Pearl Harbour, Tonkin Bay, 9/11 - Need help for a term paper.

Factual Questions
1

Righty. Long-time reader, first-time poster. My Significant Other is a member, and suggested I post my worries here.

I’m writing a term paper in Contemporary American Dilemmas (university level), and was planning an angle that includes major cover-ups in American history, leading to present day and Iraq / Afghanistan / 9/11.

I want to make it clear from the start that I’m not interested in writing conspiracy theories. I’m interested in the facts, as far as they can be weeded out, and I’m interested in all sides of the stories.

Briefly, I was planning to touch upon the following incidents:

1800’s - Native Americans supposedly given smallpox-infected cloth by US troops.

1915 - Lusitania sunk by German submarines, bringing the US into WWI. Some sources say the Lusitania was carrying ammunition for Britain, breaking international rules of trade with belligerent states.

1941 - Bombing of US naval group at Pearl Harbour, bringing the US into WWII. Roosevelt said to have had advance knowledge of the attack.

1964 - Gulf of Tonkin incident. North Vietnamese patrol boats attack US naval forces, brigning the US into all-out war in Vietnam. The attacks are later claimed to have been fictional.

2001 - Terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon lead to the US attacking Afghanistan, and later Iraq. Some sources claim Osama bin Laden denied responsibility, and ties between the 9/11 attacks and Iraq seem sketchy at best.

So, the real question would be - Does anyone have any ideas as to where I would find academically valid sources on the above? Opinions, including my own, are irrelevant, really - I’m only interested in credible, non-biased sources, and my professor would crucify me if I came up with anything smacking of grassy knoll.

The paper is due June 2nd. Bit of a last-minute panic, I know, but I thought I’d give it a shot. Cheers in advance. :slight_smile:

Edit: Gah. Managed to post this while logged in on my S.O.'s account. Here’s hoping I won’t get drawn and quartered.

2

You might want to rephrase your OP.
Link.

3

I don’t need input for anything; all I’m asking for is if someone can point me at valid sources for the above.

4

First things first. Don’t post using someone else’s account. Next, what askeptic said. We ain’t doing your work.

Now, the good parts. While we don’t want to do the work for you, you have the ability, through your SO, to search the board for threads which have discussed this and offer great sources.

Example: The Pearl Harbor Conspiracy: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=418165&highlight=pearl+harbor+conspiracy

Type in “pear harbor conspiracy” to the search, searching for posts and remember to set your time frame for “any time.” You’ll get 60+ posts. Some will be in a thread which will help you. Take it from there.

Repeat with other topics.

Hope this helps, and since this is about as much help as we can give, I’ll close this.

** samclem** General Questions Moderator