Using this for books... What are you reading?

[jhwalker]

I've been grinding thru Things That Matter Author: Charles Krauthammer. It is not an easy read, but his writing forces me to rethink some things. On some things, I simply can not get his logic. A tough read, but I am going to grind on... As usual with books, I read no reviews before downloading it to my Kindle, so did not know it was 90 papers written and published over the past 30 years.

[SonicVenum]

I recently read Og Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the World. It was a good read and very easy to get through. I'm not much of a reader, but I received it as a Christmas gift.

[xbacksideslider]

I've been on a Pearl Harbor kick, reading several revisionist histories, all of which blast FDR for recklessly and knowingly inviting the losses suffered. Most of what follows I wrote for someone else, but it serves here too.
Basically, FDR thought that the U.S. should get into WWII but the country was unwilling to do so, and therefore he engineered it. FDR's problem was that despite his numerous and escalating provocations, neither Germany or Japan would declare war on the U.S. Simply put, both knew that they could not fight two front wars with the US on one side and the USSR on the other.

http://www.amazon.com/Operation-Snow-So ... 1596983221

That book, Operation Snow; it’s thesis is that Soviet Spy Harry Dexter White helped manipulate FDR into provoking of Japan into its pre-emptive strike at Pearl Harbor. Stalin, of course, wanted Japan off his eastern front, he needed to pull troops from the east to reinforce Stalingrad and his western front. FDR, being a racist and an anglophile, and, being surrounded by communist fellow travelers and spies, did just that; he did all he could to provoke war with Japan, he succeeded, and saved Stalin’s bacon in doing so.


Then there is Stinnet’s Day of Deceit - http://www.amazon.com/Day-Deceit-Truth- ... +of+deceit – which details the fact of the breaking of the Japanese Naval Code (NOT just the diplomatic code that everyone knows about, but the ship to ship code that was used by the Japanese fleet as it approached Pearl Harbor) and how FDR absolutely knew . . . . . and how Short and Kimmel intentionally were locked out of the intelligence loop . . . . and how Democrats covered it up, and continue to do so, even to this very day.


Then there is James Bradley’s Imperial Cruise - http://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Cruise-S ... ial+Cruise – which details how Teddy Roosevelt actually encouraged Japanese imperialism, gave Japan carte blanche to Korea and Manchuria, and set in motion the racial tensions and anti-Americanism in Japan that enabled the war in the Pacific. Many pages are spent on the racism of TR, and his age, of manifest destiny, and how TR’s policies and conduct led directly to the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Conclusions -

FDR forced Japan into a defensive and pre-emptive first strike at Pearl Harbor. He deprived General Short and Admiral Kimmel of critical intelligence; he went out of his way to make certain that they had zero warning to ensure that they could not prevent or obstruct the “first overt act” from Japan.

FDR’s greatest fear was that intel might enable Kimmel or Short to defensively pre-empt and prevent the Japanese “surprise” attack on Pearl Harbor.

The losses suffered at Pearl were worse than FDR's racist prejudices of "Japanese inferiority” expected. Undeniably, the racism of Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and the rest of the haughty condescending Ivy League Progressives was in the mix. Racism played a role on the Japanese side too, especially in their backlash to Anglo-Progressives' racism from the long offended Japanese. The fact that Anglo-American-Progressive racism at that time was ubiquitous excuses it not. FDR underestimated the Japanese because he was racist. Further, the Ivy League Progressives pushed it, their bloody hands gave it respectability, they scientized it.

[jhwalker]

Worth reading, or did you just cover it all?