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Contact Info
Home Town San Francisco, CA
Last Address Boston, MA
Date of Passing May 13, 1957
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Robert Alfred Theobald (January 25, 1884-May 13, 1957) was nicknamed "Fuzzy" while at the Naval Academy. He was a United States Navy Rear Admiral and, most notably the author of the 1947 book The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor: The Washington Background of the Pearl Harbor Attack.
Born in 1884, Theobald graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1907. By 1939, Theobald had been appointed chief-of-staff under Admiral Claude C. Bloch and, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was named commander of the Destroyers Pacific Fleet in December 1941.
In 1942, Theobald was promoted to Rear Admiral and given command of Task Force 8 based in Alaska. After suffering minor defeats against Japanese naval forces, including the Japanese capture of the Aleutian Islands of Attu and Kiska, Theobald was subsequently replaced by Rear Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid. Remaining inactive until his retirement in 1945, Theobald gained considerable notoriety with his book The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor: The Washington Background of the Pearl Harbor Attack, which accused the Roosevelt administration of "arranging" the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as provocation to enter World War II.
In 1954, Rear Admiral Robert Alfred Theobald (1884-1957), wrote his book entitled The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor. The Washington Contribution to the Japanese Attack, accused the Roosevelt administration of "arranging" the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as a provocation to enter WWII, an initiative which at that time was not very popular in American public opinion. Robert Alfred Theobald had been appointed commander of the Destroyers Pacific Fleet in December 1941, just after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Other authors have argued that the Japanese military secret codes had already been broken in 1941.
See also George Morgenstern, Pearl Harbor: The Story of the Secret War (1947), and Charles A. Beard, President Roosevelt and the Coming of the War 1941. A Study in Appearances and Realities (1948), and Robert B. Stinnett in Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor.
