# Has any nation EVER militarily invaded/intervened in another exclusively due to human rights? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 22, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826 "2016-02-22T19:57:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826/21 "2016-02-24T15:44:23Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > The North fighting a war with the south to end slavery. The war was fought to preserve the Union. It didn’t become about slavery until much later (on the Union side, at least. The South fought for slavery from the very beginning). ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826/22 "2016-02-24T15:52:21Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > The North fighting a war with the south to end slavery. > > Vietnam invaded Cambodia effectively ending the killing fields. However that was just a byproduct of other reasons. > > The US cut off trade with Japan over Nanking and other atrocities in China which lead to war. > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Vietnam invaded Cambodia not out of humanitarian reasons, which the OP is looking for, but because the Khmer Rouge army kept making large incursions across the border into Vietnam. One especially infamous incident was their [massacre of all but two of the 3157 people living in the border town of Ba Chuc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge#Fall). > [@RandMcnally](#): > > The war was fought to preserve the Union. It didn’t become about slavery until much later (on the Union side, at least. The South fought for slavery from the very beginning). And to make it three for three, I’m not sure the US cutting off trade to anyone counts as military intervention regardless of the later military actions of the country being cut. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826/23 "2016-02-24T17:26:17Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > The war was fought to preserve the Union. It didn’t become about slavery until much later (on the Union side, at least. The South fought for slavery from the very beginning). Yeah, Lincoln basically retconned it into a fight to end slavery when it became apparent that support for the war was waning. Lincoln personally didn’t care if slavery ever got ended; his letters make this clear. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826/24 "2016-02-24T18:36:08Z")
Fascist Italy justified their invasion of Ethiopia in part on the grounds of abolishing slavery. Which should make us all very suspicious of ‘humanitarian’ arguments for international occupations. Though I will certainly give the Vietnamese Communists lots of props for taking out Pol Pot. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826/25 "2016-02-25T02:54:11Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > The war was fought to preserve the Union. It didn’t become about slavery until much later (on the Union side, at least. The South fought for slavery from the very beginning). “Slavery” was at the root cause of any issue that caused the Union to need preserving. You can play the “state’s rights” or “preserving Southern culture” cards if you like, but it was about state’s rights and culture of owning black people. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826/26 "2016-02-25T03:17:43Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Yeah, Lincoln basically retconned it into a fight to end slavery when it became apparent that support for the war was waning. Lincoln personally didn’t care if slavery ever got ended; his letters make this clear. The Civil War certainly wasn’t fought for humanitarian reasons on the Union side; it was fought by the Federal government as a matter of national survival for the United States. And Lincoln made it clear in the early part of the war that he did not believe he had any authority as President of the United States to abolish slavery, and that _as President of the United States_ he believed it was his paramount duty to preserve the Union; that is, to prevent the country he had been elected to be president of from being destroyed. But it’s a massive overstatement to say that Lincoln “personally didn’t care if slavery ever got ended”; he was clearly personally and politically opposed to slavery, and had been for many years before he was elected President. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826/27 "2016-02-25T05:40:35Z")
Both sides of the Civil War knew that if the north won, slavery would end. So while yes, their were other issues I’d still say ending slavery was a central part of the war. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826/28 "2016-02-25T14:26:38Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > So while yes, their were other issues I’d still say ending slavery was a central part of the war. Dude, it really was not a humanitarian war 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826/29 "2016-02-25T14:34:57Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > The North fighting a war with the south to end slavery. … No, the South went to war against the North to _preserve_ slavery – they were the ones who attacked, and it was about as anti-humanitarian as it was possible for a war to be until that guy in Germany … who? ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826/30 "2016-02-26T00:38:09Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > “Slavery” was at the root cause of any issue that caused the Union to need preserving. You can play the “state’s rights” or “preserving Southern culture” cards if you like, but it was about state’s rights and culture of owning black people. I know this. I didn’t write anything that said the war was about “state’s rights.” ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826/31 "2016-02-26T01:01:56Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > Dude, it really was not a humanitarian war 😃 > [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > No, the South went to war against the North to _preserve_ slavery – they were the ones who attacked, and it was about as anti-humanitarian as it was possible for a war to be until that guy in Germany … who? The above bears repeating. The South is the side that attacked. The North was simply responding. And despite what “everyone knew” about slavery ending if the North won – and early on in the war, it was by no means a given that slavery would end – the North did not have the end of slavery as an objective when it first sent troops into the South. Ending slavery did not become government policy until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, almost two full years after the start of the war, and even that covered only the states in rebellion. It did not cover the four Border States under Union control(Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware), where separate decrees were required later on to end slavery there. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826/32 "2016-02-26T01:06:41Z")
Doesn’t the 1979 failed rescue attempt of US embassy employees in Iran count? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826/33 "2016-02-26T01:16:21Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > Doesn’t the 1979 failed rescue attempt of US embassy employees in Iran count? I would not think so. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-nation-ever-militarily-invaded-intervened-in-another-exclusively-due-to-human-rights/746826/34 "2016-02-26T01:52:40Z")
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