The Campaign and the Deception

As is often true, politicians say what they need to say in order to get elected. This was clear in the cases of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and George W. Bush. First, Woodrow Wilson, facing re-election in 1916 while Europe was engaged in war, knew that voters were still very much attached to the American ideal of non-interventionism. So, his campaign reflected this opinion as he campaigned on the famous phrase, “he kept us out of the war.” Next, FDR would campaign in 1940, with war raging around the globe, on the promise, “I will not send our boys into any foreign wars.” LBJ was not as emphatic about his anti-war position, but he did state very clearly that sending U.S. troops to Vietnam “would offer no solution at all to the real problem of Vietnam.” Finally, President Bush, when campaigning in 2000, responded to the recent conservative tide of non-interventionism when he pledged time and time again that his administration would not engage in “nation building.”

All four of these pledges were simply rhetoric and nothing more. In each case, the president did not even believe his own words. In Wilson’s case, while he was campaigning on the phrase “he kept us out of the war,” his close confidant and “independent self,” Colonel Edward M. House, was secretly plotting with the British Foreign Secretary how the U.S. might join the Great War. In FDR’s case, the most blatant example of all, he himself, while campaigning against joining the war, promised Churchill that the U.S. would join WWII if Germany were to invade Poland. Johnson’s position against sending troops into Vietnam was proven deceitful by the fact that he had penned the Tonkin Gulf Resolution (which authorized U.S. troops to be sent to Vietnam) shortly after his election in 1964 and well before the Gulf of Tonkin Incident even supposedly occurred. Finally, President Bush’s dishonest pledge to avoid nation building was proven baseless by his first order of business as president. His top appointees and foreign policy-makers were extremely interventionist in philosophy. The fact that these neo-conservatives (who unabashedly favored regime changes and nation building projects) were appointed by an allegedly non-interventionist candidate shows that the candidate never had any decisive commitment to avoid foreign entanglements.

The Conspiracy

In addition to a false pledge of opposition in each of the cases above, there was also a convenient event that was allowed to take place in each case, which served as an opportune pre-text to propel the U.S. into the war. The claim of conspiracy would not be far-fetched in each of these cases.

First of all, the Lusitania event is surrounded by much suspicion. It was the sinking of the Lusitania with 195 Americans aboard, more than any other event, which galvanized American public opinion to favor joining the Great War. The British “passenger liner” not only carried arms, but also was fully out-fitted for war and was registered as an armed auxiliary cruiser, a contradicting fact that caused the captain of the ship to resign. Our government was aware of this, and the Germans even attempted directly to warn Americans not to travel on such ships through newspaper advertising. Due to the State Department’s intervention only one paper in the whole country printed the ad. William Jennings Bryan tried to get Wilson to warn the American people about the dangers, but to no avail. The 195 dead Americans served as a convenient reminder of how evil those Germans were.

The prior knowledge of Pearl Harbor is well documented. Despite immense knowledge that the Japanese were planning an attack, and despite knowledge that Pearl Harbor was one of several possible attack sites, no warnings were issued to Pearl Harbor. Even when the “east wind rain” communication was intercepted, no warning was issued. And finally, leading up to the attack, when the Japanese broke off diplomatic ties, and the FDR declared, “this means war,” no warning was given to the commanders at Pearl Harbor. Most historians simply assume that FDR and his advisors made grievous errors and the Roosevelt administration is depicted as a bunch of bumbling idiots. Considering the fact that these were highly intelligent people, considering that they did have a motive, and considering FDR’s own words, “nothing in politics happens by accident,” it is highly likely that the oversight was intentional.

In the case of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the event that propelled us into the Vietnam War, it is not even required to build an argument that there was a conspiracy. The fact is that the “incident” never took place. This is established fact as evidenced by many witnesses who were there in the gulf and witnessed no attack.

Finally, in the case of 9/11, government complicity has been well documented by Alex Jones and others. The neo-conservatives at the Project for a New American Century had dreamed of a new Pearl Harbor, which would give them the excuse to wage wars across the globe. Just as FDR had in 1941, our leaders in 2001 got their Pearl Harbor.

The average American takes comfort in the complacency of trust in government, since it affords them the convenience of avoiding tough questions. However, such a knee-jerk reaction that simply ridicules allegations of conspiracy is drawn into question not only when one examines the evidence surrounding the claims, but also when one considers the famous Northwoods Document. The significance of the Northwoods Document can hardly be understated. The Northwoods Plan was the 1962 U.S. Government plan to hi-jack jet airliners, stage terrorist attacks in Miami and Washington D.C., blow up U.S. ships, and attack U.S. bases, blaming these activities on the Cubans. The objective was to create a pre-text for military invasion of Cuba. Fortunately, this was never carried out. The discovery of this plan in government archives is important because it reveals what government is capable of. It shows that when our leaders seek war, they will conspire, if need be, to bring that war about. This gives further credibility to claims of conspiracy leading up to WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and the War on Terror.

Common denominator: Internationalism