.

DONE at Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, this 1st day of June 1942.

(SEAL OF THE TERRITORY OF HAWAII)

—Lt. Col. Neal D. Franklin

Army Provost Marshal

* * * *

June 7, 1942—San Francisco Chronicle

DISASTER AT MIDWAY!

Carriers Sunk—Island Invaded

The Imperial Japanese Navy dealt the U.S. Pacific Fleet a devastating blow off Midway Island three days ago. Though Navy officials are maintaining a tight-lipped silence, reliable sources say both the Saratoga and the Hornet were sunk by Japanese dive bombers. Several support vessels were also sunk or damaged.

Japanese troops have landed on Midway. The Yamato, the mightiest battleship in the world, is bombarding the island with what are reported to be eighteen-inch guns. Japanese planes rule the skies. Resistance is said to be fading.

When the Japanese succeed in occupying Midway, Hawaii will be vulnerable to their bombers. So will convoys coming from the mainland to supply Hawaii—and so will convoys leaving Hawaii for Australia and New Zealand.

Japanese submarines sailing out of Midway will have an easier time reaching the West Coast. They could even threaten the Panama Canal.

This war has seemed to be an uphill fight from the beginning. For all practical purposes, it is unwinnable now. The only person in the country who fails to realize that, unfortunately, lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

* * * *

June 8, 1942—Baltimore News-Post

ROOSEVELT TEARS INTO PRESS

Blames Leaks for U.S. Defeats

Trying to shore up flagging public support for his war, FDR lashed out at American newspapers in a speech before cadets at the Naval Academy in Annapolis yesterday. “How can we fight with any hope of success when they trumpet our doings to the foe?” he complained.

The cadets applauded warmly. Whether Roosevelt could have found such a friendly reception from civilians is a different question.

“Reporters seem proud when they find a new secret and print it,” he said, shaking his fist from his wheelchair. “If printing that secret means our brave sailors and soldiers die, they don’t care. They have their scoop.”

According to FDR, the staggering loss at Midway can be laid at the feet of newsmen. Our own military incompetence and Japanese skill and courage apparently had nothing to do with it. However loudly the young, naïve cadets may cheer, the rest of the nation is drawing other conclusions.

* * * *

June 9, 1942—Washington Post editorial

Responsibility

Nothing is ever Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fault. if you don’t believe us, just ask him. German U-boats are sinking ships up and down the Atlantic coast? It’s all the newspapers’ fault. The Navy and the Army have suffered a string of humiliating defeats in the Pacific? The papers are to blame there, too.

Throwing rocks at the press may make FDR feel better, but that is all it does. What he really blames the newspapers for is pointing out his mistakes. Now the whole country can take a good look at them. Roosevelt does not care for that at all.

With him, image is everything; substance, nothing. Have you ever noticed how seldom he is allowed to be photographed in his wheelchair? If people aren’t reminded of it, they won’t think about it. That is how his mind works.

But when it comes to the acid test of war, image is not enough. You need real victories on the battlefield, and the United States has not been able to win any. Why not? No matter what Roosevelt and his stooges say, it is not because the press has blabbed our precious secrets.

The fact of the matter is, whether we read codes from Germany and Japan hardly matters. Even when we have good intelligence, we don’t know what to do with it. Example? The Japanese tried out their Zero fighter in China in 1940. General Claire Chennault, who led the volunteer Flying Tigers, warned Washington what it was like. It came as a complete surprise to the Navy anyhow.

Most of our intelligence, though, was incredibly bad. We were sure France could give Germany a good fight. We were just as sure our navy could whip Japan’s with ease. We fatally underestimated German technology and resourcefulness, to say nothing of Japanese drive and élan. Japan and Germany are fighting for their homelands. What are we fighting for? Anything at all?

FDR is too sunk in pride to get out of the war he stumbled into while the country still has any chestnuts worth pulling from the fire. He will not—he seems unable to—admit that the many mistakes we have made are his and his henchmen’s.

And since he will not, we must put someone in the White House who will. Impeachment may be an extreme step, but the United States is in extreme danger. With this war gone so calamitously wrong, we need peace as soon as we can get it, and at almost any price.

* * * *

June 11, 1942—Boston Globe

WALLACE PLEDGES PEACE, IF...

Vice President Henry Wallace said American foreign policy needs to change course. “I’m not the President. I can’t make policy,” he said last night at a Longshoremen’s Union banquet. “Right now, the President doesn’t even want to listen to me. But I can see it’s time for a change. Only peace will put our beloved country back on track.”

Wallace did not speak of the growing sentiment for impeachment. After all, he stands to take over the White House after Roosevelt is ousted. But he left no doubt that he would do everything in his power to pull American troops back to this country. He also condemned the huge deficits our massive military adventure is causing us to run.

With his common-sense approach, he seemed much more Presidential than the man still clinging to power in Washington.

* * * *

June 16, 1942—Washington Post

RAYBURN, SUMNERS CONFER

Articles of Impeachment Likely

House Speaker Sam Rayburn and Judiciary Committee Chairman Hatton Sumners met today to discuss procedures for impeaching President Roosevelt. Both Texas Democrats were tight-lipped as they emerged from their conference.

Sumners offered no comment of any kind. Rayburn said only, “I am sorry to be in this position. The good of the country may demand something I would otherwise much rather not do.”

Only one President has ever been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868. The Senate failed by one vote to convict him.

Sumners has experience with impeachment. He was the House manager in the proceedings against Judges George English and Halsted Ritter. English resigned; Ritter was convicted and removed from office.

Sumners has also clashed with FDR before. He was the chief opponent of Roosevelt’s 1937 scheme to pack the Supreme Court.

Roosevelt’s time in office must be seen as limited now. And that is a consummation devoutly to be wished. With a new leader, one we can respect, will surely come what Abraham Lincoln called “a new birth of freedom.” It cannot come soon enough.

Copyright © 2007 Harry Turtledove