After the Allied victory in Europe during WW2, the Allies sent a telegran demanding that the Imperial Japanese armies surrender. The japanese government responded that it was withholding immediate comment on the ultimatum, pending "deliberations" by the japanese government.
Unfortunately, the official Japanese government news agency, in the heat of issuing this statement in English. translated the japanese word for "witholding for the time being" to "deliberatly ignore".
A number of scientists and scholars have stated that if the ultimatum had not been so forcefully rejected, President Truman might never have authorized the atomic bomb attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
-quoted from David Frost's Book of World's Worst Decisions
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