Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!hocda!houxm!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!parsec!ctvax!uokvax!lmaher 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 Lines: 25 #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