www.zerohedge.com by Tyler Durden
Mainstream historian Jim Holland and Libertarian Institute editor Keith Knight clashed over one of history’s most sacred narratives — the justification for America’s entry into World War II. Moderated by Mario Nawfal, the discussion cut through decades of conventional wisdom to ask uncomfortable questions like whether Roosevelt’s administration provoked Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor or whether Winston Churchill ought to be lionized as a great hero.
Did the war, which killed over 70 million people, actually preserve “the west” and could the death have been avoided by diplomatic means? Take a look at the highlights below, but we encourage listening to the full debate so you can decide whether the “good war” was truly good.
“Provoked Into War”: Knight’s Case Against The Pearl Harbor Narrative
“The attack on Hawaii… was intentionally provoked,” argued Knight, “so Roosevelt could engage in diversionary foreign policy after his New Deal led to the double-dip recession of 1937.”
He cited Navy Captain Arthur McCollum’s October 7, 1940 memo outlining “eight ways the United States can provoke Japan,” ending with the line: “If by this means Japan could be led to commit an overt act of war, so much the better.”
“Roosevelt supported the policy of provoking the Axis powers,” Knight continued, pointing to a New York Times article from January 2, 1972, “War Entry Plans Laid to Roosevelt,” describing Roosevelt and Churchill’s 1941 meeting. Churchill admitted Roosevelt “would wage war, but not declare it… everything was to be done to force an incident.”
Knight added: “On November 25, 1941, Secretary of War Henry Stimson wrote in his diary, ‘The question was how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves.’”
“War with Japan was not inevitable,” he said, “but an intentional policy pursued by the Roosevelt administration.”
Citing Robert McNamara’s The Fog of War, Knight quoted: “Proportionality should be a guideline in war. Killing 50% to 90% of the people of 67 Japanese cities and then bombing them with two nuclear bombs is not proportional.” McNamara recalled, “In that single night, we burned to death 100,000 Japanese civilians in Tokyo.”
Knight concluded, “The unconditional surrender of Japan destroyed America’s bulwark against Mao’s China and opened power vacuums in Korea and Vietnam—leading to millions of deaths and communist victories in both.”
Pearl Harbor, he said, “was not the price of peace—it was the product of provocation.” …
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