The intelligence failures of Pearl Harbor led to the greatest war disaster in US history. On the morning of December 7, 1941, the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor was attacked “by surprise” by the Japanese. The Japanese launched an all-out offensive. For two hours, 21 American naval vessels were damaged or sunk, more than 2,400 Americans were killed, and 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed. The next day, the United States ignored its policy of isolationism towards Japan and declared war on it. A year before the attack, the United States had imposed an embargo on Japan. This act prohibited Japanese exports of scrap iron, aviation fuel, and steel. Before the war, Japan conquered French Indochina and planned to acquire more land. To prevent Japan from expanding further, the United States, the Netherlands, and Great Britain put an end to all of Japan's activities. This caused Japan to have a problem purchasing oil, which would later cause an oil epidemic for the Japanese Navy and Air Force. As negotiations between the United States and Japan headed south, Japan decided to attack Pearl Harbor to prove that the denials were over, it was war time. Before we look at the specific intelligence failures, we need to mention the people involved in cracking the Japanese codes. Years before the war, in 1928, the American cryptanalyst Herbert O. Yardley and his assistants managed to decipher some codes transmitted by the Japanese. Since this happened more than ten years before the war, the United States did not pay much attention to the deciphered codes. A year later, in 1929, the then Secretary of State, Henry L. Stimson, made a crucial mistake. Stimson believed that “mutual trust worked best internationally.” The two were immediately stripped of their ranks and virtually exiled from the United States. For the rest of their lives, Kimmel and Short found themselves defending themselves from numerous death threats and trying to clear their names. Unfortunately for them, the names Kimmel and Short will always be associated with being traitors. For many people, Pearl Harbor is seen as the greatest war disaster in American history. This is due to the numerous failures of this war: intelligence failures, preparation failures, communication failures, and US ignorance of the Japanese. However the war ended many years ago and nothing can be done anymore. We, the people of the United States, must recognize that we may have lost this battle, but we have not lost the war.