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From: lmaher@uokvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Re:  Ronnie, Ronnie, he's our man. - (nf)
Message-ID: <5825@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 22-Feb-84 23:08:31 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.5825
Posted: Wed Feb 22 23:08:31 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 24-Feb-84 01:17:22 EST
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#R:shark:-26600:uokvax:2200035:000:993
uokvax!lmaher    Feb 20 00:44:00 1984

/***** uokvax:net.flame / ihuxq!amigo2 /  7:44 pm  Feb 14, 1984 */
September, 1939, over two years before Pearl Harbor (when, as you
recall, the Japanese attacked the US Pacific Fleet without a
declaration of war).
/* ---------- */

The Japanese intended to declare war *just before* the attack, but
delays in decrypting the declaration and delivering it made it late.
The American cryptologists knew about the declaration before the
Japanese embassy did (we had broken their diplomatic code), and
rushed to get the information to the military.  General Marshall
decided that using the quickest means of alerting Pearl Harbor
might be seen as provoking the Japanese, and sent the message through
standard channels, where it was delayed, and delivered to the
commander of Pearl Harbor a few hours after the attack.

More details are available in the Prologue to David Kahn's *The
Codebreakers*, an excellent book, now available in paperback.

	Carl
	..!uokvax!uok!crigney 
	..!duke!uok!crigney