Jeffrey Lewis - The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States

“get China to make that guy disappear in one form or another very quickly”: “Trump on Assassinating Kim Jong Un: ‘I’ve Heard of Worse Things,’” CBS News, February 10, 2016.

In December 2014, North Korea suffered a massive distributed denial-of-service attack: Ashley Feinberg, “So Who Shut Down North Korea’s Internet?” Gizmodo, December 23, 2014.

And in late 2017, the United States accused North Korea of conducting another large-scale cyber-attack called Wanna Cry: “US Blames North Korea for ‘WannaCry’ Cyber Attack,” Reuters, December 18, 2017.

The day before the invasion was set to begin: The attack on Dora Farm is described in detail by Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor in Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (New York: Random House, 2007), 188–204.

“Right now we present ideal targets for atomic weapons in Pusan and Inchon”: “Substance of Discussions of State–Joint Chiefs of Staff Meeting Held in Room 2C-923, the Pentagon Building, on Friday, March 27, 1953, at 11:30 AM, Top Secret, Minutes, c. March 27, 1953.”

“As early as 1965, Kim Il-sung had said that North Korea should develop rockets and missiles to hit US forces inside Japan”: Ko Young-hwan, in “North Korean Missile Proliferation,” hearing before the Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, S. Hrg. 105–241, October 21, 1997, 18.

“Kim Jong Il believes that if North Korea creates more than 20,000 American casualties in the region”: Ko Young-hwan, “North Korean Missile Proliferation,” 5.

North Korea was “well aware of [the] foolishness of Saddam Hussein”: “US Slightest Misjudgment of DPRK Will Lead It to Final Doom: KCNA Commentary,” KCNA, March 13, 2017.

Iran had, for many years, trained its proxies to attack American-made Patriot defenses: Conflict Armament Research, “Iranian Technology Transfers to Yemen: ‘Kamikaze’ Drones Used by Houthi Forces to Attack Coalition Missile Defence Systems,” March 2017.

After an Israeli battery shot down a $200 quadcopter with a $3 million Patriot missile: “Israel Uses Patriot Missile to Shoot Down Drone,” Associated Press, November 13, 2017.

North Korea released images of drones being used in combat and paraded them through Pyongyang: Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., “North Korea Drones On, Redux,” 38North, January 19, 2016.

Soldiers on runs would log their route: Liz Sly, “US Soldiers Are Revealing Sensitive and Dangerous Information by Jogging,” Washington Post, January 29, 2018.

a North Korean drone had crashed while taking pictures of the site: Thomas Gibbons-Neff, “Suspected North Korean Drone Photographed Advanced US Missile Defense Site, Report Says,” Washington Post, June 13, 2017.

They trained to reduce that launch time to about twenty minutes: The estimate of twenty minutes is provided in an account of Iraqi Scud operations and the challenges associated with hunting them. See Peter de la Billière, Storm Command: A Personal Account of the Gulf War (New York: HarperCollins, 2008).

within fifteen minutes, the unit needed to move 15 kilometers away: The Iraqis trained to be within nine miles of the launch point within fifteen minutes. See Jeffrey D. Isaacson and David R. Vaughan, Estimation and Prediction of Ballistic Missile Trajectories, RAND/MR-737-AF (Washington, DC: RAND, 1996).

Because it was Saturday morning, his son-in-law and daughter were out of contact: The Kushners discussed turning off their cell phones in a profile for Vogue . Jonathan van Meter, “Ivanka Trump Knows What It Means to Be a Modern Millennial,” Vanity Fair, February 24, 2015.

The secure video conference hardware in the Mar-a-Lago Situation Room was made by CISCO: “It’s possible the black box to the left of the photo is a Cisco Telepresence Touch, according to Brian Roemmele.” Sarah Emerson, “What the Heck Are These Electronic Devices in Trump’s Situation Room?” Motherboard, April 7, 2017.

Chuck Robbins, had been critical of a number of Trump initiatives: Berkeley Lovelace Jr., “Cisco’s Chuck Robbins: CEOs on Trump Panels Followed Their Conscience and Now It’s Time to Move On,” CNBC, August 17, 2017.

But when the president did not forget, he grew increasingly angry with Tillerson for slow-rolling him: David E. Sanger, “Trump Seeks Way to Declare Iran in Violation of Nuclear Deal,” New York Times, July 27, 2017.

When Trump suggested something crazy, Mattis would compliment the president on his strong instincts: This strategy is attributed to Mattis in Peter Nicholas and Rebecca Ballhaus, “Talking to Trump: A How-To Guide,” Wall Street Journal, January 18, 2018.

The White House would often simply refuse to confirm whether the president was playing golf: “Officials often don’t release details about whether Trump is golfing, and with whom, and reporters have a tough time confirming what he’s doing.” Amanda Terkel, “White House Says Secret Rounds of Golf Make Donald Trump a Better President,” Huffington Post, January 2, 2018.

In one case, a white panel truck just happened to appear: Elizabeth Preza, “‘We Can See You, Mister!’: CNN’s Keilar Mocks Truck Driver Who Obscured His Face While Blocking Trump Golfing,” Raw Story, December 27, 2017. The Secret Service and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office both denied placing the truck. See Brett Samuels, “Secret Service Denies Hiding Trump’s Golfing from Media,” The Hill, December 27, 2017.

was parked in a spot reserved for the Palm Beach County sheriff: “CNN Learns Whose Truck Blocked View of Trump,” Anderson Cooper 360, December 30, 2017.

This is what the historian Roberta Wohlstetter called the “background of expectation”: Roberta Wohlstetter, Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1962).

Both the Roberts Commission… and the 9/11 Commission observed: See Report of the Commission Appointed by the President of the United States to Investigate and Report the Facts Relating to the Attack Made by Japanese Armed Forces upon Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii on December 7, 1941, Senate Document 77-2, 1942; Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States ( 9/11 Commission Report ) (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2004).

Former president Trump was emphatic that the commission note his score: This quote is adapted from a remark Trump reportedly made in 2007 to reporter David Owen, who wrote: “He was upset that I hadn’t written that he’d shot 71—a very good golf score, one stroke under par. He wanted the number, and the fact that I hadn’t published the number proved that I was just like all the other biased reporters, who, because we’re all part of the anti-Trump media conspiracy, never give him as much credit as he deserves.” Owen, “Lessons from Playing Golf with Trump,” New Yorker , January 14, 2007.

Kenichi Murakami was the chief of the Tokyo Fire Department: Kenichi Murakami is, in fact, the name of the chief of the Tokyo Fire Department, although the character depicted here is completely fictional.

The traditional ladder-wielding fireman depicted in Kabuki theater or in a woodblock print: The description of Edo firefighters is drawn from William W. Kelly, “Incendiary Actions: Fires and Firefighting in the Shogun’s Capital and the People’s City,” in Edo and Paris: Urban Life and the State in the Early Modern Era, eds. James L. McClain, John M. Merriman, and Kaoru Ugawa (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994).