Pearl Harbor Rhetorical Analysis

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Suddenly, on December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii without warning or reason. Two thousand Americans died, and multiple U.S battle ships sunk. Four days later, President Roosevelt delivered his Pearl Harbor address on December 11th, instantly getting America involved in the war. Five days after the attack, Ike received the call from Colonel Walter Bedell Smith, secretary of the general staff in the War Department in Washington, D.C. "The Chief [General George Marshall] says for you to hop a plane and get up here right away... Tell your boss that formal orders will come through later" (59). That phone call meant that Ike would be an important person in the war. When Ike called Marshall in his Washington office, Marshall outlined the positions of the United States military and naval positions in the Pacific. He told Ike that the evidence indicated that the Japanese would take the Philippines. Marshall asked Ike for advice on what to do. Ike responded with saying that the United States had to save the air lifeline through Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Hawaii. He thought that saving the Philippine islands would be a difficult task, but the United States must do everything that they could possibly do (59). Unfortunately, the United States …show more content…
The United Nations sent in troops (including American troops) to deal with the dispute. Ike personally believed that the war had dragged on for too long, so he announced that he would go visit Korea himself, so see how bad the war was. When he returned home, he made a promise to make every effort possible to end that war. Almost immediately after his inauguration, Ike negotiated with the South Korean President Syngman Rhee. After a moment of negotiation, a truce was signed on July 27, 1953 at Panmunjom, South Korea. Ike would remember this as one of his greatest achievements as