White House Press Release, Statement by President Harry S. Truman

CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL The following statement by the President must be held in 225 STRICT CONFIDENCE until the hour of release. NOTE: Release is automatic at 1:00 P.M., E.W.T., today, Wednesday, August 29, 1945. CHARLES G. ROSS Secretary to the President STATEMENT BY THE PRES IDENT I have here reports on the Pearl Harbor disaster. One is from the Army and one is from the Navy. The Navy report gives a "Finding of Facts" by a Navy Court of Inquiry. Attached to this Finding of Facts are indorsements by the Judge Advocate General of the Navy, Rear Admiral T. L. Gatch; Admiral E. J. King, Chief of Naval Operations, and the Secretary of the Navy. You will find a summation of the findings in the final indorsement by the Secretary of the Navy at the end of the document. From the Army we have the report of the Army Pearl Harbor Board and, bound separately, a statement by the Secretary of War. Certain criticisms of the Chief of Staff, General Marshall, appear in the report of the Army Pearl Harbor Board. You will notice in the Secretary's statement, beginning on page nineteen, that he takes sharp issue with this criticism of General Marshall, stating that the criticism "is entirely unjustified". The conclusion of the Secretary of War is that General Marshall acted throughout this matter with his usual "great skill, energy and efficiency. " I associate myself wholeheartedly with this expression by the Secretary of War. Indeed I have the fullest confidence in the skill, energy and efficiency of all our war leaders, both Army and Navy. TRU MAN NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND UNIVERSITY RECORDS COVERING SERVICE"