History Main / PretextForWar

** ''{{Discworld/Jingo}}'' is built around one - unsurprisingly, given the name. The excuse for war is a worthless island that's risen from the bottom of the sea after a volcanic event, almost exactly between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch. The two nations have been at peace for decades, but since the island would be such a useful launching point for an invasion if they ''did'' go to war, tensions immediately escalate over who gets to claim it - or as Vimes puts it, "we're supposed to go to war over some rock that's only useful if we have to go to war?" A more politically acceptable excuse to go to war and seize the island (the attempted assassination of a diplomat) had to be manufactured as a result. Fortunately, Sam Vimes wasn't fooled for a minute and set out to put a stop to it before things got out of hand. [[spoiler:Carrot ended up [[RefugeInAudacity arresting two entire armies for, among other things, Conspiracy to Commit a Breach of the Peace]] and buying enough time for Vetinari to swing a large number of trade concessions in return for ceding the island to the other side... about half an hour before it sinks again.]]
** In ''Discworld/SmallGods'', Vorbis [[spoiler: arranges for one of his own church's missionaries to be murdered on his way back from Ephebe, then blames the Ephebians for killing the man and "counterattacks" with an army he'd sent out to cross the desert before the missionary had even visited their city.]]
** In ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'', Lord Hong is giving extensive support to highly ineffective "revolutionaries" to create a pretext for him to launch a potent counter-revolution. As his long-term goal is to TakeOverTheWorld, he arranges for them to have a figurehead from outside TheEmpire (Rincewind), giving him an excuse to declare war on Ankh-Morpork in the future.

Since [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_aggression wars of aggression]] have technically been banned, you'll find that these are a lot more common today than they were previously, since both sides are at pains to show that the other side started it. As a result, the history of many a 20th-century war reads like a really, really dark [[IdiotPlot Idiot]] FawltyTowersPlot. Mind you, "civilized" countries have more or less always deemed it improper to declare war on your neighbors "because we want your stuff" or "because we feel like it;"[[note]]With the exception of Sparta, which freely admitted that it would go to war "[[BloodKnight because we have nobody else to fight right now]]."[[/note]] even an aggressive war would have to have some kind of triggering incursion, insult, or violation behind it. (Look up how each of the three UsefulNotes/PunicWars got started--the pretexts are hilariously flimsy.)

* ''Recap/TintinTheBrokenEar'': A CorruptCorporateExecutive encourages Tintin (then working as the aide to a BananaRepublic's dictator) to declare war on a neighbouring country. Tintin point-blank refuses, so the executive frames him and he's forced to flee the country in a staff car. The car is fired upon by the [[BorderCrossing border guards]] and the incident itself is then used as an excuse for war.
** Before that, in ''Recap/TintinTheBlueLotus'', there was a thinly disguised replay of the Mukden Incident used as a pretext for additional Japanese intervention in China.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* The plot behind ''Film/ThePrincessBride''.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' has many thanks to the machinations of [[EvilChancellor Chancellor]] [[MagnificentBastard Palpatine]]. In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', he directs the [[MegaCorp Trade Federation]] to invade [[PerfectPacifistPeople Naboo]] over a trivial dispute, and in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' he deploys the clone army secretly created by his apprentice Count Dooku to Geonosis, sparking the Clone Wars.
* A very common reading of ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' is this. The [[ColonyDrop meteor strike]] that the Federation blames on the bugs is [[FridgeLogic incredibly suspect]]; there's no stated evidence for it and propelling an asteroid across many light-years at apparently sublight speed [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale makes absolutely no sense]]. Given the personality of the Federation, it's much more likely that the impact was either a natural disaster or even orchestrated by ''them'', and then credited to the bugs.
* When Guy de Lusignan becomes King of Jerusalem in ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven'', he releases Reynald in order for him to do something to start a war with Saladin. In an earlier scene Saladin's adviser had remarked that Guy becoming king meant Saladin didn't have to find one himself since the man was stupid enough to start a war he couldn't win.
* In ''Film/TheManWhoKnewTooLittle'', members of the British and Russian intelligence services are collaborating together for a bombing that would take out the top table of a British/Russian peace conference. The British spymaster is seen longing for the new funding, equipment, and poisons that renewed tensions would bring. When the hero unwittingly starts getting in the way, the Russian spymaster complains, "If we cannot trust each other, how can we bring back Cold War together?"

