The Eighth error in Roosevelt’s statesmanship was the total economic sanctions on Japan one month later, at the end of July, 1941. The sanctions were war in every essence except shooting. Roosevelt had been warned time and again by his own officials that such provocation would sooner or later bring reprisals of war.
The ninth time statesmanship was wholly lost was Roosevelt’s contemptuous refusal of Prime Minister Konoye’s proposal for peace in the Pacific of September of 1941. The acceptance of these proposals was prayerfully urged by both the American and British Ambassadors in Japan. The terms Konoye proposed would have accomplished every American purpose except possibly the return of Manchuria — and even this was thrown open to discussion. The cynic will recall that Roosevelt was willing to provoke a great war on his flank over this remote question and then gave Manchuria to Communist Russia.
31st President Herbert Hoover
Freedom Betrayed — Herbert Hoover’s Secret History of the Second World War and its Aftermath — pg. 878-879
WW II was a completely unnecessary war and was only plunged into in order that FDR could hide his utter failure in dealing with the US Depression.
