Introduction For most Americans the globe-girdling catastrophe that we call the Second World War is now a matter

neither of personal experience nor of memory, but of wood pulp and celluloid, books and films. Larger still is the ma ority for whom the cataclysmic First World War - once spoken of as !"he #reat War! - is ancient history, an antic prelude to what those who participated in it sometimes like to call !"he $ig %ne.! For most of us, perhaps, the two wars compare as do contrasting mo&ies from the two eras. %ur image of the First World War is brief, grainy, silent, with black-and-white, herky- erky doughboys !going o&er the top!' we picture the Second as panoramic, technicolor, re&erberating with stereophonic sound and fury, armadas of ships and planes and tanks sweeping forward to destiny. A further disparity may be found in the popular historical and political assessment, such as it is, of the two wars. "he ma ority of Americans doubtless still belie&es that the key to the Second World War is a simple one( a.demonic megalomaniac, Adolf )itler, rose up to lead #ermany to world domination and instead led his people to welldeser&ed ruin. *et the &iew of the First World War held by the Americans of today, it is safe to say, is rather more tepid than the white-hot feelings of many of their grandparents in +,+-, when !+..-per-cent Americans! agitated to !)ang the /aiser0! and mobs sacked #erman newspaper offices and presses in the worst outbreak of ethnic bigotry in our country1s history. For the contemporary generation the origins and course of the First World War are murky and

obscure. 2&en the terrible hecatombs of the Western Front ha&e faded into obli&ion, and /aiser $ill and his spikehelmeted )uns ha&e long since been superseded by the Fuehrer and his goose-stepping myrmidons. "he e&ident lack of interest of e&en the literate American public in their country1s first !famous &ictory! of this century has been mirrored to a certain extent by the professional historians of the Left-Liberal 2stablishment, which of course holds sway in the colleges and uni&ersities of not only American but the entire Western world. "he professors ha&e their reasons, howe&er. "he more competent among them are aware that shortly after the First World War, in a signal achie&ement of historical scholarship, 3e&isionist writers in this country and in 2urope unmasked the mendacious propaganda disseminated by the $ritish, French, "sarist 3ussian, and American go&ernments. 4rofessors such as Sidney $radshaw Fay, 5ax 5ontgelas, #eorges 6emartial, and the incomparable )arry 2lmer $arnes o&erthrew the historiographical and moral underpinnings of the &erdict expressed in Article 78+ of the onerous "reaty of 9ersailles, that #ermany and her allies had imposed an aggressi&e war on the "riple 2ntente and thus bore all responsibility for the calamity. "he 2nglishman Arthur 4onsonby demonstrated ust as con&incingly that the atrocity charges against the #ermans, including such canards as a !cada&er factory! for soap and the like from the corpses of fallen #erman soldiers, were manufactured and spread by teams of talented fabricators,

not a few of them, like Arnold "oynbee, reputable men of scholarship ostensibly dedicated to the search for truth. "he modern school of historical obfuscators, propagandists more than scholars, and thus cogni:ant of the need for a consistent pattern of #erman !guilt! and !aggression! throughout this century, long ago undertook to roll back and suppress the achie&ements of 3e&isionist scholarship on the origins of the First World War. ;nspired by the #erman renegade Frit: Fischer, whose Griff nach der Weltmacht (Germany's Bid for World Power) <+,=+>, they hailed with hysterical relief, they ha&e dismissed with so&ereign disdain the notion that powers such as France, the $ritish 2mpire, "sarist 3ussia, or Serbia might ha&e been moti&ated by aggressi&e designs. "he professors ha&e employed a second sleight-of-hand trick against 3e&isionist findings. ;t has been their tactic to separate ?uite artificially the origins and course of the war from its result, the 4aris peace treaties, abo&e all that of 9ersailles, and from the ineluctable conse?uences which flowed from that result. For them, and for their public of uni&ersity students and educated laymen, 9ersailles was an entirely ustified conse?uence of the war, and Adolf )itler sprang up either as a manifestation of the #erman nation1s twisted !id! <Freud and his numerous epigoni and camp followers> or the puppet of the !3uhr barons! <the 5arxists>, propelled along his way by something these professors are always careful to refer to as the !stab-in-the-back legend.! %ur leftist educators ha&e also been adept at e&ading an honest e&aluation of the 3ed terror which swept across

@entral and 2astern 2urope in the wake of the #erman collapse, although they ha&e wept copious tears behind their pink spectacles o&er the crushing of @ommunist untas in $a&aria, $erlin, and $udapest. "he deliberate failure of the professors to make sense of the cataclysmic e&ents of +,+A-+,7. in 2urope has now been redressed, howe&er, by a man of both learning and action, a confidante of statesmen and a worthy comrade of heroes( the $elgian exile Leon 6egrelle. Leon 6egrelle, who was born in +,.= in the sleepy little town of $ouillon, now a backwater in $elgium1s Luxembourg pro&ince, but once the seat of #odefroy de $ouillon, first @rusader king of Berusalem, speaks in a &oice few Americans will be familiar with. Frenchspeaking, @atholic, 2uropean with a continental, not an insular, perspecti&e, the man who nearly o&erturned his country1s corrupt power elite in the +,8.1s thinks in a perspecti&e alien to our <comparati&ely recent> intellectual heritage of pragmatism, positi&ism, and unbounded faith in the ine&itability of !progress.! $efore all a man of action, 6egrelle is in a tradition of &italism, combining an inborn elan and chi&alry with a hard-eyed, instinctual grasp of the calculus that determines politics - acti&ity in relation to power - today foreign, for the most part, to the !AngloSaxon! nations. ;t was precisely 6egrelle1s will to heroic action in the defense of 2urope and its &alues that led him to raise a &olunteer force of his French-speaking countrymen, many of them followers of his pre-war 3exist political mo&ement,

and to ally with his country1s con?ueror, Adolf )itler, in a 2uropean crusade against @ommunism and @ommunism1s citadel, the So&iet Cnion. 6egrelle, who has matchlessly recounted his role in that struggle (Campaign in Russia: The Waffen on the !astern "ront, ;nstitute for )istorical 3e&iew, "orrance, @A, +,DE>, began the pro ect to which this &olume is the introduction in his late se&enties. From the &antage point offered by decades of reflection in his Spanish exile, the former charismatic political leader and highly decorated combat &eteran has undertaken nothing less than the thorough, searching, and <insofar as possible> ob ecti&e account of the character and career of the man who once told him, !;f ; had a son, ; would want him to be like you!( Adolf )itler. "hose inclined to dismiss 6egrelle1s ob ecti&ity in examing the life of his commander-in-chief with a supercilious sneer will shortly ha&e the mandatory for 2stablishment scholars on so much as mentioning the dread name. ;ndeed, ample material for comparison already exists in the fawning name. ;ndeed, ample material for comparison already exists in the fawning biographical homages offered to 3oose&elt and @hurchill by their one-time courtiers and authori:ed hagiographers, not to mention the sla&ish panegyrics offered the Western leaders1 ally and boon companion, Stalin, by his sycophants <not a few of them residents and citi:ens of the Western !democracies!>. "here are those readers who will fault this first &olume of 6egrelle1s ambitious pro ect, which demonstrates the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the bourgeois leadership of

the West and their una&oidable responsibility for the rise of )itler. Some will ob ect that it might ha&e been more scholarly, while others will ?uibble that it ought to ha&e gi&en recognition to more recent trends in the historiography of the First World War. Such criticisms miss the point of 6egrelle1s work, to reach the broadest interested and intelligent public with an approach the French ha&e styled haute &ulgarisation, which is to say, populari:ation of a high order. ;ndeed )itler( Born at #ersailles, in encompassing the turbulent years +,+A-+,7., boasts a thematic unity that few but 6egrelle could ha&e brought to the period. For in chronicling the shady plots and complots of the 2uropean regimes before the war, the awful bloodbaths of the Western and 2astern fronts, and the fall of empires and the rise of @ommunism after the war, 6egrelle is telling of the collapse of +,th-century 2urope - its economic liberalism, its parliamentary democracy, its self-satisfied imperialism, its irrational faith in reason and progress. )e is, furthermore, hammering mercilessly at the puny successors of the 4oincarFs, the Lloyd #eorges, and the Wilsons, the present-day !liberals! and !conser&ati&es! who dominate in the go&ernments and the academies and the media( skewering their baneful lies one by one. 6egrelle knows that there is little that is more contemptible than the posturing of our academics, who sni&el their lo&e of peace at e&ery instance where it means supine ac?uiescence in the latest ad&ance of @ommunism or of

ata&istic sa&agery under the banner of !self-determination! or some other such transparent lie, but who dilate with sanguinary enthusiasm o&er the !necessity! of the blood baths that marked the two world wars of this century. )ow the professors and the publicists lo&e to chide @hamberlain and 6aladier, the $ritish and French leaders at 5unich in +,8D, for their !appeasement,! in attempting to sta&e off yet another fratricidal war0 4erhaps only a combat-hardened &eteran like 6egrelle, on intimate terms with the horrors of war, can be a true man of peace. ;t is 6egrelle1s passionate desire for a 2urope, and a West, united abo&e the nationalistic prides and rancors of the past, which leads him to what for many 3e&isonists on both sides of the Atlantic will regard as his most contro&ersial stance( his firm and sometimes strident condemnation of the balance-of-power policy of the $ritish 2mpire. "he reader should bear in mind that 6egrelle1s hostility is aimed not at the 2nglish, Scottish, or Welsh nations, but at the go&ernments that ha&e made $ritish policy during this century, with such catastrophic results not only for the West, but for the people of $ritain as well. ;n any case this panoramic introduction to the life and times of Adolf )itler, the key figure of this century, is a grand beginning to a pro ect worthy of 6egrelle, the $elgian who sought the #olden Fleece as the @aucasus in the ser&ice of his nation and his culture nearly fifty years ago. Theodore J. O'Keefe Bune, +,D-

Author's Preface An assassination which might ha&e remained no more than an outra- geous incident in the history of terrorism has instead had a decisi&e and disastrous impact on the twentieth century. ;t pro&oked the !#reat War! of +,+A+,+D' made possible the %ctober 3e&olution of the So&iets in +,+-' enabled )itler1s rise to power in +,88 and subse?uently a Second World War' and abo&e all, the confrontation of the two contemporary giants, the C.S.S.3. and the Cnited States, with, as its issue sooner or later, a de&astating "hird World War. What seemed at first a transient, if ma or, news story - the murder of Austria-)ungary1s Archduke Fran: Ferdinand and his wife at Sara e&o in $osnia on Bune 7D, +,+A - would in se&eral days be re&ealed as the fruit of a con&oluted political plot. At first the affair seemed limited to Austria and Serbia, notoriously ?uarrelsome neighbors. $ut at the end of four weeks, it was clear that the Serbs, at the threshold of the $alkans, had been cunningly manipulated by 4an-Sla&ists in the imperial 3ussian court. For its part, the Austrian go&ernment was oined to #ermany by a political and military alliance. ;n turn, the 3ussian go&ernment was linked by a military treaty to the

rulers of France, desperate to regain Alsace- Lorraine from #ermany, which had annexed those pro&inces in +D-+. Furthermore, the $ritish establishment, incensed at the rise of #ermany1s economic power and the expansion of its fleet, had mo&ed e&er closer to France and its recent ri&al, 3ussia, in the pre&ious few years. "he stage was thus set for a cataclysm which would shake the White world with unprecedented fury. Within fi&e weeks, thanks to se&eral bullets fired by a nonentity in a sleepy $alkan town, the great powers of 2urope would be at each other1s throats. "hen, with neither the "riple 2ntente of $ritain, France, and 3ussia nor the 6ual Alliance of #ermany and Austria-)ungary able to force the other to yield, the warring nations would find no other solution but to drag nineteen other countries into the slaughter. $y &irtue of promises as false as they were contradictory, the competing sides would offer the selfsame spoils of war in secret compacts with two and sometimes three different nations. 5illions of people would be auctioned off, without their knowledge or consent, as booty for their nations1 bitterest ri&als. "o arouse anti-#erman hatred to a fe&er pitch, the powers of the 2ntente charged the #ermans with the most shameful atrocities, stirring up a &engeful fury which, together with the short-sighted greed and stupidity of the &ictors, would result in the "reaty of 9ersailles. "his treaty, which crushed 2urope1s foremost power, #ermany, beneath a burden of shame and reparations, which amputated &ital territories from the body of the nation, and rendered it defenseless against enemies within and without, at length was successful only in pro&oking a new and ine&itable

2uropean war. "he intelligent minds of 2urope foresaw the conse?uences of this treaty e&en before it was imposed. %ne of the principal negotiators, $ritain1s 6a&id Lloyd #eorge, warned the treaty makers at 4aris in +,+,( !;f peace is made under these conditions, it will be the source of a new war.! And so it was, for without the "reaty of 9ersailles the rise of an unknown infantryman, born in Austria and hardened on the Western Front to absolute power in #ermany would ha&e been an impossibility. Adolf )itler came into the world at $raunau-am-;nn, but politically he was born at 9ersailles. Bune 7,, +,+,, the day the treaty was signed, not only ended the First World War - it began the Second.

Ambush at Sarajevo

CHAPTE I !"ac# Hand In Sarajevo "he twenty-eighth of Bune, +,+A, was a warm and sunny day all across 2urope. Few could ha&e suspected that this outwardly tran?uil summer day would be written in blood on the calendar of history, and that this fateful Bune day would be the precursor of so many blood-red Bune days for 2urope in this century, from the conclusion of the "reaty of

9ersailles in Bune +,+, to the surrender of France in +,A. to the !6-6ay! landings of +,AA to the dismantling of the old 2uropean order at 4otsdam in Bune +,AE. Gowhere on that fateful day did the sun1s rays beat down more implacably than at Sara e&o, a sleepy $alkan town in $osnia. "he former seat of a pro&ince of the %ttoman empire, it was oriental in appearance, with white-minareted mos?ues towering o&er the winding streets of the ba:aar. Administered by the Austro-)ungarian 2mpire since +D-D, annexed outright in +,.D, it was a place where little out of the ordinary e&er took place. %n this day, howe&er, the most important man in the Austro-)ungarian 2mpire, the Archduke Fran: Ferdinand, was &isiting. )e was the heir to the )absburg throne on which the ancient Fran: Boseph sat, who, at eighty-six, after sixty-six years of rule, had been drained by illness and care. "he archduke was a robust man, his breast ingling with medals, his helmet richly plumed, an ardent hunter who had filled the palaces and hunting lodges of 2urope with his antlered trophies. "he heir had come to Sara e&o in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Austro-)ungarian army, to obser&e maneu&ers which were being carried out se&eral miles away. Fran: Ferdinand and his consort, Sophie, rode along the ?uay beside Sara e&o1s 5il ach 3i&er &irtually unprotected on their way to the town hall. "heir four-car procession was barely underway when a young terrorist aimed a bomb at the archduke. "he bomb glanced off the back of the archduke1s car and exploded beneath the following &ehicle, in uring two officers, one of whom was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Fran: Ferdinand and his wife, shaken but unhurt, continued on to the town hall, where the archduke angrily rebuked the mayor for his city1s lack of hospitality. "hen the little motorcade set off for the hospital in which the wounded young officer was being treated. "he lead car, in which the mayor sat, made a wrong turn, and the archduke1s car followed it. "he military go&ernor of $osnia, #eneral 4otiorek, alertly signaled the dri&er to back up and return to the planned route. As the dri&er braked, a young man stepped forth, took careful aim, and fired two shots into the open car. %ne shot struck Fran: Ferdinand in the neck. "he other hit his wife Sophie, the 6utchess of )ohenberg, in the stomach. As she slumped against her husband, his green tunic co&ered with blood, he murmured, !Sophie, li&e for our children.! "he couple died within minutes after the attack. $$$ "he news of his nephew and heir1s assassination was recei&ed by 2mperor Fran: Bosef at his palace in 9ienna, the )ofburg, with unseemly coolness. "he old man bore a grudge against Fran: Ferdinand, perhaps partially because the archduke had succeeded Fran: Bosef1s own son, 3udolf, who died in a tragic dual suicide with his lo&er, 5arie 9etsera, in the royal hunting lodge at 5ayerling twenty-fi&e years before. 5ore important, Fran: Ferdinand1s wife Sophie, although a countess from an old @:ech family, was far inferior in blood and rank to the standards prescribed by custom and law for a )absburg empress. When Fran: Ferdinand

married her in +,.., he was forced to renounce all possibility of either his wife or their future children assuming the )absburg throne. A morganatic marriage-unforgi&able crime in the monarchical profession0 "o be sure, crowned heads are allowed mistresses and e&en bastards, perfectly permissible !amorous ad&entures.! $ut if a 3udolf of )absburg, a Fran: Ferdinand, an 2dward 9;;; of 2ngland, or a Leopold ;;;, /ing of the $elgians, does not limit his choice to the princely game preser&e of obligatory spouses, let him beware0 So it was that at the state funeral for Archduke Fran: Ferdinand and his wife in 9ienna, the slain couple rode apart, in separate hearses, the Archduke1s a ma estic affair decked in black plumes and drawn with black horses, trailed by a procession of dignitaries of state and court, Sophie1s following behind, notably less magnificent. At the cathedral her coffin was laid out one step below that of her husband. ;n lieu of a crown, the coffin of the Archduke1s wife was decked by the fan of a mere court lady. "he old man was still ashamed of his nephew1s consort, e&en in death. Fran: Bosef had another reason for not being o&erly perturbed at his heir1s &iolent passing. "he archduke1s political ideas and his notions for reforming the empire were anathema to the old monarch, who with each passing year grew e&er more conser&ati&e. ;n +D=- Fran: Bosef had been forced by circumstances <Austria1s defeat by 4russia the year before> to grant the )ungarians an almost e?ual role in what became the dual

monarchy of Austria-)ungary. ;n the following decades the Slays sub ect to )absburg rule had begun to clamor for increased recognition, and Fran: Ferdinand was known to be sympathetic to them, perhaps e&en willing to go so far as to institute a !trial,! or three- way, monarchy. "o the reactionary Fran: Bosef, as well as to the proud 5agyars, ealous of their prerogati&es, trialism posed a gra&e threat to the empire. "here were forces beyond the borders of the empire who found the archduke1s ideas threatening as well. Serbia across the 6anube from Austria-)ungary, was the most &igorous and aggressi&e of the $alkan countries. Sub ect to the rule of the %ttoman "urks for centuries, many of their people con&erts to ;slam, the $alkan landsSerbia, $ulgaria, Albania, 3omania, and #reece-had achie&ed their independence o&er the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. %nce free, they had de&oted their energies to trying to dominate each other, s?uabbling o&er such inextricable intermingled ethnic and religious umbles as 5acedonia and "hrace with a barbarous :eal both murderous and indefatigable. $riefly united in +,+7, the $alkan countries had succeeded in liberating the remainder of the $alkans from "urkish rule, dri&ing the "urks back to the outskirts of @onstantinople, the last "urkish outpost on 2uropean soil. "he following year the Serbs and $ulgarians had gone at one another with sa&age abandon, each determined to rule 5acedonia. "he hapless 5acedonians themsel&es had borne the brunt of the struggle, thousands of them massacred, still more dragooned into the in&ading armies of the Serbs and $ulgarians. Serbia triumphed, for it had won

the backing of a powerful patron, which was determined to use the small $alkan state as the fulcrum for its dri&e to the south and west-the mighty 3ussian 2mpire. 6efeated and humiliated by Bapan in +,.E, the tsarist imperialists had been thwarted in their dri&e to the east. #one were the days of the pre&ious centuries when the @ossacks swept in&incibly across the crystalline snows of Siberia and the great $ear ad&anced into Alaska and down the @alifornia coastline. "he 3ussian na&y had been shown up as ponderously inefficient and outdated. After a bi:arre ad&enture in the Gorth Sea, in which 3ussian ships had fired on 2nglish fishing &essels in the belief that they were Bapanese destroyers, the 3ussian fleet had sailed +.,... miles only to be sent to the bottom by Admiral "ogo1s Bapanese fleet at "sushima Strait in 5ay +,.E. 3ussia1s armies had been bested by the Bapanese in 5anchuria, with the resultant loss for the tsar of 4ort Arthur and the remainder of 5anchuria. "hereafter the imperialists of the 3ussian 2mpire had changed their strategy, seeking to exploit the hopes and fears of their Sla&ic cousins in the $alkans, preeminently the Serbs and the $ulgarians, whose countries offered ready access to the Adriatic and that age-old ob ecti&e of the tsars, the multicolored domes and battlements of @onstantinople, gateway to the warm waters of the 5editerranean. $$$ ;n +,.D, still smarting from their Far 2astern disaster, the 3ussian imperialists and their Serbian proteges had been forced to accept, at the @ongress of London, the annexation by Austria-)ungary of $osnia- )er:ego&ina, a Sla&ic

territory to the west of Serbia and long co&eted by the Serbs. Serbian control of the region would ha&e brought their tsarist masters access to the ports of the Adriatic, but the 3ussians felt themsel&es too weak militarily to press the issue. @hastened but undiscouraged, the imperialist circle around "sar Gicholas ;l-the !4an-Sla&ists!-intensified its acti&ity. Gicholas, dangerous precisely because of his weak will and his eternal &acillation, ga&e them free rein. "he St. 4etersburg regime stirred the already boiling $alkan cauldron e&er more &igorously. 3ussian agents and 3ussian ad&isers ga&e the orders and supplied the wherewithal for the Serbs in their growing ?uarrel with Austria. As the 3ussian minister to Serbia, Gicolai )artwig, indiscreetly remarked to the 3omanian minister, Filaliti, on Go&ember +7, +,+7( !3ussia counts on making Serbia, enlarged by the $alkan pro&inces of Austria-)ungary, the &anguard of 4anSla&ism.! )artwig, the tsar1s ambassador, was the undisputed master of $elgrade, the man whom the French ambassador, 6escos, called !the real so&ereign of Serbia.! %thers referred to )artwig merely as !the &iceroy.! ;n theory the head of state was Serbia1s king, 4eter ;, but /ing 4eter, the grandson of a hog dealer, owed his accession to the throne to a cabal of Serbian plotters who had assassinated the pre&ious king, Alexander %breno&ich, and his ?ueen, 6raga, in a grisly double murder in +,.8. /ing 4eter1s family, the /arageorge&iches, had waged a running feud with their %breno&ich ri&als for most of the preceding century, in one incident of which the chief of the %breno&ich clan had presented the carefully salted head of

one of the /arageorge&iches to the sultan in ;stanbul. 4eter ;1s prime minister, Gicolas 4ashich, was a cunning and malleable man who had switched without undue fits of conscience from being Alexander1s prime minister one day to heading the go&ernment of the king ele&ated by the assassins the next. )e feared the firebrands who had murdered the royal couple' he was willing to ser&e as the tool of the powerful and influential 3ussians. "he interrogation of Archduke Fran: Ferdinand1s assassins in Sara e&o led, slowly and inexorably, to the implication of the highest councils of the Serbian regime. At first tightlipped, the two terrorists, @habrino&ich, who had tossed the bomb which missed the archduke but wounded his officer, and #a&rilo 4rincip, who fired the fatal shots, denied any larger conspiracy. "hey let slip only one name. When asked who had taught them how to shoot they replied( !@igano&ich.! ;n fact, 5ilan @igano&ich, an official of the Ser&ian 3ailway and member of the secret terrorist group, !"he $lack )and,! was a personal agent of 4rime 5inister 4ashich.

CHAPTE II Euro%e eacts )ad the Serbian go&ernment felt itself abo&e suspicion, it would ha&e immediately begun a public in&estigation of a

gra&e crime in which fi&e of its nationals had been in&ol&ed. "o refrain from an in&estigation or e&en from issuing a public statement could only strengthen the growing suspicion in Austria of official Serbian in&ol&ement. ;n fact 4ashich had known of the plot weeks before Bune 7Dth. As the 2nglish historian #eorge 5alcolm "homson was later to write( "his tall, good-looking man, whose dignified beard and imposing presence disguised one of the cunningest foxes of the $alkans, knew about the pro ected murder almost as soon as it was planned. 4erhaps he had heard about it accidentally, through some ea&esdropper in one of the handful of $elgrade cafes where politics was discussed. 5ore likely, an agent of his, a railway clerk named #agino&ich, who was also a member of the $lack )and, passed the news on to him. (The Twel$e %ays& p' ()) "hus the conspiracy could ha&e been thwarted in ad&ance. ;n that case, howe&er, 4ashich would ha&e certainly incurred the &engeance of the $lack )and. Since the bearded old politician &alued his skin, he feared to ?uash the plot openly. %n the other hand 4ashich was anxious to co&er himself against any accusations of complicity from the Austrian side. )e hit upon the expedient of deli&ering a &eiled and delphic warning to the Austrians, which was deli&ered by the Serbian ambassador to 9ienna to the Austrian minister of finance, Leon $ilinski, a 4ole from #alicia, among whose duties was to administer $osnia. $ilinski, who was no loyal supporter of the Austro- )ungarian empire <he was to defect during the course of the war>, either made little of

the Serbian ambassador1s obli?ue warning that the archduke might meet with a mishap on his &isit to $osnia, or, if better informed, failed to act on the information. Go protecti&e measures were taken' Fran: Ferdinand went to his doom. ;ndeed, there was further Serbian in&ol&ement with the conspirators before the assassination( the Serbian crown prince, Alexander, had met with one of the killers in $elgrade. Who had concei&ed and directed the operationH "he culprit was none other than the chief of military intelligence, @olonel 6ragutin 6imitrie&ich, a hardened terrorist and 3ussia1s chief catspaw in the $alkans. As a young captain 6imitrie&ich had taken part in the murder of Serbia1s royal couple ele&en years before. Later he would scheme to assassinate #ermany1s /aiser Wilhelm ;; as well as the kings of $ulgaria and #reece. ;n the pay of 3ussia1s ambassador, )artwig, 6imitrie&ich doubled as the creator and leader of the secret $lack )and, which carried out the bloody work of Serbia and Serbia1s 3ussian puppetmasters against Austria-)ungary. $$$ ;n the immediate aftermath of the attack the Austrians suspected the role of the Serbian go&ernment, but nothing of possible 3ussian in&ol&ement. "hrough prudence, but also out of weakness, precious weeks were spent in a painstaking in&estigation of the crime, as far as was possible gi&en its origins across the border. )ad Austria, &irtually certain of Serbia1s in&ol&ement, demanded an explanation after a few days, when 2uropean indignation was still at a fe&er pitch o&er the grisly crime, it could ha&e easily brought the little $alkan state to heel

without protest from the great powers. For pro&ocations a hundred times less flagrant the $ritish had shelled @openhagen in +D.+ and +D.-. When France1s en&oy to Algiers was swatted with the dey1s fan in +D8., the French landed troops and annexed the country. 9ienna, howe&er, was a capital of prating old men and dandified poltroons. ;ts emperor, Fran: Bosef, who still commanded &ast respect and had immense influence, was a worn-out old wraith, no longer politically competent. Fran: Bosef1s foreign minister, @ount Leopold &on $erchtold &on and :u Cngarisch, felt out of place as a diplomat or politician. Life to his taste was an endless round of plays and concerts, fri&olous salons, &isits to the races or rare book shops. Seldom seen without his high silk hat, he was a fastidious dresser as well as an a&id scholar of the #reek classics. A shrewd obser&er wrote of him( !)e was sincerely de&oted to the country he ser&ed disastrously and with all the wisdom he could muster.! @ount $erchtold, like his counterpart at the head of the Austro- )ungarian ;mperial Army, #eneral @onrad &on )It:endorff, a militarist fire-eater without the slightest hint of diplomacy, was all for chasti:ing the Serbs. Geither, howe&er, could o&ercome the Austrian inertia. "he first step Austria was able to take came almost a week after the shooting, when Fran: Bosef wrote to the #erman emperor, /aiser Wilhelm ;;, on Buly A, +,+A, asking to consult with him before taking any measures against Serbia. Wilhelm ;;, intelligent but neurotic, was a capricious indi&idual. ;nclined to annotate state documents submitted to him with &indicti&e inter ections <!"oads0 @rows0

Besuits0!>, he often played the ham actor in transitory political melodramas, which, howe&er, concluded without ill effect. At $erlin on Bune 7D he had recei&ed the news of Fran: Ferdinand1s death with horror, for the two men were good friends. )e replied to Fran: Bosef1s note that he stood ready to fulfill his obligations as Austria1s ally if it should emerge that Serbia had abetted or protected the assassins. Ge&ertheless, Wilhelm ;; had no intention of leading the #erman 2mpire into a 2uropean war, nor of expanding the incident outside the confines of the west $alkans. "he /aiser, represented so often since as a hysterical ogre determined to crush e&erything in his path, was at the time so little disposed to prepare for war that he left on Buly = for a three-week cruise on his yacht, the )ohen:ollern, bound for the Gorwegian coast. Likewise, his ministers were off on &acation( &on Bagow, the foreign minister, off on his honeymoon' &on 5oltke, the chief of staff, taking the cure at @arlsbad' Admiral &on "irpit: relaxing at "arasp in Swit:erland. "he kings of Saxony and $a&aria had departed their capitals for their country estates. Gor had the /aiser or his ministers put in motion any preparatory measures before they left. "here were no pro&isions for the stockpiling of grain( not a single ton of flour was purchased by #ermany in Buly +,+A. ;ndeed, e&en the leaders of the #erman opposition had left $erlin. While the /aiser and his go&ernment had little moti&e and less desire to plunge 2urope into a fratricidal war, feelings were different among the leaders of France. Frenchmen still smarted at #ermany1s annexation of Alsace and part of

Lorraine in +D-+. At the 4lace de la @oncorde in 4aris, the statues of 5et: and Strasbourg remained co&ered with crepe. ;n +,+A, ; was ust a boy of eight, born in the $elgian Ardennes across the border from France. 2&en there, in long, silent &alleys remote from almost e&erywhere, the story of Alsace-Lorraine gripped our emotions. At the sight of the swallows returning from the south in springtime, we sang ! J"is a bird that comes from France,! ust as did the Alsatian children in their 4russian exile. Like the Frenchmen, we thought of Alsace-Lorraine with sorrow, of the #ermans with rancor( the accursed 4russians would ha&e to surrender it, e&en if it took force. #ermany, dri&ing toward world economic and political power, its population growing by =..,... each year, was little concerned with lording it o&er the French. $ismarck himself had ne&er been enthusiastic about the annexation, and his successors were prepared to make concessions to France. "heobald &on $ethmann-)ollweg, imperial chancellor in +,+7, had offered to the French ambassador in $erlin that year, Bules @ambon, to negotiate with France as to the neutrality and complete autonomy of AlsaceLorraine, but had been haughtily re ected. France1s ill will was manifest. "he #ermans preferred to delude themsel&es by hoping that time would sal&e France1s wounds. $$$ "he official $ritish reaction to the crime at Sara e&o was more guarded. "he chief concern of $ritain1s imperial establishment was the steady growth of the #erman na&y and merchant fleet, which Wilhelm ;; had been building up

singlemindedly <in contrast to the prudence that would later be exercised by )itler, who agreed in +,8E to limit the #erman fleet to 8E per cent of the 3oyal Ga&y>. ;n truth, for the 2nglish public, $elgrade, let alone Sara e&o, was an unknown. For Londoners Singapore, )ong /ong, e&en the Falkland ;slands weren1t far from the mouth of the "hames, but the 6anube was a wild and unknown ri&er at the end of the ci&ili:ed world < ust as @:echoslo&akia was for Ge&ille @hamberlain in +,8D !a remote country of which we know little!>. ;n $elgrade, 4rime 5inister 4ashich, with no small hypocrisy, caused a solemn 5ass to be celebrated in memory of the departed archduke and his consort. With tears in his eyes, he beseeched the Almighty to recei&e with kindness )is two ser&ants, Fran: Ferdinand and Sophie. So cynical did this pose appear that the French minister at $elgrade, 6escos, refused to attend. 6escos had long been suspicious of the intrigues of the Serbian go&ernment. )e had obser&ed the rapid growth of Serbia1s army, which had doubled in si:e in the preceding year as tens of thousands of 5acedonians were drafted into its ranks. Who was it who threatened the countryH "he French ambassador had obser&ed the corrupt business by which millions of gold francs in low-interest loans had flowed from France to Serbia, after the way had been prepared by Serbian bribes of influential Frenchmen, abo&e all in the press. "he French senator )umbert, publisher of Le Bournal, personally recei&ed a +E per cent commission on a big order of military footgear sold to $elgrade. Such an outlay demanded drastic economies in production(

cardboard soles were substituted for leather, and the Serbian army would make its catastrophic retreat in +,+E barefooted. "he case of Senator )umbert was not an isolated one. 6escos, already disgusted by these goings-on, re?uested to be relie&ed as ambassador( the hypocritical 5ass for the dead had been the last straw. At the same time, 4ashich had re?uested his recall, and 6escos left $elgrade a disillusioned man. 5eanwhile, the Austrians were continuing their in&estigation of the Sara e&o attack. After learning the identity of @igano&ich, Austrian in&estigators ?uickly learned, courtesy of the Serbian go&ernment, that the plotter in ?uestion had mysteriously &anished. ;n 4ashich1s laconic phrase, !)e departed for an unknown destination on the 7Dth of Bune.! )e would not surface for more than a year. "he ire of the Austrians grew slowly. %nly after three weeks did the Austrian ambassador at $elgrade, )err #iesl, appear before the 4ashich go&ernment to present Austria1s demand that a committee of in?uiry be set up, to include representati&es of both nations. "he Austrians couched their demands in harsh terms. First they stipulated an une?ui&ocal Serbian condemnation of the assassination' second, a serious in&estigation of the crime, to include Austrian representati&es. "he Serbian go&ernment naturally resisted. ;t was not merely a matter of Serbia1s so&ereignty, as 4rime 5inister 4ashich claimed. As he himself was to confide to 6ragomir Stefano&ich, his secretary for foreign affairs <as well as his stepson>( !;f we accept this in?uiry, they will catch us redhanded.!

;n the face of Austria1s demands, 4ashich did something almost unbelie&able. )e didn1t merely procrastinate, or stonewall( he fled. 2&ery detail of this strange story has become known. When Ambassador #iesl presented himself at the Serbian 5inistry for Foreign Affairs on Buly 78rd, bearing an official en&elope for the prime minister, his secretary told the emissary tersely, !)e has gone.! Asked where, the secretary replied, !"o the country.! ;t was impossible to reach him by telephone, according to the official, so the Austrian had no choice but to deposit his ultimatum with the secretary. 5eanwhile, 4ashich was in Gish, eighty miles to the south. Appraised of the Austrian demand, 4ashich, rather than return to $elgrade at once, umped on a train that &ery afternoon and headed south for Salonika, in order to, as he told se&eral friends accompanying him, !spend a few days there to rest incognito.! As #eorge 5alcolm "homson summed up the wily politician1s beha&ior, !4ashish intended to be Jout of touch1 during the critical period when the ultimatum was accepted or re ected, both of those courses e?ually dangerous for him.! ;n $elgrade, howe&er, the prince regent, Alexander, saw 4ashich1s responsibilities differently. )e had the stationmaster at Gish telegraphed to order the prime minister1s immediate return. Still 4ashich persisted, boarding the train and continuing south. An hour1s run down the line, the train was stopped, and 4ashich again ordered to return to $elgrade at once. After se&eral more hours of e&asion, 4ashich finally was able to screw up his resol&e and head back to his capital.

%n his arri&al at $elgrade Station, at fi&e o1clock on the morning of the twenty-fourth, 4ashich, shaggy-bearded and glassy-eyed, did something ?uite re&ealing. 3ather than report to the regent, he headed directly for the 3ussian embassy. ;t was clear where the real power in Serbia resided. $$$ 3ussia, no more than Serbia, could afford to risk a thorough-going in&estigation of the Sara e&o conspiracy. As the tsarist empire1s minister of foreign affairs, Sa:ono&, declared on Buly 7A, on learning of Austria1s formal demand, !"his means war in 2urope.! )e was instantly seconded by France1s ambassador to 3ussia, 5aurice 4alFologue, who hastened to Sa:ono& bearing 4resident 4oincarF1s in unction to !$e firm0 We must be firm0! %n the twenty-fourth 4rince Alexander, the Serbian regent, sent the tsar an anguished appeal. "he 3ussian response would re&eal its committment to its Serbian stalking horseor its lack of commitment. After a few hours, the telegram arri&ed. 4ashich opened it with trembling hands. )e ?uickly read it, and then exclaimed, !"he good, the great, the gracious tsar0! Serbia would not ha&e to atone for its misdeed if 3ussia could help it. %n the following day, Austria1s )err #iesl again presented himself at the prime minister1s office, a little before six in the e&ening. 4ashich was there and he answered a firm no to Austria1s ultimatum. "he refusal was couched in refined diplomatic terms, and e&en offered se&eral concessions, but

the Serbs weren1t ready to allow Austrian officials to conduct an in?uiry on Serbian territory, e&en with the participation of the Serbs. "he Austrian ambassador politely took up his bowler hat and left to board the six-thirty train for 9ienna. 6iplomatic relations had been broken off. War was in the wind. ;ronically, three years later, for his own political purposes, 4ashich would stage a showy in?uiry and trial of the military men who had organi:ed the assassination, a trial which would end in the execution of @olonel 6imitrie&ich and his henchmen. At that time, in +,+-, 4ashich, his armies ha&ing been swept from the 6anube to the Adriatic, after suffering 8..,... dead, would hit on the idea of a reconciliation with Austria-)ungary, now headed by a new emperor, /arl L Although /arl ; was not ad&erse to a settlement, the whole affair would come to nothing more than the end of 6imitrie&ich and his confederates and a grim re&elation of the cynicism of the Serbian leader. )ad 6imitrie&ich confessed in +,+A, as he did in +,+-, the 4ashich go&ernment would doubtless ha&e fallen. Geither Serbia, nor 2urope, would be in ruins, howe&er, as they were in +,+-. As 6imitrie&ich would re&eal before his death, the real director of the conspiracy had been 3ussia1s military attachF, @olonel 9ictor Artmano&, who had told 6imitrie&ich in the early stages( !#o ahead. ;f attacked, you will not stand alone.! ;n his testimony, 6imitrie&ich re&ealed that Artmano& had financed the plotters, and that he had not carried out the

scheme until he had the 3ussian1s final go-ahead. As for Artmano&, he had left $elgrade well before Bune 7D, the day of the killings. %n that day he was in Kurich, and he continued a leisurely ourney across Swit:erland and ;taly, all the while keeping a meticulous ournal which would enable him to account for his time on any gi&en day. ;n St. 4etersburg, the tsarist go&ernment made haste to prepare for war. %n Buly -, +,+A-two weeks before Austria1s demands were deli&ered to Serbia-orders had been issued to mo&e troops from Serbia to 2uropean 3ussia. $y the 7Eth they were already billeted in the military district of 5oscow. )ad Austria been able to interrogate 6imitrie&ich with the dispatch later exercised by 4ashich1s men, she would ha&e learned ?uickly that the Sara e&o affair and its rectification were no mere spat between its own si:eable forces and little Serbia, but that a fi&e-million man army from 2urope1s most populous state stood ready to oppose the )absburg empire by force. After 6imitrie&ich1s death <which se&eral of the powers had tried to unsuccessfully to stop( 4ashich couldn1t tolerate that he still li&ed and talked>, his memory faded for a ?uarter of a century, until it was re&i&ed and honored by "ito <Bosip $ro:>, another terrorist, who modestly promoted himself to marshal. 6imitrie&ich became a national hero, as one of the martyrs of the future *ugosla&ia. "he man who fired the shots, #a&rilo 4rincip, has been similarly honored, and a monument now marks the spot where he stood and took aim in Sara e&o.

