Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor? How did they inflict the greatest military defeat in American history? What went wrong? "And I Was There" is the first book by a top-ranking American navy officer to answer these questions. Admiral Layton scrupulously kept these secrets to himself until the recent declassification of a half million documents from U.S. military archives. Only then did Layton believe he was free to tell his story. He names those who knew about Japanese intentions, how they acquired their knowledge and how they misused it. He speaks with unique authority. He was the Pacific Fleet's intelligence officer prior to Pearl Harbor, and he continued to serve in the same capacity for Admiral Nimitz throughout the war. As Layton says: he was there.