SRT-Tom submitted a new Article: Chrysler Corporation in World War II Read more about this article here...
No surprise there. As an ex-DOD supplier, I can say that there will always be businesses willing to jump on the Government teet when the milk is flowing. And there's nothing like a war to get the milk flowing.
Admiral Yamamoto, the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy, knew about the U.S.'s industrial might. He was an alumnus of the U.S. Naval War College and Harvard University. He knew that for Japan to win, the war must be short and the U.S. must not be allowed to put its war machine into full gear. He stated, before Pearl Harbor: “If we are ordered to do it, then I can guarantee to put up a tough fight for the first six months, but I have absolutely no confidence as to what would happen if it went on for two or three years....For a while we’ll have everything our own way, stretching out in every direction like an octopus spreading its tentacles. But it’ll last for a year and a half at the most.”
Here's an interesting fact. Yamamoto never said this line in real life. It was only said in the movie Tora, Tora! Hollywood condensed his sentiments into one catchy sentence.