* ''[[Film/Aquaman2018 Aquaman]]'' has [[BigBad King Orm]] using an empty remote-controlled military submarine in a FalseFlagOperation to attack him and King Nereus, all to convince Nereus and their respective kingdoms that the surface world is enough of a threat to go to war with. [[spoiler:In fact, Nereus isn't fooled for a moment, but since he ''also'' wants war with the surface, he plays along.]]

** The Chiss are only allowed to go to war if provoked (i.e. the other guy has to shoot first), so developing a pretext for preemptive strikes [[BatmanGambit is a veritable art form]] for the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force. The CEDF wanted to take out the marauding [[PlanetLooters Vagaari]] for decades but the Vagaari wisely never attacked any Chiss worlds, so in ''Literature/SurvivorsQuest'' they [[spoiler:trick the Vagaari into attacking a Chiss diplomat (and the Skywalkers)]], then into [[spoiler:hitting a major CEDF base]]. To drive home how seriously the Chiss take their {{Technical Pacifis|t}}m, in the other half of the story, ''Outbound Flight'', a young [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Mitth'raw'nuruodo]] intervenes in a fight between the main Vagaari fleet and the titular Republic ship (which he had orchestrated with the help of a Republic smuggler). Despite smashing them utterly with a handful of picket ships, he gets exiled for it.
* ''The Emperor's Coloured Coat'' by John Biggins. Otto Prohaska gets caught up in the plot to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand to create a pretext for war against Serbia. There are indications that the Austrian chief of staff is behind it, and he never finds out if the Archduke's death was part of the conspiracy or simply a lucky break by the assassins, who were so incompetent it was assumed they'd be caught long before they got near their target. Regardless, as the assassination triggers World War One and the break-up of Austria-Hungary, it turned out to be an even bigger cock-up.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** An alternative conspiracy theory holds that al-Qaeda were the perpetrators, but claims the government knew the attack was coming and did nothing to gain an easy pretext. Another unrelated theory says UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt was aware of the impending Pearl Harbor attack and let it happen for the same reason.

** ''[[ComicBook/XWingSeries X-Wing: Isard's Revenge]]'' uses this for some MoralDissonance. The New Republic is picking a fight with the neutral (if admittedly pro-Imperial) Ciutric Hegemony. Prince-Admiral Krennel is obviously not a nice man, but the best pretext the New Republic can come up with for starting the war is Krennel's execution of Sate Pestage several years previously when the latter tried to defect to the Rebellion, which at worst is a case of KickTheSonOfABitch (Pestage was an AssholeVictim), along with Krennel's family (over a hundred people died in that purge alone) and a number of other purges he committed to keep himself in power. Myn Donos notes that one of his former squamates came from Toprawa, a planet deep within Imperial territory that's being repressed much more harshly than the worlds in the Hegemony due to its people's role in the theft of the Death Star plans, while even the generally saintly Admiral Ackbar more or less confesses that going after Krennel is as much about New Republic sabre-rattling to frighten bigger warlords like Teradoc as it about "liberating" the people under his rule (it takes place in the immediate aftermath of [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Grand Admiral Thrawn's invasion of the New Republic]] and the Republic brass doesn't want the remaining warlords getting ideas). And then things get muddled further when the New Republic stumbles upon a hidden lab that they claim proves that Krennel is trying to build another planet-killing superweapon, while Krennel claims that he never knew about the lab and it's obvious a New Republic trick to justify their actions. [[spoiler:He's half-right: the lab is bait for the Republic by a clone of Ysanne Isard who is playing them and Krennel off against each other, and the superweapon indeed doesn't exist.]]

* Pennsic, the Society for Creative Anachronism's annual simulated-warfare camping event, got started when Cariadoc of the Bow declared war on ''himself''. While serving as King of SCA's kingdom in the Midwest, he sent a challenge to war to the then-king of the Eastern seaboard, who laughed it off. Not long after, Cariadoc moved to the East coast in RealLife, where he ascended to become King of the East; a new incumbent was elevated to "rule" the Midwest. Digging up the challenge he'd previously issued, he raised the call to "War" against his former kingdom, mustered his forces to battle those of his Midwestern successor at the border in western Pennsylvania ... and ''lost''.

