"The calmer the American people take this, the better," declared the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Omar Bradley. "We have anticipated it for four years and it calls for no change in our basic defense plans." That was true. But there was an enormous difference between "tomorrow" and "now" and the armed forces were the first who would have to readjust their timing. Minutes after the news flash whipped through the Pentagon's interlaced corridors, officers were hastily pulling papers from confidential files, and translating future strategy into plans for the present.
There were...
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