The Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge conspiracy theory claims that U.S. government officials were aware of Japan’s planned attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, but intentionally failed to act. Since the attack, debates have persisted over how and why the U.S. was caught off guard and how much American officials may have known in advance.
In 1944, John T. Flynn, a prominent critic of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and co-founder of the America First Committee, promoted this theory in a 46-page booklet titled The Truth about Pearl Harbor. Flynn argued that Roosevelt and his advisors had deliberately provoked Japan into attacking to create a pretext for U.S. entry into World War II. His assertions, however, were not substantiated by a bipartisan congressional investigation that same year.
Other figures, including journalist Robert Stinnett, retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Robert Alfred Theobald, and historian Harry Elmer Barnes, later expanded on this theory. They suggested that high-ranking officials in the U.S. and U.K. may have allowed or encouraged the attack to justify American involvement in the European theater of World War II. Despite these claims, the theory is widely dismissed by most historians, who cite inconsistencies, lack of credible evidence, and reliance on unreliable sources.