* Pennsic, the Society for Creative Anachronism's annual simulated-warfare camping event, got started when Cariadoc of the Bow declared war on ''himself''. While serving as King of SCA's kingdom in the Midwest, he sent a challenge to war to the then-king of the Eastern seaboard, who laughed it off. Not long after, Cariadoc moved to the East coast in RealLife, where he ascended to become King of the East. Digging up the challenge he'd previously issued, he raised the call to "War" against his former kingdom, mustered his forces to battle those of the Midwest at the border in western Pennsylvania ... and ''lost''.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'': As a small kingdom to the south with a pitifully small army and an abundance of [[GreenRocks Septium]] ore, Liberl made an easy target for the Erebonian Empire. Unfortunately for said empire, civil unrest among the Reformist and noble factions left the government in a politically sensitive position. To tip the scales in their favor, a small village on the border named [[spoiler:Hamel]] was mercilessly butchered down to the last man, woman, and child. The official story [[spoiler:pinned it on Liberlian soldiers, but in fact were Jaegers in disguise]]. This is why several characters in the overall Trails series have [[DarkAndTroubledPast plenty of trauma to go around]] as the handful of survivors to escape. A deciding factor that ended the war was [[spoiler:the condition that no one on either side was to reveal the truth about Hamel]] as an act of truce. The climax of the ''Second Chapter'' reveals that [[spoiler:the main villain Weisman whispered the name to select people to suggest the idea in the first place, which would give him the opportunity to mold whoever survived into the perfect slave for him to control.]]
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel: Despite the games taking place in Erebonia, the nation responsible for the burning of [[spoiler:Hamel]], the truth of the incident isn't discussed until the third game, which gives more insight into why the incident happened. Commoners were rising up in rank in the Imperial Army, and nobles in the army weren't okay with that. These nobles are the ones [[spoiler:Weissman]] convinces to attack [[spoiler:Hamel]] as a pretext for the Hundred Days War, which they could brag about as an achievement. Gilliath Osborne, a leader in the Imperial Army and one of the commoners despised by those nobles, warns them to not attack [[spoiler:Hamel]]. In response, they hire jaegers to attack his home, leading to the death of his wife and his son [[spoiler:Rean]] almost dying. The only reason [[spoiler:Rean]] doesn't die is because [[spoiler:Osborne makes a DealWithTheDevil to save his son's life]]. Osborne is the one who negotiated with Liberl and managed to stop the war under the condition that [[spoiler:everyone who knows about Hamel keep quiet about the truth]]. The way Osborne managed to deal with the Hundred Days War won him the trust of Emperor Eugent III, who responds by making him the first commoner-born chancellor in Erebonia's history. This serves as the StartOfDarkness for Osborne, who would go on to become the EvilChancellor and BigBad of the Cold Steel games.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'': As a small kingdom to the south with a pitifully small army and an abundance of [[GreenRocks Septium]] ore, Liberl made an easy target for the Erebonian Empire. Unfortunately for said empire, Civil unrest among the Reformist and noble factions left the government in a politically sensitive position. To tip the scales in their favor, a small village on the border named [[spoiler:Hamel]] was mercilessly butchered down to the last man, woman, and child. The official story [[spoiler:pinned it on Liberlian soldiers, but in fact were Jaegers in disguise]]. This is why several characters in the overall ''[[VideoGame/KisekiSeries Trails]] series have [[DarkAndTroubledPast plenty of trauma to go around]] as the handful of survivors to escape. A deciding factor that ended the war was [[spoiler:the condition that no one on either side was to reveal the truth about Hamel]] as an act of truce. The climax of the ''Second Chapter'' reveals that [[spoiler:the main villain Weisman whispered the name to select people to suggest the idea in the first place, which would give him the opportunity to mold whoever survived into the perfect slave for him to control.]]

* ''Recap/TintinTheBrokenEar'': A CorruptCorporateExecutive encourages Tintin (then working as the aide to a BananaRepublic's dictator) to declare war on a neighbouring country. Tintin point-blank refuses, so the executive frames him and he's forced to flee the country in a staff car. The car is fired upon by the [[BorderCrossing border guards]] and the incident is then used as an excuse for war.

* A heroic example occurs in ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'', with [[spoiler:LDS]] (Group A) taking advantage of the team from [[spoiler:Academia]] (Group B) going to [[spoiler: Miami City]] (part of A's territory) on a mission to kidnap two LivingMacGuffin characters. Group A gets footage of B's soldiers using hyper-advanced MagiTech weapons to [[spoiler: seal the souls of]] ([[GettingCrapPastTheRadar metaphor]] [[NeverSayDie for murder]]) bystanders that get caught in the crossfire. The propaganda created from the footage convinces the people of A's home that B is invading, and that they must militarize and fight back. The reason why it's a heroic example is because B already has invaded a different [[spoiler:dimension]] and committed genocide upon it's inhabitants; [[FramingTheGuiltyParty it just hasn't moved onto A's home]] ''[[FramingTheGuiltyParty yet]]'', and the people running A want to ensure that their home is capable of defending itself when the need arises.