"hus was Austria-)ungary lured into the trap that became the greatest and most destructi&e war war the world had seen. "he next step for the 3ussian pro&ocateurs would be to draw #ermany into the trap. $y Buly 8+, +,+A, this, too, would be a fait accompli.

CHAPTE III The &erman '(namo "he a&erage person in the West - whether 2uropean, American, or what ha&e you - has long taken for granted that /aiser Wilhelm ;; bears the chief responsibility for the First World War. After all, at the end of the war, it was so otherwise reasonable a man as $ritain1s 4rime 5inister 6a&id Lloyd #eorge, who, with &ictory in sight, announced that he and his allies would !)ang the kaiser0! Later Lloyd #eorge would promise the )ouse of @ommons that the imperial culprit would first be dri&en through the streets of London in an iron cage, a promise which enabled him to win the elections of February +,+, handily. Although Lloyd #eorge and the mobs he appealed to, as well as $ritain1s allies and the re&olutionary successors to Wilhelm1s rule in #ermany were cheated of their desire, Wilhelm1s reputation was effecti&ely hanged by the war propaganda of the day, and has remained on the gallows thanks to the writings of 2stablishment historians. Such has been the stultifying effect of this propaganda that,

although large numbers of people still belie&e the #erman emperor to ha&e been a particularly baneful species of ogre, not one person in a thousand knows anything of /aiser Wilhelm1s actions in those times. "he impression remains that eight million men died in the abattoirs of Flanders and #alicia thanks to the /aiser alone. "he 9ersailles "reaty, which affirmed #ermany1s sole guilt for the war, could ne&er ha&e been imposed, of course, without the central thesis of Wilhelm ;;1s &illainy. %ne doubt about Wilhelm1s alleged war plotting and the whole fradulent document would lose its force. $$$ ;n fact, what role did Wilhelm ;; play in the outbreak of the warH "ruth to tell, on the day Austria-)ungary declared war on Serbia, the /aiser hadn1t been in #ermany for days. )e was still sailing the Gorth Sea on his yacht )ohen:ollern, a contented &acationer. Gotified of the crime at Sara e&o, he had expressed his horror, and assured 2mperor Fran: Bosef of his full support. Ge&ertheless, at the time he &iewed the affair as merely a local one, in which Austria-)ungary, depri&ed of its heir to the throne and its army commanderin-chief in one stroke, had an understandably legitimate concern. Still unaware of what the Austrians would learn in their interrogation of the assassins, the /aiser departed at the beginning of Buly, determined to spend the entire month at sea. )ad that impulsi&e ruler really wished to ignite a 2uropean war, he surely would ha&e paid more attention to putting his plans in motion. $ut he allowed his chief of staff, &on 5oltke, to continue his stay at @arlsbad, while Admiral

"irpit:, commander of the na&y, whiled away his lea&e at "arasp. Why, in any case, would #ermany and its leader want warH $y +,+A, #ermany had achie&ed economic preeminence on the @ontinent without firing a shot. As the French historian La&isse remarked in an address deli&ered at the Sorbonne in April, +,+-, referring to the years between +D-+ and +,+A, !At no time in history ha&e we seen such a stupendous growth in work and wealth in any country in so little time.! Since +D-. #ermany1s population had increased by fifteen million people, while 2ngland held steady and France stagnated. "he #ermans no longer had to emigrate, for the country1s prodigious growth pro&ided work for all. "he coal output had nearly doubled in the years between +,.. and +,+.. "he #erman metallurgical, chemical, and precision instrument industries were the best in the world. 2&erywhere #erman products commanded admiration, and its exports had doubled between +,+. and +,+8, reaching a total of ten billion marks in that year. "hese goods tra&eled to far-off places - @hina and the Americas - in #erman ships, for the merchant marine had entered the era of its greatest expansion, and the imperial colors wa&ed o&er the se&en seas. #erman expansion was all the more impressi&e in that it was carried out in se&eral decades without military con?uest, a remarkably pacific expansion when compared to the bloody rise of such imperial powers as $ritain and France, not to mention America, which gained its share of territory from 5exico. "he ?uality of #ermany1s product and the efficiency of #erman commercial agents won fearful ealousy, especially

among the lords of $ritish imperialism. As the eminent French historian 4ierre 3enou&in testified( From +,.. on, #ermany has had marked success. "hanks to the initiati&e of her commercial tra&elers, who endea&or to be aware of the new needs of their customers and to satisfy their tastes, and thanks to the easy terms that the exporters offer to their buyers, #erman commerce is in the process of taking the lead o&er $ritish commerce in )olland, where 3otterdam is in effect an appendage of the 3hineland' in $elgium, where part of the business of Antwerp is in the hands of A.,... #ermans' in ;taly, which buys metallurgical and chemical products from #ermany' in 3ussia, where the #ermans ha&e the ad&antage of proximity and better knowledge of the country' and e&en in Serbia. "he margin of superiority that the $ritish trade has in the markets of France, Spain, and the %ttoman 2mpire is constantly diminishing. "he 2nglish producer and exporter is annoyed at e&erywhere coming up against these #erman tradesmen who do them out of a sale. "he economic ri&alry fosters a bad climate in public opinion that can not fail to ha&e an effect on political relations. <*a Crise europ+enne, p. +A7> Cntil then, the seas had been the almost pri&ate domain of the $ritish 2mpire for two centuries, world commerce a $ritish monopoly throughout the nineteenth century. $oth Spain and France had been soundly thrashed for failing to accede to $ritain1s supremacy with good grace. 4hilip ;; of Spain and France1s Gapoleon had seen their dreams sunk along with their fleets by the 3oyal Ga&y. Wilhelm ;;, by ha&ing the audacity to construct a merchant fleet able to ser&ice -. percent of #ermany1s o&erseas trade,

called forth the wrath of an arrogant monopoly, which twenty years later e&en )itler would shrink from antagoni:ing. "he ?ueen of 2ngland expressed the 2stablishment1s &iew when she complained that !William +; is playing at @harlemagne.! For the most part, the $ritish leadership was reluctant to gi&e &ent to its misgi&ings at the rise of #ermany1s industry and fleet. "he #ermans, for their part, cherished the hope that they could arrange matters with the $ritish in some kind of gentleman1s agreement. "he $ritish response, howe&er, was not encouraging, particularly on the matter of #erman colonial expansion to siphon off some of its burgeoning population. 2&ery such effort was ealously opposed by #reat $ritain. Small neighbors such as $elgium or )olland could possess huge empires sixty or eighty times the si:e of the metropolitan territory' after all, they had long been considered to be $ritain1s dutiful satellites. #ermany was a powerful ri&al. "hat to effecti&ely compete with the rising #erman economy re?uired nothing more than that the Cnited /ingdom manufacture products as well- made and as inexpensi&e as those of the 3eich was lost on the $ritish. @hallenged, they felt threatened. Solitary, haughty, and brus?ue, the $ritish set about looking for allies against the #erman !menace.! ;n +,.A $ritain began a rapprochement with her hereditary enemy, France, when both nations had concluded the 2ntente @ordiale, which in reality would always remain the 5Fsentente @ordiale. Ge&ertheless, the fact that the ponderous Bohn $ull and the light- limbed 5arianne had opened the dance marked a turning point in history.

;t would take the double disaster for the $ritish 2stablishment of two disastrous world wars in this century to dri&e home the recognition that its world monopoly had at last ended, superseded by the uneasy condominium of the Cnited States of America and the So&iet Cnion. $$$ 6espite an aborti&e $ritish offer of 4ortuguese Angola to #ermany in exchange for their discontinuing the build-up of their fleet, made in +,+7, Wilhelm ;; refused to be dissuaded, and the shipwrights continued their work. "his didn1t mean that the /aiser was stri&ing for war, howe&er. ;ndeed in +,.E he concluded a fraternal agreement with his erstwhile 3ussian ri&al the tsar, on his own initiati&e, while &acationing on his yacht off 6enmark. "he tsar was by nature a gentle soul, dripping with good intentions. $ut he was weak-willed and neurotic, and he was constantly surrounded by a guard of 4an-Sla& acti&ists, bellicose grand dukes, and shadowy wire- pullers and manipulators of all sorts. 6espite Wilhelm1s intent to draw France into his cordial understanding with 3ussia, interests inimical to a 3ussian-#erman detente around the tsar succeeded in torpedoing the agreement within four months. "he anti-#erman Franco-3ussian entente of +D,A continued in force, and the 3ussian imperialists eyed $ohemia <in Austria-)ungary> and #alicia more greedily than e&er. For their part, the French, bolstered by the hope of the support of 3ussia1s massi&e army, schemed to retake AlsaceLorraine.

CHAPTE I) Ambition and evanche "he French 3epublic had been obsessed with the loss of Alsace- Lorraine since +D-+. At the Gational Assembly in $ordeaux in that year, 9ictor )ugo had trumpeted his undying allegiance to the cause of the lost territories. After him 6FroulLde, $arras, and $ourget led the literary chorus of re&enge. Goble as the French protest may ha&e been, it didn1t take much history into account - particularly that of its own country. France had been ?uite skillful in the past at annexing the territories of its neighbors. After all, how had Gord, 6unkirk, Lille, Arras, and 6ouai, all bearing the #ermanic eagle on their escutcheons, become united with FranceH "he same went for 3oussillon, originally part of @atalonia, as well as $urgundy and 9erdun, a #erman cathedral town until +EE7. "oul had only become French in +=AD, at the "reaty of Westphalia. Alsace and Lorraine themsel&es had been ac?uired in the not too distant past. Lorraine had been #erman for a millennium. Almost A.. years before, 2mperor @harles 9 had dreamed of making it a free and inalienable state, a buffer between France and #ermany. "he French had had other aspirations, howe&er. ;n +=88 the French captured Gancy' one hundred thirty-three years later the remainder of Lorraine was sei:ed and annexed. When the #ermans retook the pro&ince in +D-., it had been French scarely more than a century. "he case was similar with Alsace. ;n DA8 the "reaty of

9erdun had made it part of Lotharingia. "wenty-se&en years later, at the "reaty of 5ersen, it had become the territory of Louis the #erman. From the twelfth to the fifteenth century it had been part of the 6uchy of Swabia, and it had en oyed a flourishing growth. Got until +=-,, after French troops led by 5arshal "urenne had bested the forces of the #erman 2mpire, did the "reaty of Gi megen acknowledge French so&ereignty o&er Alsace. Strasbourg would remain #erman until +=D+, and the si:eable city of 5ulhouse did not fall to France until it was sei:ed in +-,D. "o be sure, the last born - or the last stolen - is often the most belo&ed. Such was the story with Alsace-Lorraine. And there is no doubt that Alsace- Lorraine would ha&e played a healthier role in 2uropean history if it had formed the core of a buffer state between the two ri&als, rather than the ousting field of their armies for a thousand years. #ermany under /aiser Wilhelm ;; had at length come to reali:e that the issue of the !lost pro&inces! was an impassable barrier to Franco-#erman reconciliation, and in +,++ #ermany had granted autonomy, within the 3eich, to Alsace-Lorraine. "his despite e&idence of growing acceptance of #erman rule among the population of the pro&inces, to such an extent that the French historian 3enou&in was forced to admit( "he citi:ens of Alsace-Lorraine are aware of the material ad&antages which accrue to them from the general prosperity of #ermany' they no longer accept protest deputies, but send representati&es to the 3eichstag who take their seats with the #erman parties, both @atholic and socialist. (*a Crise europ+enne& p' ,-))

Got only with regard to Alsace-Lorraine, but in colonial matters as well, #ermany had sought to appease France, but the French go&ernment had remained obdurate. )a&ing conceded France control of 5orocco in +,.=, #ermany recei&ed in return a thin strip of unproducti&e land in 2?uatorial Africa. 5oreo&er, France1s new $ritish allies had exerted pressure on Spain to refuse #ermany authori:ation to lay a submarine cable through the @anary ;slands to establish telephone communication to the @entral African colonies. Cndaunted, the #erman go&ernment had offered France close cooperation in +,+7, as France1s 4resident 4oincarF would later admit before the @hamber of 6eputies in +,77( !;t is beyond ?uestion that during the entire year of +,+7 #ermany made sincere efforts to ally herself with us for the common interest of 2urope and the maintenance of peace,! then adding, !but she wasn1t ready yet.! "here, then, was the truth. Go matter how eager #ermany showed herself to make concessions, as long as Alsace and Lorraine were not under the French tricolor there would be no rapprochement. )ad other countries dealt with France in a like manner there would ha&e been no reconciliation with Spain until France had ceded 4erpignan back to @atalonia' no reconciliation with $elgium until France had returned the Gord region to its $elgo-Flemish fatherland. For the recon?uest of its lost borderlands, howe&er, France looked not for reconciliation but for military strength. "he alliance which France concluded with the 3ussian 2mpire in +D,A was a strange one. 4aris and St. 4etersburg were more than a thousand miles apart, a huge distance in

those days before a&iation. "he French people and the peoples of the tsarist empire differed immensely. For the preceeding century the two nations1 only meaningful contacts had been as enemies, when Gapoleon had led his #rande ArmFe to 5oscow in +D+7 and when the French Koua&es had helped $ritish troops occupy the @rimea in +DEA. For the moment, howe&er, France and 3ussia1s interests, or at least those of the ruling political elites, coincided. "he French 3epublic needed se&eral million extra soldiers, and 3ussia had them. 3ussia needed billions of gold francs to finance its 4an-Sla&ist and Far 2astern pro ects, and France was willing to supply them. Geither party was nai&e about the implications of the deal. "he French politicians felt no fondness for the tsarist autocracy, nor did the 4an-Sla& 3ussian grand dukes ha&e any regard for what they called France1s !mobocracy.! *et the military ties grew increasingly closer, with formal and regular collaboration between the general staffs, oint military re&iews, and &isits exchanged by the two fleets. "he shabby bargain would soon bear fruit. France1s drift toward open hostilities with #ermany was strengthened by domestic political de&elopments. ;n +,+8 3aymond 4oincarF, who had been minister of foreign affairs, was elected president of the French 3epublic. When 4oincarF took o&er the 2lysFe 4alace from 4resident FailliLres at the start of that year, FailliLres is reported to ha&e said, !;1m afraid that war is entering the 2lysFe behind me.! ;n #eorge 5alcolm "homson1s &iew, !;t is certain that the Lorrainer 4oincarF felt no repugnance for war.!

"here had been opponents of France1s party of re&anche, some of them with great influence. Boseph @aillaux, a former prime minister and minister of finance, was a powerful politician whom 4oincarF feared greatly as a ri&al. Bean BaurLs, the fiery socialist orator and pacifist, could rouse the masses like no other French politician. With 4oincarF firmly in power, howe&er, their &oices were powerless to affect the French go&ernment1s military and diplomatic machinations. 4oincarF was not a warm man' neither was he an elo?uent or conciliatory one. )e was rail thin, with the eyes of a stuffed owl. ; knew him personally in my youth. ; was astounded, on meeting him, at his shrill &oice. )e seemed a cold little man, his cheeks puffed out in congenital ill temper. With whiskers like an iron-gray sha&ing brush, he seemed a sly fox. )e mistrusted other people and they mistrusted him. A lifelong hairsplitter, he crammed his political and diplomatic acti&ity, his confidences, his parliamentary replies, and his memoirs with so many lies, subterfuges, e&asions, and bits of nonsense that the sheer weight of it all was o&erpowering. )e seems to ha&e been honest in his personal financial conduct, a rare &irtue among men in politics, finance, and the press, who usually wallow in moral turpitude. *et his dirty tricks in politics were numberless, and one can only wish he had mulcted a few hundred million francs from the public treasury rather than sent a million and a half Frenchmen to their deaths in the bloodbath of the First World War. 4oincarF could not seek war openly and officially, although

secretly he stro&e for it with all his might. When the war came, he later said, it was a !di&ine surprise.! @harles de #aulle, who, with his hawk1s eye, had no e?ual in looking into the subconscious of his fellow Frenchmen, wrote in *a "rance et son arm+e: !)e did not watch the tragedy approaching without a secret hope.! ;n +,+7, howe&er, 4oincarF was unwilling to commit himself to the $alkan ad&entures of the 3ussian 4anSla&ists. )e couldn1t mistake $elgrade or Sara e&o for Strasbourg. "hat suited the 3ussians and they went to considerable effort to conceal their intrigues from their French allies. ;n 5arch +,+7, unbeknownst to the French, 3ussia1s ambassador and &irtual plenipotentiary in $elgrade, Gicholas de )artwig, had drafted the secret clauses of the treaty between Serbia and $ulgaria which stipulated the number of $ulgarian troops that were to be placed at Serbia1s disposal in the e&ent of a war with Austria)ungary. 4oincarF was irked by his ally1s secreti&eness, particularly when his ambassadors could only elicit hypocritical denials from their 3ussian colleagues. 4oincarF for a time remained poorly informed about 3ussia1s $alkan mo&es, e&en more so than their mutual #erman enemy. )e was kept in the dark about 3ussia1s pro&isional redrawing of the borders of its satellite states in the $alkans prefatory to the wars of +,+7 and +,+8. 6espite his caustic ob ections when he learned the truth, the president of France had to swallow the 3ussians1 galling explanations as if they were after-dinner mints. ;n +,+8, after finally obtaining the text of a secret treaty

between 3ussia and $ulgaria, he murmured to Sergei Sa:ono&, the 3ussian foreign minister( !; call to 5onsieur Sa:ono&1s attention that the treaty is a co&enant of war not only against "urkey but also against Austria.! <4oincarF, *es Bal.ans en feu, p. ++8> Sa:ono& responded in three words( !; must agree,! but was no more forthcoming with information about 3ussia1s aims in the $alkans. "he new president made e&ery effort not only to pre&ent Franco-#erman understanding but also to antagoni:e Austria-)ungary, which, in his opinion, was too well disposed toward France. For example, 4oincarF had personally managed to torpedo a loan applied for on the $ank of France by the Austrians, who had an impeccable financial reputation. "he French had pre&iously lent out forty-fi&e billion gold francs, one third of the total to 3ussia, on most generous terms. Serbia too had en oyed a bit of this French largesse. 3egardless of the fact that extending the loan to Austria would ha&e greatly heightened French influence in the great @entral 2uropean power, 4oincarF was determined to gi&e offense to that "eutonic ally of the hated #ermans. With the same churlish calculation 4oincarF went out of his way to offend Wilhelm ;;. ;n early +,+A, after Wilhelm had graciously in&ited the French minister, Aristide $riand, to a regatta at /iel, 4oincarF forbade $riand to attend, decreeing that !an inter&iew of that kind is disturbing and outrageous.! 4oincarF1s diplomats on the spot repeatedly informed 4aris of #ermany1s bene&olent intentions toward France. At $erlin, Ambassador @ambon telegraphed 4aris a confidence

made him by $aron $eyens, the $elgian minister to #ermany( !%ne fact that is absolutely certain is that the #erman chancellor wishes to a&oid a 2uropean conflagration at any cost.! "he brilliant socialist leader, 5arcel Sambat, underlined Wilhelm ;;1s essential caution in his book Faites la paix ou faites un roi( !"he #erman emperor has bra&ed ridicule and e&en the reproach of cowardice for twenty- fi&e years.! As 3ussia continued to step up its intrigues in the $alkans, 4aris grew better informed. Serbia was intensifying preparations against Austria. A coded dispatch dated 5arch 7D, +,+A, was sent to his go&ernment by the French military attache at Sofia, reporting remarks that Ferdinand, /ing of $ulgaria, had made to his military leaders the pre&ious day( !Let1s not interfere with Serbia. Already the Serbs think they1re big enough to defeat Austria. $efore six months are up, they will attack her in alliance with 3ussia.! "he French go&ernment was clearly unconcerned about the prospect of an Austro-Serbian war three months before Sara e&o. 3ather than seek to mediate, France busily supplied Serbia with the credit to build up its stocks of arms and material. A big French loan in September +,+8 pro&ided the impetus. French money not only armed the Serbs, it made Serbian leaders wealthy. As an example of the corruption spawned by the FrancoSerb-3ussian politico-financial nexus, consider the affair of the 5auser rifles. %n Go&ember 7,, +,+8, the secretary general of the minister of foreign affairs, 6ragomir Stefano&ich, drafted this letter to the French financier and press c:ar (*e Temps), 2dgar 3oels(

#entlemen( "he matter of the rifles is urgent. 4lease consider it of the utmost urgency. 4lease tell me the earliest possible date the factory can complete the order. "he price of the rifles can go as high as D. francs apiece. <"he commissions must be included in the price.> As ;1&e told you, we are talking exclusi&ely about the 5auser -mm +,+. model. Since 5auser is in a cartel with the Austrian Steyr Works, we ha&e misgi&ings about placing the order with 5auser here, as it will ultimately be Steyr which manufactures the guns, and it will be impossible to obtain the rifles if political conditions become complicated. "hat happened pre&iously, in +,.D. "he shipment in ?uestion must be paid for from the proceeds of the loan made in France. Cnder no circumstances must anything be said to 5auser. "he 5auser rifles purchased by 4aris arri&ed in February and 5arch, +,+A, in Serbia. For their troubles, the following Serbian dignitaries recei&ed commissions( 4rime 5inister 4ashich, A.E to E per cent, depending on the purchase' 9oi&od 4utnik got 8 per cent' the court grand marshal and the finance marshal each recei&ed a + per cent commission' and Serbia1s generalissmo made out with 7 percent. Such was the le&el of indecency reached by this sort of looting that after the war the *ugosla&ian 6emocratic Socialist 4arty would be able to accuse Gicholas 4ashich of personally ha&ing stolen a million gold francs gi&en by 3ussia to Serbia. "he Socialists would also accuse the former Serbian minister to 4aris, 5.3. 9esnich, of ha&ing made off with another million in gold francs that had been authori:ed during the war for the care of the Serbian

wounded. "he 3ussians also set to work to draw 3omania into the toils of her anti- Austrian agitation, for 3omania was a crucial ally of Austria-)ungary, bound to her in a treaty that dated back to +DD8. #rand 6uke Gicholas, uncle of the tsar, one of the most determined of the 4an-Sla& warmongers, came to $ucharest to corrupt both the 3omanian go&ernment and the royal family. )e had immediate success with the 3omanian prime minister, "ake ;onescu. As 6ragomir Stefano&ich later re&ealed in his /emoirs and %ocuments of a er0ian %iplomat: ;n 6ecember +,+7, "ake ;onescu met twice with #rand 6uke Gicholas in the presence of our chargF d1affaires at the 3ussian legation. ;t was in the course of the second of these con&ersations that a definite amount was set for the allowance which would thereafter be paid to the 3omanian statesman as the price of the assistance he proposed to lend to 3ussia1s anti-Austrian propaganda. "he sum was to be E,... gold francs each month. "ake ;onescu guaranteed the #rand 6uke Gicholas that in the e&ent of an Austro-3ussian conflict, he and his friends, supported by the principal military leaders - in particular by #enerals Filipescu and A&erescu - would make it impossible for /ing @arol and his pro-#erman ministers to fulfill the obligations of the treaty of alliance linking 3omania and the Austrian go&ernment since +DD8. lonescu1s predecessor as prime minister, 5archiloman, managed to obtain and publish photographs of ;onescu1s receipts. ;onescu, it was re&ealed, had also been subsidi:ed

by secret funds from ;taly. And ;onescu himself had been subsidi:ing the French daily, Le "emps, and its agency in the $alkans( this money, of course, ha&ing come from the 3ussians, who themsel&es were being funded with huge French loans. Stefano&ich noted in his memoirs( !As far as we personally Mthe Serbian foreign ministryN were concerned, we were assured from Banuary +,+8 on that when the decisi&e moment came, 3omania would march with us against Austria-)ungary.! "he #ermans were ?uick to catch on to the 3ussians1 acti&ity in 3omania. ;n Banuary, +,+8, the #erman minister to $ucharest telegraphed $erlin( !"he number of secret agents and spies that 3ussia has maintained in 3omania for some months now is becoming prodigious. "hey are all concentrating their efforts on stirring up the country against Austria. + ask myself what they are dri&ing at.! ;n his turn, the #erman ambassador in Athens, @ount /uadt, telegraphed on 5arch +, +,+8( !3ussian propaganda is seeping down to the bottommost strata of the 3omanian population.! "he 3ussians, who according to Ambassador "schirschky, the #erman en&oy to Austria-)ungary, had amassed a slush fund of a million rubles with which to bribe the 3omanians, were ably seconded in their work by the French ambassador to $ucharest, $londel. $londel in&ited a steady stream of French politicians and ournalists to 3omania to spread the anti-Austro-)ungarian gospel, among them AndrF "ardieu of Le "emps. "ardieu was, in 4aris, the close confidant of the 3ussian ambassador, Alexander ;:&olsky, who wrote his foreign

minister, Sa:ono&, in +,+7, !; ha&e an inter&iew with 5onsieur "ardieu e&ery other day.! "ardieu was a slippery and unscrupulous dealer who had intrigued with a #erman diplomat in 4aris to set up an illegal rubber consortium in the @ongo, which would ha&e brought him millions through frontmen, until the financial watchdog of the French assembly, Boseph @aillaux, had blown the whistle. Six months before Sara e&o, "ardieu was authori:ed to offer the 3omanians "ransyl&ania, a part of Austria-)ungary, in exchange for their cooperation. 4ublicly and pro&ocati&ely "ardieu deli&ered a lecture titled !"ransyl&ania is 3omania1s Alsace-Lorraine! in $ucharest. %n Bune 7A, four days before the assassination of the archduke and his wife, "ake ;onescu telegraphed "ardieu in code( !Agreement in principle all points satisfactory common interests concluded yesterday following con&ersation with Sa:ono&, $ratianu. %n basis recognition our claims to "ransyl&ania, $anat, $uko&ina. Stop. All comments at present inopportune, latter follows by legation courier.! %n the same day the 3ussian endorsed the French guarantees to 3omania. Later France1s #eorges @lemenceau would declare, !%f all the swine in the war, the 3omanians were the most swinish.! 4erhaps this is a ?uestionable udgment( there was swinishness all around at the time, particularly in the $alkans.

CHAPTE ) Poincar* and Cai""au+ As determined as the French politicians were to make war, it was still necessary for them to stampede the mass of Frenchmen in the direction of war. )ere politicians like 4oincarF found the co&ert aid of 3ussian agents in&aluable. ;t was a strange but mutually beneficial arrangement. "he 3ussians subsidi:ed the French newspapers, which plumped for military and financial support of 3ussia, enabling the 3ussians to dispose of e&en more funds for bribery. "he warmongers in French politics reaped the rewards of the endless press drumbeat of hostility against the @entral 4owers, #ermany and Austria. "here was little difficulty in finding newspapermen of sufficient &enality to allow their headlines and editorials to be scripted by a foreign power. ;n fact, the problem for the 3ussians was to pick and choose from among the throng which crowded forward, hungry for bribes. Arthur 3affalo&ich, the 3ussian finance minister1s delegate in France, reported back to his prime minister, @ount Witte, !Since it is impossible to buy e&erybody, it will be necessary to make a selection.! )e added, !2&ery day you learn to despise someone else.! From the outset in +,+7, the 3ussian bribemasters ladled out hundreds of thousands of gold francs. An e&erincreasing tempo of sub&entions soared to three hundred and fifty thousand gold francs per month. "he total outlay finally reached the tens of millions. After the $olshe&iks sei:ed power in +,+-, they published

secret documents re&ealing the extent as well as the particulars of the shabby business, among them another 3affalo&ich telegram, this one to Ambassador ;:&olsky( !*ou will deli&er this money by means of confidential direct payments person to person in recompense for the cooperation accorded you in *e Temps& *'!clair& and !cho de Paris'1 <February 7=, +,+8> %ne of 4oincarF1s allies wrote, of the publications in the pay of the 4an-Sla&ists, !An abominable list, where we see lumped together in the same acti&ity and the same disgrace *e "igaro of #aston @almette, the Radical, the 2ournal des %+0ats, )enri Letellier1s 2ournal& *a R+pu0li3ue "rancaise& *e /atin& *' !cho de Paris, and * '!clair' and dominating all the rest of the future peace negotiator and future president of the council of ministers, the foreign bureau chief of Le "emps( AndrF "ardieu.! "ardieu, whom we ha&e ust seen at work in 3omania, had been a particular feather in the 3ussian cap. Se&eral years before, his paper had been ?uite sympathetic to Austria)ungary' in a letter to St. 4etersburg dated February +=, +,++, ;:&olsky wrote( !;n the newspaper Le "emps, 5onsieur "ardieu makes use of e&ery opportunity to show the Franco- 3ussian rapport in an unfa&orable light.! A year later, the ambassador could write( !5. "ardieu has lost no time putting his pen at my disposal.! "he Serbian go&ernment was not slow to enter the bribery game after the example of their 3ussian patrons. As 6ragomir Stefano&ich re&ealed, the Serbs pro&ided key French newspapers with upwards of one and a half million gold francs in the two years before Sara e&o, !little

gratuities,! in the words of 4rime 5inister 4ashich. Serbian funds set up the influential $alkan agency of *e Temps, run by the ubi?uitous "ardieu, which supplied French papers with a good ninety percent of their material from the $alkans. 3ussia1s minister to Serbia, )artwig, played a role in its direction, and the agency possessed its own code, which not e&en the French go&ernment could decipher. ;n the face of this bought-and-paid-for press onslaught, the French public could not long remain unswayed. As one of @lemenceau1s colleagues later wrote( "he most audacious claptrap and the most shameless lies, once they had been published and commented on by *e Temps& !cho de Paris, and the Bournal des 6Fbats - which at that time were considered by our ruling classes to be truly and scrupulously informed organs of the press, and hence worthy of complete confidence - were copied by all the pro&incial newspapers. "hey were taken for gospel by millions of both lower and upper middle class citi:ens, by retired persons, by workers and by peasants, who for twenty years saw their sa&ings go in loans to 3ussia, 1friend and ally,1 while waiting to sacrifice their li&es for her. 4oincarF did nothing to obstruct the plans of the 3ussians to sub&ert France1s free press. When ;:&olsky had come to him in +,+7 with an outline of his plan for corrupting the French press through bribery, he was ?uickly able to o&ercome his misgi&ings. ;:&olsky1s agent, one 6a&idoff, handled affairs with 4oincarF, who murmured sanctimoniously, !;t will be necessary to distribute Mthe moneyN as far as possible in successi&e small amounts and with a great deal of prudence and discretion.!

4oincarF dealt with an e&en seamier character, Lenoir, whose ob it was to hand o&er personally the bulging en&elopes to the media masters. 4oincarF later explained rather piously that he might ha&e met Lenoir only once, and in any case !ne&er had occasion to talk with him.! "he fact that his Bewish finance minister, /lot:, soiled his hands more intimately in the sordid details hardly cleanses 4oincarF, howe&er. /lot:, who e&en demanded on occasion that the 3ussians make payments in ad&ance, !because of the generally difficult situation of the French cabinet,! would end his career scandalously after the war in a criminal court. 6espite the public1s growing sympathy for Serbia and 3ussia, the French masses still had no stomach for war. 4oincarF1s policy was deemed too militaristic, particularly when the French president wished to extend the term of military ser&ice from two to three years in +,+A. 6espite a heightened press campaign, fueled by more 3ussian funds <!/lot:,! 3affalo&ich reported to St. 4etersburg, !demands a second slice( a big campaign is necessary for the three years MlegislationN to be passed!>, the plan was &oted down. "he chief opposition to 4oincarF1s military plans was embodied, in the French establishment, by Boseph @aillaux. @aillaux, who died in +,AA, is largely a forgotten figure today, but he was perhaps the most intelligent and competent French statesman of his time. @harles de #aulle considered him the first 2uropean statesman to understand the essential role of the economy in public life. Like his ad&ersary 4oincarF, he was tough, imperious, authoritarian. @aillaux and 4oincarF were born enemies, destined to

collide with one another in the course of their careers. @aillaux, unlike so many of the French, was not a die-hard anti-#erman. )e respected #ermany1s military strength, and considered that the colossus across the 3hine could teach his own country important lessons about work, order, and moderni:ation of industry. @aillaux belie&ed that the two nations should complement each other rather than carry on a ri&alry exacerbated by differences in temperament and psychology. 2ach had much to offer, and the two might arri&e at a remarkable symbiosis. All too late many #ermans and Frenchmen ha&e come to see that @aillaux was correct. Far better that the French should ha&e ironed out their differences with #ermans of the caliber of %tto &on $ismarck, or e&en @ount &on $Olow, than that Adenauer, chancellor of a truncated #ermany, and de #aulle, president of a France come far down in the world, for all its pretensions, should ha&e buried the hatchet after eighty years of disastrous enmity. ;n +,+A, it seemed that @aillaux stood a strong chance of winning the elections and attaining the office of president of the council of ministers, which would force 4oincarF, president of the French 3epublic, to entrust a good deal of the business of go&ernment to him. "hen what would ha&e become of 4oincarF1s passionate designs for regaining Alsace and LorraineH 4oincarF was bolstered in his struggle against @aillaux by the fact that many Frenchmen, ust as adamant about the !lost! pro&inces, detested @aillaux for his reasonableness on the matter. At bottom the French are an extremely chau&inistic people. For them, the $elgians are the !little

$elgians,! who speak a strange gobbledygook. "he Spanish are !semi-Africans,! the 2nglish !arrant hypocrites,! and the Americans scarcely better than semi-beasts. "he outside world is of little interest to the French' they ha&e no need to know it. @harles 5aurras, the most French of French intellectuals, at the age of forty had ne&er &isited French-speaking $elgium but once, on an excursion trip that lasted se&eral hours. 4ierre La&al, ele&en times a cabinet minister, admitted to me that he had passed through $elgium only one time, &ia LiLge in a sleeping car at night. "o be sure, the French ha&e seen enough of 2urope in ten centuries of con?uest( $russels, 3ome, 5adrid, 9ienna, $erlin, 5oscow, twenty separate in&asions of #ermany. $ut those matters they1re loath to discuss. ;t was on ust this a&ersion to foreigners and inability to see the other side of a political argument that 4oincarF had based his political career. )e had tirelessly agitated for a policy based on re&enge and military strength. @aillaux had swum against the stream of popular chau&inism, and it had gained him millions of enemies. ;n the &exed matter of the three years1 military term, 4oincarF1s ad&antages in playing to popular fer&or bumped against the e?ually tenacious solicitude of many Frenchmen for their freedom and their skins. ;t was fine to agitate for Alsace and Lorraine in the bistros, glorious to cheer at the $astille 6ay parade along the @hamps 2lysFes ... 4ersonal sacrifice, at the cost of life and limb, re?uired more thought. 4oincarF had to find some way to torpedo his ri&al. )e found one in @aillaux1s weakness for women. 6espite his baldness, @aillaux had a winning way with the fair sex.

Like many a French politician, he had cantered merrily from mistress to mistress. ;ndeed, as is the case with so many men in the public eye, the women ran after him. )itler, who was ?uite prim in this matter, once showed me a drawer full of letters from beautiful women of all ages begging him to father a child for them. ;n lo&e - Gapoleon said it well - safety lies in flight. 5any a time the emperor had to take to his heels. @aillaux had not been so fleet of foot. After en oying the charms of one of his admirers for a long time more or less in secret, he had married her. A pretty ash-blond named )enriette, who dressed stylishly. "hey were &ery much in lo&e. Gothing really to reproach there, certainly by today1s standards. And 4oincarF should ha&e been the last to snoop around this little idyll, since his own gambols with a woman somewhat less than innocent had created a sensation, particularly when his lady lo&e, after a decidedly un&irtuous career, had demanded that she and the old anticlericalist be married in secret before an archbishop. Gor would the man who was to be 4oincarF1s good right arm in the %peration 4etticoat directed against @aillaux, Louis $arthou, win any awards for exemplary &irtue. #eorge 5alcolm "homson has set the scene( ;n the early spring days of +,+A @aillaux was a source of deep anxiety to 4resident 4oincarF. ;n 5ay there would be elections' popular sentiment was running towards the Left. ;t would be difficult then to deny @aillaux the premiership. @aillaux, who in his boundless self-confidence belie&ed he could strike a bargain with #ermany0 ;t would be the end of 4oincarF1s policy of rigid hostility to the power beyond the

3hine, of intransigence which only ust stopped short of pro&ocation. <The Twel$e %ays, p. ==> 4oincarF and his lieutenants de&ised a plan to wreck @aillaux1s prospects in&ol&ing, not surprisingly, the press. *e "igaro, directed by the formerly impecunious #aston @almette, who en oyed la&ish subsidies from the 3ussians <he left thirteen million francs in his will>, began a campaign to destroy @aillaux with these words on 5ay +., +,+A( !"he decisi&e moment has now come when we must not shrink from any action, e&en though our morals and personal inclinations may condemn it.! ;n short, the newspaper had ac?uired @aillaux and his wife1s lo&e letters, written at the time she was his mistress. @aillaux signed himself Bo-Bo, )enriette, 3i-3i. "he letters were exactly the stuff that lo&ers ha&e written one another across the ages, confessions of &olcanic passion, sometimes in earnest, often belie&ed, in any case ne&er meant for prying eyes. %n 5ay +=, when 3i-3i cast her eyes on *e "igaro's front page, she disco&ered that the first of her Bo-Bo1s letters to her was the day1s feature story. ;t was mushy stuff( no intimate details were spared. "he paper announced the rest of the letters would appear in forthcoming issues. 5adame @aillaux threw herself into the arms of her husband. Sobbing, she implored him, !Are you going to let these ournalistic hyenas in&ade our boudoirH! She had no mind to let them. After being turned away from an eminent 4arisian magistrate, who shrugged his shoulders and offered, !"hat1s the price of being in politics,! she obtained a pistol, made her way to the offices of *e "igaro, where, upon gaining entrance to @almette1s office, she

emptied all six bullets into her traducer. ;n point of fact, 5adame @aillaux should ha&e aimed higher. "he now defunct @almette had been merely a hireling. As the news of 3i-3i1s re&enge spread through 4aris, an agitated $arthou rushed to his master in the presidential palace. As 4oincarF later described the scene to the ournalist 4.$. #heusi, $arthou collapsed on 4oincarF1s desk, terrified by the fatal conse?uences of the articles. !;1m the one who wrote all the articles against @aillaux0! he exclaimed. !;1m to blame for the tragedy. ; must punish myself0! Geedless to say, $arthou didn1t punish himself. "hat1s seldom the way in politics. )e would be a minister se&eral times o&er and remain the loyal henchman of 4oincarF or whoe&er happened to be his patron at the time. )is wife arrested like a common criminal, Finance 5inister @aillaux had little choice but to resign. "he opposition, decapitated, posed no further threat to 4oincarF1s plans. "hereafter, @aillaux was a figure of ridicule, e&en in the streets of 4aris. )is wife1s trial in Buly was a sensation, as )enriette swooned in her seat like a heroine in a classic tragedy. )er ac?uittal was anti-climactic. $y Buly 7-, +,+A, the day she was &indicated, war was a matter of hours away.

