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The Attack On Pearl Harbor

Decent Essays

There are not two more tragic dates in the last century that reside in the collective American psyche than that of December 7, 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and September 11, 2001. On these dates, two surprise attacks on American civilians and military personnel showcased U.S. vulnerability to outside forces and united a nation against those that wished to harm her. Both horrific events have many similarities and many differences in regards to who carried out the attacks, what the objectives were for the attacks, and the American response after these infamous dates occurred. Unlike September 11, 2011, where a terrorist organization utilized U.S. civilian aircraft to attack the Pentagon, New York, and intended to attack targets in the nation?s Capitol (the last plane crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania after the passengers attempted to retake control of their plane from the terrorists), on December 7, 1941, the nation of Japan audaciously attacked the U.S. naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Beyond the commencement of military operations through both imperfect and perfect means of war, the government also responded to Pearl Harbor and September 11 with Congressional commissions to provide full accounts on how these fateful events transpired and to use the findings to make changes within the Intelligence Community (IC) in hopes of preventing future such attacks. The Roberts Commission, which focused on the events of Pearl Harbor, precipitated the

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