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Article: Pearl Harbor Ghosts.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- December 16, 1991
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IT WAS NOT the most dramatic, overwhelming surprise attack of the war- that distinction belongs to the German invasion of the Soviet Union six months earlier. Nor was it the conflict's most decisive naval engagement; that came six months later, at Midway. The attack did not even destroy its vital objective-the enemy's aircraft carriers and petroleum storage farms-and those targets that were hit were quickly repaired (with the exception of the gutted battleship Arizona) and sent back into action against the forces that had ambushed them.
Still, it is the only military action of World War II that many Americans can recall with any specificity. The psychic effects of ...