Current affairs perspective
In the summer of 1945, the Allies demanding unconditional surrender policies in World War II have become a hot topic in the United States.To some extent, it has been the case since then. The changes in the attitude of Americans on the Cold War and the Cold War are evidence.In fact, the Republican Party's position on the issue of unconditional surrender during World War II itself made people see the party's internal differences and collective characteristics.
During World War II, the cold and hot war policies between the Republican Party and President Roosevelt reflected the principled opposition, political speculation, and a mixed state of lack of internal consensus.The unconditional surrender policy was announced in 1943 and destined to be controversial because it was the idea of Roosevelt.This is a typical new policy plan. The goal is to pursue a society where conquest and suppression of the conquest and suppression, and cultivate a widely economic foundation democracy.
For conservatives in the United States, this plan is an example of liberal ideology.They believe that there is no reason to expand liberalism to imperialist Japan, so after the death of Roosevelt in April 1945, and the surrender of Germany in May, this policy was required.Most Republicans (whether the East Coast's internationalist or an isolatedist before the war) warned that the efforts of reforming Japanese society could not be successful.
By the end of May, they believed that publicly modifying the goal of the American war would induce Japan to surrender.The most important clarification (conservatives like to use the word) are to ensure that the emperor of the Japanese will continue to sit on the throne.
Time is about to be exhausted.The Soviets were preparing to join the Pacific War in August, and the United States planned to land in Japan in November.Conservatives hope that concessions on the Emperor's issue can prevent the Soviet Union from occupying Northeast Asia, so that the United States does not need to take high costs.
The argument was fierce, and the Republicans of the two camps were lobbying the US President Truman to modify the unconditional surrender policy, but Truman was unmoved and refused to provide any guarantee to the Emperor.On July 26, the Allied forces warned Japan that if the war continued, they would face an imminent completely destroyed, but Japan refused to yield.
The ending comes soon.On August 6, the first atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima.On August 8, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan.The next day, the second atomic bomb killed 39,000 residents in Nagasaki.On August 14, Japan surrendered, Emperor Yuren and his subjects were under the rule of the Allied Commander and the United States General MacArthur.
Five days later, the Republican Anti -Intervention School's mouthpiece, Chicago Tribune, published an article written by its journalist Walter Trohan, claiming that in January 1945, McArthur sent a top secret report to Roosevelt report, Show Japan is willing to surrender.The report disappeared mysteriously when arriving at the Washington Special Economic Zone, but Troren guaranteed that it was true.The oil on the fire is that the warm supporter of the policy and the former President of the Republican Party said that the Communist sympathy of the State Council prevented Truman from telling the Japanese that they could keep the Emperor.
After five years calmly, in May 1951, this guess was supported again in the process of investigating Truman general MacArthur.Some Republican Senators used the so -called alternative facts to declare that Yu Ren tried to surrender to the Allies as early as February 1945, that is, MacArthur reported that one month after the disappearance was said.They insisted that Yu Ren's efforts were destroyed by Washington pro -communists. They used unconditional surrender to extend the war, allowing the Soviet Union to occupy Manchuria and help the Communist Party of China.
This conspiracy theory is one of the more extensive attacks on the Democratic Party ’s so -called China.Most believers are isolated. They accused Roosevelt to provoke Japan, which led to Pearl Harbor in December 1941.According to this, the unconditional surrender policy is the fatal blow of Roosevelt's vicious Pearl Harbor conspiracy.
In the 1950s, the Republican Party began led by internationalists. They had no interest in re -examining the end of the war or questioning the use of nuclear weapons, and nuclear weapons have become the cornerstone of the US defense policy.The marginal anti -interventionist let this conspiracy theory has always been circulated in the small right -wing small circle and publishes various discussion materials, such as when you are asleep, the enemy at his back (The ENEMY at his back) He Hiroshima: Attack the defeated enemy (Hiroshima: Assault on a Beatn Foe), the latter was published on the National Review.(Harry Elmer Barnes).
By the mid -1960s, the unconditional surrender policy was criticized again. This time, the left -wing historian evaluated the role of the United States in the Cold War based on the upgrade of the Vietnamese situation.Some people think that Truman insists on unconditional surrender because he wants to scare the Soviet Union with an atomic bomb.By the mid -1990s, this view became very prevalent in the academic world, and was even included in the Smithsonian Instification to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.The amendmentist aroused a strong protest of the defender of the Greatest Generation. Ironically, many protesters came from the Republican Party.
However, conspiracy theories are still widely existed in the extreme right -wing, such as the Institute for Historial Review and John Middot; John Birch Society.In 1995, Berchi played a new trick again, claiming that conspirators persuaded Truman to oppose concessions and use atomic bombs, because they hoped that in the face of the terrible destructive power of nuclear weapons, Americans would give sovereignty to the United Nations to prevent nuclear decisive battle.
However, at that time, since the Republicans questioned the social abilities of the United States after the United States' transformation of the regime, a lot of changes have occurred.In 2003, President Bush and his supporters took the successful occupation of Japan as an example to prove that the United States has the ability to democrate Iraq.Two weeks after invading Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld, the Minister of Defense, announced that the United States asked Saddam to surrender unconditionally.
It is easy for us to think that the long -forgotten Republican party's opposition to the unconditional surrender policy during World War II has nothing to do with today, but the Republican Party in 2020 is no longer the political party of Eisenhower and Bush.It once again became the base of conspiracy theorists. Driven by the president, the party's voters had surrendered to him unconditionally.
Author Marc GallicChio is a professor of history at the University of Veranova. It is the same as that of the United States.
English Title: Grand Old Conspiracy Theorist
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2020
