The Nuremberg Principle That Never Applied to USA | History Explained

Aggressive war is the supreme international crime. So why does it only apply to the defeated? In this video, I examine the film and new streaming series Nuremberg (starring Russell Crowe as Hermann Göring), and use it as a starting point for a much bigger historical question — one the film gestures toward but never confronts. At Nuremberg in 1945, Justice Robert Jackson declared that wars of aggression contain within themselves the accumulated evil of all the crimes that follow. That principle was enshrined in international law. It was applied again — selectively — at the neglected Tokyo trials of 1946–48. And it has never once been applied to the most prolific wager of aggressive war since 1945. In this video I draw on four essential books: 📖 Blood and Ruins and Goering — Richard Overy 📖 Judgment at Tokyo — Gary Bass 📖 Reading the Holocaust — Inga Clendinnen We cover: ✅ What the Nuremberg film gets right — and what it obscures ✅ The Tokyo trials: a parallel reckoning the West chose to forget ✅ The suppressed dissent of Judge Radhabinod Pal that condemned Western colonialism and racism ✅ Why the Nuremberg principles, applied consistently, would mean a Trial in Washington DC ✅I read Justice Jackson's actual opening addess 📩 Read the full texts at my Substack — https://jeffrich.substack.com Justice Jackson's complete Opening Address to the Tribunal and Judge Pal's landmark dissenting judgement are both available to subscribers. These are extraordinary documents that every serious reader of modern history should encounter in the original. 👉 Subscribe at jeffrich.substack.com to access both texts, plus my readings and commentary. If you found this valuable, please like, share, and leave a comment below. I read every one. V I D E O S T O W A T C H N E X T: Watch my four interviews with historian Michael Jabara Carley on the origins and diplomacy of World War Two, based on deep archival research in Russia, Britain and France and his books, Stalin's Gamble, Stalin's Failed Alliance and Stalin's Great Game.    • Michael Carley, Stalin's Gamble, Failed Al...   ------------------------------------------------------------ Inquiries: [email protected]