Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Craig Shirley's new book, December, 1941, is a wonderful look back at that fateful month for America and the world.
Consider what happened that day. Thousands died, more than on 9/11, and it plunged America into a war that began when Hitler invaded Poland two years earlier. That war cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Young lives. Many single men who would never marry and have children. Others, married, who would never see their wives and children again.
The war might not have happened if the world had taken the threats from Germany and Japan seriously. There were isolationists and deniers in Britain and America. Winston Churchill told the truth and finally got Parliament to believe him. Were it not for Pearl Harbor, things might have turned out differently, as Hitler had plans to invade England after taking Russia.
Franklin Roosevelt said December 7 would live in infamy. It should also live in our hearts and minds.
I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.
Publication date: December 7, 2011
