Preemptive Strike - The Movie
In addition to writing Preemptive Strike - The Secret Plan that Would Have Prevented the Attack on Pearl Harbor, published by Globe-Pequot Press under its imprint: Lyons Press, Alan Armstrong has written a screenplay: Preemptive Strike. The screenplay portrays the efforts of Claire Chennault and his confederates (with the sponsorship of the Roosevelt Administration) to mount a campaign of secret air warfare against Japan before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The campaign envisioned mounting fire bombing raids and bombing attacks against Japanese interests to commence on November 1, 1941, over one month before Japan's preemptive strike on the Hawaiian Islands.
On July 23, 1941, President Roosevelt signed Joint Army/Navy Board 355 (the “Joint Board Plan”) which authorized the bombing of key Japanese industrial centers. The Joint Board Plan has remained an obscure and overlooked chapter in American history. Stone Phillips of ABC News on the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1991, did a story on the Joint Board Plan, but confessed that he did not know whether the Japanese knew of the American plan. We know far more today about the Joint Board Plan than Mr. Phillips did in 1991. For example, intercepted Japanese radio communications confirm that as early as May of 1941, even before Roosevelt signed the order, a spy in or near Chiang Kai-shek’s government, identified only as “PA,” disclosed to Japanese agents America’s ambitions to bomb Japan, under the auspices of the newly formed American Volunteer Group which became known as the Flying Tigers.
At the heart of this story of political espionage and intrigue is Claire Chennault, a fighter pilot and instructor in fighter tactics who had been banished from the Army Air Corps because of his heresy in disputing the conventional wisdom of the day that bombers were the supreme weapon in aerial warfare. Forced into early retirement, Chennault found employment as a mercenary flying in air combat for the Chinese Government. It is no small irony that both the Chinese and the American Governments believed that this washed out Air Corps instructor should champion the bombing missions against the Japanese Empire.
Official press release concerning the release of Mr. Armstrong's book.
Alan Armstrong discusses the American Plan to Bomb Japan before Pearl Harbor. View all three parts below.
Mr. Alan Armstrong may be reached via Email