CHAPTE )I emote Cons%iracies

For the first two weeks in Buly 4resident 4oincarF waited patiently for his allies around the tsar to ready the 3ussian forces for war. "he &ast distances and relati&ely primiti&e communications of 3ussia made mobili:ation a more timeconsuming business than in the compact and well- ordered nations of 2urope, and the French leader was at first indulgent of the pro&erbial sluggishness of the 3ussian bear. $y mid-Buly, howe&er, 4oincarF had grown ner&ous. Anxious to see how the 3ussians were progressing and determined, in #eorge "homson1s words, to !put a little steel into the spinal column of that powerful but dubious ally,! 4oincarF embarked at @alais on the cruiser "rance on Buly +E for St. 4etersburg. Six days later he and his prime minister, 3enF 9i&iani, were recei&ed with the pomp only an autocrat can muster at the 3ussian capital. At the tsar1s summer residence, the 4eterhof, 4oincarF ac?uainted himself with the imperial family, particularly the tsar1s four daughters, to each of whom he presented a diamond wristwatch, all the while eyeing them surreptitiously but calculatingly, mindful of the salacious gossip re&ol&ing around their relations with the sinister holy man, 3asputin. 4oincarF presented the tsar and tsarina with #obelin tapestries and a set of gold fittings for the tsar1s touring car. Soon the French president and the 3ussian emperor were in deep con&ersation, if the one-sided oration that the sententious little 4oincarF deli&ered as the tsar sat silent and lackluster could be called a con&ersation. "sar Gicholas ;; was no man to lead an empire. Lethargic and &acillating by nature, under the thumb of his #erman-

born wife, Alexandra, his e&ery mo&ement was protected by hundreds of guards, yet he had no one to guard him against the &enal incompetents and flattering toadies who formed his official entourage. #oremykin, president of the council of ministers, was good for nothing more than curling up on the sofa with a third-rate no&el, a cigarette dangling between his cracked lips. 5aklako&, the minister of the interior, owed his prominence to his ability to amuse the young grand duchesses with his animal imitations( he1d play the panther and bound wildly about on the floor, while the girls cowered and shrieked in mock terror. "he minister of war, 9.A. Sukhomlino&, was another dubious character, a compulsi&e gambler who was always in debt. Shortly before 4oincarF1s &isit he had gi&en an inter&iew, !3ussia ;s 3eady,! widely published in the 4aris press, which sparked a flurry on the stock exchange which Sukhomlino& was able to turn to his profit. %ne of his numerous creditors was in close touch with #erman intelligence. "he real powers behind the papier-mPchF facade of the tsarist court were other men. 3ussia1s foreign minister, S.6. Sa:ono&, had played the most important role in the $alkan intrigues of the pre&ious decade. Alexander ;:&olsky, formerly foreign minister and in +,+A ambassador to France, played a diplomatic role scarcely inferior to that of Sa:ono&. "hen there were the grandees of 4an-Sla&ism, clustered on the general staff and in the high command, foremost among them the tsar1s uncle, #rand 6uke Gicholas, commander-in-chief of the army. ;t was Sa:ono& with whom 4oincarF conducted his most

important discussions. Sa:ono&, ably assisted by his predecessor ;:&olsky, had been and remained a hard bargainer. "wo years before, 4oincarF had insisted that France would not be drawn against her will into a war originating in the $alkans. 4oincarF had told Sa:ono& at that time( !6on1t count on us for military aid in the $alkans, e&en if you are attacked by Austria.! ;n August of +,+7, 4oincarF had reiterated his go&ernment1s position( !Should the occasion arise, we will fulfill our obligations. 6on1t rely on us, howe&er, to aid you militarily in the $alkans, e&en if you are attacked by Austria, or if in attacking her you bring about the inter&ention of #ermany.! <4oincarF, *es Responsa0ilit+s de la guerre, p. E8> 6espite these and numerous other warnings, all of them calculated to insure that the outbreak of war be timed to French con&enience, in Buly, +,+A 4oincarF found himself dependent on the tsarist empire. "he carefully laid plots of Sa:ono& and ;:&olsky had entangled the French leadership( the road back to Alsace and Lorraine would indeed make a detour through Serbia, at a hea&y toll. 4oincarF1s conduct in St. 4etersburg bore witness to his ac?uiescence in the $alkan entanglement. )e busied himself in cheering up Serbia1s ambassador to 3ussia, Spala ko&ich, whom he told, !)a&e no fear. Serbia has a warm friend in our country.! Spala ko&ich, whose superior in $elgrade, the secretary of foreign affairs, once commented, !; always wonder whether Spala ko&ich is more scoundrel than fool, or as stupid as he is crooked,! became the first Serbian diplomat to learn of 4oincarF1s whole-hearted decision to commit France to Serbia and 3ussia, come what may.

"he support for Serbia which the French leaders manifested in St. 4etersburg was accompanied with a show of hostility toward Austria- )ungary. 4rime 5inister 9i&iani, while in the 3ussian capital, sent a directi&e to all of France1s diplomats stationed abroad, which con&eyed this statement made by 4oincarF( !France will not tolerate Austrian interference in Serbian affairs.! At a diplomatic reception gi&en by 4oincarF in the Winter 4alace, he made a shocking personal attack on the Austrian ambassador to 3ussia, @ount S:QpQry, in terms that !left @ount S:QpQry beside himself,! as the Spanish ambassador, the @ount of @artagena, would later write in his 5emoirs of a 6iplomat. 2&en 4oincarF, stung by the shocked criticism that accompanied his diplomatic faux pas, later felt constrained to offer a limp defense of his outburst in his book L1Cnion sacrFe, where he writes( !; pointed out to the ambassador that Serbia has friends in 3ussia who would no doubt be astonished to find her the target of harsh measures, and that surprise might be shared in other countries that were friends of 3ussia.! At the &ery least, 4oincarF might ha&e offered his regrets to the Austrian minister on the &iolent and brutal death of his country1s heir to the throne. "he remark, coming as it did at a diplomatic reception, testified not only to a lamentable lack of self-control but also to a positi&e willingness to gi&e offense and pro&ocation. $esides his conferences with Sa:ono& and ;:&olsky, with whom 4oincarF had worked &ery closely in 4aris, both on matters of diplomacy and more sordid business in&ol&ing

the culti&ation of France1s biggest ournalists, 4oincarF also met with #rand 6uke Gicholas, commander of the 3ussian army. "he grand duke was a giant, six feet se&en inches tall, with a bearing as impressi&e as his height. Although wellknown for his brutality, he was immensely popular with the rank and file, for, to the great delight of the mu:hiks, he was prone to administer sa&age thrashings to e&en the most highly placed of his subordinates, or to deli&er a swift kick to the ample behind of an offending general, thereby instituting a democracy of punishment that would be exceeded only by Stalin1s mass purges of the officer corps in the +,8.1s. Gicholas and his brother, #rand 6uke 4eter, were supported in their 4an-Sla&ism by their wi&es Anastasia and 5ilit:a, the fiery daughters of the king of little 5ontenegro, Gicholas. /ing Gicholas, a perpetual moneygrubber whose searches for a wealthy wife inspired Lehar1s /erry Widow, ruled a state linked closely to Serbia historically and ethnically but which, under his rule, inclined toward placating Austria. )is daughters, heiresses to a long heritage of banditry and &endetta, were as bold as they were enchanting. "hey laughed at the toadying of the courtiers around the imperial family, and seemed always to be spoiling for a fight with someone. 6uring the French state &isit their preferred enemy was #ermany, and the two spitfires ?uickly wrapped 4oincarF around their little fingers. At the ban?uet which the French ambassador, 5aurice 4alFologue, was gi&ing the tsar and his president, Alexandra and 5ilit:a themsel&es decorated the tables, setting bou?uets of flowers e&erywhere. $efore the sullen

4oincarF they placed a gold candy box, which, when opened, pro&ed to contain a half pound of earth from his nati&e Lorraine, the focus of his ambitions for re&enge throughout the course of his career. "o further stir 4oincarF1s blood, #rand 6uke Gicholas staged a great military re&iew on the parade ground at /rasnoye Selo. "ogether with the tsar they watched sixty thousand troops swagger by, massi&e men, barrel- chested and mustachioed, with shouts that e&oked wolf packs bounding on the endless steppe. "he horses of the cossacks thundered by as if maddened by &odka. 5ost inspiring of all for the French president, the 3ussian bands filled the air with French military marches - *e R+giment de am0re et /euse& "iers !nfants de la *orraine - until 4oincarF was transfigured with pride. At the end of the parade 4oincarF &entured a prediction about the 3ussian forces. !"hey will be in $erlin by All Saint1s 6ay,! he forecast. As to 3ussian troops in $erlin, the little lawyer from Lorraine was thirty-one years premature. Gor would the tsar or his relati&es command them. $ut 4oincarF had allowed himself to be con&inced. 3ussia1s fi&e-million-man army would sweep aside the /aiser1s se&erely outnumbered forces and be watering their horses at the Spree in a few weeks. And by @hristmas, Strasbourg and 5et: would be French again. Gow that 4oincarF and his diplomats were set on war, they would make e&ery arrangement to camouflage the real circumstances of its onset( they would tempori:e, tell comforting lies, stage full-blown deceptions, e&en carry out

forgeries - all matters in which well-trained diplomats excel when professional duty demands them. Such subterfuges, of course, would be so discreet that &ery few would e&en ha&e an inkling of them' if worst came to worst, the perpetrators would deny them in shocked tones. ;n this spirit, 4oincarF, who left St. 4etersburg for France on Buly 78, denied ha&ing come to any understanding with the 3ussians. According to him, !5. 9i&iani and + relaxed and rested.! Strictly speaking, he1d learned nothing new( !We ha&e no news, or practically none.! As the historian Fabre Luce wrote, !4oincarF acted the role of deaf-mute.! "he French president took great pains not to direct any potentially incriminating memoranda to the Ruai d1%rsay. As the French delegation was preparing to board the France, while final embraces were being exchanged, Sa:ono& had scribbled the text of a final oint 3ussianFrench declaration, then proferred it to 4oincarF. "he Frenchman ga&e a start on reading the draft( !"he two go&ernments ha&e established a perfect correspondence of their &iews and of their aims for the maintenance of the balance of power in 2urope, especially on the $alkan peninsula.! 4oincarF wrote later in *'4nion sacr+e( !9i&iani and ; thought the wording, in which there was no mention of peace, would commit us too much to following 3ussia1s policy in the $alkans. Accordingly we modified the draft so as to safeguard our freedom of action.! <p. 7-,> "his hypocritical claim, belied by his e&ery action at the time, 4oincarF sought to bolster further by the claim that during the all-important days ust before the outbreak of the war, !2&eryone knew that 5. 9i&iani and ; were on the

high seas, far from both France and 3ussia.! ;n politics, hypocrisy is a &irtue. Cnfortunately for the politicians, history is apt to pursue them, and re&eal their self-ser&ing stories and e&asions for the lies they were. 4oincarF1s efforts to co&er his tracks were soon exposed. "he $ritish ambassador to St. 4etersburg, Sir #eorge $uchanan, a staunch opponent of #ermany and an intimate friend of France1s 4alFologue, re&ealed 4oincarF1s secret arrangements with the 3ussians in his memoirs. $uchanan had learned of them from 4alFologue shortly after 4oincarF had sailed back to France. ;mmediately after being apprised of the real situation, $uchanan wired London that 4oincarF would shield the Serbs, that there was no longer any ?uestion of the French leader acting as a check on 3ussian 4an-Sla&ists, and that the French and the 3ussians had !solemnly ratified the commitments of the alliance.! %n the same report Sir 2yre @rowe, assistant secretary in the Foreign %ffice, wrote this summary( !"he time has passed when we might treat with France to keep 3ussia within bounds. ;t is clear that France and 3ussia ha&e decided to throw down the gauntlet.! After 4oincarF1s departure 4alFologue resumed his role as the most important Frenchman in 3ussia. 6uring the last ten days of Buly he would carry out his role as master decei&er in a &irtuoso performance. 4oincarF1s last instructions to 4alFologue, issued ust before the France weighed anchor, were explicit( !;t is imperati&e that Sa:ono& remain firm and that we support him.! "hese words ha&e been documented from se&eral sources, most

notably the records of secret 3ussian diplomacy which the So&iets, in the first flush of their re&olutionary ardor, were so indelicate as to publish in 4ra&da in the winter of +,+-+,+D. 6espite his denials, 4oincarF in fact maintained contact with both 4aris and St. 4etersburg on his return &oyage. According to 4alFologue, he himself had sent important information to his president on board the France, and had recei&ed additional instructions from 4oincarF, including a telegram impressing upon him the need to !gi&e full support to the imperial go&ernment.! French historian Fabre Luce, in his outstanding *'5istoire d+ma3uill+e, summed up the facts of 4oincarF1s return trip( "he tra&elers M4oincarF and 9i&ianiN knew that the 3ussian go&ernment did not en&isage a Serbian acceptance Mof Austria1s demandsN, which in any case depended on 3ussia, and had decided to mobili:e against Austria in the e&ent of an Austro-Serbian break in relations. )ence they knowingly cabled St. 4etersburg a renewed promise of support. 4oincarF, howe&er, was bent on his role of deaf-mute, and the archi&es of the Ruai d1%rsay would be manipulated so as to make it seem that communications with the outside world were held to an absolute minimum.! Some months after the beginning of the war, the French go&ernment would publish a collection of documents purporting to demonstrate its own innocent conduct and #ermany1s aggressi&e beha&ior in the period ust before the war1s outbreak. ;n that collection, called the French *ellow $ook, there was more than one glaring omission, as would be re&ealed after the war.

;ndeed, all the messages which passed between 4oincarF and 4alFologue as the French president steamed back to France would be either wholly or partially suppressed. 3e&ealingly enough, the entire text of the agreement between Sa:ono& and 4oincarF, in which 4oincarF had gratuitously interpolated a deceitful reference to their mutual desire for peace, was missing from the 6ellow Boo.. Fabre Luce remarks( ;t is a curious thing that the telegram which, because of that addition, might be taken by nai&e readers as an indication of the pacific purpose of the tra&elers, was omitted from the first 6ellow Boo. published by the French go&ernment. Was it done to make people forget that 9i&iani1s addition didn1t at all s?uare with the policies actually followed during subse?uent daysH %r to keep up the fiction that the tra&elers had not been apprised of anything and had taken no actionH Again, the critical telegrams which 4oincarF dispatched at 4alFologue, ordering him to back the 3ussians to the limit, are not to be found in the *ellow $ook. Later the French president would piously declare, !We know nothing of any remote conspiracies,! echoing 4alFologue, who made the bra:en claim that since the head of state and the head of go&ernment were at sea, and since they were only imperfectly ac?uainted with the situation, they were unable to send him any instructions. "his sort of manipulation of the truth would be followed by numerous faked documents( texts of messages published with compromising passages omitted, in&ented passages inserted, and out-and-out forgeries. From the morning of Buly 7A, +,+A, not a single official text, either French or

3ussian, can be accepted at face &alue by a serious historian, unless it has been sub ected to the most thoroughgoing scrutiny. "he student of history, in dealing with the outbreak of the First World War, finds himself inundated by a flood of lies and circumlocutions. Geedless to say, at the time millions of nai&e people were led astray. 5illions and tens of millions still belie&e the official falsehoods, long after they were re&ealed for what they were. Some of the most glaring deceptions ha&e gone almost unnoticed, due to the &ested interests of establishment politicians and court historians, who ha&e made untruth a weapon of state in order to capture the masses, render them mindless, dri&e them into collecti&e hysteria, and then frustrate any possibility that in calmer days they might learn from their mistakes and come to doubt the word of the power elite. We shall learn how the story of the mobili:ation of the &arious national armies has been distorted, and how in particular the leaders of France and 3ussia faked the date of Austria1s and 3ussia1s mobili:ations, dri&ing eight million men to their deaths. ;t would not be until eight years after that fateful Buly of +,+A that 4oincarF, dri&en to the wall by the League of )uman 3ights, would be forced to confess that the document which he had flaunted more than any other, the Austrian notice of mobili:ation, had been faked. )is retraction would not restore life to a single one of the dead at @hemin-des-6ames, 9erdun, or "annenberg.

CHAPTE )II

ussia ,obi"i-es ;t is a strange fact that 5aurice 4alFologue was charged almost exclusi&ely with the conduct of France1s relations with 3ussia. "he French prime minister, 9i&iani, was also foreign minister, constitutionally 4alFologue1s superior' while 9i&iani was en route to and from St. 4etersburg the minister of ustice, $ein&enu-5artin, had been appointed acting foreign minister. "he truth is that 9i&iani had little authority. 4oincarF &iewed his prime minister with hauteur and suspicion, and often worked behind his back. 4alFologue was contemptuous of his superior, of whom he said, !9i&iani doesn1t ha&e the slightest notion of diplomatic affairs( he is as sluggish as a dormouse and the most foulmouthed of all our politicians.! Shunted aside, treated with contempt, 9i&iani would go mad and end up in an asylum. As for the interim foreign minister, B.$. $ien&enu-5artin, he played an almost non-existent role during his brief tenure. Abel Ferry, state secretary in the foreign ministry, wrote of him in his @arnets <Gotebooks>( !"he minister comes in only forty-fi&e minutes a day, and the mice do play.! While $ien&enu-5artin stayed away, and 9i&iani was outmaneu&ered, the foreign ministry swarmed with unofficial !diplomats,! operators such as "ardieu, who considered the place his pri&ate preser&e, wandering through the offices on the Ruai d1%rsay with an elegant cigarette-holder protruding from his lugubrious fish-face. "he most powerful diplomat on the spot was not 9i&iani or $ien&enu- 5artin, but the political director, Secretary

#eneral 4hilippe $erthelot. )e was scarcely a force for an honest diplomacy rooted in mutual trust and conciliation( it was $erthelot who edited the *ellow $ook. Go sooner had the France left the dock in St. 4etersburg than 4alFologue got to work. )e in&ited Sa:ono&, the 3ussian foreign minister, to ha&e lunch with him at halt1 past twel&e the next day, Buly 7A. For the next three days the two men would confer almost without interruption. At the luncheon meeting on the twenty-fourth, 4alFologue duly transmitted to Sa:ono& the secret watchword he had ust recei&ed telegraphically from 4oincarF on the France( !Stand firm0 Stand firm0! "he French minister was abetted by a second guest at the diplomatic lunch. #reat $ritain1s ambassador, Sir #eorge $uchanan, ri&aled Sa:ono& in his enthusiasm for the 3ussian cause. Far from being a dispassionate and neutral emissary of $ritain, $uchanan was a strong supporter of #rand 6uke Gicholas and his 4an-Sla& ambitions. At the lunch, when Sa:ono& and 4alFologue urged him to support France and 3ussia, he replied unhesitatingly, !*ou1re preaching to the con&erted.! Sa:ono&, who had ust ordered Serbia1s 4rime 5inister 4ashich to re ect Austria1s sixth condition for a settlement of the Sara e&o affair - that a oint commission of in?uiry be appointed - saw his hand immeasurably strengthened by this strong intimation of official $ritish support. )e stiffened his back yet more, urging 4ashich that both he and the Serbian regent should lea&e $elgrade immediately in preparation for the hostilities. 4ashich complied with that demand ?uickly enough, sending his family to 4aris

immediately. %n the twenty-fifth, Serbia made her counterproposal to Austria, accepting those demands which incon&enienced the 4ashich go&ernment and its 3ussian patrons least, but turning down those central to the Austrian position. ;n accordance with Sa:ono&1s orders, 4ashich presented a counterproposal to the Austrian ambassador in which he declared that his go&ernment was willing to punish the culprits, but only after they had been pro&en guilty by an in&estigation which in&ol&ed no Austrians. 6oubtless this was an understandable position, gi&en that 4ashich knew full well who had organi:ed the assassination plot, and that he walked to his offices e&ery morning with the chief conspirator in the $alkans, 3ussia1s minister, )artwig. As 4ashich and his 3ussian mentors both knew, howe&er, the Serbian re ection of Austria1s demands meant war. %n the same day that 4alFologue, Sa:ono&, and $uchanan had intrigued o&er tea, the 3ussian leadership, secure in its knowledge of the Serbian response to Austria on the next day, began to mobili:e its ponderous armies. Sa:ono& laid a plan for regional mobili:ation before the tsar that afternoon, the twenty-fourth, which pro&ided for putting the troops of the 5oscow, /ie&, and /a:an military districts on a war footing. 2stablishment histories speak of 3ussia1s mobili:ation as ha&ing occurred a week later, on the thirtieth or thirty-first. "he earlier regional, !preliminary! mobili:ation is dismissed as merely a defensi&e measure to forestall a rapacious Austria bent on crushing little Serbia. #enerally glossed o&er is the fact that the 3ussian fleets of both the

$altic and the $lack Sea were ordered to mobili:e as well. @learly this was more than a !regional! mobili:ation. "he $lack Sea was far from any of the actors in the Serbian crisis, and no canal linked the $altic to the 6anube. @learly, the 3ussians were taking aim at a plum long co&eted by the imperialist ideologues of 3ussian expansion( "sargrad, @onstantinople, ;stanbul, the capital of the %ttoman 2mpire, a plum long worth more to the tsarists than all the plum trees in Serbia. $y mobili:ing in the $altic, ust as clearly, the 3ussian expansionists were preparing to strike against #ermany. $y mobili:ing the $altic fleet, the 3ussians were presenting the /aiser and his ministers with a pro&ocation close to unacceptable. "sar Gicholas ;; was not a perfidious man. )e wouldn1t ha&e hurt a fly, e&en if he had possessed the re?uisite energy. $ut he was little more li&ely than a corpse. A close friend said of the 3ussian ruler, !;f you asked him an important ?uestion, he seemed to fall into a cataleptic trance.! "hus he was putty in the hands of ad&isers and ministers like Sa:ono&. "he foreign minister ?uickly pre&ailed on him to endorse the plan for partial mobili:ation, which was then appro&ed by the council of ministers at /rasnoye Selo on the twenty-fifth. "he regional, or !partial! mobili:ation begun by this decision was, in line with the military realities of the day, anything but partial. %nce set in motion, mobili:ation proceeded according to fixed plans which couldn1t be altered, and was all but irre&ocable. "he tsar knew little of

strategy and tactics, and was blissfully unaware that he had committed his nation to a course from which there was no turning back when he complied with Sa:ono&1s re?uest. 2&en then, there were 3ussian troops who had been fe&erishly set in motion weeks before the decision to mobili:e on Buly 7A, +,+A. "wenty days before, the =.,... troops who had so impressed 4oincarF as they strutted to French martial music at /rasnoye Selo had been recalled from Siberia by the general staff. "he snows of Siberia had melted during the brief northern summer. ;t was the boast of the general staff that the Siberian troops would be in $erlin before the snows returned to 3ussia1s &ast Asiatic expanse. $$$ %n Buly 7E, #rand 6uke Gicholas entertained at a grand military ban?uet. "here the #ermans first got wind of 3ussia1s ruler1s decision for war. #eneral &on @helius, the /aiser1s personal military representati&e at the court of the tsar, had been seated beside Gicholas1s chief e?uerry, $aron #runwald, an old friend. When the toasts were being made, the 3ussian marshal looked gra&ely at the #erman, raised his glass to him with deep emotion, and said, !5y dear comrade, ; am not authori:ed to tell you what was decided at noon today, but it was &ery serious.! "hen, placing his hand on &on @helius1s arm, he added, !Let us hope that we shall see each other again in better days.! ;t was goodbye, then. "he 3ussian officer could scarcely ha&e been more explicit. )e knew that a war was on the way, and he was taking lea&e of his friend, hours before the Serbians would present their re ection to the Austrians. ;t was #rand 6uke Gicholas who was the star of the

ban?uet, howe&er. $efore two thousand newly minted officers from the military academy at St. 4etersburg <all hastily commissioned hours before>, the 3ussian commander-in-chief put on an exuberant theatrical performance, calculated to rouse the 3ussian soldiers to a fe&er pitch of bellicosity. "he hall was flooded with oyous song, to the accompaniment of glasses, emptied of &odka, being smashed on the floor in the 3ussian manner. *et another 3ussian was re oicing in St. 4etersburg that day. Alexander ;:&olsky, who had schemed for a war since +,.=' who had set another ri&er besides the Seine flowing into 4aris, a ri&er of gold' who had bribed and corrupted the press, was on the scene to see his labor finally bear fruit. )e had returned to his capital to keep watch lest 4oincarF slow things down through any adherence to diplomatic or legal formalities. )e needn1t ha&e worried' Sa:ono& and #rand 6uke Gicholas did their work well. Gow it only remained for ;:&olsky to return to 4aris, to obser&e the final French preparations and to stand ready to push the French leaders o&er the brink if they showed last-minute signs of hesitation. %n the e&ening of the twenty-fifth, ;:&olsky boarded the train for 4aris. )is French colleague, 4alFologue, tossing discretion to the winds, accompanied him to the station and to his personal railway car. ;:&olsky, s?uare-faced, with the features of a /almuck, beamed. With a triumphant cry, he assured the Frenchman, !"his time it1s war0! "hen both men kissed each other in the 3ussian fashion, on the mouth. Shortly afterward, the 3ussian ambassador1s train set off for

4aris. "he next morning 4alFologue telegraphed 4aris to inform his go&ernment that the 3ussian mobili:ation was under way. Geither on that day - the twenty-sixth - nor on any succeeding day did the French leaders remonstrate with the 3ussians or seek to inhibit their actions in any way, thereby supplying further e&idence of the 4oincarF go&ernment1s collusion with the 3ussian imperialists. Geedless to say, the 6ellow Boo.'s editor chose to omit this telegram from its allegedly comprehensi&e documentation of the origins of the war. For some years 4oincarF belie&ed that by eliminating the incriminating e&idence from the go&ernment1s official account of the e&ents of Buly, +,+A, he could wash himself clean of any suspicions and accusations. )is pedestrian mentality failed to anticipate that the cataclysm he was calling forth by his secret machinations might bring about fundamental changes in the political order in which he had learned to ser&e himself so well. "en years after the war, Sergei 6imitrie&ich Sa:ono&, the 3ussian foreign minister with whom 4oincarF had so cle&erly arranged the war, found himself in exile from his nati&e 3ussia, which lay in ruins, chasti:ed by a more fearsome knout than any of the tsars could e&er ha&e hoped to wield. "he collapse of the old order had left him with little appetite to co&er up 4oincarF1s doings, and in his echs chwere 2ahre <published in 2nglish as "ateful 6ears> he re&ealed the truth about 4alFologue1s telegram to 4aris, and another historical lie crumbled into rubble. ;:&olsky arri&ed in 4aris on the twenth-ninth. "he telegram

had preceded him, of course, and 4oincarF was well prepared to cooperate with the 3ussian ambassador when the en&oy presented himself at the 2lysFe 4alace. "he French president was secretly delighted by the unscrupulous measures the 3ussians had been taking to force the issue with #ermany and Austria. 4oincarF cra&ed war e&en more ardently than the 3ussians. After two years of stri&ing, he was about to get his wish.

CHAPTE )III &erman estraint "he 3ussian leaders had in the beginning belie&ed, with no small nai&etF, that their mobili:ation could be carried out in secret, affording their lumbering armed forces a week or so extra in which to assemble the millions of draftees and march them to the #erman and Austrian frontiers. Within twenty-four hours the word was out, scattered to the four winds. "he indiscretions had been numerous, from #runwald1s hint to the #erman &on @helius at the ban?uet at /rasnoye Selo to ;:&olsky1s indiscreet beha&ior at the railway station. "he newly commissioned young officers from the military academy were less than reticent, and #rand 6uke Gicholas, his chest puffed out, was already playing the braggart soldier to the admiring ladies of the 3ussian capital. As the $olshe&iks were to demonstrate by their publication of the 3ussian diplomatic archi&es concerning Franco-

3ussian relations between +,+. and +,+A, the tsarist regime continued to mistrust its French allies down to the &ery outbreak of the war. "he offer of so much French gold and blood in addition to the tsar1s gaining mastery of @onstantinople, the $alkans, 3uthenia, those parts of 4oland in #erman and Austrian hands, and $ohemia as well, struck the 3ussians as generous indeed, e&en if compensated for by the rerun to France of Alsace-Lorraine. "o make sure that France would not at the last moment withdraw from her commitments, the 3ussians speeded up mobili:ation to the best of their abilities. "he faster they mo&ed, the more certain France1s cooperation, but all the more likely that word would reach the 4an-Sla&ists1 prospecti&e enemies. And already suspicion was rising across the border, in #ermany. %n Buly 7E, /aiser Wilhelm was still at sea aboard his yacht 5ohen7ollern, unaware of the 3ussian decision to mobili:e and the Serbian re ection of Austria1s demands. ;n $erlin, the #erman go&ernment was beginning to recei&e dis?uieting news from St. 4etersburg. $efore that, @hancellor $ethmann-)ollweg had been slow to credit the 3ussian in&ol&ement in the grisly affair at Sara e&o. Although aware of 3ussian machinations in the $alkans, it seemed to him inconcei&able that the tsar would make common cause with regicides. ;t was his predecessor, 4rince $ernhard &on $Olow, who opened his eyes on this matter. With malicious delight, &on $Olow recounted the story of how in +D+A "sar Alexander ; had urged Louis S9;;; to find a ob for Sa&ary. "he king had said that that was ?uite impossible, since Sa&ary had sat

on the re&olutionary tribunal which had sentenced Louis S9; to the guillotine. !;s that allH! exclaimed the tsar, !and ; dine e&ery day with $ennigsen and Cchako& who strangled my father0! At the beginning of Buly +,+A, $ethmann-)ollweg had been present at a con&ersation between the /aiser and his minister of war, #eneral Falkenhayn. "he general had asked, !;s it necessary to begin any sort of military preparationsH! As we ha&e seen, the /aiser answered in the negati&e' !; am completely opposed to that,! adding, !)a&e a nice summer,! after which he sent his minister off to the country. As 4rince &on $Olow was later to relate, on the next day, ! ust as he Mthe /aiserN was about to lea&e for /iel and his cruise to the north, he recei&ed representati&es of the army and na&y general staffs and informed them that Austria was going to demand an accounting from Serbia for the Sara e&o murder, but that there was no reason to fear a serious conflict, and it was hence unnecessary to begin military or na&al preparations.! "o be sure, blustering as was his habit, Wilhelm ;; had fired off a broadside of bad names at the Serbs and expressed the wish that Serbia be soundly thrashed for its crime. Ge&ertheless, he had made clear that punishment was entirely the business of the Austrians. @hancellor $ethmann-)ollweg was a good deal less warlike than e&en his so&ereign. 2&en after he recei&ed word that 4oincarF was heading for 3ussia, and was informed of the French press1s far from hostile co&erage of the Sara e&o assassins, he did nothing. Sitting alone sphinxlike in his $erlin office, he kept silent, reading his 4lato,

secure in his belief that the war, if it broke out, would be confined to the $alkans. $$$ Ge&ertheless, some #erman officials became apprehensi&e early in Buly. @ount Wedel, a counselor to the political section of the foreign affairs ministry, telephoned $erlin from Gorderney in the 2ast Frisian ;slands, where he was &acationing, to ask if he should return to his post. )e was told that his &acation need not be interrupted' it was only a false alarm, and e&erything would be all right. State Secretary 6elbrOck, also on &acation, grew apprehensi&e ten days after Sara e&o. %n Buly , he returned to $erlin, and suggested to $ethmann )ollweg that it might be wise to set in motion the contingency measures that had been formulated se&eral years before in the e&ent of a threat of war. "he measures include big purchases of grain on the 3otterdam exchange, and 6elbrOck urged this with particular insistence. ;ndeed, the French had begun stockpiling flour as early as Banuary +,+A, with special funds pro&ided by the military. $ethmann-)ollweg remained calm in the face of 6elbrOck1s entreaties. !For #ermany to perform the slightest action which could be taken as a preparation for war would be out of the ?uestion,! he replied. Still worried, 6elbrOck had taken his case to the foreign minister, #ottlieb &on Bagow, and then the treasury secretary, /uhn. )e was rebuffed each time, and finally ordered to resume his &acation. )e wouldn1t return until almost two weeks later. $$$

;t was 5ontaigne who wrote, !All the troubles in this world arise from stupidity,! yet "heobald &on $ethmann-)ollweg was not a stupid man. Fluent in the classical languages, a lo&er of $eetho&en, he was a &ery capable administrator, with a genius for paperwork. ;n the tangled thicket of intrigue which surrounded the Sara e&o affair, howe&er, he was completely lacking in astuteness. ;ndulgent toward Austria-)ungary, he imagined that her leaders would restrain their indignation and, if they couldn1t work out a settlement with Serbia, at least confine themsel&es to a war limited in area and aim. 6oubtless he should ha&e made &ery clear to the Austrian go&ernment that #ermany, sympathetic as she was to Austria1s outrage, would not allow herself to be dragged into a war o&er Sara e&o. $ethmann-)ollweg should ha&e communicated the fact that the /aiser1s sympathy was that of a friend and of a monarch, not that of a warlord or a geopolitician seeking to alter fundamentally the borders and power relationships in any part of 2urope, including the $alkans. *et the #erman chancellor let things slide during the &ital first three weeks in Buly, "he Austrians prepared their ultimatum, and the #ermans, niether distancing themsel&es from it nor supporting it, likewise neither prepared for war nor for peace. $$$ "he re&elation pro&ided &on @helius by $aron #runwald on Buly 7E struck the chancellor1s office like a bomb. 5ore bad news poured in. #erman sentries on the 2ast 4russian border reported the 3ussians tearing down their customs buildings and uprooting barrier fences. From St. 4etersburg came further word of military

preparations under way in /ie& and /harko&. #rand 6uke Gicholas had paraded his ca&alry from /rasnoye Selo through St. 4etersburg. "he sixteen s?uadrons of #uards, @ossacks, cuirassiers, and dragoons in full battle array made a fearsome sight, and the thousands of trotting hoo&es, the bugle fanfares, and the glittering regimental colors stirred the hearts of the St. 4etersburgers and the fears of the foreigners, at least those who were diplomats from countries less than enthusiastic about 3ussian imperialism. #ermany1s ambassador, @ount 4ourtalLs, paid a call on Sa:ono&. !*ou are continuing to armH! in?uired the #erman diplomat. !Bust some preparatory measures... in order not to be caught short. ;t1s not a ?uestion of mobili:ation,! responded Sa:ono&. !Such measures are extremely dangerous. ; fear they may pro&oke countermeasures from the other side,! retorted the #erman. ;n a few hours, news of this con&ersation was contributing to the growing furor in $erlin. $ethmann-)ollweg was panic-stricken when he reali:ed that the enormous 3ussian empire was readying for war. #al&ani:ed to action at last, on Buly 7= he sent a telegram to his ambassador in London, 4rince Lichnowsky, instructing him to call on $ritain1s foreign minister, Sir 2dward #rey, and ask him to inter&ene immediately with St. 4etersburg against a 3ussian mobili:ation in any form. $ad show( Sir 2dward had gone fishing that Sunday. ;t was the season when the trout were at their fattest and most

beautiful. #rey had once written, !For myself ; know nothing which e?uals the excitement of ha&ing hooked an unexpectedly large fish on a small rod and a fine tackle.! 4rince Lichnowsky caught nothing that day. )e was forced to wait until 5onday to con&ey his chancellor1s message. At the same time, another fisherman was spending the last few hours of his yachting &acation at sea. /aiser Wilhelm was worried and angry. )e considered the actions <or lack of action> of his chancellor deplorable. )e had finally been notified of the de&eloping crisis, but he still awaited the text of Serbia1s reply to Austria. 9ienna had tarried a day after recei&ing the note before informing $erlin of its content. 9on Bagow, the #erman minister of foreign affairs, would only see the text on Buly 7-, two days after it was deli&ered to 9ienna. Wilhelm ;; landed at /iel on the twenty se&enth, and arri&ed in 4otsdam on his special train se&eral hours later. "here he met the hapless $ethmann- )ollweg and fa&ored him with a withering glare. "he chancellor, stammering in confusion, offered his resignation on the spot. "he /aiser coldly refused it. !*ou ha&e cooked this broth. Gow you are going to eat it,! he told $ethmann-)ollweg. "he next morning /aiser Wilhelm had his first look at the text of the Serbian reply, at se&en o1clock in the morning. )e was not o&erly dismayed( he belie&ed that the assassins had to be found and punished, but it still didn1t seem as if war were ine&itable. )e learned that the $ritish were considering proposing that the Austrians occupy $elgrade until the crisis was resol&ed. Far-fetched as that may ha&e seemed, it still offered hope

that a solution short of all-out combat might be found. "here seemed an additional ray of hope from 9ienna. /aiser Fran: Bosef had let fall a remark which seemed to hold open a possibility for peace. !After all,! the )absurg had said, !breaking off diplomatic relations doesn1t ha&e to be a casus $elli.! /aiser Wilhelm took ust an hour to work out a plan for a pro&isional peace between Austria and Serbia, along the lines of the thinking in the $ritish foreign office. After a horseback ride in the park, he returned to his desk to write down his proposal in more definite form. ;t called for a temporary occupation of $elgrade by the Austrians, to insure the good faith of the Serbs in rooting out the conspiracy that had murdered Wilhelm1s friend the Archduke.

