Preemptive Strike

the long version

This book reveals the untold story of a secret plan that would have prevented Pearl Harbor, and maybe even World War II. Could a plan to bomb Japan and destroy Japanese supply lines, communications, and staging areas in China have averted the horrendous and devastating attack on Pearl Harbor? On July 23, 1941 -- some five months before Pearl Harbor -- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt endorsed a plan calling for the United States to provide China with 150 manned bombers and 350 fighter planes to wreak havoc on Japan's growing presence in China. "Joint Board Plan 335" had been proposed to Roosevelt and his cabinet by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek; Dr. T.V. Soong, China's special envoy to the United States; and Captain Claire Lee Chennault, a retired Air Corps pilot now in the employ of Chiang. Such a preemptive strike on Japanese interests had been under discussion for several months. Although initially blocked by General George C. Marshall, the plan was resurrected in the spring of 1941. So why, then, was it never employed? - Jacket flap.