SMITH@SLACVM.BITNET (10/02/86)
CWM replies to Andy Freeman's question (poli-sci V6 #76) about misunderstanding and war with: > ... well, let's see. I think that we could look at WWII first. >The Japanese misunderstood the American people's will to fight: they >calculated that a quick strike on the Pacific Fleet and other US >possesions would dishearten the populous that the US would negotiate >a peace in Japan's favor, and so they went ahead and attacked. It >can be argued then that this misunderstanding [caused ?] the war. > We should also mention the fact that the US and England had put a complete shipping embargo on Japan since the summer of 1941 and were trying to force them to fight or run out of oil. Diplomatically, things had deteriorated with Japan for a number of years. In 1904 Teddy Roosevelt entered the US in it's first attempt at 'Summits' by having a meeting with Japan and Russia to end the war between them. We made Russia hand Manchuria over to the Japanese. Later, in Hoover's administration, Secretary of State Stimpson looked unfavorably on the Japanese being in Manchuria; that was 1932. Hoover never listened to Stimpson about this. However, FDR did and made Stimpson Secretary of War early in his administration and began to side with Stimpson against the Japanese position. The result was a gradual eroding of relations with Japan, and with the war starting in Europe, the US needed some excuse to get involved. FDR couldn't get the Germans to return fire on our ships in the Atlantic and made a decision, hoping to get the Japanese to fire the first shot. I think that many people expected the blow to fall somewhere, like on our Philippine bases; however I don't think anyone expected the blow to cripple our whole pacific fleet. For more details read "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace", edited by H.E. Barnes (Caxton printers 1953). J.R. Smith smith%slacvm.bitnet@wiscvm.arpa [ I beleive that rather than that the Japanese were holding Manchuria, Roosevelt was more worried about their attempt to conquer all of China. This was the stated reason for the embargoes against Japan. Certainly Roosevelt was looking for a Japanese first strike to give him an excuse for war. Certainly the US navy expected the Japanese to strike against the Philippines, their war plan "Rainbow 5" called for a battleship showdown near there. Thankfully this plan was never carried out, Japanese naval air superiority would have crushed the US fleet in an open engagement. - CWM] -------