Portsmouth Peace Treaty

Some history lessons are never learned

Russian poster of the Russo-Japanese war. “We will sit by the sea and wait for good weather.” 1904. Source of image: Wikimedia Commons

In the history of U.S. diplomacy, there has already been a remarkable episode when an American leader acted as a peacemaker in favor of reconciling Russia with its adversary. As we can see today, US President Donald Trump is trying to “achieve peace” between Russia and Ukraine, just as Theodore Roosevelt did between Russia and Japan 120 years ago. However, in the early twentieth century, as now, the interests of humanity and pacifism (which Trump falsely claims to be guided by) were irrelevant compared to economic gain and geostrategic calculations.

Japanese poster of the Russo-Japanese war. Source of image: Asia-archive.si.edu

Japan launched a surprise attack on the Russian-held Port Arthur in January 1904, beginning the war for spheres of interest in Manchuria and Korea. Immediately after the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war, in March 1904, in a conversation with the German ambassador, Roosevelt frankly stated that the U.S. was interested in Russia and Japan “breaking each other up as much as possible,” so that after the conclusion of peace those geographical areas where there was friction between them would not disappear. In other words, they would oppose each other over the boundaries of their spheres of interest in…