ABSTRACT
For members of the Congressional Committee on Pearl Harbor the question of any kind of war decision had concrete pertinence to the issue of responsibility for the disaster. Admiral Stark was in a strategic position to find out what was going on in President Roosevelt's mind as to war intentions and activities. For the belief that the United States was headed in the direction of war, which he expressed in various ways and many times to naval officers between January and September, 1941, Admiral Stark had grounds other than mere conversations with President Roosevelt on war prospects. At a hearing of the committee, in January, 1946, Representative Gearhart raised with Admiral Stark the question of how the "shooting war" in the Atlantic came into being. Admiral Stark presented to the committee a summary or digest of the plans for American naval operations in the Atlantic between April and October, 1941, in the chronological order of their development.
