When a country such as the United States enters a war, typically an important event has occurred to force them to do so. For World War II, it was the attack on Pearl Harbor. For the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11th. These events, very significant in American history, are known as “days of infamy”. Without their impact on the United States and the rest of the world, life today might be much different. These direct attacks to American soil aren’t quite history repeating itself, but there are clear similarities between the two events regarding the opposition, U.S. government response, and public response.
The Imperial Japanese wanted to render the United States’ military useless by bombing their …show more content…
Both times the government declared war soon after the attacks. FDR delivered the “Day of Infamy” speech and Congress declared war on the Empire of Japan all in the day after the Pearl Harbor attacks. George Bush launched the War on Terror and invaded Afghanistan a month after the attack. Both times there was a failure of intelligence about the attacks. For Pearl Harbor the Japanese declaration of war was still being translated and didn 't reach the higher level intelligence in time. For knowledge of the attacks from a terrorist group, “there were many reports on Bin Laden and his growing al Qaeda organization, there was no comprehensive review of what the intelligence community knew and what it did not know, and what that meant. There was no National Intelligence Estimate on terrorism between 1995 and 9/11.” (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States). The government dealt with the public’s hysteria the best they thought they could at the time. The Roosevelt Administration thought the best way to deal with this was to put Japanese Americans in internment camps. The Bush Administration knew from Roosevelt’s decision that they should not punish Muslim Americans and instead passed the Patriot Act and created the Department of Homeland Security. In both …show more content…
In World War II the American public made many sacrifices and supported the troops in a number of ways to grow the war effort. Police and rescue workers came from all over the country to support New York City and blood donations and relief programs sprang into action. “Nearly 36,000 units of blood were donated to the New York Blood Center after the September 11 attacks.” (Reaction to 9/11). News of the attacks was covered all over American media, the radio mainly in the ‘40s, the TV in 2000s, and was how people initially got and spread the information concerning the attacks. People wrote songs about the attacks; Doctor Clayton wrote “Pearl Harbor Blues” and Bruce Springsteen wrote “Into the Fire”. A sense of national unity occurred and people proclaimed their patriotism more than ever before. The attacks instead of hurting American morale always created the opposite
The Imperial Japanese wanted to render the United States’ military useless by bombing their …show more content…
Both times the government declared war soon after the attacks. FDR delivered the “Day of Infamy” speech and Congress declared war on the Empire of Japan all in the day after the Pearl Harbor attacks. George Bush launched the War on Terror and invaded Afghanistan a month after the attack. Both times there was a failure of intelligence about the attacks. For Pearl Harbor the Japanese declaration of war was still being translated and didn 't reach the higher level intelligence in time. For knowledge of the attacks from a terrorist group, “there were many reports on Bin Laden and his growing al Qaeda organization, there was no comprehensive review of what the intelligence community knew and what it did not know, and what that meant. There was no National Intelligence Estimate on terrorism between 1995 and 9/11.” (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States). The government dealt with the public’s hysteria the best they thought they could at the time. The Roosevelt Administration thought the best way to deal with this was to put Japanese Americans in internment camps. The Bush Administration knew from Roosevelt’s decision that they should not punish Muslim Americans and instead passed the Patriot Act and created the Department of Homeland Security. In both …show more content…
In World War II the American public made many sacrifices and supported the troops in a number of ways to grow the war effort. Police and rescue workers came from all over the country to support New York City and blood donations and relief programs sprang into action. “Nearly 36,000 units of blood were donated to the New York Blood Center after the September 11 attacks.” (Reaction to 9/11). News of the attacks was covered all over American media, the radio mainly in the ‘40s, the TV in 2000s, and was how people initially got and spread the information concerning the attacks. People wrote songs about the attacks; Doctor Clayton wrote “Pearl Harbor Blues” and Bruce Springsteen wrote “Into the Fire”. A sense of national unity occurred and people proclaimed their patriotism more than ever before. The attacks instead of hurting American morale always created the opposite