CHAPTE I. The /ord of a Kin0 5eanwhile, in $ritain, opinion was mixed as to what to do about the gathering storm o&er the @ontinent. "he animosity toward #ermany which had been pro&oked by the rising #erman economic challenge had not decreased, nor had concern o&er the growth of the #erman na&y and merchant fleet. Ge&ertheless, an important sector of public opinion and the press opposed $ritish entry into war, especially if 3ussia might profit by it and be emboldened to stri&e for hegemony in 2urope. "he 5anchester #uardian prepared a

powerful editorial against the war, in which it stated( !We should first of all ha&e it definitely understood that if 3ussia and France make war, we will not follow them.! "he "imes saw the danger on another front. ;n a clearsighted prophecy that is now more &alid than e&er, it admonished( !A general 2uropean war would guarantee that the economic future would belong to the American continent, particularly to Gorth America.! "he threat of the supremacy of a massi&e and primiti&e tsarist 3ussia, which $ritain had felt compelled to oppose on the battlefields of the @rimea sixty years before and which it had warily confronted along the boundaries of its ;ndian ra for se&eral decades, occupied $ritons more than the distant threat from their American cousins, howe&er. Writing in the "imes, Gorman Angell predicted that( "he ob ect and effect of our entering this war would be to ensure the &ictory of 3ussia and her Sla&onic allies. Will a dominant Sla&onic federation of, say, 7..,...,... autocratically go&erned people with a &ery rudimentary ci&ili:ation but hea&ily e?uipped for military aggression be a less dangerous factor in 2urope than a dominant #ermany of =E,...,...H ... "he last war we fought on the @ontinent was for the purpose of pre&enting the growth of 3ussia. We are now asked to fight for the purpose of promoting it. With public opinion far from enthusiastic about a possible alliance with 3ussia, the Cnited /ingdom1s politicians had to tread lightly, e&en though the idea of cutting #ermany down to si:e had great appeal for them. 6espite $ritain1s long-standing ambition to control the @ontinent, one can1t &ery well claim that the $ritish ruling class was cut out to rule 2urope by reason of its exceptional

superiority. "he illustrious William 4itt, no matter his accomplishments, and disregarding his sorry end <he died at forty-se&en from his penchant for tippling port wine>, can scarcely be compared to Gapoleon. ;n fact, more than one $ritish statesman has been noteworthy for his lack of intellectual accomplishment, from the stodgy 2dward #rey, foreign secretary in +,+A, to the much ballyhooed Winston @hurchill, an academic failure. At $alliol @ollege, %xford, #rey was sent down by the 5aster, $en amin Bowett, who wrote in the minute book, !Sir 2dward #rey, ha&ing been repeatedly admonished for idleness and ha&ing shown himself entirely ignorant of the work set him in &acation as a condition of his residence, was sent down, but allowed to come up to pass his examination in Bune.! )is academic redemption notwithstanding, #rey ne&er achie&ed a proper understanding of the nations of the @ontinent. Like his people, he knew 2urope only as a tourist, passing through in his sleeping car enroute to ;ndia. )e had set foot in 4aris ust once, a member of /ing #eorge 91s retinue during a state &isit. )e thought !foreigners! strange beings, !terrible schemers,! and once expressed the opinion that !foreign statesmen ought to recei&e their education in one of 2ngland1s public schools.! According to Sir 2dward1s lights, had Wilhelm ;;, 4oincarF, Gicholas ;;, Fran: Bosef, and e&en the redoubtable 4ashich been cast in the 2tonian mold, 2urope would ha&e ac?uired a sure harmony, particularly if each of the %ld $oys had rendered homage to )is $ritannic 5a esty. As an 2nglish obser&er wrote, !Sir 2dward had the inborn con&iction of

the nineteenth century 2nglishman that 2ngland1s role in 2urope was that of a president who con&oked conferences and cast the deciding &ote.! "his impeccable 2nglishman, with his umbrella and top hat, who fished enthusiastically and catalogued the birds he watched in his garden, was charming and agreeable in his pri&ate life. $ut as a custodian of the 2mpire, he was a different man, watchful and ealous of whoe&er might attempt to raise himself to the di::ying heights reser&ed for $ritain alone. For him, in the end, $ritish supremacy was all that counted. "he ;rish, the $oers, the )ighland Scots, all of them and millions of others had challenged it at their peril. Gow, although #rey could ne&er ha&e recogni:ed it, this uni?ue combination - breadth of power and narrowness of outlook - for the first time became a trap not only for $ritain1s ri&als on the @ontinent but for $ritain and its empire as well. $$$ While #rey was off fishing on Sunday, the twenty-sixth, his interim secretary of state, Sir Arthur Gicolson, had in&ited the ambassadors of Austria-)ungary, #ermany, and 3ussia to a conference in which they could begin preliminary con&ersations to defuse the Serbian crisis. $y an amusing coincidence, all three ambassadors were related, all of them cousins( 5ensdorff, the Austrian' $enckendorff, who despite his #erman name was 3ussian' and Lichnowsky, a #erman with a Sla&ic name <his father had had to flee Austria after a duel in which he killed a )ungarian nobleman>. Lichnowsky was an odd ambassador. )e and his wife detested the /aiser, a fact which his wife had once

confessed to 5rs. As?uith, the wife of $ritain1s prime minister. Like his cousins he was worldly and &ain, and in fact had been commissioned by the /aiser to keep the $ritish entertained and di&erted while the 3eich built up its fleet. "he three ambassadors were unable e&en to meet, for their go&ernments shared a mistrust of what the three cousins might intrigue while meeting in distant London. Ge&ertheless, the fact that the $ritish go&ernment had attempted to arrange such a conference, to the exclusion of France, fostered a brief hope that all was not yet lost. ;n Austria, the most aggrie&ed of the great powers, there was still sentiment for a settlement. "he breaking off of relations with Serbia had caused more fright than enthusiasm. @ount $erchtold, the foreign minister, was shattered by the de&elopment. A contemporary wrote of him( !$erchtold was perhaps the most frightened man in 2urope that afternoon. )e had thought to terrify the Serbians. "he latter, sure that the 3ussian colossus, their secret ally, would support them to the hilt in case of trouble, had not gi&en in. ;t was then that $erchtold became terror-stricken.! $$$ 5eanwhile, a meeting between his brother, 4rince )einrich, and his cousin, #eorge 9, at $uckingham 4alace had gi&en /aiser Wilhelm another straw to grasp at. "he two royal cousins had passed an hour that Sunday morning, during which #eorge had ad&ised the prince to re oin his brother in $erlin without delay. When )einrich asked the king what $ritain planned to do, #eorge replied, according to the report 4rince )einrich made to the /aiser, !We shall try all

we can to keep our of this and shall remain neutral.! According to notes he made of the talk, #eorge 9 had a different &ersion of his answer( ; don1t know what we shall do. We ha&e no ?uarrel with anyone and ; hope we shall remain neutral. $ut if #ermany declares war on 3ussia and France oins 3ussia, then ; am afraid we shall be dragged into it. $ut you can be sure that ; and my go&ernment will do all that we can to pre&ent a 2uropean war. Whether the two cousins misunderstood each other or /ing #eorge retreated from his word under pressure is difficult to determine. When the /aiser heard his brother1s &ersion, howe&er, he was transported, in #eorge 5alcolm "homson1s words, !by sentimental and monarchical enthusiasm. )ere was something infinitely more significant and precious than the huckstering of the politicians. "he Lord1s anointed was speaking to his peer o&er the confusion and the turmoil. J; ha&e the word of a king01 cried Wilhelm. J"hat is sufficient for me.1 ! Cnfortunately for 2urope, e&en if )einrich had understood correctly, kings and their word no longer had much weight. 4recisely the kind of politician Wilhelm despised, a man slippery and ambitious beyond measure, was about to make his debut on the stage of international affairs. $$$ As #rey was returning from his angling expedition, $ritain1s First Lord of the Admiralty was swinging into action. )e was a born swashbuckler, something of a fantast, who e&er since his adolescence had been on the lookout for strife and mischief around the world, from @uba to the

"rans&aal, from the Sudan to the Afghan border. "he smell of gunpowder worked on him as an aphrodisiac might affect another man. )e was already ?uite a drinker and had something of a stammer. )is name was Winston @hurchill. "hat Sunday morning he had accompanied his family to the beach at @romer. "he news sent him hurrying back to his desk at the Admiralty. 2&en before he left the beach he telephoned 4rince Louis of $attenberg, the First Sea Lord, and asked him to order the $ritish fleet in the @hannel not to disperse. ;n his office, brandishing a cigar, he drafted a communi?ue announcing to the world 2ngland1s first tangible inter&ention in the military preparations leading up to the war. Go #erman ships were in sight, nor did the #ermans ha&e any plan to send their fleet into the @hannel. $y this pro&ocati&e gesture $ritain had cle&erly aligned itself with France. As one of @hurchill1s supporters exclaimed, !@hurchill1s orders to the fleet will surely be understood in $erlin.! Some men continued desperately to search for ways to sta&e off war. Ambassador Lichnowsky telegraphed $erlin the desire of the $ritish go&ernment that #ermany put a brake to the Austrians. Wilhelm was recepti&e to the $ritish re?uest. )e had become con&inced that Austria had carried its demands too far, and in any case the re&elation of an unbreakable 3ussian-Serbian alliance made compromise imperati&e. )e noted in his ournal( !%ur loyalty to Austria is leading us to political and economic destruction.! @hancellor $ethmann-)ollweg, howe&er, could not break his habit of tempori:ing. After recei&ing the $ritish offer, which was rather conciliatory to the Austrians since it

proposed that Austrian forces be allowed to occupy the Serbian capital temporarily, he communicated it to the Austrian foreign ministry only after some delay with great reluctance. ;n this matter, perhaps Sir 2dward #rey might be reproached as well, in &iew of his reluctance to deal with the Austrian foreign minister, @ount $erchtold, directly. @ertainly the snail1s pace at which #rey and $ethmann)ollweg set about trying to contact the Austrians for peace stands in sad contrast to the speed which @hurchill began mobili:ing the 3oyal Ga&y for war. ;nstead of the matter of minutes that it would ha&e been for the transmittal of #rey1s &ital proposal directly to 9ienna, the $ritish proposal arri&ed there some fifty hours after Serbia1s re ection of Austria1s demands. $ethmann-)ollweg managed also to sabotage a last message from the /aiser to the Austrians, delaying its dispatch for nine hours on Buly 7D in order to insert changes that enlarged the area to be occupied by the Austrians to include neighboring territory mentioned nowhere in the $ritish proposal of two days before. $y the time the telegram arri&ed, night had fallen in the Austrian capital. /aiser Wilhelm1s proposal would ha&e to wait until the next day to be read. "hen it was too late, for $erchtold had already decided for war. %n the morning of Buly 7D, $erchtold composed and sent this note to the Serbian go&ernment( !"he royal go&ernment of Serbia not ha&ing replied in a satisfactory manner to the note deli&ered it on Buly 78, +,+A by the Austro-)ungarian minister at $elgrade, the imperial and royal go&ernment finds itself under the necessity of safeguarding its own

rights and interests, and of resorting for that purpose to force of arms. Austria-)ungary thus considers itself from this moment in a state of war with Serbia.! "he effect of Austria1s declaration of war in London was disastrous for #ermany. "he Lord @hancellor, Lord )aldane, saw the hand of the 4russian militarists, soon to be a world-wide bogey, in $erchtold1s act. !"he #erman #eneral Staff is in the saddle,! he announced. Sir 2dward #rey, deeply angered, offered the opinion that !something diabolical is brewing in $erlin,! as much a selfdeception as it was a deception of the $ritish people. ;n $erlin $ethmann-)ollweg was harshly reprimanded by /aiser Wilhelm. )e was deeply shaken by Austria1s declaration of war, which he had in no way desired, despite his attempt to toughen their position against the Serbs. %n a diplomatic dispatch which had been sent from London, he wrote( !Austria1s duplicity is intolerable. "hey refuse to gi&e us any information.! At three o1clock on the morning of the twenty-ninth, after some hours pacing the floor in his office on the Wilhelmstrasse, he drafted a telegram to his ambassador in 9ienna. )e ordered him, &ery succinctly, !to speak with @ount $erchtold immediately and &ery emphatically.! A serious war was still not ine&itable. Sir 2dward #rey ordered his ambassador to call on Sa:ono& in St. 4etersburg and counsel moderation <a far ?uicker and more direct approach than he had taken with the go&ernment of Austria)ungary.> Austria, for its part, was still floating trial balloons. ;t would take fifteen days for the Austrians to mobili:e. %nly then could they in&ade Serbia.

$etter than anyone, Wilhelm ;; knew there was time to negotiate a peace. )e attempted to appeal directly to his cousin "sar Gicholas ;; in St. 4etersburg, at the &ery time when $ritain1s ambassador was telling Sa:ono&, !+ ha&e come to implore you not to consent to any military measure that #ermany could interpret as a pro&ocation.! Sa:ono& was not to be so easily mo&ed, howe&er. )e had been conferring with France1s Ambassador 4alFologue for the pre&ious four days. 4alFologue told him, !War may break out at any minute. "hat e&entuality should go&ern all our diplomatic actions.! Sa:ono& was only too happy to reassure the Frenchman. !%ur general staff is becoming impatient,! he repeated, again and again.

CHAPTE . 'amnin0 'ocuments "he discussion which 4oincarF had conducted in St. 4etersburg with the 3ussian ministers and generals had been a good deal more than exhortations and flowery encomiums. "hey had been extensi&e, detailed, and specific. "he 3ussians sought sanction for their desire to stream south to @onstantinople, a mo&e to coincide with their crossing the @aucasus into Armenia. After that, they co&eted Berusalem as well as the Sue: @anal. "he French would agree to these aims, but not until +,+-, a week

before the tsarist go&ernment fell. ;n Buly +,+A, the French leadership had other ideas for the employment of the 3ussian army. Although 4oincarF did not oppose the 3ussians1 dreams of expansion to the south outright, he insisted that the 3ussians launch a ma or attack against the #ermans in 2ast 4russia, to pin down the bulk of the #erman army far from French territory. Sa:ono& and #rand 6uke Gicholas entertained ust the opposite notion. "o them France1s mission was to wear down the #ermans on the Western Front, so that 3ussia might ha&e a free hand in the south and east. 2ach side attempted to conceal the selfishness of its own designs, and tried to lure the other through affecting shows of magnanimity into bending to its will. Geither was decei&ed. At the same time, the 3ussians were busy ad&ising their Serbian protFges on what to do when the war broke out. %n Buly 7A Sa:ono& con&eyed se&eral suggestions to the Serbian ambassador, which were immediately telegraphed to $elgrade. %ne recommendation was that the Serbians e&acuate their capital at once. "wenty years later, 4ashich1s son-in-law Stefano&ich published a photocopy of the telegram( @ouncil 4residency, $elgrade, attention 4ashich. 2xtremely urgent. Secret. %utcome council of ministers held today, 8 hours, chaired by tsar, /rasnoye Selo. Stop. Sa:ono& charges me inform you general mobili:ation ordered as agreed in military districts %dessa /ie& /a:an 5oscow with mobili:ation $altic and $lack Sea fleets. Stop. %rder sent other districts step up preparation general mobili:ation. Stop. Sa:ono& confirms Siberian di&isions concentrated behind 5oscow /a:an. Stop. All military school students

promoted officers all officers on lea&e recalled. Stop. Sa:ono& asks we draft reply ultimatum in &ery conciliatory terms but categorically re ect all points especially sixth Mthe one that demanded a oint commission of in?uiryN damaging our prestige. Stop. "sar desires immediate mobili:ation but if Austria begins hostilities we must draw back without resisting in order to preser&e military forces intact and await de&elopments. Stop. Sa:ono& will ha&e conference with 4alFologue and $uchanan in order to settle basis common action and means furnishing us armaments. Stop. 3ussia and France maintain attitude Serbian-Austrian conflict not local conflict but part large 2uropean ?uestions that only all powers can resol&e. Stop. @ompetent circles here express great annoyance with Austria. Stop. Watchword is war. Stop. 2ntire 3ussian nation eager for war great o&ations in front of legation. Stop. "sar will reply personally telegram prince regent. Stop. Spala ko&ich. <"elegram order number( +,=TD' date( Buly 7A, +,+A' references( Serbian diplomatic archi&es, @ouncil 4residency, signatures 4acuT4ashich' cabinet +,, file ++T$, folio - !4etersburg!, Buly 7-+E to Buly +D-8+, +,+A>. "his telegram has been &erified by two different sources. A copy was also sent to 4aris, as well as to the Serbian legation in London. "here the second secretary of the legation, 4etro&ich, whose duties included decoding messages, made a clandestine copy of it. 4etro&ich was hounded by agents of the Serbian secret ser&ice until he committed suicide, but not before he had handed o&er the documents to a second party for safekeeping. "wenty years later, the 4etro&ich copy was reproduced in facsimile in London <Blac. 5and o$er !urope>.

Since the Serbian archi&es were ne&er published in a form like the French *ellow $ook <and the &arious other collections issued by the belligerents during the war and after>, either by Serbia or its successor, the *ugosla&ian go&ernment, authentication of the Serbian documents published by Stefano&ich, 4etro&ich et al, has been difficult. "he fact that a good-si:ed collection, scrupulously indexed, was published by a leading functionary of the Serbian ministry of foreign affairs, howe&er, makes it impossible to simply ignore the documents, as some writers ha&e attempted to do. 6uring the +,8.1s in France, works which dealt with the Serbian documents were promptly remo&ed from circulation, a condition which holds true today. )enri Po77i's *es Coupa0les (The Guilty 8nes), for example, published in +,8D, became a best-seller and then disappeared seemingly without trace. "here isn1t e&en a copy a&ailable in the Gational Library in 4aris, nor in the Library of 4olitical Science, where the critical study of potentially in&aluable foreign policy documents is surely a priority. ;f the documents are not genuine, let them be exposed. ;nterestingly enough, howe&er, when they began to appear in France, the press fell silent. %nly the 4arisian weekly, 2e suis partout, and the &ery important political daily, *'9ction francaise, de&oted any attention to them. AndrF "ardieu, the press c:ar and $alkan intriguer who was deeply implicated by the Serbian documents, maintained an uncharacteristic silence on their publication. "he great French historian and former minister, $enoist-5Fchin, belie&ed them genuine. Fifty years after they appeared, the Serbian documents are

more important than e&er in unra&eling the web of conspiracy and collusion which unleashed the First World War. Further transcriptions from the Serbian telegrams( "elegram +,ATD, sent on Buly 77, +,+A, while 4oincarF was still in St. 4etersburg, by the Serbian minister to the tsar( 4resident of the council, $elgrade <attention 4ashich>. 2xtremely urgent, secret. Sa:ono& asks we intensify maximum military preparations, but a&oid any public demonstrations before preparations completed. Stop. Sa:ono& negotiations with 4oincarF-9i&iani &ery difficult. Stop. $oth opposed any measure or agreement capable dragging France into war for French concerns or interests not in&ol&ed. Stop. Attitude 4resident 3epublic toward S:QpQry causes immense sensation official and diplomatic circles. Stop. Sa:ono& insists France must now know military arrangements in process under any pretext. Stop. "ransfer Siberian troops 2urope ended. Stop. 5obili:ation large military districts will be ordered immediately departure 4oincarF-9i&iani. <3eference( Serbian diplomatic archi&es' @ouncil 4residency. SubTsignatures 4acuT4ashich, cabinet +,, file ++T$, folio -( !4etersburg,! Buly 7-+E to Buly +D-8+, +,+A.> Another telegram from Ambassador Spala ko&ich to 4ashich, "elegram Go. +,-TD, shows how Sa:ono& made a point of telling the o&er-in?uisiti&e 4alFologue a pro&isional lie as long as 4oincarF had not yet crossed the $altic. ;t read( 4resident of the council, $elgrade <attention 4ashich> extremely urgent - secret. 4alFologue this e&ening asks

Sa:ono& whether rumors mobili:ation military district %dessa /a:an /ie& %dessa and two fleets conform truth. Stop. 2xpressed sharp displeasure if action liable to pro&oke gra&e complications ordered unbeknownst France. Stop. Sa:ono& issued formal denial. Stop. @onfirms necessity you a&oid slightest indiscretion. Stop. Sa:ono& will inform 4alFologue immediately 4oincarF-9i&iani depart Scandina&ia. Stop. Gotify 9esnich #ruich Spala ko&ich. <3eference( Serbian diplomatic archi&es, @ouncil 4residency, sub 4acuT4asic, cabinet +,, file ++T$, folio - !4etersburg,! Buly 7-+E to Buly +D-8+, +,+A.> A third secret telegram, dated Buly 7E, +,+A, this time to the Serbian ambassador at 4aris, 5ilenko 9esnich, was sent from $elgrade by the Serbian go&ernment to a&oid, by re?uest of St. 4etersburg, any indiscretion concerning military preparations in progress. ;t read( $elgrade, Buly 7+-7E. Serbian legation, 4aris <attention 9esnich>. 2xtremely urgent-secret. 4ending new instructions withhold all information re( measures taken her or 4etersburg. Stop. Affirm situation serius but by no means desperate despite &iolent ultimatum. Stop. ;nsist on our profound desire conciliation and confidence in results inter&ention great friendly powers. Stop. Absolutely necessary public opinion French parliament be unaware all military preparations here and 4etersburg. Stop. ;n conformance with the tsar1s desire we are accelerating mobili:ation ha&e started transfer Gish archi&es, treasury, official ser&ices. Stop. 2&acuation /ragu e&ach arsenal concluded. Stop. ;nform "ardieuT$erthelot agreement Sa:ono& reply ultimatum conciliatory form negati&e substance. Stop. War certain. Stop. Crgent facilitate &oyage

London where security 5adame 4ashich and 4acu family. M"his telegram, registered at $elgrade as the point of origin, under Go. A87T94T+A, arri&ed at 4aris !a little before noon! and was registered under Go. 7,+T8, $4 8+.N <3eferences( Serbian diplomatic archi&es, @ouncil 4residency, sub 4acuT4ashich, cabinet +-, file DT49, !4aris! folio ,, Buly 7+E to Buly +D-8+, +,+A> %ne of 4ashich1s colleagues, who was on a mission to France, wrote an astonishing note demonstrating the degree to which the Serbian go&ernment withheld information from the French go&ernment while at the same time confiding &ital secrets to certain pri&ate citi:ens in 4aris( "elegram A87T94T+A, recei&ed by 9esnich, the Serbian ambassador, a little before noon on Buly 7E, +,+A, was communicated by him in the afternoon to AndrF "ardieu and to the administrator of the $alkans Agency, 2dgar 3oels. When 9esnich, coming from the Ruai d1%rsay, entered 3oels1s agency Mthen located on the 3ue "ai boutN, he looked like a sleepwalker. )is emotion was so great he appeared to be choking. !;t1s war0! $ochko @ristich said to me a few moments later, !and sure &ictory for our two countries. 3oels and "ardieu told it to the minister.! $ochko @ristich was a Serbian diplomat, an attachF in 4aris, who would later become *ugosla&ia1s minister at Athens. $esides the Serbian documents published by Stefano&ich and others, there ha&e been other disclosures from the Serbian side which ha&e cast light on the acti&ities of 4ashich and his go&ernment. Goteworthy among them ha&e been the sensational re&elations of L uba Bo&ano&ich, the

former Serbian minister to 9ienna. Bo&ano&ich, as a diplomat, had access to the secret archi&es in $elgrade. Some years after the war he re&ealed that Spala ko&ich had sent a supplementary telegram from St. 4etersburg on Buly 7A, +,+A, which included the words, !A drastic decision is expected at any moment.! Later the #erman historian Webersberger would publish a copy of a scrap of paper written in 4ashich1s hand !noting the registration of the guns of the Sara e&o conspirators and indicating the man responsible for their con&eyance( "ankosich.! As was mentioned earlier, 9oya "ankosich was a personal agent of Gicola 4ashich. While the documents issued by the So&iet go&ernment after the 3e&olution include a great many items damaging to the tsarist claims of innocence in the matter of plotting for war, there are a good many gaps in the record, particularly pertaining to Serbia. While 3ussian designs on ;stanbul and thF Straits, the close relations and mutual deceptions of ;:&olsky and 4oincarF, and the systematic bribery of the French press are detailed by a wealth of documents, one will search in &ain for material on the intrigues of )artwig in $elgrade, culminating in the double assassination at Sara e&o. "hose documents are missing. "here is a simple explanation. $etween the re&olution which resulted in the /erensky go&ernment in 5arch +,+and the $olshe&ik takeo&er in %ctober of that year, a 5a or 9erko&sky had been named minister of war. "his same 9erko&sky had been @olonel Artmano&1s righthand man in $elgrade, helping out with, among other things, the plot which culminated at Sara e&o. With se&eral months of access to the 3ussian archi&es, he was able to eliminate

anything detrimental to himself. $$$ Serbia and 3ussia had a ri&al when it came to doctoring and suppressing official documents, of course. "hat was France, where great efforts were expended to bring the diplomatic sources into some kind of congruence with the official propaganda. From the first telegram of Ambassador 4alFologue on the Buly 7E, +,+A, the official texts ha&e been calmly and completely changed upon arri&al. )istorian Fabre Luce writes( "he brief text in which 4alFologue reported the 3ussian mobili:ation was replaced with a fictitious text, accounting for that decision as the result of the Austrian general mobili:ation and #erman military preparations. "he addition underlines the fact that these ustifications could not ha&e been gi&en in the ambassador1s telegram. And for a good reason( at the time 4alFologue sent his telegram, the Austrian general mobili:ation had not yet been ordered. <*'5istoire d+ma3uill+e, pp. ,.f.> Luce continues( All that it took to re&erse the order of the mobili:ations was one turn of the clock( then, without changing the hour, a morning telegram had been turned into an e&ening telegram. "his falsification was done at the outset( the archi&es commission established that the register of the telegraph ser&ice bore an incorrect time notation. "he French historian further adds( "he drafts of the telegrams sent during that period fre?uently ha&e corrections, excisions or additions, written between the lines, usually in pencil and for the most part in

the same handwriting as the original. An examination of the documents by the commission of archi&es indicated that these corrections had almost always been made after the e&ent. @ertain telegrams underwent curious delays, either when sent or after arri&al. "he one that officially informed 4aris of 3ussia1s general mobili:ation took nearly ten hours to arri&e at its destination. ;t was inserted between two other less important telegrams which took, respecti&ely, two and four hours. So many precautions taken to dupe the researcher at last call his attention to the &ery thing it was intended to hide from him. 2urope in +,+A was a minefield of diplomatic booby traps of the French and the Serbs through which extreme care was needed to pick one1s way. %f the two, the Serbians were the cruder, content simply to eliminate any document which might cause them trouble.

CHAPTE .I A Tsar &ives In ;t was not until Buly 7=, +,+A, that the tread of marching troops in St. 4etersburg echoed in $erlin, when imprecise rumors as to the tsar1s decision to mobili:e a million soldiers began to reach the #erman capital. $ethmann-)ollweg immediately informed the $ritish go&ernment of his concern. ;n 9ienna, two days later, the situation had deteriorated still further thanks to the delay in the arri&al of the conciliatory messages of Wilhelm ;; and

Sir 2dward #rey. "he 6ual 5onarchy was rattling its sword with a declaration of war that sober heads recogni:ed was largely rhetorical( it was still likely that all that would come from it would be the dispatch of a few old tubs down the 6anube to lob a few shells at $elgrade, already abandoned by the Serbian go&ernment at the order of their tsarist masters. ;f the Austrian go&ernment really meant business, the two weeks it would take to mobili:e the Austrian army would allow ample time for negotiations. "he 3ussian 4an-Sla&ists, of course, had no intention of seeing their carefully laid plans for a $alkan conflagration thwarted. "he idea that a last-moment inter&ention by wiser heads might upset their plans filled them with fear and rage. %n Buly 7Dth Sa:ono& called on "sar Gicholas and obtained two ukases which he promptly forwarded to #eneral *anushke&ich. "he first decreed the mobili:ation of the four military districts of 5oscow, /ie&, %dessa, and /a:an, as had already been pro&ided for on Buly 7A, +,+A, and put in motion by the 3ussian general staff. Gow it had the official sanction of the 3ussian autocrat. "he second decree ordered a general mobili:ation, which followed, as we ha&e shown, inexorably from a partial mobili:ation according to the planning of the general staff. "he tsar, who was as poorly informed about the military strategy of his generals as he was about many affairs in his realm, was unaware of this. )e had been led, unwittingly, into a trap from which he could no longer extricate himself, a trap which would see him and his family slaughtered and the 3omano& dynasty expunged from 3ussia. As e&eryone in St. 4etersburg and 4aris knew, mobili:ation meant war. From the first day of the Franco-3ussian

Alliance in +D,A, this was understood. "he statements of the principal actors in the drama confirm it. #eneral %bruche&, the 3ussian chief of staff at the time of the treaty, said, !%ur mobili:ation should immediately be followed by acts of war.! "he tsar <at that time Alexander ;;;> concurred( !"hat is ust as ; understand it.! #eneral $oisdeffre, who represented France in the negotiations, was e?ually explicit( !5obili:ation is the declaration of war.! 3enF #uerin, the great French intellectual and patriot, who co-authored *es Responsa0ilit+s de la Guerre with 4oincarF, wrote( !;f my declared enemy aims a re&ol&er at me, and if ; know he is a good shot, ; must conclude that he wishes to kill me, that he is going to kill me. Should ; wait until he had fired to be certain of his intentionsH! %n Buly 7D, +,+A, the tsarist empire drew its guns. #eneral 6obrorolsky, commander-in-chief of the 3ussian mobili:ation, was ?uite definite about it. As far as he was concerned, from the reception of the order to mobili:e the march of e&ents would be !automatic and irre&ersible.! !; was called upon to set fire to the woodpile of the world,! he would state, without batting an eye. "he tsar, when he had allowed his minister, Sa:ono&, to extract the two mobili:ation orders from him, murmured, !"hink of the thousands and thousands of men who are going to be sent to their deaths.! )e badly underestimated the coming slaughter. ;n $erlin /aiser Wilhelm stood firm e&en as e&ents hurtled toward disaster, still refusing to accept war as ine&itable. Go longer able to meet face to face with Gicholas, whom he

might well ha&e swayed, as he did once before, he had only the telegraph as his last resort. "he tsar was now effecti&ely the prisoner of his generals and his ministers. $ehind them lashing them on, stood the French ambassador 4alFologue, egged on by 4oincarF. "he #erman leaders tried in &ain to budge the emperors of 3ussia and Austria. Wilhelm bombarded Austria1s Fran: Bosef with telegrams urging negotiations with the 3ussian leadership. "he kaiser sent similar messages to the tsar. @hancellor $ethmann-)ollweg exerted all his powers of threat and persuasion to con&ince his opposite number in the Austro-)ungarian go&ernment, $erchtold, to accept 2ngland1s proposal that $elgrade be temporarily occupied by Austria while the great powers negotiated a solution to the impasse. )e telegraphed his ambassador, @ount "schirschky( !We are, of course, completely prepared to do our duty as an ally, but we must refuse to let 9ienna draw us into a worldwide conflagration, in disregard of our ad&ice. ; urge you to speak to @ount $erchtold immediately and with great emphasis.! Sixteen years later, 4oincarF would acknowledge that $erchtold had replied to this affirmati&ely, and that he had been ready to wai&e compensation( when ?uestioned by "schirschky, who had recei&ed his instructions, @ount $erchtold pro&ed willing to declare that Austria made no territorial claims.! <4oincarF, *es Responsa0ilit+s de la Guerre, p. +=-> "he message of Wilhelm ;; which reached Gicholas ;; at that time was e?ually emphatic( !; am using all my influence with the Austrians to get them to seek some basis of agreement with you without any mental reser&ations.!

2&en in Wilhelm1s absence his entreaties made a powerful impression on the tsar. Gicholas roused himself sufficiently to ?uit his apartment and descend to the front hall, where the only telephone in the palace was located. 5outh close to the recei&er, he ordered the chief of the general staff, #eneral *anushke&ich, to rescind the order for general mobili:ation immediately, retaining only the order for partial mobili:ation. *anushke&ich, reinforced by Sukhomlino&, the minister of war, dared to call the tsar back to the telephone. According to them, a !regional! mobili:ation would throw the army into disorder, and make it impossible to carry out a general mobili:ation, the only mobili:ation that could be of any military &alue in the circumstances. "he tsar1s change of heart was all the more impraticable for the general staff because the general mobili:ation, unbeknownst to the tsar, was already under way. France1s military attache in 5oscow, @aptain Laguiche, had learned on Buly 7=th of 3ussian measures for mobili:ation in progress as far west as Warsaw, and informed his go&ernment by telegraph. $y Buly 7,th, the general 3ussian mobili:ation was being carried out almost openly along the 4russian border. %ne of #eneral 6obrorolsky1s reports noted( !;n the Suwalki district, which abuts the border of 2ast 4russia, the general mobili:ation had already begun.! <*'5istoire d+ma3uill+e, p. ==> 6uring the night of Buly 7,-8., +,+A, there ensued a crossfire of almost unbelie&able telephone con&ersations. First the tsar himself, in a completely uncharacteristic interference for that weak-willed ruler, had called the chief

of the general staff. ;mmediately afterwards *anushke&ich, instead of obeying his tsar, rang up the minister of war, Sukhomlino&. !What shall ; doH! he asked the minister. Sukhomlino& replied immediately( !6on1t do anything0! At the other end of the line, the chief of the general staff exclaimed !"hank #od0! "he direct, personal order of the tsar had been circum&ented. "he next morning, Buly 8.th, Sukhomlino& lied to Gicholas, informing the tsar that he had complied with the order to cease the general mobili:ation and restrict the army1s preparations to regional mobili:ation. ;n fact he was doing exactly the opposite. ;n +,+-, when Sukhomlino& would stand trial for his numerous failings, he would confess publicly that !the following morning ; lied to the tsar. ; told him that the partial mobili:ation was limited to the command posts of the southwest.! "hat morning it was also Sa:ono&1s turn to lie to Gicholas. )e explained to his so&ereign that Austria was already carrying out military operations on 3ussian soil. "his was totally untrue, as Sa:ono& was well aware, but it was needless to say highly persuasi&e to the &acillating monarch. "he tsar sent /aiser Wilhelm the following pathetic telegram( !; foresee that ; am soon going to be o&ercome by the pressure being put on me, and ; shall be forced to take extreme measures leading to war.! Sa:ono&, pressing his ad&antage, routed the tsar from his chambers, where he and the tsarina were tending their son, the little hemophiliac crown prince. "sarina Alexandra, ner&es at the breaking point, sought to counsel her husband

not to gi&e in, for she loathed the #rand 6ukes and their 4an-Sla&ist obsession. "hen Sa:ono& let fly the arrow that would strike this proud but de&oted wife and mother to the ?uick. )e told her, !*ou are asking the tsar to sign his own death warrant.! "his threat, scarcely &eiled, had been confirmed by #eorge 5alcolm "homson, who wrote, !Gobody should put aside as impossible any wild outcome of those fe&erish hours in the tsar1s palace by the sea.! ;t was blackmail by threat of assassination. "he tsar recei&ed a final telegram from the kaiser( !5y ambassador has instructions to draw the attention of your go&ernment to the serious dangers and conse?uences of a mobili:ation. Austria-)ungary has mobili:ed only against Serbia and only a part of her army. ;f 3ussia mobili:es against Austria-)ungary, the role of mediator which you ha&e accepted in accordance with your express wish, will be threatened, if not rendered impossible. "he entire weight of the decision now rests on your shoulders. yours to bear the responsibility of war or peace. Willy.! "he burden of decision was crushing Gicholas ;;. )is e&asions at an end, he now recei&ed the war party in is office. Cshered in, they lined up facing the tsar, the 5inister of War, his generals, the ci&ilian officials. Sa:ono&, speaking clearly and decisi&ely, challenged the tsar( !; don1t think *our 5a esty should hesitate any longer to make the decree of general mobili:ation effecti&e again.! Again the tsar murmured his argument( !@onsider that it means sending tens of thousands of men to die.! Sa:ono&( !"he halting of our mobili:ation would upset our military organi:ation and disconcert our allies.!

Another imposture of Sa:ono&1s, by which he implied that the French would be shocked at the tsar1s torpor and think that he was &iolating the terms of their alliance. At that moment, of course, 4oincarF, ust returned from his ourney, was playing the role of the innocent in 4aris. Finally e&eryone fell silent. "he tsar, eyes bulging, his face a sickly yellow, made no reply. )e stood motionless, as if petrified. Suddenly #eneral "atishe& broke the silence( !*es, it is a difficult decision.! "he tsar started as though he1d been slapped. )e paced back and forth, and then looked straight at his audience. !; am the one who decides.! And he decided. )e ordered Sa:ono& to telephone *anushke&ich that he was again signing a decree for general mobili:ation. "homson has fixed the scene fore&er( !"he tension in the room broke. Sa:ono& rose, bowed, and almost ran to the telephone on the floor below. )e passed the order triumphantly to *anushke&ich, adding, JGow you can smash your telephone.1 !

CHAPTE .II Tra0ic 1arce At the &ery time when "sar Gicholas was yielding to the pressures of the war faction, 4resident 4oincarF was landing from the cruiser "rance at 6unkirk early on the morning of

Buly 7,th. )is return trip to France had been occupied with laying a smokescreen of alibis against any accusations that he was plotting war. 4alFologue had delayed dispatching telegrams to 4aris after the proclamation of the 3ussian general mobili:ation, and in some cases had refrained from sending telegrams at all, in order to maintain 4oincarF1s facade of ignorance as to what the 3ussian war party was doing. %n Buly 7=th 4alFologue had held up the transmission of the French attache, Laguiche1s, telegram reporting on the clandestine beginning of mobili:ation. Ge&ertheless, when 4oincarF was met by 5inister 3enoult in the presidential train at 6unkirk, the president told his minister, !;t can1t be settled peaceably.! For someone who claimed to ha&e heard nothing for six days, he seemed awfully certain. 4oincarF1s bald endorsement of war was in fact not a true statement. 2&en as he spoke, efforts to calm the situation were under way in 9ienna and e&en in St. 4etersburg. "he /aiser1s entreaties and those of his chancellor had begun to sway Fran: Bosef and $erchtold. @ount $erchtold had modified his demands on Serbia and was now willing to consider dropping the Austrian go&ernment1s demand for a oint Austrian-Serbian in&estigation into the assassination of the archduke. According to Fabre Luce( !;t was no longer a ?uestion of mere camouflage. Go0 A note written in $erchtold1s hand shows that e&en on that day, Buly 8., +,+A, he was disposed to compromise on the Serbian in&estigation, if 3ussia, on her part, accepted the pro&isional Austrian occupation of $elgrade.! <*'5istoire d+ma3uill+e, p. -E.>

Sometimes danger has a calming effect. Ge&er, perhaps, since the crime of Bune 7Dth had the parties been so close to a settlement. $$$ When 4oincarF arri&ed in 4aris on the morning of the twenty-ninth, he was met by a triumphal reception at the St. La:are station, one that had been prepared by his aides but which was none the less fer&ent. "ens of thousands of Frenchmen, stirred to a fe&er pitch by a chau&inistic press, ammed the sidewalks along the route to the 2lysFe palace, acclaiming the president as if he were Gapoleon returned in triumph from 2lba. "he crowd surged to the 4lace de la @oncorde to mass in front of the black-draped statues of 5et: and Strasbourg. )ad 4oincarF not been a staunch Freemason, they might ha&e offered him a Te %eum at Gotre-6ame @athedral. )e recei&ed a secular beatification in any case. Strange, this excitement in &iew of 4oincarF1s protestations of ignorance at the rush of e&ents during his cruise' strange, that patriotic crowds should heap acclaim on this allegedly befuddled tra&eler. "he man in the street, at least, had instincti&ely penetrated 4oincarF1s alleged fog of ignorance and lo&ed him all the more for his imposture. $ut now the hour approached in which, after two weeks of subterfuge, it would be necessary for 4oincarF to strike the final blow for war, all the while con&eying the impression that he had none but peaceful intentions. ;mmediately after his triumphal march from the station to his palace 4oincarF summoned three men to the 2lysFe( his premier, the complaisant 9i&iani' #reat $ritain1s ambassador, Sir Francis $ertie' and the consummate

wirepuller from 3ussia, Aleksandr ;:&olsky. "he French president and the 3ussian ambassador went to work on the urbane ambassador from $ritain, dressed like a banker from the city with his pearl gray silk hat and his elegant greenlined umbrella. ;t was a strange session( the two long-time conspirators, 4oincarF and ;:&olsky, were forced to disguise their oint machinations of the immediate past while at the same time feigning an entirely false amity. "he truth is the two men hated one another, as was to emerge from their statements and writings after the war. ;:&olsky would claim that 4oincarF was a liar who had decei&ed e&eryone <he wasn1t alone in his sentiments' 4oincarF1s minister of the interior, Louis Bean 5al&y, would describe his former president as !an egoist, a double-dealer, and a coward!>. ;n +,77, before the @hamber of 6eputies, 4oincarF would claim that e&ery French minister knew he had ne&er trusted ;:&olsky. )e would also write, with something less than &eracity, !;f " had been able to read the telegrams he M;:&olskyN was sending his go&ernment, ;1d no doubt ha&e noted many passages in them that would ha&e ustified the instincti&e mistrust that he inspired in us, in my colleagues and me.! "hus the men who had schemed together to corrupt public opinion in France on one another0 "he $ritish ambassador wasn1t buying their ca olery. )e made no commitment. As always, he replied that he would refer the matter to his go&ernment. ;t was at this meeting, howe&er, that 4oincarF ga&e ;:&olsky categorical assurance of France1s support for 3ussia1s mobili:ation, an assurance for which 4oincarF was to sidestep the responsibility after the war. When the collaborator on 4oincarF1s account of the origins of the war,

#uerin, asked 4oincarF about the outcome of that meeting, the former French president replied simply, !Ask 5al&y.! 5inister 5al&y was well aware of what transpired at the 2lysFe palace that afternoon. "hat e&ening he called on his friend Boseph @aillaux in a highly agitated state to con&ey the news, writing down the con&ersation on the spot. 5al&y( !3ussia asked us if we could mobili:e. We answered yes. We ha&e committed oursel&es to support her.! @aillaux( !"hen you are going beyond the conditions of the alliance0! 5al&y remained silent. @aillaux( !%f course, you made certain of 2ngland1s agreementH! 5al&y( !"here was no ?uestion of 2ngland.! <"he $ritish ambassador had left the meeting before the ?uestion arose.> @aillaux( !Scoundrels0 *ou ha&e started a war0! "he So&iet $lack $ook would include the text of the telegram which a gleeful ;:&olsky sent to Sa:ono& that afternoon after lea&ing the palace( !France is in full agreement with us0! ;t was that telegram which Sa:ono& used the following day to o&ercome the resistance of the tsar to the definiti&e unleashing of the 3ussian war machine. $$$ )ad 4oincarF been sincerely for peace he might still ha&e restrained the 4an-Sla&ist warmongers around the tsar, e&en as /aiser Wilhelm and $ethmann-)ollweg were exerting all their powers of persuasion to restrain their allies in Austria-)ungary. #ermany had no desire to go to war with France, but the nature of the 3eich1s encirclement by France and the mighty 3ussian empire made a desperate #erman

offensi&e against France a necessity if hostilities seemed una&oidable, as they would if the 3ussians mobili:ed. Such was the trap that 4oincarF and the 4an-Sla&ists had laid for #ermany. Laying a trap for #ermans was of course not an obligation imposed on the French go&ernment by its agreement with the 3ussian leaders. France1s president, had he been willing, might ha&e declined to aid the 3ussians in their plot against the #ermans, ust as the 3ussian go&ernment declined to pledge its unconditional support to France in the 5oroccan affair two years before. At that time ;:&olsky had indicated to the French that !3ussia remains true to her alliance without ?uestion, but she would be hard put to persuade the 3ussian people to go to war o&er 5orocco. 5oreo&er, our alliance is only a defensi&e one.! %r, as "sar Gicholas had expressed it to the French ambassador, !; don1t en&isage a war except for totally &ital interests.! For 4oincarF, howe&er, the reco&ery of Alsace and Lorraine was a &ital interest, and pro&oking a #erman attack, which would eliminate the need for troublesome debates in the French assembly, was the way to attain it. )is crafty, stealthy maneu&ering, carried out with the knowledge of a handful of trusted political henchmen, was a mar&el of hypocrisy and efficiency on the 5achia&ellian model. 4oincarF would ha&e his war, and #ermany would bear the brunt of the world1s moral outrage. 4oincarF1s secrecy led to a night of comical and frantic misapprehensions for two of his ministers. At a little past midnight the French minister of war, Adolphe 5essimy, was awakened at his house. )e had a &isitor, and an obstreperous one at that( @olonel ;gnatie&, the 3ussian

military attache, who1d ob&iously had ?uite a bit to drink. "he colonel was bringing the official message from the 3ussian go&ernment, one of thanks for France1s support for 3ussian mobili:ation. 3ubbing his eyes, 5essimy - still unaware of 4oincarF1s assurance that afternoon - tried to conceal his astonishment. )e immediately telephoned 9i&iani, who replied &olubly. !5on 6ieu0! he exclaimed. !;t is e&ident that the 3ussians are sleepwalkers and drunkards. ;1&e ust had ;:&olsky here. "ell ;gnatie& to a&oid fireworks at any cost.! Was 9i&iani1s astonished indignation genuineH Was the premier obli&ious to 4oincarF1s machinations and 4alFologue1s acti&ity in St. 4etersburgH "o be sure, 4alFologue1s telegrams had been arri&ing late, sent by a circuitous route to support 4oincarF1s claims that the French go&ernment had been in the dark while 3ussia mobili:ed. $ut one historian belie&es that 9i&iani1s ama:ement was a pose. Fabre Luce writes( )e M9i&ianiN wasn1t suffering so much from the annoyances of being roused in the middle of the night as from finding himself under the necessity of assuming the responsibility that he had to a&oid. What did !those 3ussians! need an official confirmation forH @ouldn1t they take the hint that the support gi&en them unstintingly at St. 4etersburg remained &alidH What blockheads0 "he telegram sent from the armored cruiser, and the promise of support, renewed the day before in 4aris, wasn1t enough for them then. "houghts such as these must surely ha&e passed through the mind of the president of the council of ministers, who was also the minister of foreign affairs.