* A heroic example occurs in ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'', with [[spoiler:LID]] (Group A) taking advantage of the team from [[spoiler:Duel Academy]] (Group B) going to [[spoiler: Paradise City]] (part of A's territory) on a mission to kidnap two LivingMacGuffin characters. Group A gets footage of B's soldiers using hyper-advanced MagiTech weapons to [[spoiler: seal the souls of]] ([[GettingCrapPastTheRadar metaphor]] [[NeverSayDie for murder]]) bystanders that get caught in the crossfire. The propaganda created from the footage convinces the people of A's home that B is invading, and that they must militarize and fight back. The reason why it's a heroic example is because B already has invaded a different [[spoiler:dimension]] and committed genocide upon it's inhabitants; [[FramingTheGuiltyParty it just hasn't moved onto A's home]] ''[[FramingTheGuiltyParty yet]]'', and the people running A want to ensure that their home is capable of defending itself when the need arises.

* ''The Emperor's Coloured Coat'' by John Biggins. Otto Prohaska gets caught up in the plot to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand to create a pretext for war against Serbia. There are indications that the Austrian chief of staff is behind it, and he never finds out if the Archduke's death was part of the conspiracy or simply a lucky break by the assassins, who were so incompetent it was assumed they'd be easily caught. Regardless, as the assassination triggers World War One and the break-up of Austria-Hungary, it turned out to be an even bigger cock-up.

* In perhaps one of the most poorly thought out attacks in history, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour during World War II was intended to scare the US into remaining neutral rather than joining the Allies. Of course, the US had been aiding the Allies with supplies for years at that point and had been desperately searching for a reason to justify entering into the war in a military capacity. This was less about justifying it internationally -- the other Allied forces were happy to have the US join the fight and would not have complained regardless of the pretext -- and more about justifying it domestically, since public opinion within the US was fairly split about whether they should enter the war. Then the Japanese attacked and any resistance to joining the war evaporated as now it would look worse NOT to retaliate.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E8TheHungryEarth "The Hungry Earth"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E9ColdBlood "Cold Blood"]]: Alaya, the Silurian captured by the humans, hopes to be killed and tries to get killed, just to start a war between the two species.

** ''[[ComicBook/XWingSeries X-Wing: Isard's Revenge]]'' uses this for some MoralDissonance. The New Republic is picking a fight with the neutral (if admittedly pro-Imperial) Ciutric Hegemony. Prince-Admiral Krennel is obviously not a nice man, but the best pretext the New Republic can come up with for starting the war is Krennel's execution of Sate Pestage several years previously when the latter tried to defect to the Rebellion, which at worst is a case of KickTheSonOfABitch (Pestage was an AssholeVictim). One pilot from Toprawa notes with some bitterness that her home planet deep within Imperial territory is being repressed much more harshly than the worlds in the Hegemony due to her people's role in the theft of the Death Star plans, while even the generally saintly Admiral Ackbar more or less confesses that going after Krennel is as much about New Republic sabre-rattling to frighten bigger warlords like Teradoc as it about "liberating" the people under his rule (it takes place in the immediate aftermath of [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Grand Admiral Thrawn's invasion of the New Republic]] and the Republic brass doesn't want the remaining warlords getting ideas). And then things get muddled further when the New Republic stumbles upon a hidden lab that they claim proves that Krennel is trying to build another planet-killing superweapon, while Krennel claims that he never knew about the lab and it's obvious a New Republic trick to justify their actions. [[spoiler:He's half-right: the lab is bait for the Republic by a clone of Ysanne Isard who is playing them and Krennel off against each other, and the superweapon indeed doesn't exist.]]

** FalseFlagOperation aside, there is compelling evidence to suggest that 9/11 was used to justify a first-strike in Iraq for reasons varying from personal (such as removing Saddam Huessein from power) to financial (such as [[CorruptCorporateExecutive taking all of Iraqs oil and getting filthy rich]]).

