by Patrick J. Buchanan – January 12, 1999

On the day after Pearl Harbor, ex-President Herbert Hoover sat down and wrote to friends: “You and I know that this continuous putting pins in rattlesnakes finally got this country bitten.”

Japan’s sneak attack was one of the great acts of state terror, but its motive was desperation. The United States had cut off Japan’s oil and sent Tokyo an ultimatum: Withdraw from Indochina and China, or we bring you to your knees. Japan decided to seize the oil of the East Indies and eliminate the one force that could stop her: the U.S. fleet.