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

9.
Tensions Mount
FDR Remonstrates Against
Increased Japanese Troops in Indochina
Secretary of State Hull was laid up with a cold, 1 so
Undersecretary of State Welles called the two Japanese ambassadors
to the State Department on December 2, and presented
them with a statement by President Roosevelt: “[C]ontinuing
Japanese troop movements to southern Indochina,” reported
during the past several days, represent “a very rapid and material
increase in the forces of all kinds stationed by Japan in Indochina.”
As FDR understood the Japanese agreement with the French
Vichy government, the arrival of these forces brought the number
of Japanese troops in Indochina well above the total permitted.
[T]hese increased Japanese forces in Indochina would seem to
imply the utilization of these forces by Japan for purposes of
1Julius W. Pratt, Cordell Hull: American Secretaries of State and Th eir Diplomacy,
vols. 12 and 13 (New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1964), 2 vols., p. 516.
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