Conspiracy to beat all conspiracy! Today, Oct. 9th marks the anniversary of what was to be called, The Manhattan Project. Now, let’s do some simple math. It was on Oct. 9. 1940 that Franklyn D. Roosevelt approved the United States Atomic Program, later called The Manhattan Project, which gave birth to the atomic bomb, which was detonated over 2 cities in Japan and helped end WWII. The only thing wrong with this equation is that The United States of America was not even involved in WWII until Dec. 7, 1941 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor! That means that Roosevelt approved the project that would end the war even before we were in the war!
Before Japan destroyed Pearl, America refused to get involved. This is where we become Conspiracy propagators. FDR, as he was known at the time had a cousin who at one time, got involved in his life. Even though this person had been dead for 14 years when FDR became President of the US. His influence on FDR remained vivid and strong. When he was younger and a new member to Washington politics, he and his cousin discussed the inadequacies of President Wilson and his refusal to enter WWI. Do you think FDR was thinking about his relationship with his cousin, Theordore and sensed a certain hypocrisy? When Hitler came on the world scene, FDR wrestled with a country that was in a depression and ready to fold in on itself. He recalled his visits with Theodore, and the advice he received from him to not be bullied, but to be the bully. He was inspired by his cousin Teddy all of his life, and he always wanted his approval. But how could he ask a nation of unemployed, down on their luck, and homeless people to back him in a war they could not win? He couldn’t. So, when he was shown a realistic way to win the war and stop Hitler, from advancing all over the globe, he took it! Conspiracy alert!
Unsubstantiated reports say the US knew about Japan’s plans against Pearl Harbor on October 7, 1940! Apparently, the plan was to provoke Japan into attacking the US first. Having them fire the first shot. 60 days before over 3,000 people were killed, the government knew it was going to happen. They knew we were going to be caught off guard and still they let it happen! All so Japan would draw the US into WWII. It wasn’t enough that Adolph Hitler had already murdered millions of people, it wasn’t enough that his army marched across Europe and annihilated whole cites and towns, and destroyed countries. Hitler took thousands of people from each country he attacked to be brought back to German soil to be gassed, and thrown into mass graves. All of that was not enough for FDR to be man enough to declare war on Germany! Now, that is only speculation of course. A conspiracy theory needs that sort of half, or un truths to add fuel to its fire. To keep it fuming, and smoldering until the big scoop comes out.
Here we have a problem. If Roosevelt knew something was going to happen, why didn’t he scuttle the fleet? So, he could have a reason to get into the war? Germany never attacked us, Germany’s allies never attacked us, it was the Japanese who we provoked to attack us that drew us into the conflict. We could no longer claim neutrality, we had to go in and be the hero. It was like a well stagged, ‘Here we come to save the day!’ Only, it went a little too far. Like when a controlled burn used to fight a forest fire gets out of hand and ends up destroying more acreage, more houses and costing more lives than the original fire would have done on its own.
Okay, back to reality folks. That’s what the conspiracy theory people want us to think. They take little threads out of history and piece together a giant quilt. It seems like if you connected the dots that way, it would make sense. Have any of you ever played a connect the dots game? If you connect the wrong dots the picture comes out distorted. Not at all like the designer intended. So, put that child’s game in place of the idea of being in the war because the US provoked Japan into bombing the entire American Navy fleet and killing innocent civilians, women and children. What sort of man would allow that just to get his name on the fight card? The problem with conspiracy theories is that not everyone and not every emotion is accounted for. Even in war, there are the human sides of things to consider. Some of what is theorized could be true. Some of what common sense tells us is true. But the problem with a theory is that it takes time, a lot of time for the theory to be proven. By that time, people forget and the theory gets shoved to the back of the line. This gives the lie a chance to live, thrive, and spread so deep that it then becomes truth.
People on all sides of the fence have been concocting and spreading conspiracies about everything from the faked moon landing to the real reason JFK was assassinated. All with no proof, all with conjecture and little evidence. Could any of this be true? Sure, it could. Just ask Bigfoot and the Aliens, they’ll tell you that it’s all a conspiracy theory. There are no such things as human beings!