Re: Forwarded from Anthony (WWII)

[Jim Farmelant <farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 16 Sep 2002 13:52:10 -0400 Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> While I agree with Lou's main point about the US and WWII in his post
> (
> Subject: WWII From: Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> Date: Mon, 16 Sep
> 2002
> 08:48:36 -0400 In-Reply-To:
> <537EC54A-C92D-11D6-897B-0050E4962E11@xxxxxxx>
> References: <20020915212913.3551aff8.zak@xxxxxxxxxxxx>), I think he
> is off
> on one of the most important details. Lou wrote,
>
> "What brought the United States into the war was not a determination
> to rid
> the world of fascism, but a response to the Japanese attack on Pearl
>
> Harbor. It was only when Japan threatened US economic interests in
> the
> Pacific that Washington entered the war. There is a transcript of
> statement
> made to the War Cabinet by Henry Stimson in November, 1941 that
> confirms
> this interpretation. ..."
>
> No doubt the immediate trigger for US entry into the war was the
> Japanese
> offensive in the Pacific - including the attack on Pearl Harbor - in
>
> December, 1941. However, I think the historic record amply
> demonstrates
> that Roosevelt had been planning to get into the war for a very long
> time -
> and that many, many measures had already been taking - including
> secretly
> fighting with Brits - long before Pearl Harbor.

That is certainly true.  Roosevelt had been hankering to get
into the war for quite some time.  He had promised Churchill
that he would bring the US into the war at the earliest oppurtune
moment.  That is why there has always been a cloud of suspicion
concerning Pearl Harbor, that has never quite gone away.  The
attack has long been seen by Roosevelt critics as fitting in
well with FDR's own plans for getting into the war.

>
> The quote from Stimson supports this view if you read it carefully.
> The
> most powerful sector of capital in the USA had decided to enter the
> war
> with Roosevelt as its war leader - not as a war to defeat fascism,
> but as a
> war to make the USA the most powerful imperialism in the world. That
>
> decision put many corporate leaders into Roosevelts government, and
> marginalized a few others - like the Bush family.

There are some interesting questions that can be raised over
US capital's motives for getting into the war.  The war after all
ended not only with the defeat of German imperialism, but
also with the reduction of both British and French imperialisms
to a decidedly second-class status.  That raises the question
of whether any important sections of US capital, had foreseen
this as a possible outcome, and if so, was that their motive
for bringing the US into the war.

Jim F.

>
> All the best, Anthony
>
>

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