I was sorry to learn from Bob Patterson that you had been worried by rumors as to what the Army Pearl Harbor Board might find in its report; The Congressional Joint Resolution directing the creation of such a board was passed while I was in Europe, and the Board was appointed before I returned. I looked into the matter and found that the Members had been 8elected by the General Staff from a careful study of the persons available and with an eye to the selection of responsible men representing the three elements of the Ground Forces, the Air Forces, and the National Guard, Each member had a good record. After its selection it had been approved by Marshall. I found awaiting me a request to appear before it. I postponed my appearance until now in order that I should have time to make a careful study of the documents and thus make an appearance which would answer any possible false rumors that have arisen. This work has occupied a good deal of my time during the past week or ten days, but this morning I was before the Board for two hours and a half, and I think satisfied them on the subject matter of some of these speculations. One can never tell but I felt at the end of the hearing that they were satisfied with my account of the sequence of the events. I had the advantage which, so far as I know, none of the other witnesses have had of having kept a daily account of my meetings and work during that critical period so that my testimony was all based upon records and thus lifted above the danger of faulty memory. For myself, I can hardly imagine a picture of more close cooperation and anxious desire to warn our outposts of impending attack than was shown by this documented |