Fwd: Truth is the First Casualty of War

[Brad De Long]

>
>One of the judges in the Tokyo War Crimes Trial after World War II,
>Radhabinod Pal, dissented from the general verdicts against Japanese
>officials and argued that the United States had clearly provoked the war
>with Japan and expected Japan to act.  Richard Minear (Victors' Justice)
>sums up Pal's view of the embargoes on scrap iron and oil, that "these
>measures were a clear and potent threat to Japan's very existence."

For Roosevelt and Acheson to say "we won't keep selling you the oil 
you need to conquer China" is a "clear and potent threat to Japan's 
very existence"?

No. To say "we won't keep selling you the oil you need to conquer 
China" is not to threaten Japan's very existence: it is to try to 
limit Japan's power to conquer China.

Brad DeLong