Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy - Ludwig von Mises ...

180 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
“technically” negotiations had not yet been broken off . However,
the U.S. government did not expect the Japanese government to
accept its proposals.
Halifax called on Hull the next day to check on the outcome
of the conversations FDR and Hull had been having with the
Japanese. Hull blamed in part the “hysterical cable messages” sent
by Chiang Kai-shek and his aides. Hull wished Churchill had sent
a strong cable to Chiang in response to his “loud protest about
our negotiations . . . telling him to brace up and fi ght.” Churchill’s
expression of concern at Chiang’s “very thin diet” had resulted in
“virtually killing what we knew were the individual views of the
British Government toward these negotiations.” Th us Chiang’s
November 25 cables to offi cials all around the world urging that
the United States reject any form of a modus vivendi with the
Japanese had persuaded the United States to drop the U.S. proposal
for a three-month modus vivendi and to submit in its place
a ten point “ultimatum.” Th e Japanese ambassadors had not been
optimistic about their government’s willingness to agree to the
United States’ ten points. Although the Japanese government had
not as yet replied, Hull said “the diplomatic part of our relations
with Japan was virtually over [and] the matter will now go to the
offi cials of the Army and the Navy.” Hull also told Halifax “in
great confi dence” that he expected some action on the part of the
Japanese before long.
[I]t would be a serious mistake for our country and other countries
interested in the Pacifi c situation, to make plans of resistance
without including the possibility that Japan may move
suddenly and with every possible element of surprise and . . .
capture certain positions and posts before the peaceful countries
interested in the Pacifi c would have time to confer and
formulate plans to meet these new conditions. 2
2 Ibid., pp. 685–87, Hull November 29 memorandum of conversation.