Americans worried last week about Alaska. Japanese troops invaded the Aleutians six weeks ago; and at that time some military experts argued that the Japs must be dislodged within 60 days, or the job would become enormously difficult to do at all. The Japs were unquestionably at work: Tokyo claimed a big convoy had got through to Alaska without losses; the U.S. Navy claimed to have sunk three, possibly four destroyers and damaged another, probably out of the same convoy.
Great things hinged on getting the Japs out: How could the Russians give the U.S. bases in Russia whence to attack the...