16 August 2010
 
Willow Errata

Gentle Readers,
 
This has been a wild ride through my distinguished colleague Mac’s experiences in World War Two- not as one of the millions who served, for the tens of thousands who died- but as someone very close to the central mystery of “why” and “how” the great victory was won.
 
Nearly everyone alive in America contributed in one way or another. Very few had the opportunity to be so close to the decision-makers who changed the course of history so profoundly that it took our generation to piss away the rewards of their sacrifice.
 
I noted this morning that China has just passed Japan as the second largest economy on the planet, and anyone who thinks this will be another American Century is clearly on non-prescription drugs.
 
Anyway, in the process of telling the story I managed to connect some dots that don’t. The napkins are a messy record, after all, and I was drinking wine right through. I am resigned to the fact that the Daily is often a vehicle of mis-interpretation, and I normally just bury the dead facts and move on.
 
This is a different case. Mac’s story has been told in sixteen hours of video-tape that has been transferred to DVDs. There is an issue with what should be the definitive story of Mac’s three careers.  The video material is in the hands of the Navy Department, since it has to be reviewed for security reasons.
 
That is one of the reason that Vic publishes the Daily, since there once was a time when officials required review of what is pure First Amendment freedom. It is one of those problems that goes along with accepting the strictures of the Uniform Code of Military Justice- you must give up some rights in order to preserve others for the vast majority who give up nothing at all.
 
This account will, with some hard editing, appear as a tribute to Mac and to the Naval Intelligence Professionals (NIP) organization that he was so instrumental in founding twenty-five year ago this summer.
 
So, with that in mind, I want to give a big thanks to a colleague in Huntsville, who recalled, accurately, that the flying partner of Amelia Earhart was Fred Noonan, not Wylie Post. Fred was lost with the pioneering aviatrix, possibly in the Japanese Mandates in the Southwest Pacific.
 
A second one was pointed out by Mac himself, who rang me up yesterday to point out an important correction. He has approved the following revised account of our conversation I published the other night at Willow:
 
“Chester Nimitz thought about the impact of killing the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack, and the architect of the assault on Midway that brought disaster to the Combined Fleet and the loss of four fleet aircraft carriers, all their aircraft, and above all their precious cadre of pilots. Pluses and minuses. We do what we do.
 
I looked over at Mac, who in turn was surveying the last colossal olive that remained of his Virgin Mary.
 
“According to Eddie Layton’s book,” I said, “Admiral Nimitz coordinated with SecNav Knox, who asked the President. I like the idea of FDR inserting a Chesterfield into his ivory holder and lighting up before he nodded. With that, the mission to kill Fleet Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto began to roll.”
 
The Admiral scowled at me. “That is nonsense. Nimitz didn’t ask anyone’s permission. He made up his mind and gave the go-ahead without referral to Washington.  Remember, this was WWII when theater commanders had authority, before the days of McNamara and Goldwater-Nichols.  You are a victim of the ghost writers who finished Eddie’s book after he passed away in 1984.”
 
“So there was not Roosevelt or SecNav involvement at all?” I said in wonder. A world where the supreme military commander had that sort of autonomy was alien to the Joint Command structure that I served in.
 
Mac shook his head vigorously in emphasis. “Sometimes it is useful to be the last man standing to get things straight. Roger Pineau worked with John Costello to finish the manuscript. Subsequently, he was bothered by the assertion that the President was involved. That came from the Samuel Elliot Morrison version of history. Roger researched it and came up with the definitive version, and we published it in the Quarterly. That is the final word, but obviously it has not circulated as widely as the other accounts.”
 
“So Admiral Nimitz alone weighed the value of killing his opposite number against the risk of compromising the penetration of the JN-25 code system and then made the decision to go ahead?”
 
“Go ahead and kill the bastard.”
 
Mac paused. “Eddie knew the man personally, had played cards with him for modest stakes. In some ways, they were the mirror images of one another. Yamamoto the man, sent to America to soak in the language and the culture, Eddie, sent in the other direction to learn the all too scrutable East.”
 
My regrets for getting it wrong the first time, and my thanks to all of you that follow the series and keep me honest.


Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
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