The Pittsburgh Press (October 17, 1940)
OPENING OF BURMA ROAD MAY LEAD U.S. INTO WAR
Editor’s note: The importance of Britain’s action in reopening the Burma Road is explained by a United Press Far East expert in the following dispatch.
By Miles W. Vaughn, United Press Night News Manager
New York, Oct. 17 –
Britain’s action in reopening the Burma munitions route into Nationalist China is an event of first rate importance for Americans and one which conceivably might lead this country into war in the Far East.
War dangers for the U.S. in the situation include:
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That American Red Cross workers and other Americans who have announced their intention to use the road will be killed during Japanese aerial attacks on the highway, thus leading to a demand in the U.S. for retaliation.
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That the Japanese Army will consider our part in the China war traffic as another of those “actions short of war” on the part of Washington, which already have strained Japanese-American relations to near the breaking point, and decide on retaliatory measures.
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That Japan and Britain will become involved on the Burma border, bringing Japan into the European war under terms of her alliance with Germany and Italy – a situation would increase the demand that the U.S. give Britain immediately military assistance.