The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor; The Washington Contribution to the Japanese Attack

xviii, [2], 204 pages. List of the principal characters The dust jacket has some wear and soiling. Minor endpaper discoloration. With corroborative forewords by Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey. After World War II, Theobald gained considerable notoriety with his 1954 book The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor: The Washington Background of the Pearl Harbor Attack, which accused the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of suppressing intelligence about the attack in order to bring the United States into the war. Robert Alfred Theobald (January 25, 1884 – May 13, 1957), was a United States Navy officer who served in World War I and World War II, and achieved the rank of rear admiral. In retirement, he was the author of the 1954 book The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor: The Washington Background of the Pearl Harbor Attack. During World War I, Theobald served as gunnery officer of the battleship USS New York (BB-34), the flagship of Battleship Division Nine, which served with the British Grand Fleet in 1917–1918. He received promotion to commander in September 1918. In 1930, Theobald served as secretary of war plans at the Department of the Navy and as a member of the Joint Army-Navy Planning Committee. On the morning of December 7, 1941, twenty ships of Destroyer Flotilla One were moored at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, when the Japanese attacked. Theobald, from his temporary flagship, the destroyer tender USS Dobbin (AD-3), was ordered to provide anti-aircraft fire, and sent Destroyer Division Two out of the harbor to establish an off-shore patrol. Theobald served as Commander of Pacific Fleet Destroyers (ComDesPac) from December 1941 until May 1942 before being appointed Commander of the North Pacific Force (Task Force 8) for operations in the Aleutian Islands in the Territory of Alaska. The Aleutian Islands Campaign began in June 1942 and, after suffering minor defeats against Japanese naval forces, including the Japanese capture of the islands of Attu and Kiska, Theobald was replaced by Rear Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid. In January 1943 Theobald was appointed Commandant of the First Naval District and of Boston Navy Yard in Boston, Massachusetts. He retired from active service in 1945.