On Nov 2, 2011, at 12:21 PM, Wojtek S wrote:
> ...The US policy toward Japan
> before WW2 may be an example of it - blocking Japan's access to oil
> was pretty tangential to the US economic interests, but it certainly
> kept Japan in its subordinate place...
But of course, that is exactly the contrary of what it was intended to do and in fact did. As Stimson noted in his diary, the purpose of the oil embargo was to force the "Japs" to fire the first shot. Without the embargo, Japan would have enough oil to "stay in its place" (in the instance, China). Without US oil Japan was forced to leave its place and go where the oil was to be found: The Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). The invasion of Indonesia was to be that "First Shot," the *casus belli* needed by Roosevelt and Stimson to declare war. The Japanese, as one may have heard, decided to fire that first shot elsewhere...
Shane Mage
"scientific discovery is basically recognition of obvious realities that self-interest or ideology have kept everybody from paying attention to"