9i&iani was handed a telegram by ;:&olsky. ;t came from Sa:ono& and included the words, !; express our sincere thanks to the French go&ernment for the official declaration that we can count on the full cooperation of our ally.! $ut the telegram went beyond the terms of 4oincarF1s muttered assurances to l:&olsky. ;t continued, !We ha&e now only to speed up our armament and face the imminence of war.! @learly 9i&iani hadn1t been informed of e&erything0 %ff he hastened to the 2lysFe 4alace, where the president of France was in his turn routed from his slumber and forced to dress hurriedly. 4oincarF was in no mood to calm 9i&iani. )e snapped, !We1ll take that ?uestion up at the council meeting, in a few hours,! and then went back to bed. $ack at 5essimy1s residence, ;gnatie& was demanding an official reply to his minister1s telegram, and, fortified by inebriate impetuosity, refusing to lea&e before he got one. 5essimy, trying to tempori:e, told him the 3ussians would ha&e to slow down their mobili:ation. ;gnatie& replied &ehemently, with an appropriate metaphor, under the circumstances( !*ou don1t mobili:e by degrees, the way you drink a cocktail.! Fishing for a formula that would enable him and his colleagues to e&ade responsibility, 9i&iani hit on the idea of a !secret! 3ussian mobili:ation. )e told 5essimy to inform the colonel that 3ussia should mobili:e its southern army corps pro&ided France wasn1t informed. "o Sa:ono&, 9i&iani telegraphed that France ac?uiesced in 3ussia1s !precautionary and defensi&e measures,! thereby gi&ing #ermany no pretext to mobili:e. Again the French leaders had played into the hands of 3ussia1s warmongers.

Fabre Luce had described the scene and its implications well. 5essimy and ;gnatie& embrace each other silently, and the 3ussian will later remark( !; was like a man who has a great weight lifted from his shoulders.! Apparently, despite all the assurances recei&ed, he had wondered right up to the last moment whether France, a country with a peace-lo&ing ma ority and a signatory to a defensi&e alliance, was really going to accept the mobili:ation- aggression on the part of 3ussia, and now, yes0 "he 3ubicon was crossed. "he French leaders made a choice, but they tried to hide their decision. "hey played with the idea of a secret mobili:ation, when ordinary good sense and the statements of the 3ussians confirmed that it was impossible. 4alFologue knew it( a 3ussian document attested to it, but he pretended to enter into the game and telegraphed, on the e&ening of the 8.th, that the 3ussian go&ernment has decided Jto proceed secretly with the first steps of the general mobili:ation.1 "he go&ernment had ?uite simply proclaimed that mobili:ation. <L1)istoire dFma?uillFe, pp. -.f.> ;t was this French assurance of support that had enabled the 3ussian ministers and generals to pressure the"sar, to continue mobili:ing against his order, and at last to cut off his telephone so that he couldn1t go back on his final decision for war. %n the same night #eneral @ount )elmut &on 5oltke, chief of the #erman general staff, was li&ing through increasingly anxious hours. )e risked nothing less than the loss of the war if he let the 3ussians steal the march and mobili:e to o&errun #ermany. Gow e&erything indicated

that their mobili:ation was under way. "he nephew of the great 5oltke, $ismarck1s right arm, &ictor o&er Austria and France, this younger 5oltke lacked the temperament and willpower of his illustrious uncle. )e admitted, !; lack the power of rapid decision. ; think too much. ; don1t ha&e the temperament to risk e&erything on a throw of the dice.! %utwardly the general cut a magnificent figure, as impressi&e as 5ichelangelo1s 5oses, but he was at least as much an aesthete as a fighting man. )e read a great deal, preferably weightier authors like Giet:sche and @arlyle. A fer&ant admirer of the Flemish writer 5aeterlinck, he had translated that author1s Pell+as and /+lisande into #erman. )e painted and played the &iolin, and, influenced by his wife, dabbled in the murky waters of theosophy. Cnlike other #ermans, such as @ount &on $Olow, he feared 3ussian expansionism. 5oltke was traumati:ed by the prospects of millions of hardy 3ussian serfs, their immense realm stretching from the 5emel to 9ladi&ostok, inured to pri&ation and trained to blind obedience, falling like an a&alanche on a #ermany already menaced by a powerful French army, the two forces outnumbering the #erman army by four to one. 5oltke saw the 3ussian strength growing from year to year. 3ussia1s chief weakness, the poor network of transportation and communications which ser&ed its &ast territory, was being steadily impro&ed thanks to a massi&e influx of French francs arranged by 4oincarF. A ma or new railway network was growing towards 4russia and in a matter of se&eral years would enable the rapid and orderly transfer of millions of troops to #ermany1s 2astern border.

As of Buly +,+A, 3ussian military progress toward #ermany was still slow and cumbersome. 3ailway tracks and roadbeds were still inade?uate, and tra&el o&er them was slow and olting. "he great ma ority of 3ussian troops would ha&e to ad&ance o&er poor roads on foot. Ge&ertheless, 3ussian measures for war had been progressing for weeks. "he Siberians had been called to 2uropean 3ussia, and the army groups of the West were mo&ing toward the frontier. #ermany1s only strategic plan, the Schlieffen plan, anticipated forty days of fighting against the French, to be carried out by the great bulk of #ermany1s armies. %nly then could substantial forces be shifted to the eastern front. 2&ery day that passed now eroded the #ermans1 margin of safety in the east. "o the #erman generals, e&ery day spent negotiating with the 3ussian leaders, while the 3ussian armies continued to mass and to mo&e forward, brought their nation closer to military disaster.

CHAPTE .III 'eath of a Pacifist 2ach day the dispatches recei&ed in $erlin from the #erman diplomats in St. 4etersburg were more disturbing. %n Buly 8., +,+A, a telegram from the ambassador, 4ourtalLs, dispensed with all further doubt. ;t listed, one by one, the districts in western 3ussia where mobili:ation was in full swing.

;n the Warsaw district, at that time near #ermany1s eastern border, and in Suwalki, on the threshold of 2ast 4russia, the progress of the 3ussian mobili:ation couldn1t be concealed. #erman spies and informers, as well as the #erman consul at Allenge, stressed the imminence of 3ussia1s ad&ance. 4reparations were &isible e&en from the #erman sentry boxes on the frontier, across which the 3ussian troops were hastily demolishing their border outposts, and from which flames now bla:ed in the night. $y that e&ening 5oltke had confirmed from reliable sources that the 3ussian mobili:ation was effecti&e and total. "he next morning he telegraphed his colleague in Austria, #eneral @onrad &on )It:endorff( !5obili:e0 #ermany will mobili:e with you0! 2&en then the kaiser was still seeking to steer Austria1s Fran: Bosef toward negotiation with the 3ussians. "he Austrian emperor1s foreign minister, $erchtold, was confused by the conflicting messages from $erlin. !Who is in command at $erlinH! he exclaimed. !9on 5oltke or the /aiserH! "o be sure, &on 5oltke had temporarily exceeded his perogati&es. $ut on that morning 4ourtalLs had been able to confront Sa:ono& in St. 4etersburg with a public mobili:ation poster. "ime was growing short for the #ermans, and e&en /aiser Wilhelm was losing faith in a peaceful solution. "he message of the tsar, that he could no longer resist the pressures of his ad&isers, had reached him on the 8.th, and Wilhelm had conceded, !5y mission as a peacemaker is o&er.! 5eanwhile, in 4aris, 4oincarF was about to be rid of the last conse?uential French opponent of his war schemes. Bean

BaurLs, leader of the French socialists, and president of the Second ;nternational, was a culti&ated man. )e was well &ersed in the Latin and #reek classics, and had learned Spanish to read %on :ui;ote in the original, as well as 2nglish to tackle )ume and Shakespeare. A magnificent orator who, despite his piercing blue eyes, hailed from the south of France, he li&ed a respectable, indeed bourgeois life. )e had none of the &enality which had enabled so many French politicians to pile up pri&ate fortunes from their public <and not so public> acti&ities. %n Buly 7,th in $russels, BaurLs had made a last effort to stop the war by addressing a great con&ocation of socialist leaders from all o&er 2urope, gathered under the auspices of the Second ;nternational at the 3oyal @ircus, a &ast stately hall where this writer would address the $russel1s public for the first time thirty years later. "hat day BaurLs was particularly mo&ing, for to him, the peace of 2urope had ne&er been more menaced since the Gapoleonic wars of a century before. #reat cries of !6own with war0! had rung out at the conclusion of his speech, many undoubtedly from the same throats that would a few days later gi&e their passionate assent to war in parliaments and national assemblies across 2urope. BaurLs left the hall with hea&y foreboding despite his tumultuous sendoff. )e had time to see the Flemish 4rimiti&es in all their splendor at the $russels 5useum before catching the train to 4aris. ;n 4aris BaurLs proceeded directly to the Foreign 5inistry to try to exact a promise from 9i&iani that the go&ernment would try to calm the 3ussians. When he learned that 4oincarF had ust gi&en full support to the 3ussian

mobili:ation, he warned 9i&iani( !*ou are &ictims of ;:&olsky and of a 3ussian plot. We are going to denounce you feather-brained ministers, e&en if we1re shot at.! As BaurLs left the building on the Ruai d1%rsay he encountered l:&olsky. Staring him hard in the face, he said, !"his scum ;:&olsky is going to ha&e his war.! "hat e&ening BaurLs read in a newspaper( !;f France had a leader who was a man, BaurLs would be put up against the wall at the same time as the mobili:ation posters.! Shaking his head, he said under his breath, !We must expect to be assassinated at the first street corner.! "hat same night a young man was snooping around BaurLs house at 4assy. When BaurLs approached with se&eral friends, the young man, whose name was 3aoul 9illain, asked an onlooker which one was BaurLs. %n learning, he slipped away into the darkness. %n the next morning, while the streets of 4aris teemed with demonstrators and frightened holders of bank accounts <withdrawals of more than fifty francs from checking accounts had ust been forbidden>, 9illain searched for his prey. Cnsuccessful at BaurLs newspaper office, 9illain finally traced the great socialist leader to his cafe, the @roissant. "hen BaurLs sat admiring a photograph of a ournalist friend1s granddaughter. "he window behind his table was open, only a curtain separating BaurLs from the street. ;mperceptibly a hand pushed the cloth aside. "hen there was a flash, and two shots split the air. BaurLs slumped o&er his plate. A woman screamed, !BaurLs has been killed0,! and the last great opponent of the war oined those slain at

Sara e&o. "he rumor ran through 4aris that BaurLs had been shot by a tsarist agent, forcing the go&ernment to blockade the 3ue de #renelle, where the 3ussian embassy stood like a citadel and where the 3ussian secret police, the %khrana, had its 4aris head?uarters <the 3ussian embassy today houses the offices of the %khrana1s far more powerful successor, the /#$>. Go e&idence was e&er produced that the 3ussian secret ser&ice was behind BaurLs1s assassination, and it is likely that 9illain, the son of a madman, a fanatical nationalist whose mind had been inflamed by the stridency of the warmongering press, acted alone. Ge&ertheless, his bullets were as effecti&e against the last great &oice against the war in France as had been those of the 3ussian conspirators1 hirelings against the archducal couple in Sara e&o. %n the same day that BaurLs was gunned down 4oincarF succeeded in ha&ing @aillaux, his erstwhile opponent, who had been brought low by @almette of the "igaro, hustled out of 4aris by two policemen. Gow the road to $erlin lay open.

CHAPTE .I) The 2ies of Po"iticians "he atmosphere in $erlin on the morning of August +, +,+A, was one of deep gloom. @hancellor $ethmann-

)ollweg paced the carpeted floors of his office in long strides, scarcely comprehending what was going on, looking at the future with deep foreboding. According to 5alcolm "homson( As the e&ening wore on, gloom deepened in the Foreign %ffice in $erlin. When "heodor Wolff of the Berliner Tage0latt looked in he found a silence like the gra&e in the midst of which diplomats brooded in the old-fashioned armchairs. "he old )ungarian nobleman S:IgyFny, who was the Austrian ambassador, looked like one from whom despair had drained the last drop of blood. Bagow Mthe #erman foreign ministerN padded in and out with a fixed, ambiguous smile. ;n 9ienna @hancellor $erchtold was scarcely in a better state. ;mpeccable as e&er in his detachable collar and cra&at fixed with a pearl stickpin, he was stuffing himself with sleeping pills. )e had failed to detect the 3ussian hand behind the Serbian conspiracy, rendering his bluster at the $elgrade go&ernment less than useless. "he #erman /aiser found his imprudence unpardonable. Would that he had watered his fine "okay wine a bit during that fateful Buly0 ;t would ha&e been much better to be clear-headed. Gow it was too late( the 3ussian army would soon be crossing the borders of Austria-)ungary. ;n St. 4etersburg, the leaders of the war faction were assailed by a last flurry of panic. "he #reat War was really on. Sukhomlino&, the minister of war, was ?uaking in his boots. )e had set up a number of icons and &oti&e candles on his desk, and crossed himself fre?uently. 4erhaps alone in a calm state, Wilhelm ;; refused to order

the #erman army to mobili:e, despite &on 5oltke1s anguished pleas. Although, as the Franco-#erman commission on the origins of the war was to recogni:e in +,8E, !the 3ussian general mobili:ation created a new fait accompli that urgently called for a #erman decision,! it was not until se&en o1clock on the e&ening of Buly 8+st that the /aiser went so far as to decree a state of <riegsgefahr7ustand, a !status of war alert,! which was still only a preliminary measure to mobili:ation. <riegsgefahr7ustand-a rumbling, ominous "eutonism, which propagandists in France immediately sei:ed on to con ure up images of )unnish hordes set to swarm across the border. "heir leader, "ardieu, who was fluent in #erman, mendaciously assured the populace that the word meant that the #ermans had ust declared a !state of war,! unleashing nationwide hysteria. )ow could France hesitate to fly to arms, if #ermany was already on the marchH Alone of the French leaders, Abel Ferry, under-secretary of state, an honest patriot who would die in battle, had recogni:ed his superiors1 maneu&ering for what it was. ;n his notebook he wrote( !"he web was spun and #ermany entered it like a great bu::ing fly.! /aiser Wilhelm was thinking along similar lines. %n the same day he reflected, !"he net has fallen on our heads.! #ermany had blundered into the trap. Fabre Luce would later write( !"his whole history unfortunately lea&es no room for any doubt. France didn1t enter into war following an obligation of honor, as our rulers ha&e often pretended, but, on the contrary, in &iolation of the treaty of defensi&e alliance

which she had concluded with 3ussia, and of the republican constitution of +D-E.! %n August +st, at six o1clock, the #erman ambassador, 4ourtalLs, called on Foreign 5inister Sa:ono& to gain an answer to #ermany1s plea that 3ussia halt its mobili:ation. Sa:ono& replied, !%ur mobili:ation must be continued. "hat understood, we are prepared to continue negotiations.! Gegotiating now, while continuing to mobili:e, was only a 3ussian means of playing for time. 4ourtalLs pressed the point( !; repeat, 2xcellency, will you stop your mobili:ationH! Sa:ono& remained immobile, his eyes intent. 4ourtalLs repeated his ?uestion, once, twice. Sa:ono& answered, !; ha&e no other reply to gi&e you.! 4ourtalLs offered a sheet of paper in a trembling hand, then began to sob. #ermany had declared war on 3ussia. ;n spite of e&erything the #erman ambassador in 4aris, $aron &on Schoen, made a last offer on Buly 8+st to a&ert war between France and #ermany. As e&eryone recogni:ed, 3ussia unaided would be no match for #ermany and Austria-)ungary. "he baron brought his go&ernment1s final proposal to 9i&iani( if France remained neutral, #ermany would also remain neutral. ;t would afterwards be claimed that the #erman go&ernment had demanded at this time that the great French fortresses of "oul and 9erdun be turned o&er to #ermany as a guarantee of French neutrality, since the French were later to decipher a telegram to Schoen to that effect, but in fact the ambassador made no mention of such a demand and the French were unaware of it at the time.

9i&iani1s answer to the #erman ambassador had nothing to do with the right and high principles with which French spokesmen were wont to couch their official rhetoric. ;t came in se&en cold words( !France will be guided by her interests.! ;n this case, of course, France1s interest meant cutting her powerful #erman ri&al down to si:e and sei:ing Alsace and Lorraine once more. 4oincarF1s public declaration was more in keeping with the flowery hypocrisies of the "hird 3epublic( !At this hour there are no longer any parties, there is only France, peacelo&ing and resolute' there is only France eternal' there is only the Fatherland of 3ight and Bustice.! 3ight had a broad back, and 4oincarF would ride it for se&eral years. "he day before, Austria-)ungary had attempted a last appeal to the French go&ernment, presented by emissaries from neutral 3omania and Swit:erland. 3omania1s Laho&ary and Swit:erland1s Lardy brought the proposal to the Ruai d1%rsay, where Secretary #eneral $erthelot coldly re ected it. !;t is too late,! he said. !;t is no longer possible to set matters straight.! Later it would emerge that $erthelot had not e&en bothered to transmit the Austrian proposal to his chief, 9i&iani. 5eanwhile the French generals, no less than their counterparts in 3ussia, were pressing for a swift mobili:ation. #eneral Boffre reported that e&ery twenty-four hours1 delay in mobili:ing would mean a pullback of fifteen to twenty kilometers - which would ha&e left the French army at the foot of the 2iffel "ower in a month1s time. "he generals shortly had their wish. At 8(AE p.m. on August

+st, 5essimy, the minister of war, transmitted the order for general mobili:ation to the deputy chief of the general staff, #eneral 2bene. 4osters bloomed colorfully throughout the cities, towns, and &illages of France, as if an electoral campaign were under way. ;t would be a landslide for death. %nce again the 4oincarF go&ernment would manufacture a face-sa&ing lie. Like their allies in 3ussia, who claimed to ha&e begun mobili:ing only after Austria had begun, the 4oincarF go&ernment claimed that it was #ermany which had forced their hand by mobili:ing first. "he fact of the matter is that the #erman order to mobili:e came at fi&e o1clock in the afternoon, fifteen minutes after the French order <$erlin and 4aris are in different time :ones>. "hese lies would be told and retold o&er the years, sturdy bricks in the edifice of #erman war guilt. Although 4oincarF would be forced to admit in +,78 that indeed the 3ussians had mobili:ed before the Austrians , he would claim that he had been honestly mistaken. 2&en so, standard works in France, such as $onifacio1s /anual of 5istory, the mainstay of French students, continued to date 3ussia1s mobili:ation from Buly 8+, +,+A forty years after the war. So it is with the lies of politicians, especially &ictorious politicians. "heir lying declarations command widespread belief at the time' when, much later, rectification is made, most people are no longer interested, especially when the truth appears only in the thick and recondite works of historical specialists. ;n fact, so ner&ous was 4oincarF about the prospect of #ermany not mobili:ing at an opportune time for French

propaganda that he proposed to his ministers that France contri&e an incident on the #erman border. Although the council re ected it as too pro&ocati&e and dangerous, 5al&y re&ealed 4oincarF1s proposal after the war. As Fabre Luce summed up, !At the beginning of August +,+A, Wilhelm ;;, by hesitating to attack France for the moment, was eopardi:ing the script. )ence the notion put forward by 4oincarF to the council of ministers to create a border incident, so that he would not ha&e the parliament discussing his interpretation of the Franco-3ussian treaty of alliance.!

CHAPTE .) A Sudden 3i0-a0 )ow came the emotion-laden final act. 5illions of 3ussians were under arms. #reat masses of French plowmen and mustachioed &inegrowers <at this time A- per cent of the French were still farmers> streamed to the railway stations, forming a great ri&er of oli&e drab. "o the cheers of millions they entrained in coaches daubed with !%n to $erlin0! ;n 9ienna, throngs roared !6eath to Serbia0,! and the #ermans of $erlin roared their anthem with no less ebullience. %nly #reat $ritain, among the great powers of 2urope, still wa&ered in official indecision. "he go&ernment of )erbert )enry As?uith was profoundly di&ided o&er whether to oin the re&anchistes of France and the 4an-Sla&ist imperialists of 3ussia or to maintain $ritain1s splendid isolation and

culti&ate its far-flung empire. ;n the end, the $ritish leadership, blind in its lordly arrogance, would let its shortterm resentments o&er #ermany1s burgeoning economic power pre&ail o&er its long-term interests in checking the growth of the colossus which stretched from Warsaw to 9ladi&ostok. 4erhaps the key issue for the $ritish leadership was its consternation at the expansion of the #erman na&y and merchant fleet. "his fear was magnified by /aiser Wilhelm1s tendency to bluster, but in reality his bark was worse than his bite. $ritain1s leaders might ha&e learned this from the American political manager and wirepuller, !@olonel! 2dward 5andell )ouse, Woodrow Wilson1s eminence grise, who talked to Wilhelm while on a factfinding mission in 2urope at Wilson1s behest in Bune +,+A. )ouse, certainly no #ermanophile, reported that the /aiser had impressed on him with great urgency that he was building his great fleet not to oppose 2ngland, but to increase #erman prestige on the high seas, as well as to promote #erman commerce. Wilhelm stated( !; want peace, because the interests of #ermany re?uire it. #ermany was poor, but now she is in the process of becoming rich' and a few years of peace will make her ?uite rich.! #reat $ritain1s foreign minister, when communicated these sentiments by )ouse, was impressed by them. #rey admitted to )ouse that !the #ermans need to maintain a na&y that is proportionate to the importance of their commerce and big enough to defend themsel&es against a combined attack by the 3ussian and French fleets.! )ouse

doubtless also told the $ritish diplomat of Wilhelm1s desire to end his na&al construction program after those ships under construction or already planned were built. ;n the eyes of many $ritishers, howe&er, each #erman ship completed was one too many. Gothing struck at the $ritish sense of self-esteem and self-preser&ation more acutely than any percei&ed threat to $ritish domination of the world1s oceans. Wilhelm hadn1t the sensiti&ity and tact to recogni:e that, as a far more cle&er player of the diplomatic game, Adolf )itler, did in +,8E when he conceded $ritish na&al superiority &is-Q-&is #ermany. "he traditional disregard of the a&erage $riton for affairs on the continent also weighed against the #ermans. 5agnificently aloof, they paid little heed to the implications of the assassination in Sara e&o, which, as )ouse brutally put it, aroused in $ritain !no more stir than a tenor singing in the middle of a boiler shop.! ;n the end, it all came down to the hoary balance of power game, by which $ritain1s rulers had promoted a di&ided 2urope, no matter what the cost to the West, for three centuries. "he cle&er, urbane, and slippery #rey drawled at a cabinet meeting as the Sara e&o crisis heated to a boil, !"hat would be a stroke of luck, ha&ing the #ermans and Slays go at each other.! 4rudently he had added, !"he game could become dangerous.! A few &oices warned of the dangers of the growth of the tsarist superstate. )ouse had pointed out the danger of a too powerful 3ussia, as well as #ermany1s &alue as a buffer. "he Liberal leader, Bohn 5orley, one of $ritain1s most upright ministers, was of like mind. )e asked( !What would happen if 3ussia should be &ictorious in the

long runH )a&e you e&er thought about thatH ;f #ermany is defeated and Austria is defeated, it will not be 2ngland and France that will occupy the first place in 2urope. ;t will be 3ussia. Will Western ci&ili:ation get any ad&antage out of thatH! Stalin would finally answer that ?uestion in +,AE. 6espite the case for non-inter&ention, the As?uith go&ernment was dominated by a fear of offending the regimes of France and 3ussia. #rey neglected to communicate with the #ermans to the end of negotiating peace because, in his words, !; prefer to refrain from sending any official communication, written or &erbal, for fear of offending the French and the 3ussians, should either of them get wind of the matter.! )e said it again to his cabinet( !2ngland must necessarily act with prudence for fear of offending the feelings of France and 3ussia.! For fear of offending the members of a defensi&e alliance in which #reat $ritain was un?uestionably the key member, ,A-,... men of the $ritish ;sles would go to their deaths. /aiser Wilhelm1s last, chimeric hopes for peace, with 2ngland as with 3ussia, came down to the reigning monarch. ;n $ritain it was #eorge 9, Wilhelm1s cousin, scion of a royal family not noted for its powers of intellect. #eorge was a decorous mediocrity, timorous and a bit on the deceitful side, a fragile hope to take a stand for peace, particularly in a nation in which the powers of the so&ereign were so carefully circumscribed. We ha&e noted the fiasco of #eorge 91s promise to Wilhelm1s younger brother, 4rince )enry, stating ?uite plainly that #reat $ritain would obser&e neutrality. Although Wilhelm was beside himself with oy when he

recei&ed the news <!; ha&e the word of a king0!>, @hurchill, as we ha&e seen, already had the fleet steaming for the @hannel. %n Buly 7,, +,+A, #rey sent for #ermany1s ambassador, 4rince Lichnowsky, to shake him with this message( !A 2uropean catastrophe is to be feared from one day to the next. ;f the conflict remains limited to one between Austria and 3ussia, 2ngland will be able to stand aside' if not, 2ngland will no longer be in a position to remain neutral indefinitely.! )e continued, !;t is far from my thought to express a threat. ; simply wish to spare you a deception and to a&oid, on my part, the reproach of ha&ing been lacking in sincerity.! For all #rey1s protestations of sincerity, he had sent messages to all the embassies informing them of the &irtual end of $ritish neutrality e&en before recei&ing Lichnowsky. "hat e&ening As?uith told his wife that he had dispatched telegrams to all parts of the empire, informing the go&ernments and administrations to prepare for war. Wickham Steed, editor of the "imes, returned to his office from a confidential cabinet inter&iew with the words !2&erything is lost! on his lips. For the former prime minister, Arthur Bames $alfour, the sight of passersby promenading down @ockspur Street was a bitter one. !War is rushing down upon them,! he said to himself. Wilhelm ;; recei&ed Lichnowsky1s report of his con&ersation with #rey with outrage, and unleashed a series of rich imprecations against perfodious Albion. )e ?uickly reco&ered his e?uilibrium, howe&er, and began to study what measures remained to keep the peace. )e knew of

3ussia1s ongoing mobili:ation, but 4oincarF1s maneu&erings were as yet a secret. )is last card remained the unlikely inter&ention of his cousin, #eorge 9. "hat so&ereign was sleeping when his prime minister, As?uith, asked to be recei&ed. "he king, once roused, threw on his dressing gown and applied himself to replying to his cousin1s plea for neutrality in terms with which his ministers could agree. "he text of the telegram bore a last hope for peace. "he #erman ambassador reported to $erlin that #rey had promised not to inter&ene if #ermany did not attack France, and asked for a #erman statement on that matter. Lichnowsky informed his go&ernment that he had promised that to #rey, as he had been authori:ed, and that #rey would communicate the statement to the cabinet. A telegram is of &alue only when it is recei&ed, howe&er. Lichnowsky was only able to send it from London on the morning of August +st, after a ten- hour delay, and it arri&ed in $erlin another fi&e hours later. "he wasted fifteen hours seem almost certainly accounted for by the delaying tactics of the anti-#erman faction in the As?uith go&ernment and in the $ritish 2stablishment. Ge&ertheless, when the news finally arri&ed, it seemed a pro&idential opportunity to sta&e off war. %minously enough, howe&er, when news of the $ritish go&ernment1s apparent re&ersal of policy was telegraphed to the $ritish ambassador in 4aris, Sir Francis $ertie, the ambassador failed to inform the French go&ernment. $ertie, a supporter of 4oincarF1s policies, was in open rebellion against his go&ernment. As the hours wore on, and the telegram remained undeli&ered, the $ritish go&ernment

made a sudden :ig:ag in its course, as it had done so often in the past. "his time it was #eorge 9, last repository of the tenuous hopes for peace in 2urope, who was thrown o&erboard.

CHAPTE .)I !ritain on the !rin# /aiser Wilhelm recei&ed word of the offer of $ritish neutrality as he rode in a magnificent ca&alcade from his palace at 4otsdam to the palace in $erlin. "he /aiser was resplendent in full military uniform, his Bunoes?ue wife beside him in the open carriage dressed in a stunning purple gown. As the cheers of $erliners resounded at the entrance to the palace, @hancellor $ethmann-)ollweg and his undersecretary of state, Bagow, rushed up with the telegram. 3eading it swiftly, the /aiser burst out oyfully, !Some champagne0 "his deser&es champagne0! %nly one man in the palace restrained his enthusiasm. When Wilhelm grasped him by the shoulders, and told him to halt the army1s westward ad&ance, #eneral @ount &on 5oltke turned white. )e stammered, !$ut that1s impossible0 "he entire army would be plunged into frightful confusion, and we1d ha&e no chance of winning the war0! ;ndeed, it was true( a dreadful mess did loom. "he welloiled #erman war machine was ust springing into action. )undreds of thousands of troops were boarding trains about to depart for the west. "he conductors awaited the final

signal. 2&ery station had its plan' e&ery engineer his precise instructions' the schedules had all been determined long in ad&ance. Gow &on 5oltke had been ordered not only to stop the mo&ement westward, but to turn it completely around( #ermany1s armies were to ad&ance eastward against 3ussia. 5oltke1s protests were una&ailing. )e told his emperor, !;f ; can not march against France, ; can not assume responsibility for the war,! to which Wilhelm shot back, !*our uncle would ha&e gi&en me a different answer0! 5oltke was &isibly disturbed' in the office of his aide-decamp he suffered a collapse. Ge&ertheless, he transmitted the /aiser1s order to the &anguard of the #erman forces, the +-th 6i&ision, which was about to ad&ance into the neutral #rand 6uchy of Luxembourg and cross into France. $efore 5oltke1s order could become effecti&e, se&eral units of the +-th1s &anguard had crossed the border. ;t was se&en o1clock in the e&ening, and sixty #erman troops were sei:ing the railroad station at the little town of "rois 9ierges and tearing out the telephone and telegraph facilities. )alf an hour later, frantic #erman couriers were able to reach the little ad&ance guard and bring them back across the border, after telling the harried Luxembourgers that it had all been a regrettable mistake. @ould the fragile truce holdH "hat e&ening Wilhelm telegraphed his reply to the $ritish. )e informed the As?uith go&ernment and /ing #eorge that while he could not halt #ermany1s mobili:ation on either front, he would refrain from attacking France if that nation pledged its neutrality, to be guaranteed by the $ritish.

A few hours later came a crushing message from /ing #eorge( $ritain1s pre&ious offer had been no more than the result of !a misapprehension.! "he text ran( !;n reply to your telegram which ; ha&e ust recei&ed, ; think there must be some misapprehension with respect to a suggestion made during a friendly con&ersation between 4rince Lichnowsky and Sir 2dward #rey that afternoon when they were discussing how an actual combat between the #erman and French armies could be a&oided while there was still some chance of agreement between Austria and 3ussia. Sir 2dward #rey will undertake to see 4rince Lichnowsky early tomorrow morning to see if there is a misapprehension on his part.! Another stunning blow0 For the second time in a matter of hours, #ermany1s military preparations were upset. At se&en o1clock the momentum had been changed from west to east. Gow at ele&en, the armies had to swing around ponderously toward the west again. "he /aiser, who had retired for the night, had to be roused from bed. Sitting at the edge of his bed in his drawers, he registered 5oltke1s embarrassment and threw a military greatcoat o&er his shoulders. )e told his chief of staff, !Gow you may follow your own counsel. 5arch on Luxembourg.! "he #erman army had now fallen half a day behind the French. 5eanwhile, across the @hannel, @hurchill had taken it on himself to mobili:e the entire 3oyal Ga&y. 6espite the lack of authori:ation by the cabinet, #rey supported the First Lord of the Admiralty. )e confided to @hurchill that he had told the French that $ritain would not permit the #erman

fleet to enter the @hannel. All this while Wilhelm was re oicing at the receipt of #eorge 91s peace offer. ;n o&ercoming the resistance of substantial sections of the $ritish public to an inter&ention in the war on the @ontinent, the $ritish war faction and French diplomacy had beaten some powerful foes. Substantial interests of big capital, including the Bewish in&estment bankers, led by the 3othschilds, were for their own reasons not eager for $ritish participation. Liberal &oices, particularly powerful in the press, were strong in opposing any alliance with tsarist 3ussia. *et the deft diplomacy of 4oincarF, represented in 2ngland by Ambassador Bules @ambon, had easily eclipsed that of the #ermans, ust as 4alFologue in St. 4etersburg had relegated the #erman 4ourtalLs to the role of a helpless onlooker. @ambon was adept at stoking the &acillating #rey1s fears of the incubus of !4an-#ermanism,! and he dared to stand up to #rey when #rey tried to treat him condescendingly. 4atient, scheming, he was able to wheedle from #rey the critical promise that $ritain would permit no #erman ships to enter the @hannel. ;n contrast, #ermany1s Lichnowsky, a caricature of an oldfashioned dandy, was ineffecti&e and uninspiring, more fit to take tea with the be&y of aging duchesses he and his wife culti&ated than to present forcefully his country1s policy to the $ritish. Like his colleagues in 3ussia, he wound up weeping at the outbreak of the war, while his wife wept in the arms of 5rs. As?uith. At the critical cabinet meeting on August 7nd, the Liberal

Lord 5orley, the lord president, an opponent of war, had laid his cards on the table at the outset. !Winston, we1re going to beat you, you know,! he remarked amiably. @hurchill merely smiled. )e knew of #rey1s promise to @ambon, and he knew which way the wind was blowing. "hen he asked, !What reply should #rey ha&e gi&en 4aul @ambon, the ambassador of France, when he asked what 2ngland would do if the #erman fleet attacked French ships or ports in the 2nglish @hannelH! %ne by one the ministers replied. 5orley and his allies spoke with little force, while As?uith, #rey, and )aldane, the Lord @hancellor, made their arguments &igorously. %ne after another, the Liberal opponents of the war backed down, se&eral offering to resign, while opportunists like the crafty 6a&id Lloyd #eorge calculated the benefits of a re&ersal in their stand. $y the morning of the 8rd, 5orley had resigned, along with three other ministers. Lloyd #eorge, ha&ing !drunk at that well of martial enthusiasm,! in @hurchill1s phrase, stayed. "he cabinet opted for war, but not in high spirits. "he )ouse of @ommons remained to be con&inced. #rey1s speech before @ommons on August 8rd was a masterpiece of dissimulation. Feigning ignorance of the details of the treaty oining France to 3ussia, he concentrated on the alleged threat to $ritain posed by #erman ships streaming into the 2nglish @hannel. )e told the )ouse( 5y personal point of &iew is this( the French fleet is in the 5editerranean. "he coasts of northern France are absolutely without protection. We can not stand aside with our arms folded if a foreign fleet comes to bombard these

unprotected shores. )e then informed the @ommons of his fait accompli of the day before( the promise to @ambon. According to 5alcolm "homson, !Go one breathed a word. ;f anyone in that &ast audience listening to Sir 2dward took exception to this moral blackmail, he kept silent.! %nly 3amsay 5ac6onald, head of the Labour 4arty, future prime minister, raised a doubt. !We1d offer him our li&es if the country were in danger. $ut he didn1t persuade me that it is.! "he session ad ourned, with #reat $ritain on the brink. ;n a few hours, there would be a new lure for wa&ering ministers and 5.4.s.

