Blog post: Bill Angel: Trump implies Bush deserves some blame for 9/11: 'The World Trade Center came down during his reign'

See Trump implies Bush deserves some blame for 9/11: 'The World Trade Center came down during his reign'

 

A Congressional report produced in 1946 contained a section, a minority report that censured President Roosevelt as bearing responsibility for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Some of the arguments presented there seem to echo or elaborate the point that Donald Trump was attempting to make when he cast blame on President Bush for the September 11 attacks. The relevant section from the Pearl Harbor report is contained below:

 

INVESTIGATION OF THE PEARL HARBOR ATTACK

REPORT OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON THE INVESTIGATION

OF THE PEARL HARBOR ATTACK

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES

 

See CONTENTS OF THE MINORITY PEARL HARBOR REPORT

 

The President of the United States was responsible for the failure

to enforce continuous, efficient, and appropriate cooperation among the

Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, the Chief of Staff,

and the Chief of Naval Operations, in evaluating information and

dispatching clear and positive orders to the Hawaiian commanders as

events indicated the growing imminence of war; for the Constitution and

laws of the United States vested in the President full power, as Chief

Executive and Commander in Chief, to compel such cooperation and vested

this power in him alone with a view to establishing his responsibility

to the people of the United States.

 

As to the power, and therefore of necessity, the responsibility of the

President in relation to the chain of events leading to the catastrophe

at Pearl Harbor, there can be no doubt. The terms of the Constitution

and the laws in this respect are clear beyond all cavil.

 

The Constitution vests in the President the whole and indivisible

executive power subject to provisions for the approval of appointments

and treaties by the Senate.

 

The President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate,

appoints high officers, civil and military.

 

He is Chief Magistrate in all civil affairs, including those related to

the maintenance and operation of the Military and Naval Establishments.

 

Under the law he conducts all diplomatic negotiations on behalf the

United States, assigning to his appointee, the Secretary of State, such

duties connected therewith as he sees fit, always subject to his own

instructions and authorizations.

 

Under the Constitution the President is Commander in Chief of the armed

forces of the United States, and with the approval of the Senate he

appoints all high military and naval officers. He assigns them to their

duties in his discretion except in the case of the Chief Staff and Chief

of Naval Operations-these appointments must approved by the Senate.

 

And why did the framers of the Constitution vest these immense powers in

one magistrate-not in a directory or a single official checked by a

council, as was proposed in the Convention of 1787?

 

The answer to this question is to be found in No. 70 of The

Federalist. The purpose of establishing a single rather than a plural

executive was to assure "energy in the Executive," "a due dependence the

people," and "a due responsibility." A plural Executive, it is there

argued, "tends to deprive the people of the two greatest securities they

can have for the faithful exercise of any delegated power, first, the

restraints of public opinion; and, secondly, the opportunity of

discovering with facility and clearness the misconduct persons they

trust."

 

The acts of Congress providing for the organization, operations, powers,

and duties of the Military Establishments under the President

particularized the powers and duties of the President in relation them;

in brief, they empowered him to issue orders and instructions the civil

Secretaries and also directly to the Chief of Staff and the Chief of

Naval Operations.

 

Such are the terms of the Constitution and the laws relative to the

Chief Executive.

 

From March 4, 1933, to December 7, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt was

President and Commander in Chief of the armed forces of the United

States and in him was vested all Executive powers under the Constitution

and the laws.

See President Roosevelt's failure to enforce cooperation between high military authorities in Washington
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