Decision+Redman

Decision Redman Read the information below to find out what could have happened during the Battle of Midway.

With the dreams of becoming a naval aviator, Joe Rochefort enlisted in the navy in 1918. He was soon after put through a six month cryptanalyst course which helped shape himself in later battles (Budiansky 1). On the other hand, Joseph Redman graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1918. He was then put in charge of the OP-20-G, the section of naval communications responsible for cryptanalysis (Prados 1). Both of these young men had many years of experience with the navy and with cryptanalyst. Rochefort was certain that he had the Japanese code cracked. He went to the Naval Communications in Washington, D.C. where he would face the task of convincing COMMANDER JOHN R REDMAN. This was already going to be a challenge from the start because Commander Redman had his mind set on that if Japan were going to attack anywhere it would be HAWAII. Rochefort pitched his idea on how he had decoded to an extent that “AF” meant Midway, which might mean the Japanese were planning an invasion there or an attack of some sort (Bruce 1). __From the start, Commander Redman refused this theory, then later he found out that Commander Rochefort was “merely ex-Japanese language student” and had no real naval communications training (Smith 144). This infuriated Redman and he knew he couldn’t let this man lead the nation’s army so he complained to his superiors to get Commander Rochefort fired. Rochefort was soon replaced, seeming as “such a waste of a priceless talent for a political payback” to many those who gave in and replaced him, and put him in a lower rank where he could no longer have any contact with the codes to further decipher and follow-up on his theories (Smith 144). This allowed Commander Redman to have time to think up a plan to persuade the Naval Communications that Japan would have the most likely chance of attacking Hawaii and that they should send most of there ships there to be dispersed and ready to counter attack. In May of 1942, Commander Redman’s plans of attack were approved and put into action immediately. All major battle ships were sent to Hawaii even those still recovering like “Yorktown” from the battle of Coral Sea because they believed they would have enough time to get settle and repair the ships.__ Japan’s Admiral Yamamoto soon retrieved information from spies, that the majority of the U.S.’s Navy had moved from Midway (Japan’s initial attack location) to Hawaii. Japan, almost as quick as the U.S. had before, jumped at this information’s opportunity of the entire region of Midway would be very lightly guarded for an attack giving Japan their greatest odds in winning. Japan had just been bombed and their country’s hope had sunk very low. Admiral Yamamoto used this to convince the Naval General Staff that this attack would bring Japan a victory that would lift the Japanese peoples’ spirits (Bruce 1). Since Admiral Yamamoto had the Naval General Staff at his feet, they soon agreed to this attack and on June 3, 1942, Japan began their attack at Midway. First, a traditional submarine cordon was sent in to thin out the already barren fleet lead by Vice-Admiral Hosogaya Moshiro. Admiral Yamamoto then would lead a very successful second fleet around the sides of Midway to further secure the island. The attack ended soon as successful as the Japanese had hoped with the surrender of the few men still left on base at the island.

Aftermath:

The U.S. was humiliated by this mix up and never were able to get the full momentum back to attack Japan back. This battle had just started after the U.S. loss of the battle of the Philippines and the Bataan Death March, which people were still shaken up from. This battle, for many of the generals, was supposed to be the turning point where U.S. came back and showed that even Japan’s navy was no match for the U.S. So this loss set the tone for the rest of the war, leaving Japan to a new base to Island-hop from and allow the Axis Power with more Naval access. Soon after Midway was captured by Japan, who then planned an attack on Hawaii while the U.S. is still there, and since the U.S.’s base (Midway) was destroyed they had to survive on what they have left. The battle was shoe-in for Japan from the beginning, giving the Axis powers too much control in the Pacific front which they used for their advantage to take control of more countries.

__**GERMANY**__

Germany was soon told of this huge American defeat and took advantage of it. Hitler invaded outward invading countries like Belgium, Normandy, and the Soviet Union. Hitler took a risk by invading all these countries but he knew that FDR wouldn't send any more troops to Europe after two huge loses in a row. These German invasions were not easy because Britain and China were still strong but they did not have all the resources the were used to with the help of the U.S. whom was currently at a stand still. These battles were long and hard, lasting from the winter of 1942 to 1944. The U.S. began to help more by continuing the Lend Lease act and sending more supplies but was still hesitant to send more troops because didn't want to risk another huge loss. Germany was successful in these invasions and wiped out a lot of the Allied Powers army leaving them very weak but Germany still knew they could not beat the U.S. so they decided to make a treaty to stop fighting but it would have some what the same principles as the treaty of Versailles. The treaty is called the Hit-Tru treaty (Harry Truman had recently become president) which mostly stated that the Allied Powers would have to reduce their armies significantly and the U.S. would have to remove all troops from Europe and the other Allied powers would have to remove any troops surrounding the newly acclaimed land of the Axis Powers.Before agreeing to this, Harry Truman and some other Allied powers leaders met, which was called the Yalta Conference, to discuss their choice on whether to accept the treaty. Harry Truman said he “felt like then moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on (him)” (Beschloss 1) with this decision but decided that he would not risk the lives of innocent American families even though it pained him to have to surrender to monsters like Adolf Hitler. China and the Soviet Union agreed mostly because they knew that without the U.S. at there best that they would not be out of this war for a long time and they just wanted to stop fighting. Hitler continued to grow stronger building up an empire on which everyone adored him and everything he said. But he soon became ill and died, leaving no one in particular to continue to lead this extremely huge and strong Germany. The Communist Soviet Union had mostly broken free from the U.S. from the hostility between President Harry Truman and USSR's Gorbachev, along with their polar opposite government views.The USSR saw this as a true chance to take a big step for communism and the Soviet Union, so they attacked Germany in their time of distress to find a new sufficient leader. Gorbachev made a deal with Germany though he allowed them to pick their own leader as long as they were communist. This angered Germany for they had just made a treaty to keep the Soviet Union "off their back" for awhile, but with their economy starting to rapidly decline because of leadership issues Germany accepted hoping that Japan would help Germany rebel later when they picked up their economy. Over in the U.S. people were out-raged that Germany accepted for the U.S. knew that other nations might soon fall to the same fate (domino theory). So the U.S. started a new idea called "containment" where the U.S. would not give into isolationism or appeasement to not repeat the disaster with Germany. The only thing for the U.S. is they did not feel ready to send in troops yet to they started with just supplies.

**__COMMUNISM__**

In 1949, China had a civil war between communists and nationalists. Sadly, the communists won and China was soon transformed into a communist nation. This was one of the U.S.'s strongest allies that just turned to communism and this frightened the U.S. greatly because we knew that China's surrounding nations weren't too far behind. First up to fight communism was Korea. Communist North Korea had tried to into South Korea. The U.S. sent in supplies but the newly communist China sent in troops that overthrow South Korea and turned them communist. The U.S. became nervous and decided to use some military force for the next communist invasion. The Soviets next stop was Vietnam. In 1964, communist North Vietnam tried to take over South Vietnam but the U.S. sent in troops and was able to keep the two countries separate and from South Vietnam falling to communism. Later Afghanistan is attacked by the USSR trying to make it a communist nation as well. The U.S. helped Afghanistan by aiding them with supplies and training, but one of the rebels was Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden was infuriated by how the U.S. was in Saudi Arabia and on September 11, 2001 leads a plane crash into the World Trade center killing nearly 3,000 people.

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