CHAPTE .)II 4The ,ost Co"ossa" 1o""( ... 4 "he ad&ance of #erman troops across $elgian territory would furnish Liberal turncoats like Lloyd #eorge with an occasion for pious indignation that was typical of the $ritish 2stablishment. $ritain1s leaders well knew that #ermany1s only possible strategy against France necessitated the &iolation of $elgium1s neutrality. #reat $ritain was no stranger to the use of force and the abrogation of treaties to ad&ance the aim of its elite, e&erywhere from ;reland to )ong /ong. France had &iolated or laid plans to &iolate $elgium1s so&ereignty

twenty times throughout her history. "he man most concerned, $elgium1s /ing Albert ;, would lash 4oincarF after the war in these words( !; am most fond of 5r. 4oincarF, who continues to talk as though all the o&erweening ambition and e&il were on one side, whereas ust a few days ago he stated that it was only because of his J&eto1 that the French general staff had not in&aded $elgium in +,+A, and that he deeply regretted it0! ;n fact, #ermany saw herself hemmed in between two giants about to crush her. "he /anchester Guardian had enough courage to write on August 8, +,+A( !We shall pass no harsh udgments on what a man or a nation does when it1s a matter of life or death.! )owe&er imprudent /aiser Wilhelm ;; had been in his choice of words, he had done e&erything in his power to a&ert a war, while @hurchill and his allies stro&e ceaselessly to bring on a bloody conflict that would lea&e 2urope prostrate. At their behest, on the e&ening of August 8rd, at se&en p.m., $ritain1s ambassador, Sir 2dward #oschen, presented himself at $ethmann-)ollweg1s office in $erlin and demanded that #ermany respect $elgian neutrality by retreating from the country, on pain of war with #reat $ritain. "he next morning in London Lichnowsky recei&ed his passport and the Cnited /ingdom1s declaration of war at one and the same time. "he document stated that the #erman 2mpire had declared war on #reat $ritain, a complete misstatement of the truth, which brought a hurried substitution of the corrected document for the inaccurate one by a secretary from the Foreign %ffice.

%n the Ath the /anchester Guardian ran a full-page appeal by the League for Geutrality on the theme( !2nglishmen, do your duty and keep your country out of an e&il and stupid war.! 5rs. As?uith noted that !Winston @hurchill was looking &ery happy.! #eneral Sir )enry Wilson predicted, !;n four weeks we1ll be at 2lsenborn.! !"hree weeks,! retorted the French general $erthelot. %ther predictions were being made by more percepti&e minds. Bosiah Wedgwood prophesied, !*ou will see something much more important than a 2uropean war. *ou will see a re&olution.! $efore the 3ussian 6uma, an obscure delegate named /erensky cried, !After you ha&e defended your country, you will liberate it.! ;n the far north of Siberia, on the banks of the *enisei, a con&ict laid traps for foxes and field mice in the snow. Cnknown to anyone in the West, he echoed the sentiments of the leftists in the 6uma( !"he tsar1s war will be the proletariat1s good fortune.! )is name, among re&olutionaries, was Bosef Stalin. "he men who would lead the !%ctober 3e&olution! had left 3ussia and were li&ing abroad, watching and waiting. Le& 6a&ido&ich $ronstein, alias "rotsky, was li&ing in 9ienna. Warned by the Austrian Socialist 9iktor Adler that he would be interned the next day, he fled to Swit:erland on August 8rd. )e would soon be oined by 9ladimir ;lyich Clyano&, alias Lenin, at that time holed up in Austrian 4oland. Lenin would spend most of the war li&ing across from a sausage factory in Kurich. From there he would set out in 5arch

+,+- towards world re&olution and history. "he &ast ma ority of 2uropeans ga&e little thought to the possibility of political and social cataclysm triggered by the war. "he masses marched off to massacre with patriotism in their heads and sa&agery in their hearts. *ears after the carnage, most of them would he no wiser. As the eminent French Senator d12stournelles would exclaim before the ;nternational @ourt at "he )ague in +,7+, !%ur public opinion has been so saturated with official lies that people can1t wake up to the light and see the truth all at once. "hey wouldn1t belie&e it0! As early as %ctober +,+=, Woodrow Wilson would write, !"he singularity of the present war resides in the fact that its origin and its ob ecti&es ha&e ne&er been re&ealed. )istory will ha&e to search a long time to explain this conflict! <$ullitt, President Wilson, p. 7D.> $ut Wilson, too, would lead his countrymen lemming-like into the carnage. Gaturally the &ictors had little desire to see the web of subterranean maneu&ers, and the bra:en lies which they had told in order to lead their peoples into war exposed. Gor did they wish to see o&erturned the harsh peace they imposed on the defeated, lest they be denied the billions of marks in reparations they had planned to exact. !;f the #ermans are pro&ed innocent,! asked 4oincarF, !why should they want to pay war damagesH! *et not long after the war a growing consensus of honest scholars, from the &ictorious nations as well as the &an?uished, would gi&e the lie to the claims of #ermany1s

exclusi&e guilt, which had been incorporated into the 9ersailles "reaty, as well as to the pretense of French, $ritish, and 3ussian innocence. %n his own country the French historian Fabre Luce would pronounce the &erdict, !France isolated herself in a lie.! %n August A, +,+A, the actors were all arrayed on the stage of 2urope, the ust mingled with the un ust, the artless with the false. First the tsar, hanging his head, glassy eyed, and bedecked with ribbons-he was not responsible for much' he was merely the front man of 4an-Sla& firebrands( the grand dukes, the Sa:ono&s, and a whole ruck of certified scoundrels like l:&olsky and )artwig. $eside the 3ussian monarch, the oft grumpy tsaritsa in her wimple, the finelooking grown daughters afflicted with hysteria, and a hemophiliac child, all of whom, buffeted by misfortune, would, in +,+D, pay for the 3usso-Serbian trap of Bune 7D, +,+A by being horribly massacred by a $olshe&ik murder s?uad. %pposite, in his plumed eagle-helmet, was Wilhelm ;;, who had been more relentless than anyone in his efforts to pre&ent war. )e would be tossed onto the scrap heap of history as a scapegoat, as a leper to be stoned and charged with the crimes of the real instigators. ;n the background, artfully blurred by fog, the last one to arri&e was $ritain1s #eorge 9, who lacked ner&e, standing beside @hurchill, who had it to burn, and who was scenting battle as if preparing to en oy a sa&ory and sumptuous repast. "he massi&e 4ashich, e&er cautious, was hiding the re&ol&er of Sara e&o under his dirty beard.

%ne lone Frenchman, the most brilliant of Frenchmen, the future 5arshal Lyautey, had started back, horrified at seeing the ghastly spectacle about to begin. !"hey are completely insane,! he had exclaimed on recei&ing the order from 4aris to be ready for full-scale action. !A war between 2uropeans is a ci&il war. ;t is the most colossal folly the ci&ili:ed world has e&er committed0! "he &icious treaty of 9ersailles imposed on #ermany would finally bring to the chancellorship of that nation, on Banuary 8., +,88, a &olunteer infantryman of +,+A. ;t would raise him to power and bring on the se?uel. "hat se?uel would be the Second World War, the accursed and ineluctable fruit of the First World War. $ut before e&erything else there had been the two re&ol&er shots of Sara e&o. "hey destroyed fore&er an entire world.

The 1a"se 4/ar of i0ht4

CHAPTE .)III The oad to 1rance %n the fourth of August, +,+A, se&eral #erman uhlans, black and white pennants fluttering at the tips of their lances, crossed into $elgian territory. "heir passage did not go unnoticed. ;n a nearby thicket, a $elgian lookout hastily

scrawled a few words on a leaf from his notebook and then fastened his message to the leg of a carrier pigeon. "he bird took wing, circled the thicket once, and then made for LiLge. "he First World War was under way. "he ri&al camps were secure in the belief they had anticipated e&erything to perfection. Absolutely nothing, howe&er, would transpire as it had been set down in the meticulous plans of the general staffs. "he French would not take $erlin, nor would the 3ussians. "he #ermans would be denied 4aris. Although each side lunged at its opponent, sure of &ictory within two months, two months later the 3ussians would be reeling beaten from 2ast 4russia, and the #ermans and French would be digging the trenches in which they would be buried for four years, amidst a sea of mud and tens of thousands of rotting cada&ers. From time to time either side would mount an offensi&e, s?uandering hundreds of thousands of li&es on both sides, but the thrust would peter out after a few kilometers. $y Go&ember + the 3ussians, who had brought along their dress uniforms for the triumphal parade through $erlin, would ha&e lost half their men. "heir artillery would be out of ammunition and much of their infantry armed with clubs instead of rifles. "hree years later, the austere, aristocratic face of their ruler, the tsar, would be replaced by the non3ussian features of 9ladimir Lenin. With the tsar would go the old order of @hristian 3ussia, submerged beneath a tidal wa&e of red flags. $efore Sara e&o the 3ussian minister of war had smugly predicted, !A nice little war would spare us a re&olution.! ;n the end, it would be Lenin and his $olshe&ik henchmen

who would spare the grand dukes their estates, the financiers their profits, and the 3ussian people their freedoms. ;n @entral 2urope an identical re&olution would come close to succeeding. France would barely escape it at the time of the mutinies of +,+-. #ermany would bear the brunt of the 3ed thrust during the winter of +,+D-+,+,, on the heels of her defeat. "he heart of 2urope was on the brink of so&ieti:ation in those dark days, e&en as the &ictorious opportunists of 9ersailles car&ed away at it. Scarcely a man in 2urope would ha&e dreamed of such an outcome on that sultry fourth of August, +,+A, as the homing pigeon winged off from the thicket, gray-golden in the gleaming dawn, while the pennants of the in&aders fluttered o&er the yellowing wheat field in the last moments of peace. #ermany, as she marched westward, deployed a powerful, well-oiled military machine. "he #erman strategy had been mapped out, in all its particulars, with meticulous exactitude. "he #erman army would cut a long, straight furrow across $elgium, then swing down to the south between the 2scaut and the 5euse, heading for the 5arne and 4aris. "he ad&ance had been timed beforehand as precisely as the stages of the !"our de France! bicycle race. ;n thirty days, the #ermans would enter 4aris and the /aiser would sleep in the palace at 9ersailles, while a million or two prisoners would slowly make their way in orderly ranks toward the recei&ing camps across the 3hine. "he #erman armies were no stronger than those of France and $ritain opposing them. "he myth of #erman military

superiority on the Western Front was laid to rest by #eneral 5ordac?, the former chief secretary of #eorges @lemenceau, in his book *+gendes de la Grand Guerre. "he respecti&e strengths in August +,+A were as follows( -D French infantry di&isions as opposed to -= #erman' A,ED7 French artillery pieces to A,E7, #erman guns' 7,7=. French machine guns against +,,.. #erman. ;n manpower and materiel, neither side possessed a decisi&e ad&antage. "he eastward ad&ance of the French armies had glittered as flamboyantly as the sun of those har&est weeks. At that time ; was a small boy, eight years old, and ; can still see the $retons, the 4arisians, the men of 4ro&ence marching up the road from France. "he road ran through the outskirts of my little $elgian home town, $ouillon, along the Semois 3i&er, and the wooded &alleys echoed to the cadence marked by the drummers marching eight abreast. %ne after another the units halted along the banks of the Semois and set up camp under the plum trees. For two weeks it was like a festi&al, as the cooks prepared french fries without stint and the songs of $otrel, the great French bard in those days, resounded on pianos brought from the houses of the townspeople. Soldiers and ci&ilians strolled under the hornbeam trees along the ri&er or danced the farandole, de&oid of cares. %ccasionally an officer would in?uire about the mysterious forests stretching east beyond our little &alley. 6espite the fact that for years France1s leaders had schemed with the tsarist go&ernment of 3ussia to start a war against the #ermans, its army had no road maps. We children were gi&en the task of tearing the maps from piles of railroadschedule books, to which we applied oursel&es

conscientiously. $ut of what use would they really beH Go trains crossed our region and the maps indicated only the railroad lines, not the roads' our region was represented only by a completely blank space. We did little tra&eling in those days. "he hill that bounded our &alley to the east was called the Point du 2our <6aybreak>. "here our world began. "he hill that closed the &alley on the west was named Le "erme <"he 2nd>. "here %ur world ended. $eyond was the unknown, the blank space on the map. $ut it was there that the tens of thousands of French soldiers who had been occupying our district since the beginning of August would ha&e to march to meet the #ermans. $ut no one ga&e a thought to the morrow' they sang, and bathed in the ri&er' it was a splendid &acation for the French troops. "here were two or three little alarms. %n se&eral occasions a few uhlans were seen coming down through the thousands of oak trees toward our little town. "hey ?uickly disappeared. "hey must ha&e had maps showing more than blank spaces, because they used forest trails that were hardly known e&en to our woodcutters. #ermans stalking around, their pointed helmets sticking through the branches, had to cause concern. Why did they &enture so far from their own countryH "he broad expanse of the $elgian Ardennes and the entire #rand 6uchy of Luxembourg lay between #ermany and us. )ere they were on our doorstep. Why didn1t our Frenchmen go meet themH What was war anyhowH %n August +E, +,+A, we were witness to a great spectacle.

A #erman airplane had come to bomb the French troops camped in our little town. We all rushed pellmell to a big tunnel car&ed in solid rock under the enormous medie&al castle where nearly a thousand years ago #odefroy de $ouillon, the leader of the First @rusade, had li&ed. Wideeyed, we watched the aerial bombardment from the entryway. A fantastic sight-stones were falling from the sky and ricocheting off the big blue pa&ing-stones0 )appy times those, when a man was content to throw good honest stones at his terrified enemy. "he plot thickened. A French airplane appeared, one of the +A. France 4ossessed in +,+A. ; witnessed the first aerial combat of my life. "he #erman began firing a short ca&alry rifle, as did the Frenchman. "hey turned and flew at each other again, firing their weapons, then swiftly turning round again. At last the rifle fire ceased, ammunition expended, neither side ha&ing inflicted any damage. "he two heroes disappeared o&er the hori:on. We streamed back out of the tunnel proud to ha&e witnessed so memorable an e&ent. 2le&en days after the start of the war, things were unchanged. Go $elgian newspapers had reached $ouillon since August A. A few French officers had newspapers from their country, howe&er, and they summari:ed the news for us. "he #ermans, the =ntransigeant of August +A explained, were surrendering to anyone who ga&e them a slice of bread and butter. "heir cartridges and their shells were worthless, ne&er killed anybody. "he 3ussian @ossacks were only fi&e days1 march from $erlin, according to Le 5atin. "he #ermans were collapsing e&erywhere. "he crown prince had committed suicide. Forty thousand 4russians had been taken prisoner at LiLge alone.

Would the war consist entirely of eating heaps of french fried potatoesH 2&eryone seemed to think so in our little &alley. "hose first carefree weeks did not much s?uare with the morale that had stirred the French people for four years before the war, the martially thrilling legend of AlsaceLorraine. Since +D-. their political leaders had extolled offensi&e war, the !moment di&ine! of 5. 4oincarF. "hen came two weeks of peaceful &acationing. "he French officers en route to $erlin were not sending out reconnaissance patrols' not once in fifteen days did they conduct a single drill to keep the troops on their mettle. Since those days ; ha&e taken part in ma or battles in So&iet 3ussia between +,A+ and +,AE, and ; ha&e commanded important units. ; still take my head in my hands whene&er ; think of that war of my childhood, in +,+A, in which the future combatants were content to watch the war as if ga:ing at trout streaming by from atop an old bridge. "o ha&e wanted the war so much, to ha&e it within reach from the beginning of August +,+A, and then to sit crammed in a &alley lost in the depths of a great forest for two weeks0 What were they waiting forH %n August 7., +,+A, the great call to battle finally sounded. Suddenly the bugles were calling the units to form and mo&e out. "he Fourth #erman Army, under the command of the 6uke of Wurttemberg, had crossed the entire Ardennes, ad&ancing to within twenty kilometers of our dark &alley. Loaded down with enormous packs, our nice &acation friends - fifteen thousand to twenty thousand of them - marched off gaily to do battle in our mountains,

officers in the lead, armed with our useless railroad maps. For a few hours our little town of $ouillon seemed strangely deserted and silent. 2&eryone watched the sky to the east. "hat was where the 4russians had to be. "hat afternoon, the hea&y sounds of artillery fire began to rumble across the distant sky, like thunderheads rolling in. ;t was not until the following dawn that we saw the first carts coming down fromood Ardennes followed. Wounded har&est wagons dri&en by g d d Frenchsoldiers, closely packed together, lay on the rough planks. Some of them, for lack of bandages, had plastered dirt on their wounds to stop the bleeding. Such was the ambulance corps of an army that had been preparing for an offensi&e war for forty years. "here wasn1t e&en a field tent to shelter the casualties. "he blood-stained sur&i&ors were unloaded in the old municipal poorhouse, where there was nothing a&ailable except our mothers1 shredded linen. $y nightfall se&eral thousand men had been crammed into the building. "he wounded less se&erely told how the enemy had cut them to pieces. "he morning before, they had arri&ed utterly exhausted at a &illage named 5aisin. "he #ermans were waiting for them, lying hidden right at the edge of the oak gro&es, sighting down their machine guns. "he French troops had charged in their red trousers across the neighboring fields, the little fields of our poor countrymen, surrounded by tight barbedwire walking wounded told how the enemy had cut them to pieces. "he morning before, they had arri&ed utterly exhausted at a &illage dead would be buried in a common gra&e. "hroughout the length of the Ardennes, one the border of France, it had been the same. "he well-known writer, )enry

4sichari, had fallen in one of our woods, near 3ossignol, sword in hand, a rosary fastened to the hilt. 5any bodies of wounded men who had dragged themsel&es under the thick foliage before dying would, years afterward, be found under the deep forest oaks. "he French retreat was ust as disorderly as the botched combat. Late on the night of August 78, +,+A there came a loud knocking on our door. ; ran to my mother, who opened an upstairs window. Soldiers were stretched out on the bare ground, clear to the end of the street, as if they were dead. A &oice rang out-; can still hear it-almost beseeching, the &oice of a young officer. !"he road to France, 5adame0! Geither he, nor his soldiers, knew the road back to France. Go maps. Go reconnaissance. Gonexistent communications. Surrender. Fear. "hat was France in August +,+A. A charming, carefree, terribly chau&inistic people that, thanks to an astounding lack of preparation, was brought to a frightful state of emasculation. ;n one month, at the height of har&est time, se&en hundred thousand Frenchmen would fall, dead or wounded. "hen a last-minute miracle-for it was a miracle-came( the re&ersal of the 5arne. "he battle was impromptu and makeshift, despite the careful planning of the #eneral Staff in $erlin. ;t would sa&e 4aris, from which ;9 4oincarF, his go&ernment, and fi&e thousand 4arisians had already fled i panic. "he retreat had been general on all fronts. %n the Lorraine front, launched by Boffre on August D, +,+A in application of plan S9;;, the French troops had thought

themsel&es masters of 5ulhouse, but the #erman Se&enth Army, hidden in the forest of the )ardt, had trapped them. Almost surrounded, the French had no choice but to beat a retreat with all possible speed. ;n the Saar and to the north of 9erdun, the French suffered an identical defeat. Boffre, the French commander-in-chief, had made a serious mistake. )e had underestimated #erman strength on the western front by a third. Since the French had possessed the detailed plan of the enemy high command, the Schlieffen plan, for eight years, Boffre had no excuse. )e hadn1t fortified the Franco-$elgian frontier to the northwest, between the 5euse and the Gorth Sea, where-as was set down in black and white-the #erman army planned to storm through in the e&ent of war. ;n complete contrast, the efforts of the French armies had been directed primarily towards the eastern front, where the 4russian plan pro ected no breakthrough. "he obsession with Alsace-Lorraine not only addled the thinking of 4oincarF and the warmongers in his entourage, it also befuddled the high command. Cnprepared, poorly commanded, and inacti&e for fifteen days while the enemy hemmed them in on all sides, the French armies not onl( suffered a terrible blow in the Ardennes, but at the same time were cut to pieces in a second theater, between the 5euse and the Gorth Sea, in the great battle of 5ons@harleroi. #eneral Lanre:ac, a nati&e of #uadeloupe, who commanded the Sixti Army at 5ons, showed himself a poor tactician, although he had been professor of tactics at the War Academy.

)e failed completely to understand the tactics of #eneral &on /luck, th< commander of the #erman First Army, who should ha&e been an oper book to him, as to Boffre, for the preceding eight years. "he #ermans hac rushed straight at $russels, capturing the $elgian capital on August +A. "he Schlieffen plan then called for a great sweep to the south in the direction .0 4aris. @learly, the #ermans would pass to the north of 5ons. "he #erman Second Army, that of #eneral &on $Olow, attacked a Gamur and @harleroi on the same day. Lanre:ac knew the enemy1s route it ad&ance, and he must surely ha&e been aware that he risked being caugh between &on /luck and &on $Olow if he did not extend his formation to the left. *et there he was, on August +E, marching up from 4hillippe&ille anc 5arienbourg towards the Sambre ri&er and taking position there as if the #erman Second Army were the only one in existence. When the battle began on August 7+, &on /luck was able to attack in an area &irtually unprotected by Lanre:ac, on his left wing, where he was supported by no more than four $ritish di&isions. $y the next day &on /luck1s army had punched through to occupy 5ons. A little later Lanre:ac was outflanked at the outermost point of his right wing, this time by &on )ausen1s Second Army, which had leap-frogged across the 5euse. A few hours later Lanre:ac found himself &irtually surrounded at 5e:iLres. )e ordered a desperate retreat. 6isaster was at hand. !"he fear instilled in me during the preceding days as to the offensi&e capability of our troops in the field were yesterday confirmed,! #eneral Boffre wrote to 4oincarF. )e didn1t hide the reasons.

!We ha&e no choice but to accept the e&idence' our army corps, despite their numerical superiority, did not show the hoped-for offensi&e ?ualities in the field.! #eneral Boffre, at small cost, was clearing his own name at the expense of his soldiers. Lanre:ac had not had the ad&antage of superior numbers at @harleroi. Boffre had miscalculated the enemy1s long foreseeable mo&ement of three #erman armies <&on /luck, &on $Olow, and &on )ausen> against Lanre:ac, instead of ust one. 5oltke had arrayed thirty #erman di&isions against fourteen French di&isions, four $ritish and one $elgian <at Gamur>. As we ha&e seen, the #ermans and the French disposed approximately e?ual forces on the western front. "he essential was that they be deployed udiciously. )ere, the error of the French command was monumental. "hat was not the only explanation, howe&er. ;n the battle of the $elgian Ardennes, the French forces had en oyed a numerical ad&antage <+=. French battalions against +77 #erman battalions>, and they had nonetheless been routed there, as elsewhere, and almost annihilated. !;neptitude of the commanders in handling their units. Lack of troop training, absence of coordination between units mo&ing in parallel. "hese among many findings boded ill for the future of the French army.! "hat was the &erdict of historian 5arc Ferro <*a Grande Guerre, p. ,=>. "hus it was on August 7A, +,+A more than a hundred thousand redtrousered corpses lay in the woods and amid the newly har&ested crops of the Ardennes and the area between the Sambre and the 5euse. "he sur&i&ors were taking to their heels.

!"he road to France, 5adam.! As a million French soldiers were fleeing toward France, four #erman armies swooped southward( the first through 9alenciennes, the second through 5aubeuge, the third through 3ethel, and the fourth through Sedan. "hey were supported on their left wing by the Fifth Army, which under the command of the crown prince, was racing forward &ia Luxemburg and Longwy. ;n less than a week the %ise and the Aisne had been crossed, and the #erman First, Second, and "hird Armies were across the 5arne. 9on /luck was only an hour away from a nearly deserted 4aris, which he disregarded, striking toward the southwest to oin up with the Fifth and Se&enth Armies of @rown 4rince 3uprecht of $a&aria and #eneral &on )eeringen, which were coming down from the Saar and from Alsace in the direction of the Seine. !;n fi&e weeks this whole business will be finished,! &on 5oltke declared at the end of August. *et six weeks later it was he who would be finished, dismissed from his post and morally shattered. "he #erman armies, after a headlong retreat, would hastily dig hundreds of kilometers of trenches from Gieuport to 9erdun, endless cada&er pits in which they would stagnate for four years. Why all of a sudden, when there seemed nothing left of the #allic cock but a few feathers, was the #erman, eagle exulting in its &ictories, checked at its :enith and then pushed backH $$$ "he battle of the 5arne, strange as it may seem, was not won at the 5arne, but two thousand kilometers to the east, on the outskirts of a little #erman town named "annenberg,

in 2ast 4russia. "here the 3ussians suffered a bitter re&erse. $ut at the same time that the #ermans defeated the tsar, they defeated themsel&es. Without "annenberg, there would ha&e been no defeat on the 5arne. First the dates( #erman &ictory at @harleroi, August 77-78, +,+A' #erman &ictory at "annenberg, August 7=-7,, +,+A. ;n the inter&ening three days #eneral &on 5oltke would commit the fatal error that made possible the French &ictory on the 5arne ten days afterwards. "he entire #erman strategy rested, as we ha&e seen, on the elimination of the ad&ersary in the west before facing the 3ussian foe in the east. A two- front war seemed unthinkable for #ermany. France1s army was e?ual in numbers to #ermany1s, and the tsar had mobili:ed fi&e million soldiers, a figure that could be increased to ten million. "he political and diplomatic strategy of France1s "hird 3epublic for a ?uarter of a century had consisted precisely of entoiling #ermany in the dilemma of fighting two great wars simultaneously-which would almost certainly mean losing them both simultaneously. A #ermany forced to dispatch half of her forces to her eastern border should be defeated in the west by the French, who had been excellent soldiers for centuries. She was &irtually condemned to defeat if she faced the French armies outnumbered two to one. 2&en if #ermany could sustain a two-front war a rapid solution on either front would be impossible. A long war would re?uire raw materials which #ermany did not possess, whereas the French and the 3ussians did ha&e or could import them.

"he #erman high command, increasingly uneasy at the burgeoning military strength of the 3ussians, and the growth of their strategic network of railroads, thanks to French loans, in the direction of 4russia, had come to the con&iction that it was imperati&e that #ermany fight only one war at a time. $$$ "he 3ussians firstH %r the French firstH ;t could not be the 3ussians first, because the #ermans would scarcely ha&e penetrated the &ast expanses of 3ussia - ten thousand kilometers between the $altic and the 4acific %cean - before the French deployed their forces against a 3hine only half defended. "he French mobili:ation, facilitated by an exceptionally dense railway network, would be completed, according to the general staff, in se&enteen days. ;mmediately thereafter, opposed by a greatly reduced #erman army, the French, without much difficulty, might e&en be able to reach the imperial palace in $erlin, as 4oincarF hoped, !by All Saints1 6ay.! "o &on 5oltke, allowing such an a&alanche to sweep down on the #erman 3eich would be suicidal. Should the 2astern Front be initially ignoredH Should #ermany act only in the west, and not oppose the ad&ance of the 3ussians until mid- September +,+AH Lea&e #erman soil undefended against the 3ussian in&asion except with a simple screen of a few di&isions during the six or se&en critical weeksH ;t would be necessary to break through and destroy the French front in a matter of weeks. ;t meant taking a terrible risk. "he only factors on which #ermany could reasonably count to offset the danger were the immensity of 3ussia1s

territory, her still inade?uate railway network, and her miserable roads. "o transport se&eral million men o&er thousands of kilometers, together with their gear and enormous ?uantities of war materiel, especially artillery, would take 3ussia a month or more. $y the time the 3ussian enemy was finally ready, the #erman army, it was hoped, would ha&e crushed the French and could then be transferred in force to 2ast 4russia, or at least to the %der ri&er. ;t was with this scenario in mind that #eneral Schlieffen, chief of staff of the #erman high command, had prepared his famous plan, which, unknown to anyone in $erlin, had come into the possession of the French Army in +,.=, thanks to a traitor bought for sixty thousand francs. France1s leaders therefore knew the strategic implications of it exactly. Fortunately for the #ermans, this plan hadn1t much concerned the French command. 4erhaps they hadn1t belie&ed it. "he plan was relegated by the French to a file of dusty old records. )istory is filled with such missed opportunities. ;t would happen again in the Second World War( the French, $elgians, and 6utch, informed in ad&ance of the #erman offensi&e of 5ay +., +,A. by an anti-)itler general and by the 6utch embassy in $erlin, would take no heed of the warning, Stalin, told of the imminent #erman attack of Bune 77, +,A+ well ahead of time by @hurchill, immediately before by two deserters, would take no account of the warnings. )itler, in turn, would fail to act on important, detailed information furnished by the "urkish spy, !@icero,! concerning the future Allied landings in France in +,AA, information that @hurchill had passed to Stalin &ia the

$ritish embassy in Ankara. )uman intelligence often stumbles in the night imposed by its blindness. "he lethargy of the French almost certainly freed &on 5oltke from a gra&e risk in August of +,+A. "here was another problem, howe&er( the necessity, which seemed to him inescapable, of crossing $elgium to get to 4aris. "he historical reality has been that ill-fated $elgium has ne&er been respected by anyone. "he leaders of the French 3e&olution and Gapoleon attached no more importance to her than to one of their assignats. #eneral Boffre himself had stated that a war against #ermany was inconcei&able unless the French armies made a dash through the $elgian corridor. ;n +,A. it would be the same with #amelin. ;n a way, $elgium forms an una&oidable passage. For two thousand years the $elgians ha&e been walked o&er by @aesar1s 3omans, the @elts and the #ermans, the Gormans, Spaniards, Austrians, the French, the 6utch, Wellington1s $ritish, the 4russians of $lucher, the @ossacks of Alexander ;. $elgium is the warrior1s gangplank. ;n August +,+A, the $elgian gangplank was being crossed once again. 2ach time, $elgium1s in&aders had produced good excuses. @hancellor $ethmann-)ollweg, at the beginning of August +,+A, was concerned enough about $elgium1s plight to announce to the 3eichstag on the first day of the in&asion that #ermany would make good any damage done. Which didn1t in the slightest pre&ent the $ritish and the Frenchwho had done the same thing themsel&es a number of

times-from tearing their hair in hypocritical indignation. "he #ermans had a stern choice( either to ignore the rights of the $elgians, or to blunt their offensi&e against the French and lose the war. ;n scales weighted with the destinies of such mighty nations, the $elgians didn1t count for &ery much. $y in&ading $elgium so ca&alierly <uhlans in the &anguard>, the #ermans ga&e the Allies occasion to raise a great din of propaganda. At the same time they allowed the $ritish imperialists to assign themsel&es the &irtuous and almost unheard-of role of defender of the oppressed. "he only way the #ermans could extricate themsel&es from the political conse?uences was by a ?uick &ictory. At the end of August +,+A, e&erything led them to belie&e they would succeed. "he French had been in flight for a week. According to &on 5oltke1s schedule, he would be &ictorious as early as mid-September' then he would be able to transfer his forces to 4otsdam or /Inigsberg and administer the final blow to the 3ussians. )owe&er ha:ardous this double plan was, it could ha&e been reali:ed if the 3ussians had not begun to organi:e weeks in ad&ance with a pre- mobili:ation and if &on 5oltke had pro&ed himself e?ual to the task at the moment of great decision. "he bold stroke of the #ermans in the west could only succeed if the French could be con?uered within thirty-fi&e days. $y August 7A, +,+A that &ictory was in sight. "he French armies had been beaten e&erywhere in less than three weeks. ;n the west, therefore, the #erman strategy and tactics were

winning. ;n the east, on the other hand, and at nearly the same time, expectations seemed to be unra&eling. "he 3ussians had been astute. "heir leaders knew, e&en better than the #erman general staff, the shortcomings of their mobili:ation plan and the slowness imposed by the distances in&ol&ed. "hey had also tried to shorten the delays by resorting in great secrecy, as we ha&e disclosed, to partial mobili:ations in ad&ance. When the 3usso-#erman war began in earnest they had anticipated the 3eich1s generals by se&eral weeks. "he 3ussian generals had brought their Siberian troops to the West twenty-four days earlier. 5oreo&er the 4an-Sla&ic cli?ue had been hounded e&ery day by 4oincarF, who wished to see their armies in combat e&en before he had engaged his own troops in the Ardennes and at @harleroi. )e complained of a lack of collaboration by the tsar regarding a single day1s delay( !"he 3ussian offensi&e which was announced for this e&ening <August +8, +,+A>, and which was to contribute to the relief of our front, was unfortunately postponed until tomorrow or till Sunday morning.! <4oincarF, *'=n$asion, p. D,>. "he French president sent all possible intermediaries to the rescue. !Sir #eorge $uchanan was charged with pointing out to Sa:ono& that it was of the utmost urgency to support us in the fight against #ermany, with 5. 6oumergue and our general staff stressing the same point of &iew.! $ecause of such nagging insistence, and although they had concentrated only a part of their troops at the border, on

August +A, +,+A the 3ussians entered #erman territory two or three weeks in ad&ance of their schedule. $y the next day, August +E, the 3ussian armies were already ad&ancing deep into 2ast 4russia. %n August 7., +,+A, they trounced the meager forces of #erman #eneral 4rittwit: at #umbinnen. "he situation was serious for #ermany, because the #erman troops in the 2ast were &ery few in number. "hey constituted only a fragile screen, nine di&isions in all, scarcely a tenth of the #erman di&isions that, on that same day, confronted the French in $elgium. "he 3ussians opposing them, e&en though not at full effecti&e strength, were three times their number( twentynine di&isions. 2&en so, their superiority o&er the nine #erman di&isions was ?uestionable. "hey had been thrown into action too hastily' they were poorly e?uipped' their commanders were far from military geniuses. "hat would soon be apparent' a week later, )indenburg and Ludendorff would annihilate them. Whate&er the uncertainty of the moment after the defeat at #umbinnen, it was essential that &on 5oltke remain calm and hold more than e&er to the Schlieffen plan, which re?uired meticulous execution. 2&en if the 3ussians reached the %der, e&en if they con?uered $erlin, only one consideration was uppermost in the plan( eliminating, by using a maximum of force, the French obstacle in the west. "hen, and only then, were they to turn back on the 3ussians, howe&er far they had come, whether 5agdeburg or 5unich. ;n war, the important thing isn1t a&oiding retreat' the goal is to win the final battle, e&en at the cost of

temporarily gi&ing up a &ast amount of terrain, or risking extreme peril. Strategically, space is not a taboo, but a tool. For 5oltke not to be alarmed at the news of the premature 3ussian offensi&e, he needed to ha&e ner&es of steel. )e didn1t ha&e them. Cnlike #eneral Boffre, his French counterpart, he was not a commander who remained unmo&ed when the tornado strikes. ;n circumstances so extraordinarily difficult, in&ol&ing two enormous fronts two thousand kilometers apart, William ;; should ne&er ha&e entrusted such crushing responsibilities to an amiable and philosophical esthete who had the shoulders of a solid and in&incible 4russian officer, but was hesitant, fumbling, and filled with fears. When &on 5oltke recei&ed the unpleasant news on August 7., +,+A of the 3usso-#erman battle of #umbinnen-which was actually more of a skirmish than a great battle-he was completely unner&ed. Although he had the &ictories of 5ons, @harleroi, the Ardennes, and @hampagne well in hand, he imagined #ermany1s situation a desperate one. 4anicked, on August 7E, +,+A he took a totally inappropriate step( he withdrew two army corps, the 2le&enth and the 3eser&e @orps of the #uard, from the wing of his armies ad&ancing on 4aris. )is colleagues warned him of the danger, because the two army corps "he 3were absolutely indispensable if the French army, in full retreat, was to be annihilated. ;t would be noted instantly in the enemy camp. !;t is a gra&e decision and a gross error' the #erman commander-in-chief is weakening the &ery armies he1s asking to make the decisi&e effort.! <3enou&in, *a Crise

europ+enne, p. 7AA>. #eneral &on 5oltke had already committed a grie&ous error eight days earlier when he sent six reser&e di&isions to Lorraine. At that time he should ha&e put them in action in support of his offensi&e forces in order to carry the decision. ;n Lorraine he had no real need of them( the Fifth and Sixth Armies had easily wiped out the French attempts to ad&ance and ?uickly turned them into a retreat. "he second error was catastrophic. "he battle of 5ons@harleroi ended on August 78, +,+A. "he #ermans were in position to finish off the French in two or three weeks. At the &ery important moment when it was imperati&e to strike the final blow, &on 5oltke snatched +E.,... soldiers from his offensi&e against 4aris and sent them off in three hundred trains in the direction of the 9istula on August 7=, +,+A. Without #umbinnen, there would ne&er ha&e been a French &ictory of the 5arne. Ruite possibly, but the astounding fact is that the di&ersion of those two army corps ser&ed no purpose whatsoe&er. At the hour when the three hundred trains departed, the 3ussians were being utterly destroyed. "he dates are startling. %n August 7= 5oltke ga&e the order for the two army corps to depart for the east' on the following day, August 7-, more than a thousand kilometers from the railway platforms of $elgium, the battle between the 3ussians and #ermans at "annenberg took place. And what a battle0 ;n three days, )indenburg and Lundendorff totally annihilated the 3ussian army of Samsono&, which was three times larger than their own forces. ;t was a total rout( tens

of thousands of 3ussian soldiers were killed, ,7,... taken prisoner, 8E. cannon captured. Samsono&, the 3ussian commander-in-chief, was so crushed militarily and in spirit that he committed suicide. "hus not a single one of the +E.,... #erman soldiers redirected by &on 5oltke from the offensi&e in France to east 4russia took part at "annenberg. %n that fateful day their 8.. trains were still chugging through the $elgian pro&ince of )ainaut. "heir absence would be fateful when the First and Second Armies, weakened by that enormous le&y, would hold the fate of the war in their hands a few days later southeast of 4aris.

CHAPTE .I. 1eet of C"a( #eneral &on $Olow <a member of an extraordinary family of diplomats and military men( more than one hundred $illows would take part in the war, and se&enty percent of them would be killed or wounded> and #eneral &on /luck continued to pursue the fleeing French at full speed. )owe&er, &on /luck, suddenly stripped of +E.,... elite troops, had to rein in his right flank, which would ha&e swept to 4ontoise, to the west of 4aris, between the French capital and the Atlantic. )e pulled back towards 5eaux, to the east of 4aris, where it was still entirely possible that, once across the 5arne, he might link up with the #erman Sixth and Se&enth Armies to #eneral Boffre1s rear.

