Editing Attack on Pearl Harbor (section)

===Debate on the failure of American intelligence===
{{Main|Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge conspiracy theory}}
[[File:Arizona Memorial Wall.jpg|thumb|The [[USS Arizona Memorial|USS ''Arizona'' Memorial]]]]
There has been debate as to how and why the United States had been caught unaware, and how much and when American officials knew of Japanese plans and related topics. As early as 1924, Chief of United States Air Service [[Mason Patrick]] showed concern for military vulnerabilities in the Pacific, having sent General [[Billy Mitchell]] on a survey of the Pacific and the East. Patrick called Mitchell's subsequent report, which identified vulnerabilities in Hawaii, a "theoretical treatise on employment of airpower in the Pacific, which, in all probability undoubtedly will be of extreme value some 10 or 15 years hence".{{sfn|Wolk|2007}}

At least two naval war games, one in 1932 and another in 1936, proved that Pearl was vulnerable to such an attack. Admiral [[James O. Richardson|James Richardson]] was removed from command shortly after protesting President Roosevelt's decision to move the bulk of the Pacific fleet to Pearl Harbor.{{sfn|Wallin|1968|p=41-42}}<ref>{{cite web |mode=cs2 |date=December 15, 2020 |title=Commander at Pearl Harbor relieved of his duties |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/commander-at-pearl-harbor-canned |access-date=December 8, 2021 |website=History.com |archive-date=April 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425072542/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/commander-at-pearl-harbor-canned |url-status=live}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=November 2024|certain=y|reason=The History Channel is generally unreliable}} The decisions of military and political leadership to ignore these warnings have contributed to conspiracy theories. Several writers, including decorated World War{{spaces}}II veteran and journalist [[Robert Stinnett]], author of ''[[Day of Deceit]]'', and former United States Rear Admiral [[Robert Alfred Theobald]], author of ''The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor: The Washington Background of the Pearl Harbor Attack'', have argued that various parties high in the American and British governments knew of the attack in advance and may even have let it happen or encouraged it in order to force the United States into the war via the so-called "back door". However, this [[Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge conspiracy theory|conspiracy theory]] is rejected by mainstream historians.{{sfn|Prange|Goldstein|Dillon|1986}}{{page needed|date=December 2021}}{{sfn|Prados|1995|pp=[https://archive.org/details/combinedfleetdec00prad/page/161 161–177]}}{{sfn|Budiansky|2002}}{{page needed|date=December 2021}}<ref>{{cite news |mode=cs2 |last=Stevenson |first=Richard W. |date=August 3, 1994 |title=New Light Shed on Churchill and Pearl Harbor |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/03/world/new-light-shed-on-churchill-and-pearl-harbor.html |access-date=March 4, 2014 |archive-date=July 15, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715175819/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/03/world/new-light-shed-on-churchill-and-pearl-harbor.html |url-status=live}}</ref>{{refn|[[Gordon Prange]] specifically addresses some revisionist works, including [[Charles A. Beard]], ''President Roosevelt and the Coming War 1941''; [[William Henry Chamberlin]], ''America's Second Crusade''; [[John T. Flynn]], ''The Roosevelt Myth''; George Morgenstern, ''Pearl Harbor''; Frederic R. Sanborn, ''Design for War''; [[Robert Alfred Theobald]], ''The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor''; Harry E. Barnes, ed., ''Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace'' and ''The Court Historians versus Revisionism''; [[Husband E. Kimmel]], ''Admiral Kimmel's Story''.{{sfn|Prange|Goldstein|Dillon|1991|p=867}}|group=nb}}

The theory that the Americans were warned in advance, however, is supported by statements made by [[Dick Ellis]], a British-Australian intelligence officer for MI6 who helped [[William J. Donovan]] set up the [[Office of Strategic Services]]. Ellis was deputy to [[William Stephenson]] at [[British Security Co-ordination]]. In [[Jesse Fink]]'s 2023 biography of Ellis, ''The Eagle in the Mirror'', Ellis is quoted as saying: "[Stephenson] was convinced from the information that was reaching him that this attack was imminent, and through [[James Roosevelt|Jimmy Roosevelt]], President Roosevelt's son, he passed this information to the President. Now whether the President at that time had other information which corroborated this... it's impossible to say."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fink |first1=Jesse |title=The Eagle in the Mirror |date=2023 |publisher=Black & White Publishing |location=Edinburgh |isbn=9781785305108 |page=101}}</ref>