by Burton Folsom, Jr. and Anita Folsom 12/07/201197 http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47983
Here is the scenario: The U.S economy has hit the skids. Millions of Americans are unemployed. Federal stimulus programs have piled up debt but haven’t brought back jobs for most Americans. Critics charge that the stimulus funds have mostly gone to friends of the President. At the same time, the defense budget has been cut to the bone, and America’s troops have neither the weapons nor the personnel to carry out their assignments.
Sound familiar? Actually, we are describing the U.S. on Dec. 7, 1941—the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and dragged the U.S. into World War II. What can we learn from the Pearl Harbor disaster?
A lot. In FDR Goes to War, we tell how President Franklin Roosevelt spent his first seven years showering money on social welfare programs that bolstered his party’s majority. FDR showed the world how federal spending, when carefully targeted, could win elections from coast to coast. Roosevelt and his social engineers designed programs for farmers, for city dwellers, for needy youth, and especially for voters living in key battleground states.
At the same time that FDR was pouring out cash for welfare programs, he was starving the military of supplies needed to defend America. In 1935, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Douglas MacArthur said that his “hopeful” goal for the coming year was a 30-day supply of bullets for the U.S. Army. Even as America’s enemies gained strength in the late 1930s, FDR refused to arm the military for an adequate defense. By 1940, the U.S. still had fewer than 50 heavy bombers in its continental defense,few antiaircraft guns, only primitive tanks, and little ammunition for either bombers or guns.
Such weakness is noticed by other nations, then and now. High unemployment and a weak defense attract aggressors: Germany and Japan in the 1930s. Iran and North Korea today. And maybe Russia. The more decrepit our defense, the more aggressive the tyrants will be.
In 1940, neither the Germans nor the Japanese respected the American economy or our military. Our Army listed only nine divisions on paper, at a time when Germany had mobilized more than 90, and Japan controlled parts of China with 50 divisions. When FDR decided to enforce an oil embargo on Japan, Tokyo knew that both the United States and Great Britain had only minimal forces scattered throughout the Pacific. Japan decided to attack both powers in December 1941, in a misplaced belief that it could set up “A New Order” in the Pacific: “Asia for Asians” was their slogan, which really meant “Japan Will Rule All Others.”
Japan also taught its people that their home islands were invincible, protected by divine forces from harm. And because Japanese troops in Manchuria and China rolled over the weak Chinese forces that opposed them, the Japanese people continued to believe this myth. The U.S. in a Great Depression posed no challenge.
Thus the stage was set for the tragedy at Pearl Harbor. On the morning of Dec. 7, more than 350 Japanese planes bombed and strafed military installations in Hawaii for more than two hours. The attack crippled the U.S. fleet stationed there, destroyed 188 aircraft, and killed 2403 Americans. Within hours, the Japanese also bombed the Philippines in an offensive that would eventually reach the borders of Australia. Tens of thousands of American and British troops in Singapore, Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong and the Philippines went into a terrible captivity.
A strong U.S. presence in the Pacific in the 1930s would have made the Japanese hesitate before launching such sweeping attacks. Today, we would also do well to remember that strength discourages attack. Because of Congress’ failure to cut social spending, we may be faced with automatic cuts to our defense totaling more than $600 billion during the next 10 years, and that is in addition to currently scheduled cuts of $489 billion.
Seventy years ago, at Pearl Harbor, the U.S. learned that a weak economy and a weaker defense are no deterrent to war. Let’s not forget that lesson today.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
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Burton Folsom Jr., a professor of history at Hillsdale College, is author of New Deal or Raw Deal? and co-author (with his wife, Anita) of FDR Goes to War (Simon & Schuster, 2011). Anita Folsom is co-author with her husband, Burton Folsom, of FDR Goes to War (Simon & Schuster). Anita also directs the Free Market Forum for Hillsdale College.
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Morning Bell: Pearl Harbor, WWII, and a Lesson for Today
Posted By Mike Brownfield December 8, 2011
On this day 70 years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress and requested a declaration of war [1] against Japan following the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor the day before. Roosevelt’s words carried forth across the nation via radio, and the consequences of the actions America would take would be felt around the world–and across history. The lessons America learned in those fateful days should be remembered even today.