"he #ermans ad&anced on all fronts for some days. Almost immediately after the #erman &ictory at @harleroi on August 7=, the First $ritish Army @orps was se&erely beaten at Le @ateau by &on /luck. %n August 7,, +,+A, the defeated Lanre:ac tried courageously to aid the fleeing $ritish, but the latter demurred. "hey had suffered terrible losses( +..,... men in one month. Gow the $ritish wanted only to return by forced marches to the ports of 6unkirk and @alais. An old habit( at Waterloo, when Wellington was in doubt as to whether he could repel Gapoleon1s attack, he prepared for a retreat through the forest of Soignies, between the battlefield and $russels, and had already sent relays ahead to the northwest in order to be able to reembark his army without too much disorder if the emperor won the day. Similarly the $ritish commander, 5arshal French, in the days of August +,+A, felt a raging desire to cut and run. )e was more drawn to London fogs than to spiked helmets. Ferro, the historian, tells us <*a Grande Guerre, p. +.A>( !French wished to sa&e what was left of his army' and, udging the French MmarshalsN incapable of pulling themsel&es together, he had thought of reembarking.! ;t was with difficulty that Lanre:ac coaxed the $ritish troops back into the retreating columns. 5eanwhile, #eneral &on /luck had reached Goyon. )e was ad&ancing on FertF-5ilon and on @ompiLgne. $y August 8+ he was &ery close to cornering the French armies southeast of 4aris. )e had passed the &alley of the %urc? and reached @hateau-"hierry, pressing hard on the heels of the French, who crossed the bridges of the 5arne before

him, barely escaping him. ;n one week the armies of &on /luck and &on $Olow had reached the heart of France, on foot, because troops at that time still had to rely on their legs to get any place while campaigning. )undreds of thousands of #erman soldiers had taken the crossings of the Aisne and the 9esle at bayonet point beneath the hot August sun. "hey had come, as @orneille had once said, !to the &erge of a total &ictory,! ust a few tens of kilometers from 4aris. "heir eyes sparkled with oy. ;n another week they would be able to close the trap in the rear of !the main body! of the French army. 9on 5oltke1s order of the day of September 7, +,+A was for his troops to strike the knockout blow. For three weeks the French public had learned next to nothing of the front. At the start of August +,+A the chatterboxes of the press, so con&incing when it was a matter of getting their readers to underwrite the 3ussian loans, were bursting with wondrous details about the new super weapon( a slice of French bread and butter that, like a magnet, would draw the famished )uns to it as one man. "he newspapers hushed up almost completely the disasters of the Ardennes and of @harleroi. %n August 7D they finally re&ealed that the enemy1s ca&alry was at the 5arne, then, the next day, that the French capital itself was threatened, and on that day 4oincarF1s go&ernment fled with its tail between its legs. "hat news started the headlong flight of a half-million 4arisians, heading helter-skelter towards the south. 4oincarF and his gang, absconding from the 2lysFe, took refuge in $ordeaux and didn1t show their faces in 4aris

again until three months later, in Go&ember +,+A, when the big scare was o&er. "he commander-in-chief of the French armies, #eneral Boffre, was a man as calm as a locomoti&e sitting in a railroad station. )e was so dull of eye one ne&er knew whether he was awake or asleep. A massi&e man and a monument of serenity, he was a big eater and slept a great deal. Some said he was !an incompetent dullard.! Whate&er the case, he was unshakable, !constant in his faults,! and proceeded slowly. @harles de #aulle would write, !ha&ing badly engaged his sword, he knew he couldn1t lose his balance.! %ne more week of retreat, and the #erman First, Second, "hird, Fourth, and Fifth Armies could easily oin up behind his troops in @hampagne. )is meals did not suffer because of it, nor did his sleep' he was supremely calm, and without a single unnecessary word set up his chessmen again each time he was o&erwhelmed, putting his military pawns back in place. )e &owed resol&e e&en while retreating. From Boffre1s directi&e of September +, +,+A( !"he flanking mo&ement carried out by the enemy on the left wing of the Fifth Army, and not sufficiently arrested by the $ritish troops of the Sixth Army, makes it necessary for our entire formation to wheel around its right side.! After the thunderclap of the two great defeats of August 7A and 7E, Boffre drew from the less threatened sectors those elements which would permit reorgani:ing of the Fifth Army to new strength. )e entrusted the reorgani:ation to #eneral 5aunoury. )is mission( stop the rout before Amiens by August 7-. ;t was too late for that. "he army

was only able to re-assemble well into the rear of the town. 5ilitarily, 4aris was almost defenseless at the end of August +,+A. "he capital was only sketchily protected by worthy territorials, who were more liberally endowed with rheumatism than with military e?uipment. ;ts air defense was limited to a total of nine planes, three of them 9oisins, and to two -Emm self-propelled howit:ers. #eneral #allieni had been named commander of 4aris by the fleeing politicians. ;n poor health <he would die two years later>, he was a competent and cle&er officer, far superior to the placid Boffre, whom he treated, moreo&er, with a condescension that was rather irritating. $ut he was the man whom France needed that week. "o calm the 4arisians who hadn1t fled, he had his brigade of grandpas march through the city ten or a do:en times. From near Amiens he drew se&en regular di&isions of the new army formed on August 7-, which were reinforced on September + by two di&isions from the Fourth Army @orps retreating from Sainte 5enehould. ;n the end, he had fifteen di&isions. "he #ermans continued their dash to the southeast of 4aris, but now on their right flank fifteen French di&isions under a bold and dynamic commander were watching for the false step that would enable an attack precisely where the enemy were missing the +E.,... men suddenly sent to the 2astern front. 5oltke1s head?uarters was far from the battle. "hat would pro&e to be another big mistake on his part. ;nstead of installing himself at Laon or at Soisson, or at least at @harleroi, from where he could follow the fighting

from fairly close at hand, in an era when communication was still slow and unreliable, he set up his head?uarters in Luxembourg, a few miles from #ermany. )is armies ad&anced some three hundred kilometers with impunity while he sat glued to his armchair in the old feudal town nestled beneath a somber castle. )is messengers had to spend hours of tra&el on bad roads in cars that endangered the dri&er if he exceeded sixty kilometers per hour to reach the front. )is remoteness from the action would be one of the ma or causes of the defeat &on 5oltke was to suffer a week later at the 5arne, a ri&er he would ne&er see. ;solated, entirely dependent upon the belated reports of messengers, &on 5oltke sent back orders that reached the front line hours late, and dispatched delegations top-hea&y with second-rate staffers. "he latter, mandated by &on 5oltke to make immediate decisions in his name, had to be obeyed by the army generals who, right there on the scene, were better informed. "hey were thus not directly in command, which meant that they were not in command at all. "heir commander was an aged "hor sitting on high in the clouds of Luxembourg, and he would not descend from his throne until he had been dismissed. 9on 5oltke wouldn1t open his eyes to the danger until too late. Boffre had assembled troops of the First Army before 4aris. Still retreating, in order to gain time, the French generalissimo added reinforcements from his armies in Lorraine, where the danger was less ob&ious. 5oltke would not be informed of the French reinforcement from Lorraine until September A, +,+A. ;t would be

September E before he, too, decided to bring up two army corps from the Lorraine front to reinforce the #erman offensi&e, now at the end of its momentum. "hese two army corps, like those which were di&erted to the 2astern front, would not ser&e any purpose either, spending the decisi&e days tra&eling, forty to a car, in cattle cars. 9on 5oltke got no clear idea of the maneu&er the French were preparing before 4aris until a week later. 4anicky 5oltke finally discerned the threat( !;t must be assumed that the enemy is assembling hea&y forces in the region of 4aris and bringing in new units in order to defend the capital and to threaten the #erman right flank.! "he #erman right flank was &on /luck1s army. Following orders, he had ad&anced farther and farther to the south beyond the 5arne, well in ad&ance of the thrust of &on $illow1s Second Army. "he ob ecti&e was now almost within reach( !;n conformity with the orders they had recei&ed on A September,! writes the French historian 3enou&in, !the #erman Fourth and Fifth Armies were trying to open a road to the south in order to oin up with the armies of Lorraine that were trying to force the passage of the 5oselle and the 5eurthe. ;t was there the #erman command was seeking the decision.! 9on /luck had deliberately shot ahead and was within an ace of &ictory. "wenty-four years later 3ommel would do the same thing, but in each case the risk was great. %nly one of &on /luck1s army corps, the Fourth 3eser&e @orps, on the %urc?, guarded his right flank which was threatened by 4aris. #allieni badgered Boffre. )e pointed out the possibility of

striking a slashing blow right at &on /luck1s rear. )e could count on his fifteen di&isions, the $ritish, and #eneral Lanre:ac1s Fifth Army, now commanded by the future marshal, Franchet d12sperey. "he $ritish had finally consented to back him up, without enthusiasm to be sure, and after anguished debate( 5arshal French did not agree. )e considered gi&ing battle premature and preferred to continue the retreat, falling back behind the 5arne' moreo&er, he was not ready to take part in a battle where he would ha&e to engage all his forces at one time. Boffre, who wished to ha&e done with it, decided to throw his sword into the balance and went to see French. With illconcealed emotion he said( ;n the name of France, 5arshal French, ; ask you for your total assistance. "his time, the honor of 2ngland is at stake.! "here was tension in the air. Boffre knew that 5urray, French1s assistant, was opposed to the counteroffensi&e. A hea&y silence ensued. French replied almost inaudibly( !; will do all ; can. <Ferro, *a Grande Guerre, pp. +.f.> Boffre breathed a sigh of relief. $$$ "he French di&isions assembled for the counterattack now numbered twenty-eight. "he #ermans would be able to oppose them with only fourteen di&isions in the 4aris area. From one against one to two to one0 An opportunity for a flanking maneu&er such as is rarely offered in warfare had arisen. After long reflection and hesitation, Boffre made his decision on September A. )e was going to play his secret card.

"he French generalissimo1s order of the day( !;t behoo&es us to take ad&antage of the risky situation of the #erman First Army and concentrate the efforts of the Allied armies on the extreme left flank against it.! #allieni proposed attacking 5eaux. 6uring the entire day of September E, he pressed his luck north of the 5arne grappling with the flank-guard <the Fourth 3eser&e @orps> of &on /luck1s army. "he next day, September =, the offensi&e began. For three days it would be a fight to the death. France, indeed, was deciding whether she would li&e or die. 9on /luck defended himself with firmness and &alor. $ut in bringing his army corps to the north bank of the 5arne, he drifted away from &on $Olow, his neighbor. Across a gap of fifty kilometers they were linked only by a screen of ca&alry. !"he #erman generals,! we read in 3enou&in <*a Crise europ+enne, p. 7A,>, !didn1t o&erlook that danger, rather counting on their offensi&e to protect them from it. $y means of a &igorous attack on both extremities of the combat front they intended to sei:e &ictory before the breach was wide open. /luck brought all his effort to bear on his right wing on the %urc? plateaus, where he sought to outflank 5aunoury1s army from the north. $Olow hurled his left wing across the marshes of Saint-#ond against Foch1s army. %n the morning of the ,th, those attacks, despite the stubborn resistance of the French troops, still looked most promising.! "he #ermans, an ancient people of disciplined soldiers admirably trained in defensi&e as well as offensi&e warfare, returned blow for blow despite their numerical inferiority.

"o relie&e his right wing, &on 5oltke had sent the crown prince into action with all his forces. "he kaiser1s son had been on the point of capturing 9erdun, which Boffre had already authori:ed Sarrail to e&acuate. "o the north of the 5arne, $Olow was grappling, still &ictoriously, with Foch1s attacks. !"he battle,! Ferro relates <*a Grande Guerre, p. +.+> !raged for se&eral days, with the ad&ersaries trying to maneu&er on the wings. "hreatened on his left side, $Olow had to call on the armies of the center( &on )ausen drew nearer to him and assisted him in closing the breach. Farther off to the east, the French had gone on the offensi&e as well, but it was the #ermans in the last analysis who led the operation.! "he withdrawal to the right bank of the 5arne was accomplished by &on /luck in perfect order( !"hat same day, 5aunoury narrowly escaped being o&erwhelmed by &on /luck, and #allieni was forced to re?uisition the 4arisian taxis in order to send him reinforcements without loss of time! <Ferro, ibid>. "hat episode has become famous' it is the 2pinal image of #allieni. Seeing that the offensi&e was in danger of taking a bad turn, the ?uick- witted #allieni rounded up e&ery ramshackle con&eyance in 4aris, loaded in all the soldiers who were still left in the capital, and rushed them in the direction of the enemy. ;t was the first motori:ed expedition in history. An unknown then entered on the scene. A mere lieutenant colonel, a #erman named )entsch, his own authority, in comparison with that of the two army commanders, was non-existent. $ut as &on 5oltke1s personal emissary h

commander-in-chief.e had been empowered to issue orders in the field in the name of the #enerals &on /luck and &on $Olow, lacking direct instructions from their chief, were trying to coordinate their operations. 9on 5oltke should ha&e been in a position to gi&e the necessary orders at once. 2x-@hancellor 4rince &on $Olow wrote( 5oltke should ha&e allowed the three armies of the right wing to obtain their own information on the spot and thus assure strategic unity. ;nstead of taking that course, at the decisi&e moment, on D September, he sent a section commander from his staff, Lieutenant @olonel )entsch, authori:ed him to make decisions, mentioned the possibility of a retreat in the last &erbal instructions he ga&e him, and e&en added some indication of the direction of a possible retreat. %f all the officers on his staff, )entsch was the most susceptible to doubts, and it was for precisely that reason that he had the sympathy of his chief. )entsch held the fate of the battle in his hands - and the fate of campaign, army, and country as well' and when he recei&ed an unfa&orable impression of the situation in the head?uarters of the Second Army, he recommended to Field 5arshal #eneral &on $Olow, the commander of that army, that he retreat towards the northeast. ;mmediately afterwards he proceeded to #eneral &on /luck, the commander of the First Army, and similarly urged him to pull back. </emoirs& pp. +-+f.> At that crucial moment, a mere lieutenant colonel who had ust stepped from his liaison car was making the strategic and tactical decisions of the battle. Ferro <*a Grande Guerre, p. +.7> stated( !Lieutenant @olonel )entsch, gi&en complete authority by 5oltke back

at general head?uarters in Luxembourg ordered &on /luck and &on $Olow to carry out a general withdrawal.! 3enou&in, the French historian, after inter&iewing &arious #erman historians after the war, reported their conclusions( "he #erman armies were on the point of &ictory. 2&en on the right wing they were &ery close to success. /luck on the %urc? and $Olow on the Saint- #ond marsh were in a position to smash the enemy and should ha&e been gi&en a few more hours( that would ha&e been enough to change the outcome. "he man responsible for the defeat was Lieutenant @olonel )entsch, 5oltke1s deputy to the army commanders. )e lacked the necessary firmness of character. When one last effort was all that was needed for &ictory he thought the troops beaten. As with all &ictories and all defeats, discussion could go on fore&er. 2xcuses of misfortune change nothing. !5isfortune,! said Gapoleon, !is the excuse of incompetents and blunderers.! "he French attack at the 5arne was courageously concei&ed at a time when the situation was nearly desperate. Boffre, indifferent to ad&ersity, and with remarkable imperturbability, issued his orders with sangfroid. 5aunoury, during those days, lit up the battle of the 5arne with his brilliance. Wars abound in the unforeseeable, but the excellence of the French command was a reality. "he &ictory did not bring total sal&ation' the proof is that the war ?uickly bogged down on the Western Front for four years. "he battle of the 5arne sa&ed France from a catastrophe which would probably ha&e destroyed the

military strength of the country for a long time to come. $ut France was spent and at the limit of her resources. ;t would take her four years to reco&er. "he chief contribution to the sal&ation of France had been the pitiful leadership of &on 5oltke, the #erman commander-in-chief. )e ne&er went near the field of battle' his information was always late, as were his decisions, which were nearly always based on indirect information. So delicate were &on 5oltke1s ner&es that he was gi&en to crying at moments when it was imperati&e he ha&e ner&es of steel. 4rince &on Wendel &isited 5oltke1s general head?uarters in Luxembourg during those crucial days. !When ; was presented,! the &isitor recounted, !; was appalled at the appearance of the chief of the general staff, slumped down at his desk with his head in his hands. When 5oltke raised his eyes, he showed me a pallid face wet with tears.! !; am too hea&yhearted,! &on 5oltke confessed. William ;;, who was ignorant of military realities and who ne&er exercised his power as commander-in-chief of the army from +,+A to +,+D, had made a poor choice in the commander of his troops. At the end of a month and a half he would find it necessary to replace 5oltke. !)e succumbed under the weight of his responsibilities,! 4rince &on $Olow would later say. !At the crucial moment, the reins slipped from his weak hands. "he staff and unior officers pre&ailed. "he high command failed in its task.! $Olow recalled an aphorism from the past( !5ore than two thousand years ago a #reek philosopher taught that an army of deer commanded by a lion was superior to an army of

lions commanded by a deer.! ;n August and September of +,+A 5oltke had an army of lions at his disposal. 5arshal Foch would say of it that !it was the best army the world had e&er seen.! $ut the commander of the lions had acted like a deer. ;nstead of keeping a stout heart, he had defeated himself. @ould he ha&e acted otherwiseH "he answer is yes. For a moment, he e&en thought of doing so. "hen, weak-willed, he ga&e up, and on September +., +,+A he ordered a general withdrawal. ;t was an unnecessary mo&e, for the Allies had discontinued their offensi&e. !"he French and the 2nglish,! stated 4rince &on $Olow, !felt so little like &ictors that they did not harass the #ermans as they retreated.! "he French, like the #ermans, were on their last legs. From the 5euse to the 5arne they had left hundreds of thousands of men lying dead and wounded. $oth armies were at the end of their strength. "he French artillery had, in ust a few weeks, expended half of its ammunition reser&es. Ammunition was stingily supplied( not e&en fi&e million shells on the first day of hostilities, although French guns would fire three hundred million in the next four years. 5achine guns, the only effecti&e weapon for fighting at close ?uarters in a war in which from the first day millions of men faced each other, were almost nonexistent. "he French air force consisted of +=. planes. "he pilots were still armed only with rifles-and almost ne&er hit anything. "anks had not yet been de&eloped. "he only true weapon during those first fi&e weeks of the war of +,+A <August A to September +.> would be human

flesh( the French army, before the end of +,+A, would see its casualties rise to ,..,... <8..,... killed>. "hey would continue to grow. "he final cost of the war to the countries in&ol&ed would be eight million dead and thirty-two million wounded. 5eanwhile, in mid-September +,+A, the French army, after a successful counteroffensi&e lasting a few days, found itself winded and unable to exploit its brief ad&ance. $y September +-, +,+A it was o&er. "he French pursuit had been halted at the Aisne. #eneral de @astelneau, mustachioed old gentleman of strong @atholic faith who had been put in command of a new French army, tried to take Amiens. )is counterattack was brief( he was thrown back at the Somme. #eneral 5aud1hui, who had launched an attack with fresh forces between $ethune and Arras, was no more fortunate, and was dri&en back to Albert. "he #ermans took only fifteen days to break up the French counteroffensi&e. Boffre tried once again to pull his forces together. "he $ritish expeditionary corps, after sending off se&eral hundred thousand dead and wounded to the cemeteries and hospitals, recei&ed reinforcements from #reat $ritain. "he $elgian army had e&acuated Antwerp and could be used again. Foch was ordered to oin forces with both the $ritish and the $elgians to extend the offensi&e northward. )e was an optimist. 6uring the battle of the 5arne he had thought it won. !"he war is practically o&er,! he wrote at the time to @lemenceau1s brother. Since he was still con&inced that he would be able in short

order to march into $erlin on horseback, he was entrusted with an operation that might build on the &ictory of the 5arne( encircling the #ermans with the left flank of the Allied front. "he ob ecti&e was %stend and the Gorth Sea. With his left Foch planned to skirt the #erman right. )e had been gi&en solid French di&isions from &arious sectors. ;n addition to the sur&i&ors from the $elgian army and the $ritish expeditionary corps, he had sailors from the French na&y at his disposal, to be used as infantry on this occasion. "he #ermans, despite being compelled to gi&e way somewhat by Boffre, were not really beaten. "hey had gi&en up a bit of terrain north of the 5euse, but they still occupied the richest and most strategic regions of France. "he new commander of the #erman army, #eneral &on Falkenhayn, had been reinforced by 7..,... new soldiers, a great many of them &olunteers, the elite of the #erman uni&ersity youth. "he French and #ermans alike would fight furiously for se&eral weeks. 3esult( a draw. Foch would not get to %stend. Falkenhayn would not get to @alais. "he $elgians, outflanked at the threshold of the Gorth Sea, opened their floodgates, inundating the field of battle. "he battle &eered off towards *pres. Falkenhayn sent his regiments, manned by students burning with intense patriotic fer&or to attack the Flemish &illage of Langemarck. "here they were massacred by the thousands. "he $ritish commanders readied a second time to scurry off towards their ports. "he billowing sea tempted them, and Foch was hard pressed to get them to stay on French soil. *et his famous hook hooked nothing. $y mid- Go&ember

+,+A, it was e&ident to the Allies as well as to the #ermans that they were both stalemated. 2ach failed in turn, reaping nothing but tens of thousands of additional deaths. 4oincarF1s &ictory parade of +,+A was at an end. %n 7, Go&ember +,+A, one of the most brilliant generals of the French army, shocked to hear high-ranking French officers at a meeting of the general staff at St. 4ol ad&ocating renewed, murderous attacks by their exhausted troops retorted furiously( !Attack0 Attack0 ;t1s easy to say, but it would be like knocking o&er a stone monument with your bare hands.! A $ritish military critic commented, !"heir attempts were no more effecti&e than a mouse nibbling at a strongbox. $ut the teeth being used were the li&ing strength of France.! 4oincarF1s !di&ine moment! was about to turn into a fouryear long French martyrdom. Se&eral million #ermans and Frenchmen, bloodied troglodytes of the twentieth century, would thenceforce li&e buried in holes-haggard, helpless, hunkered down under a rain of hundreds of millions of kilos of death-dealing machine-gun bullets. "he 3ussian go&ernment, on the other side of 2urope, did not march triumphantly into $erlin by All Saints1 6ay of +,+A. "he &ictory of the little #erman army-the protecti&e screen of nine di&isions-which triumphed o&er Sa:ono& at "annenberg, was completed during the same days as the battle of the 5arne by another 3ussian disaster suffered by #eneral 3ennenkampf at the 5asurian Lakes. "he 3ussian losses were twice those of their #erman assailants. Ge&ertheless, the 3ussian soldiers fulfilled the role assigned to them by 4oincarF of di&erting part of the

3eich1s troops toward the east, although they paid an extremely high price for that support. 3ussian blood was also costly to the #ermans. Weakening their offensi&e in the west had caused their dri&e against 4aris to fail, and the #ermans lost their chance to destroy the French army. "he 3ussian armies har&ested nothing but disasters. "hey offered a stiff opposition to the Austrians, beating them in se&eral important local battles, but gained no decisi&e result. 3ussian forces were not able to penetrate to the )ungarian plain, nor were they able to oin up with the Serbians, their steppingstone to the $alkans. "hat was the essential thing for the 3ussians, the &ery purpose of their 4an-Sla& war. "hey had demonstrated that left on their own they would probably ne&er reach $elgrade, let alone @onstantinople. $$$ "he 3ussian armies had scarcely engaged in their first battles before Sla& imperialism would be re&ealed as an enormous bluff. "he giant had feet of clay. 3ussia1s military command, and her political administration as well, were dens of insatiable grafters who had embe::led away a large portion of the French credits obtained to reinforce 3ussian military strength. Stocks of materiel supposed to ha&e been supplied by the billions of gold francs from 4aris were non-existent or comprised of defecti&e goods. "he commissions charged by the French and the depredations of 3ussian embe::lers had completely sabotaged ?uality. $y the second month of the war, September +,+A, many of the "sar1s troops lacked rifles, and their artillery had run out of ammunition. "he following are samples of S%S

messages sent from the 3ussian front to the responsible officials of St. 4etersburg and of general head?uarters( "elegram Go. A7D,, September +,, +,+A( !5inistry of War. Secret. 4ersonnel( the field echelon on the road, +E. rounds per gun. "he regulating station echelon, none. $ackup supplies are exhausted. "he general reser&e depots are empty.! 5essage of September 7.( !From the commander-in-chief to the 5inister of War. @abinet. Secret. Staff, section one, Go. =7DA( if our expenditure of artillery ammunition continues at the same rate, our total supply will be expended in six weeks. ;t is therefore necessary that the go&ernment face the situation as it is( either the manufacture of artillery ammunition must be considerably increased, or we shall ha&e no means of continuing the war after the first of Go&ember.! "elegram to the commander of the army, September 7E, +,+A, Go. =,,,( !Secret. 4ersonnel( $ackup supplies at present exhausted. ;f expenditure continues same rate, impossible to continue war for lack of ammunition within fifteen days.! ;t had been that way almost from the first contact with the #ermans. 5arc Ferro <*a Grande Guerre& p. ++.> wrote( !As early as the month of August, the 3ussian #eneral 3ennenkampf made demands on his minister of war for +.D,... shrapnel shells, +-,... high-exposi&e shells, and E= million cartridges' he was offered ,,... shrapnel shells, 7,... high- explosi&e shells, and - million cartridges.! Stocks should ha&e been at maximum before the 3ussians marched. "hey had been increased only once after the war1s beginning. 2&en then, shipments were eight times less than

what was needed in cartridges and twel&e times less in shrapnel shells. An 2nglish officer attached to the 3ussian army could only note( !"he battles of the "hird Army were nothing but massacres, because the 3ussians attacked without artillery support.! "he little that the 3ussian troops had brought along was shockingly defecti&e. At "annenberg, the 3ussian machine guns almost all ammed at the end of a few hours. A third of the cartridges failed to fire. )alf the artillery shells did not correspond in caliber to the artillery pieces. 3enou&in, the French historian, wrote these startling lines( !;n 3ussia, the crisis in materiel is alarming. "he troops lack rifles( the supplies laid in before the war ha&e barely sufficed to co&er the losses of the first two or three months ..."he factories are not e&en manufacturing the guns necessary to e?uip the reinforcements.! ;t was the same with machine guns( !"he infantry has ne&er had the number of machine guns pro&ided for by regulations, and production is not sufficient to co&er losses.! As for the artillery( !"he replenishment of artillery ammunition shows a hea&y deficit( the army asks for a million and a half shells per month' the industry is pro&iding it with 8=.,....! <*a Crise europ+ene, pp. 7-Af> !"he 3ussian army,! 3enou&in concluded, !is worse off than it has e&er been...! Soon half the 3ussian infantrymen would be armed only with clubs. #eneral 6enikin would write these haunting

lines from the front( !"wo regiments were almost completely destroyed by artillery fire. When after a silence of three days our battery recei&ed fifty shells, it was immediately made known by telephone to all the regiments and all the companies, to the oy and relief of the men.! After listening to the complaints of #rand 6uke Gicholas in the latter1s command car-the grand duke now pallid and emaciated, his features drawn- Ambassador 4alFologue, the French firebrand of St. 4etersburg, sent the following dismaying note to his boss, 4oincarF( !"his e&ening ; see the 3ussian army as a paraly:ed giant, still capable of striking formidable blows at ad&ersaries within reach, but powerless to pursue them.! $y then, half of the 3ussian army had already been put out of action - more than two million casualties, D8A,... of whom had been killed. Like the 3ussians the French go&ernment at the end of a month was forced to beg for guns, cartridges, and cannon from all o&er the world, from 4ortugal, from Spain, and e&en from Bapan. "elegram from the French ambassador at "okyo, Go. 8=, September +, +,+A( !Bapan is willing to sell us E.,... rifles and 7. million cartridges, whereas we most urgently asked for =..,... rifles.! A personal confession by 4oincarF( !$y September D there were only 7.. -Emm guns in reser&e. Fifty batteries had been ordered from @reusot, but the firm took four months to complete the first four.! <4oincarF, *'=n$asion, p. 7=A> !5illerand hoped that we1d be able to buy the batteries in

Spain and in 4ortugal.! <4oincarF, op. cit.> !"he model +DD= rifle was being manufactured at the rate of +,A.. per day.! Fourteen hundred rifles for an army of more than two million men. And rifles, moreo&er, of a model already more than a ?uarter of a century old. And this( What struck Boffre was the shortage of ammunition. Bean 3etinaud writes( !"hey went off to war with a supply of +8,. rounds per -Emm gun. "he supplies ha&e fallen to =,E rounds, and only +.,... rounds are being manufactured per day <for more than 8,E.. cannon>. Boffre is so concerned about it at this point that the only document he carries with him all the time, the one thing he is ne&er without, is a little notebook in which the exact ammunition count is kept.! <Ferro, *a Grande Guerre, p. +.E> "en thousand rounds for 8,E.. cannon' that boded less than three rounds per day per gun in the future, hardly enough to bracket a target0 Boffre went so far as to ha&e the number of rounds fired by the combat units reported to him daily. )ere is his order( !2&ery e&ening, or e&ery night before ten o1clock, each army will inform me by telegram of the number of rounds used during the day.! Such was the abyss out of which he would ha&e to climb, with infinite difficulty, while a million French soldiers fell. "he essential manufactures would only be achie&ed by recruiting hundreds of thousands of coolie factory hands in Asia. %nly then would it be possible to rebuild a &iable French war industry, sufficient to assure the supply of ammunition to

the front. ;n truth, e&eryone had lost in +,+A. Go army had remotely achie&ed its ob ecti&e. "he richest pro&inces of France, representing DE percent of her economic resources, were in the hands of the #ermans( A. percent of her coal' D. percent of her coke' ,. percent of her iron ore' -. percent of her foundries' D. percent of her steel' D. percent of her e?uipment. "hat despite the 5arne, a transitory &ictory that succeeded only in pushing the enemy back from one ri&er to another. At the end of +,+A it was impossible to imagine when France would reco&er its lost territory, let alone Alsace and Lorraine. 3ain and snow fell endlessly on two million bronchitic soldiers buried, chilled to the marrow, in long, muddy trenches. A hundred meters from the French, the barbed wire, machine guns, and cannon of another two million soldiers, 4russians, WOrttemburgers, Saxons, and $a&arians, barred all access to the north and east. "here was no hope of dislodging them from their positions at the beginning of that unlucky winter. Would they e&er be dri&en outH Go one &entured any longer to predict. France1s wonderful war had stink into a morass of millions of bleaching bones. $ritain1s leaders had no more cause for re oicing. A hundred thousand "ommies had fallen. "he rest were floundering in a foreign land, chilled by the Gorth Sea booming behind them, demorali:ed by the shells falling on their flat helmets, in&erted soupbowls on which the shrapnel rang like sleigh bells. )indus came to the rescue of the $ritish. And Gew Kealanders. And Australians. All were bewildered at ha&ing

to fight and die for local ?uarrels they knew nothing about. What could a Flemish &illage with a collapsed bell tower mean to a citi:en of SydneyH And whose interest was he really defending in those putrid marshesH "he war seemed prehistoric and absurd to all of them. 5arshal French was right, they must ha&e said to themsel&es, in wanting to lead them out of this &ile mud and regain the tran?uility of their nati&e hearths in 2ngland or Scotland. "he 3ussian leaders had foundered e&en more completely than the $ritish and the French. "hey had learned in that autumn of +,+A that they could ne&er win with only their own forces, and that this war, which they had en&isioned as the annihilation of the #ermans by the French, had turned into a gigantic slaughter of their people. Gow, they were running short of e&erything( arms, materiel, men. 6espite Austria-)ungary1s weaknesses, #ermany would pound 3ussia harder e&ery day with her enormous iron mace, as the "eutonic /nights had done hundreds of years before. "he long-suffering 3ussian people would in the end escape from the clutches of the rabble-rousing grand dukes. ;mperial St. 4etersburg already knew it, sensed it, and e&en smelled the catastrophe. For the Serbs, although they had been able to contain and e&en repulse the Austrians in the beginning, the battles had ser&ed no purpose. #ermany was watching and could in&ade Serbia at any time. 3ussia had come to a standstill in her campaign to reach Serbian territory' she would ne&er succeed. For the Allies +,+A was marked by catastrophe. %n the #erman side it had been the same.

"he kaiser1s &ictory in the west, almost achie&ed by the end of August +,+A, had sunk beneath the waters of the 5arne. "o win the war with 3ussia, #ermany needed to ha&e finished the war with France in no more than se&en weeks. #ermany had defeated neither France nor 3ussia, and she found herself irretrie&ably in&ol&ed in wars on two fronts, which in +,+A had seemed impossible. She found herself in the middle of a double conflict. ;n the west, #erman armies had occupied a considerable territory in &ain' the #ermans were condemned to immobility, exactly like the French, the $ritish, and the $elgians opposing her. ;n the east, #ermany had warded off a sa&age in&asion. "he 3ussians had only rudimentary weapons to fight with, and sometimes none at all' but there were millions of them who would march en masse to death. 9ast reaches of space stretched away towards the Crals and the *enisei. "o &enture there would be to drown, to be swallowed up, to be fro:en. "he Austrians, who might ha&e been able, that August of +,+A, to chastise the Serbians if they1d had only dealt with them, had suffered one re&erse after another, like a blind man stumbling from one pothole to the next. All of them, absolutely all of them, had failed. "he future loomed before them like a great wall that could no longer be broken through or scaled by any of them. "he warring go&ernments would ha&e to in&ent myths and pretexts, to offer fabulous material ad&antages in order to lure millions of other men to replace the fallen combatants and die like them. )ow would they be able to con&ince some, ca ole othersH

;n the name of whatH

CHAPTE .. Armed 5ith Hatred ;nstead of rifles, machine guns, and cannon, which in the last analysis accomplished nothing, the leaders of the 2ntente would resort to the weapon of the powerless( hatred. )atred is the spice that makes a rotten or tasteless political stew almost acceptable. "he allied go&ernments would use it to season e&ery bellicose appeal, e&ery chau&inistic tirade, and e&ery line churned out by the propagandists, so that e&ery foot soldier mired in mud, or foreign replacement they sought to draw into their hellish cauldron, would firmly belie&e it was a matter of his own honor and the dignity of mankind that #ermany be crushed, and that the sadistic /aiser, that sawed-off dwarf grimacing beneath his crested helmet, be boiled in oil. $efore August +,+A, the propaganda-peddlers had depicted the #erman people as a tribe of cannibals. 2&en 5aurras, the most cultured French politician of his time, would be so carried away as to denounce !the innate sa&agery of the instincts of flesh and blood! of the 4russians, while $ergson, the eminent philosopher, would disco&er !in the brutality and cynicism of #ermany, a regression to the sa&age state.! @lemenceau would write <#randeur et misLre d1une

&ictoire, p. 88A>, !; wish to belie&e that ci&ili:ation will carry the day against sa&agery, and that is sufficient for me to rule out the #erman from a life of common dignity.! )e added( "he insufferable arrogance of the #erman aristocracy, the ser&ile genius of the intellectual and the scholar, the crude &anity of the most well-ad usted industrial leader and the exuberance of a &iolent popular literature conspire to shatter all the barriers of indi&idual as well as international dignity. William ;;, of whom the French military attachF in $erlin had written, !+ am absolutely con&inced that he is for peace,! in the writings of this same @lemenceau became !an unnameable piece of imperial degradation!' and #ermanic ci&ili:ation became !only a monstrous explosion.! "he following effusion is typical of the crude nonsense of which the most celebrated French politician of the First World War talked when he was describing the #erman people( 2&ery now and then ; ha&e entered the sacred ca&e of the #erman religion, which, as we know, is the beer-garden. A great na&e of stolid humanity where may be heard swelling amid the stale odors of beer and tobacco and the familiar rumblings of a nationalism sustained by the bellowing of a brass band and carrying to the highest pitch the supreme #erman &oice( !#ermany o&er all0! 5en, women, and children, petrified before the di&ine will of an irrepressible power, foreheads lined, eyes lost in a dream of the infinite,

mouths twisted by the intensity of desire - in great gulps they all drink the celestial hope of unknown fulfillment. "hat was the way a go&ernment leader in France represented #ermany in the twentieth century. 6espite the fact that !#ermany o&er all,! %eutschland >0er alles, in no way meant a #ermany o&er e&erything and e&eryone, but merely o&er the numerous petty regionalisms that in the preceding century were still often opposed to a unified #erman nation.. state. 2ducated people knew that. For @lemenceau howe&er, the most important nation of 2urope was ust a conglomeration of buffoons, gluttons, and drunkards capable only of the !eternal &iolence of fundamentally sa&age tribes for purposes of depredation by e&ery means of barbarism.! <@lemenceau, p. DD> %nce the war began, in August +,+A, it was a matter of fanning this bitter scorn to white heat, then transforming it into irrepressible hatred. @olonel de #randmaison e&en exclaimed( !Let us go too far, and that will perhaps not be enough.! Apocalyptic pictures were painted of #erman heinousness so that e&ery soldier would be truly con&inced that he was fighting against the supreme horror, against !e&il.! "he campaign ?uickly spread abroad, in order to arouse the terrified indignation of the whole world against the 3eich and, abo&e all, to bring about the foreign military enlistments that would end in glorious non-French deaths in @hampagne, in Flanders, and in Artois. "he most fantastic of all the calumnies launched was the story of the cut-off hands. "oday no supporter of the Allies of +,+A-+,+D would dare to drag out that moth-eaten

canard, so thoroughly has it been refuted. *et that sinister tale went around the world. According to the Allied propagandists, in August of +,+A the #ermans cut off the hands of thousands of $elgian children. 6escriptions of these abominations found their way to the uttermost ends of the earth and were a factor in the C.S. entry into the war in +,+-. ;n ;taly, in +,+E, the shops selling church ornaments sold statuettes of a little $elgian girl with her hands cut off, holding out her arms all bloody to @hrist1s mother( !)oly 9irgin, make them grow again0! $enito 5ussolini himself told me one day how one of the most important political figures on the side of the Allies, 2mile 9ander&elde, had used that argument on him to con&ince him of the allies1 righteousness and ;taly1s duty to oin the war. )ere, word for word, is what the Fascist leader told me years later, when he was at the summit of his glory( %ne fine morning in the spring of +,+E, 2mile 9ander&elde, head of the $elgian socialist party and then president of the Second ;nternational, came to see me. "he Allies sent him to me as they already had 5arcel @achin, the future head of the French communists. $ack then, we were party comrades. ; recei&ed him. )e reeled off his arguments in fa&or of ;taly1s participation in the war on the side of the Allies. ;t was then that he began to explain to me in great detail the story of the children with their hands cut off by the #ermans. "hat made an impression on me, and he reali:ed it. !5ussolini,! he said to me, taking me by the coat, !you1re an upright man. 6o you really belie&e we can let such frightful crimes go unpunished, and that you don1t ha&e an obligation to oin us to fight the country that

commits such atrocitiesH! )e stopped, looked at me as though he had been crucified. ; reflected an instant. !*es, 9ander&elde, what you tell me is appalling. ;t is ob&ious that such monstrousness must be suppressed. $ut tell me yourself, 9ander&elde, ha&e you witnessed a single case of cut-off handsH )a&e you seen anyH 6o you know any men of complete reliability who ha&e seen itH! 9ander&elde drew himself up, ?uite taken aback. !5ussolini, your ?uestion astonishes me. "his affair is so ob&ious to me that ;1&e not gi&en it a thought. Go, ; do not know of any case personally, that1s true. $ut there ha&e been thousands of them. *ou shall see, ;1ll bring you a complete file.! "wo months later 9ander&elde turned up in ;taly again. Something appeared to be preying on his mind and he was anxious to speak to me at once. !5ussolini, you remember our con&ersation about the cut-off hands. ; shouldn1t like to be dishonest, nor to ha&e tried to mislead you. ; promised you ; would, and ; did make a search. Ah well, here it is. ; interrogated people e&erywhere, and ; didn1t find a single case. Gowhere did anyone tell me where ; could find someone who knew of a case. ; let myself be influenced. $ut ; don1t want you to belie&e that ; wished to influence you in turn. "hat story, ; am now con&inced, is without foundation. ; owed you the truth. "here it is.! 9ander&elde was propriety itself. Learning that he had been decei&ed, he recanted. $ut he was one of the &ery few Allied propagandists to do so throughout the First World War, or afterwards. "hat gigantic slander in particular poisoned the minds of millions of persons of good faith.

