804.00/468
President Hoover to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I have received, at your direction, the telegram from our Ambassador at Tokyo, of February 23rd.31 This raises a most serious question.
As you are aware, I have all along been inflexibly opposed to the imposition of any kind of sanctions except purely public opinion. The imposition of any kind of sanction, military or economic, would in the present state of mind of the Japanese people, provoke the spread of the conflagration already in progress and might even involve the United States.
As it is not our intention to ever engage in sanctions other than that of public opinion, it would seem to me that some occasion should be taken to make it clear. It would certainly relax the tension to some extent. It would in no way undermine the importance of public opinion in this controversy for under the nonrecognition doctrine that would be continuous and will ultimately be triumphant.
The whole doctrine of nonrecognition is not alone a method of [Page 210] invoking world opinion but it is equally important in the phase that it avoids precipitant action and allows time to work out proper solutions. It occurs to me therefore that we should make it clear somehow. It would, I believe, relax a considerable amount of present tension.32
Yours faithfully,