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At the Nuremberg trial; But what about the legalities of a war of aggression?
In 1945, at the end of World War II, Nazi German leaders were put on trial by the U.S.A, Soviet Union, Britain and France at the War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremberg. It is interesting to recall what this tribunal said about the waging of a war of aggression:
"To initiate a war of aggression," declared this Tribunal in its judgment, "is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."
The Chief American Prosecutor at this Tribunal in 1945, Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, was very clear on this point:
"Launching a war of aggression is a crime that no political or economic situation can justify ,"said Jackson... "If certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes, they are crimes whether the United States does them or Germany does them….. we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us."
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