The last week of being President of the United States is a little like packing for vacation with ten kids and a posse of pets. So much to do and the clock ticking away, seemingly faster by the minute.
President Biden has certainly been busy in recent days. And those days would have been full even absent the passing of President Carter and the horrific wildfires in Los Angeles.
Down the road a bit these pages will look back on Biden's term in the White House. He has much to be proud of and his genuine embracing of his Irishness is something that will be forever appreciated on both sides of the Atlantic.
But before he hands over the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to President Trump, we would urge President Biden to do the right thing with regard to Admiral Husband Kimmel, a man who was scapegoated after the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
After the attack, Admiral Kimmel, Commander in Chief of America’s Pacific fleet, and Lieutenant General Walter Short, the Army’s commander in Hawaii, were relieved of their commands. Stripped of their ranks, they retired in disgrace.
Coinciding with the Pearl Harbor anniversary last month the Echo posted a story by American, though Ireland-based, author Robbyn Swan. A few years ago Swan, together with her husband Anthony Summers, penned "A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor – Betrayal, Blame, and a Family’s Quest for Justice."
The book is in part a plea on behalf of the Kimmel family, who have been seeking exoneration for decades.
Swan wrote that a law passed after World War II granted all officers the right to retire at the highest rank at which they had served during the conflict. Thousands were elevated to their wartime ranks – even men who had been court-martialed. The law was applied to all – except for Hawaiian commanders Kimmel and Short.
And she wrote: "Admiral Kimmel and his defenders began what has by now been a more than eighty-year effort to exonerate him and restore his four-star rank.”
The effort has included a petition filed by the Kimmel family in 2020.
Wrote Swan: "The Kimmels’ petition presented significant evidence that had not been available to any previous official inquiry. Among other items, it included detailed pre-war intelligence information about the very type of aerial torpedo attack unleashed by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. That intelligence had never been sent to Admiral Kimmel.
"The family’s application also made clear that Kimmel had not been relieved because Navy Secretary Frank Knox had lost confidence in his ability to command. Kimmel had been relieved, rather, because of pressure on Knox by other factors. There had been, above all, the need to keep secret the fact that the United States had broken Japan’s codes and was reading its diplomatic correspondence.
"In light of the evidence supplied by the Kimmels, the BCNR voted to recommend to then President Trump that he restore Kimmel’s four-star rank.
"The Board’s decision was approved by Secretary of the Navy Kenneth Braithwaite and sent to the Secretary of Defense for signature. Instead, the case languished during the transition and for years during the Biden administration. Then, in March 2023, in an unusual move, the Board's decision was reversed by the current Secretary of the Navy, Carlos Del Toro. In light of such rebuffs, the Kimmel family’s efforts had long included direct appeals to Washington."
And here's where President Biden comes in. According to Swan, then Senator Joe Biden put his weight behind the exoneration effort.
"In 1991, he and four other U.S. senators - John McCain, William Roth, Alan Simpson, and Strom Thurmond - signed a letter asking Bush to support the request."
But President George H.W. Bush, himself a Navy veteran, took no action.
Wrote Swan: "In April 1999, during President Bill Clinton’s second term, Biden stepped in again. With Senator William Roth, he sponsored a resolution to restore both Kimmel and Short to the ranks they had held in 1941. In Biden’s words, it was unacceptable to forget 'two brave officers whose true story remains shrouded and tarnished by fifty‑seven years of official neglect of the truth.'
"In spring 2000, when the necessary legislation was included as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill, it was passed. All that was necessary was that the President sign the recommendation and forward it to the Senate for approval. Clinton, however, left office without fulfilling the request
"In 2007, when he last referred to it publicly, President Biden described the Kimmel case as 'the most tragic injustice in American military history. Today, in the final days of his administration, the President can correct that injustice by making the recommendation that would restore Kimmel’s four stars – and his honor."
That he can and that, hopefully, he will do in the waning days of a presidency that, we believe, will be more greatly appreciated with the passage of time.
