“If by these means Japan should be led to commit an overt act of war, so much the better.”
(A memorandum prepared for FDR by Lt. Commander Arthur H. McCollum, head of the far east desk of the Office of Naval Intelligence outlined measures intended to goad Japan into an attack, such as freezing its assets in America; shutting down Japanese access to the Panama Canal; cutting off vital exports to Japan, eventually joining Britain in a full-fledged embargo; and demanding an immediate Japanese withdrawal from China and Indochina as a condition of restoring trade relations. October 7, 1940.)
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War: 1941. World War II