October is Nobel Prize month, and a reminder the the winners or their efforts do not always pass future smell tests. An example is the award given to Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. Roosevelt offered his offices to mediate a truce in the Russian-Japanese war (1904-1905). The resulting treaty of Portsmouth (N.H.) was most generous to Japan, awarding it authority over Manchuria, influence over Korea, an made way for Japanese naval dominance in Asian waters. Tokyo was thus to turn more imperialistic — leading to its attack on Pearl Harbor four decades later.
TOM TIEDE