* In perhaps one of the most poorly thought out attacks in history, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour during World War II was intended to scare the US into remaining neutral rather than joining the Allies. Of course, the US had been aiding the allies with supplies for years at that point and had been desperately searching for a reason to justify entering into the war in a military capacity. This was less about justifying it internationally -- the other Allied forces were happy to have the US join the fight and would not have complained regardless of the pretext -- and more about justifying it domestically, since public opinion within the US was fairly split about whether they should enter the war. Then the Japanese attacked and any resistance to joining the war evaporated as now it would look worse NOT to retaliate.

** Eh, the YourMom taunt can infuriate many immortal, parentless beings. [[Webcomic/CaptainSNES Amon fell for it]].

* Used in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2'', where Vladimir Makarov, a major Russian extremist terrorist, perpetuates a massacre in an airport in the middle of Moscow while Private Joseph Allen, an American CIA agent, is planted in his inner circle. However, Makarov knows about Allen, and the Private is killed and dumped in the airport, and his body used as a pretext by the war-happy Ultranationalists to give them an excuse to invade the United States. The fact that as of ''Modern Warfare 3'' [[spoiler: Makarov appears to be covertly in control of the entire Russian military]] helped sell this.

* Creator/ParadoxInteractive's grand strategy games usually require you to come up with a Casus Belli before you can declare war on someone:

* In ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' the Klingon Empire uses Undine infiltration of the Gorn as an excuse for stepping up their border war with them into a full-scale invasion, and later retroactively try to use the same excuse to justify attacking the Federation (even though they had openly admitted in the {{backstory}} that they were just after territory).

** The Chiss are only allowed to go to war if provoked (i.e. the other guy has to shoot first), so developing a pretext for preemptive strikes [[BatmanGambit becomes a veritable art form]] for the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force. The CEDF wanted to take out the marauding [[PlanetLooters Vagaari]] for decades but were never directly attacked, so in ''Literature/SurvivorsQuest'' they [[spoiler:trick the Vagaari into attacking a Chiss diplomat (and the Skywalkers)]], then into [[spoiler:hitting a major CEDF base]]. They take this ''very'' seriously; in the other half of the story, ''Outbound Flight'', a Chiss Captain intervenes in a fight between the main Vagaari fleet and the titular Republic ship (which he had orchestrated with the help of a Republic smuggler). Despite smashing them utterly with a handful of picket ships, he gets exiled for it.
** ''[[ComicBook/XWingSeries X-Wing: Isard's Revenge]]'' uses this for some MoralDissonance. The New Republic is picking a fight with the neutral (if admittedly pro-Imperial) Ciutric Hegemony. Prince-Admiral Krennel is obviously not a nice man, but the best pretext the New Republic can come up with for starting the war is Krennel's execution of Sate Pestage several years previously when the latter tried to defect to the Rebellion, which at worst is a case of KickTheSonOfABitch. One pilot from Toprawa notes with some bitterness that her home planet deep within Imperial territory is being repressed much more harshly than the worlds in the Hegemony due to her people's role in the theft of the Death Star plans, while even the generally saintly Admiral Ackbar more or less confesses that going after Krennel is as much about New Republic sabre-rattling to frighten bigger warlords like Teradoc as it about "liberating" the people under his rule. And then things get muddled further when the New Republic stumbles upon a hidden lab that they claim proves that Krennel is trying to build another planet-killing superweapon, while Krennel claims that he never knew about the lab and it's obvious a New Republic trick to justify their actions.

* When the Romulans in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' aren't trying to destabilize other superpowers, they're trying to lure the Federation into making some blunder that would justify them making a first strike. They actually got pretty close with Picard and a traitor they were stringing along, but Picard hedged his bets and brought some Klingon backup, so they decided it wasn't worth the risk. Aside from the subterfuge being their [[PlanetOfHats hat]], the Romulans go to such lengths because they don't want to be caught in a two-front war with the Klingons, who would provide assistance if the Romulans outright attacked.

* ''ComicBook/FuryMAX'': An ex-Hydra agent meets up with Fury and suggests that they start a war somewhere to give each other something to do (what with the Soviet Union gone, SHIELD has suffered major budget cuts and is now led by an ObstructiveBureaucrat. Garin proceeds to start a war in a island BananaRepublic and does everything he can to escalate the conflict, with Fury barely preventing a full world war, killing the man himself but losing his squad. And to his horror, Garin's last words ring true in his mind- "If I hadn't done it, you would have".