Quotes
Page By Category
Quotes - Henry Stimson
This page contains a quote used by conspiracy theorists that has been further researched. For more information about our quotes database, please see the introduction.
Quote
"The question was how should we maneuver them into firing the first shot -- it was desirable to make sure the Japanese be the ones to do this so that there should remain no doubt as to who were the aggressors."
- Henry Stimson, Secretary of War, November 25th, 1941
| Quote Status: | Out of Context |
| Attributed to: | Henry Stimson |
| Category: | War |
| Submitted By: | Edward L Winston |
Actual Details
"The President brought up the event that we were likely to be attacked, perhaps (as soon as) next Monday, for the Japanese are notorious for making an attack without warning, and the question was what we should do. The question was how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves."[ Source: http://bit.ly/dtz06R ]
I cannot find any source for the second sentence. So, what does this mean? Well it means that the President as well as Stimson were almost certain that the Japanese were going to attack at some point, but when they did the question was, how could America put itself into a position to where they would not suffer badly during this surprise attack.