Fabricated Pretexts for War

Fabricated Pretexts for War: Governments have long manufactured or exaggerated incidents to sell a war to their own people and the world. Staged border attacks, doctored telegrams, forged documents, and flawed intelligence have all been used, and many were exposed only after the shooting started.

Gleiwitz Incident: On 31 August 1939, SS men in Polish uniforms staged an attack on a German radio station near the Polish border. Hitler cited it the next morning as justification for invading Poland.

Gulf of Tonkin: The US destroyer Maddox did clash with North Vietnamese boats on 2 August 1964, but the reported second attack two days later never happened. Declassified signals records later showed intercepts had been misread.

Mukden Incident: In September 1931, Japanese officers blew up a short stretch of their own railway in Manchuria and blamed Chinese troops. The damage was so slight that a train passed over the spot soon after, but Japan used it to seize the region.

Mainila Incident: In November 1939, the Soviet Union claimed Finnish artillery had shelled a border village and killed soldiers. Evidence indicates the Soviets fired the shells themselves, and four days later they invaded Finland, starting the Winter War.

USS Maine: The battleship exploded in Havana harbor in February 1898, killing about 260 sailors. American newspapers blamed Spain, and a 1976 study led by Admiral Hyman Rickover concluded an internal coal bunker fire was the more likely cause.

Dupuy de Lome Letter: A private letter by Spain's minister in Washington, calling President McKinley weak, was stolen and published by a New York newspaper in February 1898. The scandal inflamed public opinion just before the Maine exploded.

Curveball: An Iraqi defector named Rafid Alwan al Janabi gave Western intelligence claims about mobile bioweapons labs that featured in Colin Powell's 2003 UN speech. He later admitted he had made it up.

Nayirah Testimony: In October 1990, a 15 year old Kuwaiti girl told Congress she saw Iraqi soldiers remove babies from incubators. She turned out to be the ambassador's daughter, and the testimony had been arranged by a public relations firm.

Operation Northwoods: In 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed staging fake attacks, including on Americans, to justify action against Cuba. President Kennedy rejected it, and the plan was declassified in 1997.

Ems Dispatch: In July 1870, Otto von Bismarck edited a telegram from King Wilhelm I so that it read as an insult to France. The France Prussia war followed within days.

Niger Uranium Forgeries: Documents claiming Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger were exposed as forgeries in 2003, after their claims appeared in a presidential speech. The IAEA identified clear errors in the papers.

Thornton Affair: In April 1846 a US patrol clashed with Mexican troops in disputed territory. President Polk told Congress Mexico had shed American blood on American soil, and a young congressman named Abraham Lincoln demanded to know the exact spot.

Arrow Incident: In 1856 Chinese officials boarded the lorcha Arrow in Canton and arrested its crew. Britain claimed the British flag had been insulted, though the ship's registration had expired, and used it to launch the Second Opium War.

Shanghai Incident 1932: Japanese officers arranged an attack on Japanese monks in Shanghai in January 1932. A Japanese major later admitted he had arranged it to divert attention from Manchuria, and fighting broke out days later.

Walwal Incident: A clash between Italian and Ethiopian forces at a desert oasis in December 1934 gave Mussolini a pretext. Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935 after arbitrators blamed neither side.

Pentagon Papers: Daniel Ellsberg leaked a secret history of the Vietnam War in 1971. The documents showed that successive administrations had misled the public about the war, including events surrounding Tonkin.

Bryce Report: A 1915 British government report on German atrocities in Belgium shaped opinion across the world. It relied heavily on hearsay, and historians later found many of its claims were exaggerated or false.

Corpse Factory: In 1917, British newspapers reported that Germany boiled soldiers' bodies to make fat. The story grew from a garbled translation, and a British minister later conceded in Parliament that it lacked support.

Iraq Dossier 2002: A British government dossier claimed Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes. The claim later fed a bitter inquiry after the death of weapons expert David Kelly.

Manila Incident 1899: On 4 February 1899, an American sentry named William Grayson fired on Filipino soldiers near Manila, and the Philippine American War began. Some historians doubt it was spontaneous, and the shooting set off years of fighting.

William Randolph Hearst: The publisher is credited with a famous telegram promising to furnish a war if an artist furnished pictures. No evidence confirms it, yet his papers' coverage helped push the US toward war with Spain.

Franciszek Honiok: A German farmer sympathetic to Poles was arrested by the Gestapo and killed on 31 August 1939, then dressed as a Polish attacker at Gleiwitz. He is often called the first victim of World War II.

Wayne Morse: One of only two senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964, the Oregon Democrat questioned the official account. The resolution passed 88 to 2 in the Senate and unanimously in the House.

Operation Dirty Trick: A 1962 US plan floated blaming Cuba if John Glenn's Friendship 7 spaceflight failed, to build support for action against Castro. The mission succeeded and the plan was never needed.