Roosevelt noted [2] that the day of Japan’s attack would be “a date which will live in infamy,” and he also pledged the following:
I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again. Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces — with the unbounding determination of our people — we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God.[3]
At 4:00 p.m. that afternoon, Roosevelt signed the declaration of war, and the rest is history. Through America’s incredible sacrifice and determination, the United States and its allies won victory, though it came at an incredible cost.
Just as Roosevelt proclaimed that “hostilities exist” 70 years ago, those words are true today. The United States faces threats at home and abroad–as we were reminded on September 11 and with every man and woman in military who makes the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our freedoms. The hostilities we face today are different from those we may face tomorrow, and there is no telling what challenges may lie around the corner. For that reason, our military must stand ready, prepared, and adequately equipped and funded to meet all threats, foreign and domestic.
Unfortunately, the U.S. military’s ability to effectively carry out its mission is in jeopardy. Today, there are those who would like America to return to an era of disengagement while also slashing military spending to dangerous levels. Under the Budget Control Act (BCA), the military budget will be cut by almost $1 trillion over the next 10 years. Those cuts come on top of successive rounds of deep cuts in defense dollars and capabilities that Congress and the Obama Administration have already implemented. In a new paper [4], Heritage’s Mackenzie Eaglen [5] writes that those cuts will undermine U.S. power and influence around the world and reduce the ability of the military to meet future threats:
The military is a vital tool of U.S. foreign policy. Slashing defense spending without any reduction in U.S. foreign policy commitments around the world is not only dangerous, but also more costly in the long run than maintaining stable defense budgets. A review of roles and missions will not change U.S. foreign policy; only the President can do that. Starving the military as part of a deficit reduction plan may cost taxpayers more in the future if it makes the country less safe and increases the risk of another terrorist attack or the likelihood of U.S. forces being drawn into yet another overseas mission. The only responsible way to fund defense is to identify the nation’s vital national interests, ask what is required to defend the nation and those interests, determine what military capabilities are required to do so, and then build a defense budget to match the foreign and defense policies of the United States.
Eaglen recommends [4] that Congress tackle debt reduction responsibly with American security interests in mind. That means stopping the current rounds of defense cuts, budgeting responsibly for America’s foreign policy needs and objectives, and repealing the debt ceiling deal “trigger.” Other actions she recommends include stabilizing the military’s modernization accounts, aggressively promoting foreign military sales and increasing cutting-edge defense exports to friends and allies, and forcing the Department of Defense to innovate even as budgets fall.
Some would have Americans believe that defense budget cuts required under the BCA would reduce only the rate of increase in the overall defense budget. While precise defense budget projections under the BCA are not possible, it is a certainty that the overall defense budget will decline under its terms [6]. And those are reductions the military can ill afford. Since President Obama took office, more than 50 major weapons programs at a value of more than $300 billion were cut or delayed. On top of this, the Administration told the military to cut almost $600 billion more over the next 15 years. That was even before the BCA took effect.
This is no way to fund a military or to fulfill the Constitution’s prescription [7] that the primary role of the federal government is “to provide for the common defence.” [7] That duty is just as important now as it was 70 years ago when America faced one of its greatest challenges. Just as they did then, Congress and the President should ensure that the federal government carries out its responsibilities today and fully funds our military.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
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Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org
URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2011/12/08/morning-bell-pearl-harbor-wwii-and-a-lesson-for-today/ URLs in this post:
[1] declaration of war: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/06/the-sword-and-the-purse-part-1-the-role-of-congress-in-war
[2] noted: http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col/ww2/pearlharbor/fdr-speech.htm
[3] Image: http://blog.heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/FDR-war-declaration-large.jpg
[4] In a new paper: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/12/debt-ceiling-deal-puts-at-risk-ever-more-military-plans-and-programs
[5] Mackenzie Eaglen: http://www.heritage.org/about/staff/e/mackenzie-eaglen
[6] overall defense budget will decline under its terms: http://www.heritage.org/research/factsheets/2011/12/defense-budget-is-being-cut-by-any-way-you-look-at-it
[7] Constitution’s prescription: http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles/primary-sources/the-constitution-of-the-us
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