A suggestion that an old battleship might be sacrificed to create a casus belli leads to USS Maine and the Spanish-American War. The explosion is attributed to maintenance and management problems aboard the ship. Political actors later exploited the loss, but that use does not turn the physical cause into an arranged conspiracy. The passage separates an event from the narratives and policy choices built around it.
Notable Point · 35:41-36:36
USS Maine: accident before exploitation
A comparison with USS Maine separates an accidental ship loss from the political exploitation that followed it.