Nürnberg's most significant contribution to the affairs of man would probably remain the trial's underlying principle: that aggressive warfare is a crime. Last week, the principle was put to two telling tests:
¶ Just as the Russian prosecution was winding up its case, Hermann Göring's counsel, Otto Stahmer, rose, loaded down with notes from his client. He asked that the defense be permitted to attempt proof that Germany's violation of the Versailles Treaty constituted "retaliation" against Allied treaty transgressions. Britain's Sir David Maxwell Fyfe retorted: "For the defense to say that other people did the same thing is entirely irrelevant....
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