From an article in "The New American", vol 2 num 30, December 8, 1986:

Pearl Harbor, by James Perloff
Hawaii was suprised; Washington was not

December 7, 1986 marks the 45th anniversary of Japan's
surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the event that propelled
America into World War II. Japanese warplanes, launched
at dawn that day from a carrier force, sank or heavily
damaged 18 naval vessels (including eight battleships),
destroyed 188 planes, and left over 2,000 dead.

As anti-aircraft gunners fought desperately to defend the

harbor, Husband E. Kimmel, Commander-in-Chief of the
Pacific Fleet, grimly watched from his shore headquarters.
Suddenly, a spent Japanese bullet came through the window
and deflected off the glasses case in his breast pocket. "It
would have been merciful had it killed me," he told a
subordinate. In self-demotion, he removed the four-star
boards from his shoulders.

Like his Army counterpart in Hawaii, Lieutenant General
Walter C. Short, Kimmel was soon relieved of command and
held liable. The wrath of the American people for these two
was exceeded only by its wrath for Tokyo. Indeed, to this day,
most believe it was negligence by Kimmel and Short that
made the Pearl Harbor disaster possible.

But evidence -- produced by time, haunted consciences, and
determined investigators -- has disproven the prevailing
account. It shows that Washington not only knew of the Pearl
Harbor strike in advance, but, desiring an incident that
would yield indisputable grounds for entering the war, kept
the information from our Hawaiian commanders. Pearl
Harbor was really two tragedies: one on bold public display,
the other veiled behind intrigue and injustice.

[big snip]

The truth about Pearl Harbor had very nearly been revealed a
week earlier. The perfidy had become too much for Secretary
of State Cordell Hull. On November 29th, on a park bench, he
met with Joseph Leib, a freelance newspaper writer. Leib
had formerly held several posts in the Roosevelt
Administration; Hull knew him and felt he was one
newsman he could trust. The Secretary of State handed him
a copy of some of the Tokyo intercepts concerning Pearl
Harbor. He said the Japanese were planning to strike the
base and that FDR planned to let it happen. Hull made Leib
pledge to keep his name out of it -- but hoped he could blow
the story sky high in the newspapers.

Leib ran to the office of his friend Lyle Wilson, the
Washington bureau chief of United Press. While keeping his
pledge to Hull, he told him the details and showed him the
intercepts. Wilson replied that the whole story was ludicrous
and refused to run it. Through connections, Leib managed to
get a hurried version of the story onto UP's foreign cable, but
only one newspaper carried any part of it.

After Pearl Harbor, Lyle Wilson called Leib to his office. He
handed him a copy of FDR's just-released "day of infamy"
speech. And the two men wept.

[big snip]

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(Full article online at URL below.)