Since the war, Allied historians ha&e had se&eral decades to repeat 9ander&elde1s in&estigation on a scientific basis. Go one has e&er found a single child, $elgian or otherwise, who had his hands cut off by the #ermans. As if after the defeat of #ermany in +,+D, one mutilated youngster wouldn1t ha&e been exhibited all o&er the world if he could ha&e been found0 Gobody. Gothing. A complete lie. ;t is often said that where there1s smoke, there1s fire. "here had not been any fire, nor e&en any smoke. "he slander had been made up out of whole cloth, with supreme propagandistic cunning to besmirch the opponent and make him hated. Since then, there ha&e been many other examples of this sort of base atrocity propaganda, but this remains a classic case of a total, enormous lie spread throughout the entire world, painting a people black for years afterward. "here was also the story of the candy. ;n +,+A, if one was to belie&e the Allied propaganda, the #ermans had handed out poisoned candy e&erywhere, as if they had been confectioners rather than soldiers. ;n +,A. this anti-#erman myth would be ser&ed up for a second time. ;n 5ay of +,A., Le Figaro, the most responsible newspaper in France, would e&en gi&e the exact dimensions of the poison candy <+- by +- by E millimeters> on its front page. "o be sure, none of this famous candy e&er put in an appearance either on Figaro1s table or anywhere else. ;t was a particularly idiotic tale. ;t is hard to know how poison candy could ha&e helped the #ermans in their offensi&e in +,A. or in +,A+. "hose sugary fabrications ser&ed up a thousand times in the

French and then in the world press, like the stories of the cut-off hands, did more damage to the #ermans than a million shells. "he great ma ority of people are nai&e and will belie&e anything when it is printed in black and white. "he story will be repeated and repeated ad nauseam. ;t becomes a mass hallucination. Almost ine&itably the hearer is stirred to a fe&er pitch and completely con&inced. "he propaganda of the Allies was awful in its cynicism, in its unlimited exploitation of lies so flagrant they would ha&e been unbelie&able in normal times. 6ecent men let themsel&es be hoodwinked ust like the rest. 5isled totally by such compelling falsehoods, millions of nai&e people began to snarl in hatred. 6uring my youth, ; belie&ed in those lies totally, ust as ; belie&ed the historical lie of the exclusi&e responsibility of the #ermans for the #reat War. %n the other hand, the 4anSla& pro&ocateurs, and swindlers like 4oincarF, were to us heroes comparable to heroic and chi&alrous knights. From 4aris and $russels down to the tiniest hamlet of $elgium or France, we were all o&erwhelmed by that mendacious propaganda. ;t was so intensi&e that it was impossible not to belie&e it. "he #ermans were monsters-that had become dogma. *et those of us in the occupied areas, with front-row seats so to speak, saw the #ermans at close range. "hey were often courteous and generally affectionate to the children. Go doubt they were thinking of their own children. ; remember especially @hristmas, +,+-. #erman officers had re?uisitioned all the good rooms in the large house in which ; was born. We se&en children had to mo&e into the

attic, up under the roof. For us little @hristians, @hristmas meant the Gati&ity scene, represented by a creche. @onse?uently we were intrigued by the passage through the great family hall of a fir tree, which an officer then set up in his room. )e was a plump little man, round as a barrel from my parents1 brewery. $y peeking through the keyhole of the door to the #erman1s room, we saw the tree all ornamented with stars, with colored lights, and with packages. %n @hristmas 2&e the officer, for the first time in the six months he1d been staying with us, ga&e a few little knocks at the entrance to the li&ing room. )e addressed my mother ceremoniously( !5adam, it is @hristmas, and ; ha&e made up a few little gifts for your children. Will you permit them to come and take them off the treeH! 5y mother was &ery gentle. She spoke #erman, and was not eager to offend the foreigner. Ge&ertheless we children, bewildered, heard her say solemnly( !5onsieur, you well know that our countries are enemies. 4lease understand that our children can not possibly recei&e presents from an enemy.! "he poor man made a polite little bow and withdrew. We, the little ones, who had glimpsed the mirage through the keyhole, were crushed. "hat1s the way things were-one didn1t associate with the enemy e&en if, like my youngest sister, Su:anne, you were only six years old0 UUU "he longer the war continued, the more we were all affected by the world-wide wa&e of hatred. We belie&ed any story whatsoe&er. We were eager to belie&e. For some years those improbable calumnies left a mark on

me, e&en when ; was studying at the uni&ersity, when the most elementary examination of history ought to ha&e enlightened me. "he atrocity lies were poured into our skulls like molten metal. 2&en long after the defeat of William ;;, a large placard on the door of my parents1 home continued to proclaim( !Gothing from the #ermans, nothing to the #ermans.! For all that, + one day got an unexpected glimmer of the genuineness of these sentiments. ;n +,+, my father ordered some new tuns to replace the copper e?uipment of our brewery, which had been turned into ammunition by the #ermans. Got manufactured by the #ermans, naturally, those monsters who cut off hands and poisoned candy, but from our dear allies, the worthy $ritish. %n the day they arri&ed, the entire local population accompanied the wagons transporting the enormous &ats, which were brilliantly bedecked with ribbons. @urious, and struck with wonder at their si:e, ; examined them with pride, until ; disco&ered gra&en in the metal a large inscription which left me flabbergasted( !5ade in #ermany.! Less nai&e than oursel&es, our &aliant $ritish allies had, for a nice commission, fobbed off on us e?uipment manufactured by those spurned and sickening #ermans, whom we had thought fore&er expelled from humankind. Go doubt the $ritish had ne&er felt constrained to put much credence in the se&ered hands of $elgian children and in the murderous candy. "hese bloody legends were augmented by many others of the most &aried kind. Another one which stirred the conscience of the world was the affair of the $elgian

snipers. "here is certainly no ?uestion that the #ermans went all out in combat. "hat was the way wars were fought in those days, the military manners of the age. ;f soldiers were fired on by &illagers, the &illage paid for it. )ouses went up in flames. "he presumed ci&ilian aggressors - &iolators of the rules of land warfare of that era - were hunted down and often killed. "he $ritish had been no less ?uick to act in their campaigns in ;ndia, nor the Americans in their march westward, nor the French of Gapoleon during the campaign in Spain, to udge by the atrocities immortali:ed by #oya. ;n the course of their dash across $elgium in August +,+A, the #ermans un?uestionably killed a certain number of ci&ilians who were not necessarily innocent and not necessarily guilty. "he settling of accounts took place on the spot, in the heat of the moment. "he #ermans explained that when they were ambushed by ci&ilians, they simply had to counter with se&erity. For me, a youngster eight years old, one case was beyond dispute. ;n my little town of $ouillon, a neighbor took up a perch, armed with his rifle, atop a tall fir on the main road and fired on the #ermans when they came into &iew. "hree days later two other citi:ens of $ouillon fired on other enemy soldiers. So there were instances of $elgian sniping, at least those two. $ut to ha&e spoken of it would ha&e constituted a kind of treason. ;n August +,+A it was necessary to assert that not a single ci&ilian had opened fire from ambush. "he $elgian people had not taken any part in the sniping, nor fired on a single ad&ancing #erman. )ere, too, the contention took on the aspect of dogma. The *egend of the nipers: that was the

title of a hefty book sold throughout $elgium after the war. "his tale of the massacre of completely innocent ci&ilians thus became another international catch-phrase of Allied propaganda. ;t took a &ery simple idea on the part of a #erman of rank who had been exasperated by these accusations to set matters straight. )e was the $aron &an der Lancken, a diplomat and &ery well known in 4arisian society before +,+A. $efore him, no one thought of consulting the essential records, the files of the #ermans who were wounded. ;n the military hospitals e&ery wounded man had a chart on which the nature of his wounds was noted. 9an der Lancken made an exhausti&e in&estigation of all the charts of the #ermans wounded in $elgium in August +,+A. )e disco&ered that hundreds of the men had been wounded not by bullets or shrapnel, but by shotgun pellets0 2&erything was now clear. "hose hundreds of #ermans wounded by buckshot, as if they had been wild game, couldn1t ha&e been shot by French or $elgian or $ritish soldiers' someone had to ha&e fired at them with guns intended for the Sunday hunt. )ence the countermeasures, the ra&aging of a few &illages and towns where ci&ilians had rashly shot at the #ermans in contra&ention of international law. "he )ague @on&ention was ?uite explicit( only soldiers who were recogni:able as such were allowed to bear arms. @i&ilians were excluded from combat unless they wore a uniform or at the &ery least some distincti&e and &ery ob&ious sign. %therwise the use of a weapon was and is grounds for execution.

"here was in $elgium a secondary category of impromptu combatants not authori:ed by the international con&entions( the ci&il guards. "he latter formed a sort of town militia that was prohibited from taking any part in the war. "hat express prohibition was emphasi:ed to them on August A, +,+A, the first day of hostilities. Some of them did not comply and, armed with their old ser&ice rifles, here and there fired on the in&aders, pro&oking bloody reprisals. "he newspaper of these local guards moreo&er had a pro&ocati&e name( *e "ranc?Tireur <"he Sniper>. $ut a sniper automatically places himself outside international law if he is not normally a member of the military units pro&ided for by law in the e&ent of war. ;t would be the same in +,A.-+,AE, when #ermans were many a time killed in $elgium, in )olland, and in France by members of the !resistance!-men disguised as ci&ilians, indistinguishable from the general population, who disappeared once they had struck. Such attacks were outside international law. When irresponsible men commit them, such illegal acts are sometimes dearly paid for, often by hostages in lieu of the attackers, who ha&e disappeared. "he primary culprit is the non-soldier who fires, wounds, or kills, not the soldier who takes ustified reprisals. Such was the general case with regard to the ci&ilians killed in $elgium in +,+A. 2&ery concei&able story was used to build up hatred during the course of the First World War. "he #ermans had been so barbarous, if you can imagine it, that they had e&erywhere deliberately cut down the apple trees of France.

An accusation ridiculous on the face of it, but for a few less trees in the orchards of France or a few apples missing from the fruitseller1s window, a hysterical campaign would be unleashed with repercussions clear to the coral reefs of Australia and the glaciers of #reenland. What interest could the #ermans possibly ha&e in depri&ing the French of a few apple tartsH ;f it had been a ?uestion of corn or cattle, well and good' the Allies had no compunctions after the armistice of +,+D about re?uisitioning foodstuffs, including herds of cattle, in a star&ing #ermany against which they had long maintained the cruelest of blockades. $ut applesH "he stories of de&astated orchards made no sense. "he #ermans, to be sure, now and then cut down trees that interfered with their artillery fire. All the armies of the world would do the same thing. ;n Banuary +,D8, in Lebanon, months after the cessation of hostilities, the ;sraelis were still cutting down gro&es of poplars that form a screen south of $eirut, limiting the field of &ision at the approaches to the airport. ;n no way did the #ermans commit gra&er crimes in chopping down a few fruit trees that were in the way. Go matter. "he few apples the French didn1t get to bite into would be one more weapon in the arsenal of Allied propaganda. Got since Adam and 2&e has a story about apples created such a hullabaloo. $$$ "hat is not to say there were no #ermans here and there capable of &iolence. "here are sa&ages in all countries' humanity is not a host of angels. "he French, the $elgians, the $ritish, the Americans, too, had their sadists who committed war crimes as often, and sometimes more, than

the defeated #ermans. "he only difference is that the &ictors came out of the affair with glory, and instead of being condemned to death, reaped decorations, promotions, and liberal pensions. "hree ?uarters of a century after the First World War, the accusations of cut-off hands, of ci&ilians killed, of apple trees destroyed, which created such a stir at the time, appear almost insignificant today. What do they amount to alongside, not the legends, but the facts that the world has known since thenH Facts such as the frightful terrorist bombings of )amburg and 6resden and so many other #erman cities during the Second World War, bombings in which hundreds of thousands of defenseless ci&ilians were carboni:ed. %r such as the atom bombings of the ci&ilian population of a Bapan that asked only to surrender. 2ach time the goal has been to create hate and counterhate, an o&erriding ob ecti&e in +,+A especially. ;n the month of August the war had ground to a halt, and it was necessary to keep the weary or disheartened people in a state of fren:ied excitement. )atred, the number one weapon, fired man1s mind. What did it matter if there wasn1t a word of truth to the horrifying storiesH "he propaganda rendered the #ermans hateful( that was its only aim. "he wa&es of that anti-#erman hatred still roll after three ?uarters of a century. Got that men still talk of cut-off hands' most people ha&e ne&er heard that tale. *oung people look at you in ama:ement and e&en suspicion if you tell them about it. "he stories of the snipers and the apple trees are no longer remembered either. Some people occasionally remember that $elgium, so often raped in the course of her history, was &iolated once again

on +,+A by the #ermans in their mad dash towards 4aris. "he particular hatreds created then no longer ha&e their old &igor, but a dark and profound a&ersion to the #ermans has stolen into the minds of millions since those days. Without genuine reason they hate the #ermans. "hey recogni:e that the #ermans are first-rate as regards their factories and in their business dealings' that they ga&e the ci&ili:ed world #oethe, Schiller, 6arer, /ant, Giet:sche, and Wagner. $ut for millions of non-#ermans, the #ermans are brutes, capable of anything. "hat summary udgement, born of the in&ented horrors laid to the #ermans in +,+A, has remained in the subconscious of the public. Let the occasion arise again, and that mentality is reborn at once, as we saw in +,A.-+,AE. Anything at all will be belie&ed if it is charged to the #ermans. Whether it1s a ?uestion of gas chambers in which, to belie&e the figures of the accusers, the &ictims would ha&e to ha&e been crowded together thirty-two persons per s?uare meter twenty-four hours a day' or whether a description is being gi&en to you of the crematory furnaces which, if they had to burn up all the bodies assigned to them by the Bewish propaganda, would still be working at full capacity in the year 7.E., or e&en 7.D.. When it1s a matter of denigrating #ermans, nothing need be &erified. Any testimony whatsoe&er, whether from liar, conman, swindler, or whether or wrested from an accused person by torture, is swallowed with rapture. ;t has been decided in ad&ance that #ermans can1t e&er ha&e been anything but dreadful cutthroats. @ountless persons still unconsciously carry around the old

complexes born of the hocus-pocus of +,+A, accepting e&erything as true, howe&er improbable, unreasonable, or e&en grotes?ue, without weighing or studying a thing. !"hose #erman monsters0,! they think. And the matter is settled. $$$ "he strangest thing is that this hatred of the #ermans is uni?ue. Since +-D, French go&ernments ha&e far surpassed the #ermans in horror. Gapoleon didn1t send the inhabitants of occupied countries to work camps but to the hecatombs of his subse?uent campaigns <+,=,... soldiers were conscripted by force in $elgium alone>. ;n Spain the French armies committed horrible atrocities. $ut no disparaging memory of the French nation is culti&ated. ;t is the same with the $ritish establishment, who steeped the whole world in blood in the course of sub ugating its colonies and e&en carried out the total annihilation of a race in the mass murder of the "asmanians. And the same is true of the American politicians, who took half of 5exico at the point of a gun and ensla&ed millions of blacks, and who exterminated hundreds of thousands of Bapanese at )iroshima and Gagasaki with frightful cruelty. ;f "ruman and his backers had accepted Bapan1s surrender offer, instead of demanding !unconditional surrender,! all those li&es would ha&e been spared. When it is a ?uestion of non-#ermans, such slaughters are the misfortunes of war. As news items they are forgotten after a few decades. $ut for the #ermans, the ordeal of their

!war crimes,! true or false, is ne&er o&er. #ermany1s sins, real or in&ented, are to be publici:ed until the end of time. "he persistance of this hatred illustrates the force, and the fren:y, with which public opinion was poisoned by the Allied go&ernments between +,+A and +,+D, in order to stir up their people at home to fight and to recruit a maximum of cannon fodder from abroad. And to the extent to which the public was led astray in the Allied countries, the political and moral foundations of the 9ersailles "reaty of +,+, were inexorably established. $y eliminating or in&enting diplomatic documents - the tsarist bureaucracy destroyed or faked some eighty per cent of its foreign policy documents from +,+A to +,+- - the Allied leadership con&inced the world that the horrible #ermans were solely and totally responsible for the war of +,+A. %n the day of reckoning, Bune 7D, +,+, at 9ersailles, the barbarous #ermans would pay the price of their total responsibility for the war. "he 9ersailles "reaty of +,+,, in the same spirit as the war, would be the "reaty of 9engeance against #erman crimes, for which no punishment would be sufficiently se&ere. $$$ $ut it would be a long and bloody road to 9ersailles. At year1s end in +,+A, on the mud and snow-clogged 2uropean fronts, millions of men worn out from suffering no longer had e&en the strength to imagine how they could e&er extricate themsel&es from the mire in which the corpses of their enemies and their companions rotted by the tens, the hundreds of thousands. ;f the leaders of the slaughter intended to prolong the war at all cost, it would be necessary to procure immense

?uantities of raw materials, the stockpiling of which no one had gi&en a thought to before the hostilities, since the war would certainly be of short duration. Abo&e all it was imperati&e to obtain millions of new soldiers, at little or no cost, no matter where or how, in 2urope or outside of 2urope, without regard for men1s opinions, their freedoms, or their li&es. From +,+E on, many peoples sub ected to this sla&e trade would be sold at auction. "wenty-se&en countries would be dragged into that insanity, to be sure in the name of 3ight. ;n the name of 3ight, 87 million men would be maimed' from +,+E to +,+D, D million dead would lie scattered and mangled in filthy mud all the way from the *ser to 5ount Sinai. "he ?uest for future cannon fodder began. First "urkey, then ;taly, would be dragged into the affair.

CHAPTE ..I 'ebac"e on the 'ardane""es "he 3ussian 4an-Sla&ists, in greater distress than the others, were the first ones to demand the inter&ention of ;taly. 6espite the weakness of Austria-)ungary, the 3ussian army had not been able to smash her. $y +,+E only the creation of a new front on the northern extremity of ;taly could offer the likelihood of pro&iding the tsarist regime some relief. ;f inter&ention by the ;talians could be achie&ed, part of the

Austrian forces on the eastern front would ha&e to be transferred immediately to the new field of battle in the "yrol. "hat would mean hundreds of thousands fewer combatants facing the 3ussians and Serbians. !3ight! had nothing to do with these plans. ;taly was not threatened by anyone. %n the contrary, the later ;taly entered the 2uropean conflict, the fewer deaths the ad&enture would cost. $ut the 4an-Sla&ists could not wait, as is shown by the astounding remarks that #rand 6uke Gicholas had charged Ambassador 4alFologue with transmitting to 4oincarF at the end of +,+A, after only a few months of war. "he grand duke1s warning was as sharp as a saber thrust( !; must speak to you of serious matters. + am not talking to you now as #rand 6uke Gicholas but as a 3ussian general. + am obligated to tell you that the immediate cooperation of ;taly and 3omania is an imperati&e necessity.! "he former warmonger-in-chief of Buly +,+A had added( !; say again and ; emphasi:e( of inestimable &alue.! *et the 3ussian go&ernment had nearly half a million more soldiers at its disposal than the Austrians and #ermans combined. At one time the tsarist regime disposed of twice as many. At the end of Banuary +,+E, she mustered +,DA8,.<8. soldiers against +,.-+,... #erman and Austrian troops @ombined. $ut already 3ussia1s leaders felt the ground gi&ing way. "hat the Austro-#erman pressure be reduced was imperati&e. %therwise, though hardly into the war, 3ussia stood to lose it. $$$ "he situation of the western allies was scarcely less

perilous. 6espite the costly &ictory of the battle of the 5arne, which had represented no more than the recon?uest of a department, the French high command had persisted in its wish to return to the offensi&e in the dead of winter. %n 6ecember +=, +,+A it had tried to break the #erman front in Artois, and had been unable to dri&e a wedge in anywhere. From 6ecember 7. to Banuary 8., +,+E, it attacked again, this time in @hampagne. A second defeat. "he attack was resumed from February += to 5arch +=, +,+E. A third defeat. 5iserable terrain, abominably wet. ;mpossible to make any headway. "he artillery was inaccurate( on se&eral occasions the French guns fired on the French infantry. Go ad&ance, and a terrible massacre on the #erman barbedwire entanglements, which were uncrossable. *et the lesson of this triple carnage would ha&e no effect. ;n 5ay and in Bune of +,+E French, 2nglish, and e&en @anadian troops would again be sent off to the slaughter. "he maximum ground gained would be a kilometer at one point, four kilometers at another. ;n September +,+E the $ritish and French would gi&e that back for the fifth time in less than ten months. "hen the command would double the stakes, mounting two offensi&es simultaneously, in Artois and in @hampagne. Boffre1s order of the day( !Allow the enemy neither rest nor respite until the achie&ement of &ictory.! $ut as he confessed to the /ing of $elgium( !;t may succeed and it may not.! ;t didn1t. "he $ritish command counted on winning through a surprise weapon( poison gas. $ut the winds were

unfa&orable, and the gas rolled back upon their own troops. ;n Artois it was impossible e&en to cross the first ri&er, the Souche. ;n @hampagne the #ermans cle&erly slipped away, settling down four kilometers to the rear in a second line of positions. "he. French would bang their heads against a stone wall there for ele&en days. Finally they would ha&e to end their useless attacks and dig in once again. !At whate&er cost,! Boffre had said. "hey were learning the cost( A..,... dead or taken prisoner and a million wounded or e&acuated due to illness. $ritish losses were of similar proportion. "he front had become a deathtrap. A different tack was needed, some pretext or other to bring about additional fronts on which new, foreign armies would bear the brunt instead of the French and $ritish armies. "he "ommies and poilus had been bled white fi&e times in succession in a matter of months and were at a point of an exhaustion which could pro&e fatal. $$$ "he 3ussian and Anglo-French political interests thus coincided. "he winning o&er of ;taly was of great importance. An ;talian front would pro&ide a safety &al&e, and ;taly represented a source of se&eral million new soldiers, a magnet that would draw enemy forces to the "yrol and to the Adriatic. ;taly1s support was all the more indispensable because #ermany herself had been reinforced by "urkey. "urkey, as a matter of fact, had entered the war against the tsarist expansionists on %ctober 7,, +,+A. Bust before $ritain1s declaration of war on August A, +,+A, #ermany had been able to slip her two splendid cruisers, the #Iben and the $reslau, through the Straits and past

@onstantinople as nimble and ?uick as two flying fish. A few days earlier they had still been in the middle of the 5editerranean. ;n the course of a sensational odyssey, they had been able to elude the Allied ships pursuing them, making sport of them thanks to their speed. Since then thay had bottled up the 3ussian fleet, pre&enting the 3ussians from exporting wheat and recei&ing war materiel. %n August 7,, +,+A they had boldly bombarded Se&astopol, %dessa, and Go&orossiysk. %ne important ad&antage for #ermany( with "urkey in the war, considerable 3ussian forces would be drawn to the @aucasus and held there. Another outstanding consideration( "urkey was 5uslim, the sultan the spiritual leader of ;slam. "urkey might thus stir up all the ;slamic countries then under $ritish control and foment rebellion in them. At that time "urkey extended almost to the Sue: @anal( her armies would perhaps e&en be able to reach it and cut that &ital artery of the $ritish 2mpire. $$$ "he Allies, conscious of the danger, had tried e&erything since the beginning of August +,+A to counteract #erman offers. "he $ritish and the French had gladly made the "urks extraordinary concessions in "hrace and in the Aegean Sea in order to win them o&er to their side, or at last to keep them neutral. $ut the 3ussians had gone to war on August +, +,+A precisely and primarily in order to win @onstantinople. @onse?uently, the 3ussian expansionists not only didn1t dread a war on the part of the Allies against the "urks - they longed for it. "hus the Anglo-French"urkish negotiations ran completely counter to their own intentions. Sa:ono& replied to the Anglo-French negotiators

that in allowing talks he desired only !to gain some time without making any declarations which would bind us to anything.! $ritain, anxious to make an alliance with "urkey, had gone so far as to offer to guarantee her the integrity of her territory - hence of her capital, @onstantinople, the numberone ob ecti&e of the 4an-Sla&s. At the same time, howe&er, with a hypocrisy worthy of centuries of duplicity, the $ritish establishment had informed the 3ussians in great secrecy that !the guarantee was &alid only for the duration of the war in progress,! and that !3ussia would always be able, after the conclusion of the general peace, to resol&e the ?uestion of the Straits to her own satisfaction! <3enou&in, *a Crise europ+enne, p. 7=8> "he 3ussians, knowing the $ritish and sensing the trap, demanded a written pledge of unlimited duration, which put an end to these duplicitous negotiations. "he parleying had lasted no longer then it would ha&e taken an ox to cross the $osphorus. ;t hadn1t been &iable' the Anglo-French aims and the 3ussian aims were completely antithetical. When it had come to the bidding, #ermany had won. "he 4an-Sla&ists, their pretensions unscathed and the game of the perfidious $ritish establishment countered, were no better off( for they were now faced with another front right in the middle of the @aucasus. "his made it all the more imperati&e for them to mitigate the new danger by creating another Allied front in ;taly or 3omania. $$$ ;n autumn, +,+A the Bapanese were able to pro&ide the Allies with a measure of compensation for their misad&entures with the "urks' on August 78, +,+A, the

Bapanese, on the other side of the globe, entered the war against #ermany. "he internal ?uarrels of the 2uropeans were no more to Bapan than a news story from a faraway land. "he only importance of the war in their eyes was the opportunity it afforded them of sei:ing #ermany1s indefensible territories in the middle of the 4acific, and in the Far 2ast, in particular the outstanding na&al base of /iaochow in the Shantung pro&ince of @hina. "he #ermans, their hands full in 2urope, were at a loss to defend Far 2astern possessions ten thousand kilometers from $erlin while their li&es were at stake at @hateau"hierry on the 5arne at the end of August +,+A. %n Go&ember -, +,+A, the handful of #ermans defending Shantung was obliged to capitulate. At the same time Bapan sei:ed the port of "singtao. "he Allies, especially the French, nai&ely imagined that the Bapanese, their pockets thus effortlessly filled, would immediately come running to the West as intrepid !knights on the side of 3ight.! Cnbelie&ably ingenuous, the French and $ritish leaders asked the Bapanese to form an expeditionary corps of three or four army corps for that purpose. "hat would ha&e brought hundreds of thousands of Bapanese soldiers to the 2uropean fronts. !We must not o&erlook any means,! French 5inister 6elcassF declared. ;n fact, the Bapanese would not be seen in 4aris until forty years later, after two world wars. "heir weapons would then be autos, cameras, and &ideo cassettes. A note from the Bapanese go&ernment politely informed the Allies that apart from one or another symbolic mission, its troops were assigned to their home territory and did not intend to take part in foreign conflicts of whose causes they

knew nothing. "he French politicians simply couldn1t understand. "he Bapanese prime minister had to explain it to them a second time( !What is the need of sending Bapanese troops to 2urope if we ha&e no direct interest thereH! $$$ ;t was @hurchill, imaginati&e to the point of extra&agance, who furnished the first new field of battle. )e had already dreamt of a landing in Schleswig, then in the Adriatic near 4ola. Gow he fixed his ga:e upon 2urope1s other extremity, the 6ardanelles. ;t was a way of chastising the "urks for not responding to $ritish promises and for ha&ing preferred those blockheaded #ermans. "he #ermans had been on the best of terms with the Sublime 4orte for some years. ;n Anatolia, before the war, they were constructing a railway line intended to link #ermany and $aghdad. "hanks to the new railroad, "urkey was opening up her territory to 2uropean trade. ;n exchange, #erman industrialists had obtained mining and oil concessions on both sides of this Asian railway line. "here remained only nine hundred kilometers of rail to throw across the desert, and $erlin would ha&e a balcony on the 4ersian #ulf. For the $ritish bankers of the @ity the intrusion of the #ermans into the Gear 2ast was poaching. "he #ulf belonged to them. )urling a $ritish army at the "urks would dri&e off competitors, and assure their monopoly on petroleum, which in +,+A was as $ritish as whiskey was Scotch. Finally, forcing passage of the Straits would enable them to oin up with the 3ussians. !;t is hard to imagine an operation offering more hope,! $alfour prophesied.

@hurchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, was so sure of entering @onstantinople, like the %ttomans in +AE8, that he proposed naming his expeditionary force the !@onstantinople 2xpeditionary Force.! %n Banuary 7D, +,+E, the $ritish go&ernment ratified his plan. "here was grumbling in the ranks howe&er. Lord Fisher, his assistant, was con&inced that without the complete support of the #reeks - who were clinging to their neutrality - the operation would be a monumental failure. $ut to rope the #reeks into the campaign meant bringing them to @onstantinople, which they were as anxious to con?uer as were the 3ussian 4an Sla&ists. "hat ran the risk of seeing an !archon! <as in the time of the $y:antine empire> set himself up there instead of the tsar. #eorge 9 had promised the city to his St. 4etersburg cousin, who was absolutely determined to be another $asiliscus. So it would be necessary to dispense with the #reeks temporarily. "here was another complication. "he Allied generals, whose forces had taken a terrible beating on the French front, refused to furnish any contingents. @hurchill, who would ha&e ousted the 2ternal Father from his celestial throne if he had found him at all hesitant, wasn1t disconcerted in the slightest by something so minor. )e wouldn1t e&en consult with Boffre, nor with the French, whom he knew to be hostile to his plan. )e decided that he would open up the Sea of 5armora with his fleet alone. "he "urkish forts at the neck of the StraitsH "he artillery of @hurchill1s fifteen cruisers and battleships would blow them to bits. "he channelH )is dredgers would clean it out like a swimming pool.

"he French fleet would take part, too, in this great nautical unket. %nly the 3ussians, smelling #reeks e&erywhere, and at bottom distrustful of this $ritish plan, refused to participate. *et, the pri:e ha&ing been promised to them, they more than anyone else should ha&e been interested in the pro ect1s success. @hurchill was so enthusiastic that Lord /itchener, though not con&inced, finally agreed like e&eryone else, but with an odd reser&ation( !%ne of the merits of the plan is that if it doesn1t meet expectations, it will be possible to break off the attack.! @hurchill, a cigar in his fist like the lance of 4atroclus, sounded the call to action on 5arch +D, +,+E. Cnder the command of Admiral @arden, the magnificent $ritish fleet, augmented by French ships, fell into line at the entrance to the Straits. "he "urkish batteries, camouflaged on the nearest hills, were soon silenced. "he "urks1 #erman ad&isers had planned the defense &ery well, howe&er. "he shores were sown with traps and the water with mines. "he big Allied warships hit them one after the other, and each one sent a thousand or two thousand sailors to the bottom. $reaking through was impossible. ;t was a "rafalgar in re&erse. "he bombardment continued for fi&e days. A number of "urkish batteries were destroyed, but since no landing forces accompanied the expedition, it was without success. "he #erman and "urkish losses were insignificant, 7.. men in all, while strewn in e&ery direction were the bodies of thousands of Allied sailors, floating like buoys in the shining seas. Without landing troops, it was useless to try again to pass

through the channel. 2ach attempt meant sending cruisers and destroyers to the bottom, their admirable crews standing at attention at the moment of their death. @hurchill had showed himself nothing but a braggart, and a gra&edigger of 2nglish and Scottish sailors. ;t was necessary to withdraw, albeit painfully and with difficulty. A third of the expedition1s men and some of his 5a esty1s finest warships lay strewn about the bottom of the 6ardanelles fore&er. "his disaster inflicted on her fleet by a few #ermans and "urks was intolerable to the pride of $ritannia, ruler of the wa&es. ;t had to be answered. What had been lacking was support from ground forces. "herefore, despite all @hurchill1s promises that the fleet alone could clear the sea, an expeditionary corps was mounted, with the task of pinning down the "urks along the )ellespont. As always with @hurchill, it was begun in an impro&ised fashion. "here had been no careful preparation by the combined staffs. "hirty thousand men were to be landed in confusion' and it was they who would be pinned down, not the "urks, whom the #erman tacticians maneu&ered in masterly fashion. "he luckless French and 2nglish soldiers on the beaches died of thirst, shot, shell, and then typhus. "hey had to be reinforced( fi&e new di&isions were landed on the scorching sands at the foot of the enemy fortifications, where they in turn were cut to pieces by highangle fire. ;n London, generals and admirals hurled abuse at each other. A cabinet crisis ensued. "he Allied soldiers on the Straits were at death1s door, and again new di&isions were sent in piecemeal. "housands of Australians were thrown into the breach.

Like the French in the $elgian Ardennes in August +,+A, the Allies did not e&en ha&e good maps of the region. "here were no hospital ships, e&en though a whole army lay dying under the torrid sun without food or supplies. "roops were landed and landed again, only to be decimated each time. Gearly half a million men would follow one another to that hellish shore( +AE,... would be killed or wounded there. "he sur&i&ors, heartsick to the point of nausea, could be thrown back into the sea by the #ermans and "urks at any time. ;t was e&en decided in London to di&ert and recall the relief con&oys, including the clothing sent to withstand the winter. "hree weeks later the cold and snow swept down on the unfortunates( two hundred died of the cold' fi&e thousand had their feet fro:en. ;t was one of the great tragedies of the war. After the Somme, Artois, and @hampagne, in +,+E yet another dreadful disaster for the Allies. @hurchill extricated himself by ha&ing himself sent on a staff mission to France, where he was tolerated for only six months. As for the expeditionary force, it was impossible to bring back from the 6ardanelles the defeated troops, who, ra&aged by typhus, were skeletal. %ne had to sa&e face. Sal&ation was Salonika, a large #reek port, hence neutral. Allegedly the $ritish had entered the war on August A, +,+A because of the &iolation of $elgian neutrality. #reece was as neutral in +,+E as $elgium had been the pre&ious year. She was nonetheless to be &iolated in her turn. Such was the !War of 3ight.! ;n August, +,+E, despite the protest of the king of #reece,

@onstantine ;, the Allies landed with their rifles, their cannon, and their dying on the !neutral! docks of Salonika.

CHAPTE ..II Ita"( Joins the 1ra( 2&en before Salonika, grimacing War had dragged ;taly into its dance of death. 6id the ;talian people want itH "he historical e&idence a&ailable today enables one to answer with a flat no. 2&en 5ussolini, who was the Allies1 outstanding supporter in ;taly in +,+E, had taken a stand against any participation in the conflict at its outset. !6own with war0 "he time has come for the ;talian proletariat to keep faith with the old watchword( not a man, not a cent.! "he extremist of +,+A would a little later become one of the most se&erely wounded soldiers of the ;talian campaign, hit by do:ens of shrapnel fragments. With the formation of the "riple Alliance <#ermanyAustria-"urkey>, it had been thought that ;taly would be persuaded to enter the war on the side of the Alliance, to whom she was bound by treaty. $ut in +,+A, as again in +,8,, ;taly, the land of 5acchia&elli - i.e., sensibly perspicacious - cared little for pretty sentiments, which often camouflaged cold calculation, and didn1t pretend to be o&erly troubled by problems of conscience. What problemsH "he others had hardly been troubled by them in +,+A. Wasn1t it strictly its own self-interest that had

prompted the 3ussian go&ernment to con&ert the $alkans into a shieldH Was it not strictly in their own interest that the French politicians had made such use of the 3ussian cannon-fodder to regain Alsace-LorraineH Was the $ritish establishment not moti&ated by interest when it used the pretext of the &iolation of $elgium in order to trip up a dangerous na&al and business ri&alH !3ight! is rouge that is put on for effect. Why should not self-interest, the law of nations, ha&e been the barometer of the ;talians as wellH ;n international parleys ;talian politicians ha&e no e?uals for maneu&ering, protesting loudly, becoming indignant, throwing their arms in the air, and all but crying, as if the other negotiators were strangling them and murdering them. @omedy or tragedy, they play both roles to the hilt. When the ;talian go&ernment declared its neutrality on August 8, +,+A, it was moti&ated by ust one idea( to cash in on that neutrality. Got to let anyone play on its sympathies, but to see which side would offer the most. Salandra, president of the ;talian council, didn1t mince words. )e automatically put aside !e&ery preoccupation, e&ery preconcei&ed notion that was not exclusi&ely inspired by the exclusi&e and unlimited de&otion to the fatherland, by the sacred interest of ;taly! <%ctober +=, +,+A>. $ut at the end of the autumn of +,+A, what was the !egoistically sacred! and !exclusi&e! interest of that delightful countryH "o achie&e its interest, was it absolutely necessary to take up arms in fa&or of one of the sidesH !; belie&e,! sagely declared #iolitti, former president and a liberal in temperament, !that under the present conditions in 2urope, we might obtain something appreciable without

war.! "hat !something appreciable! was the ;talian "rentino. "he sons of 3omulus and 3emus had the teeth of a she-wolf, like their patroness of twenty-fi&e hundred years before. 5any remembered ancient 3ome, mistress of the world. Some of them, like #abriele d1Annun:io, dreamed theatrically of a grandiose immolation of the ;talians( !"hey will ha&e to suffer resplendent blood letting, to soothe a radiant grief0! "he ;talian "rentino was a reasonable demand. For people of the same race and blood to be reunited was ust as sound. %&erdoing it and swallowing up foreign peoples against their will, on the other hand, was in keeping neither with the !3ight! so highly praised, nor perhaps e&en with wisdom. 5any are the nations in history that ha&e suffered from an indigestion of alien peoples. What would be ;taly1s choiceH And what was 9ienna going to offerH At the outset, the Austrian go&ernment had dragged its feet. "hen Fran: Bosef warmed up to the idea of turning o&er the foothills of the Southern "yrol to ;taly. Austria was e&en disposed to let her port of "rieste be turned into an independent state. As for Albania and the "urkish islands of the 6odecanese, Austria would gi&e the ;talians carte blanche. Without firing a single shot, ;taly was thus able to make not merely appreciable but considerable gains. "o obtain the Austrians1 cooperation, Wilhelm ;;, who had no wish to see another enemy fall upon him, brought great pressure to bear on 9ienna. )e sent his former chancellor, 4rince &on $Olow, as a special plenipotentiary to 3ome. 9on $Olow was an ;talophile and an Austrophobe, and the intimate

friend, as was his wife, of the ;talian Rueen 5other. Cntil the last week of his stay, that is to say until 5ay 7+, +,+E, he tactfully endea&ored to keep ;taly at peace, while stri&ing to satisfy her territorial demands. %n 5ay ,, +,+E, 4rince &on $Olow, accompanied by the ambassador of Austria-)ungary himself, confidentially presented the ;talian go&ernment with the following note( !Austria-)ungary is prepared to cede that part of the "yrol inhabited by ;talians, #radisca, and the west bank of the ;son:o insofar as it is ;talian' "rieste is to become a free city within the Austro-)ungarian empire, with an ;talian uni&ersity and town council. Austria recogni:es ;talian so&ereignty o&er 9alona and states that she has no political interest in Albania.! !"atte presto Mhurry it upN,! /ing 9ictor 2mmanuel told &on $Olow on se&eral occasions when this &ery important offer was finally deli&ered to him. $ut without its being known in the embassies, the irretrie&able had already taken place. "wo weeks earlier, on April 7A, +,+E, ;taly had come to a secret understanding with the Allies in London. 9ictor 2mmanuel had kept up appearances. When &on $Olow had come to deli&er to him personally a letter from William ;; ardently imploring him to remain faithful to their friendship and their treaty, the king of ;taly had spoken of his duties &is-Q-&is public opinion, the ma ority of the country, and the parliament. ;n fact, no party in 3ome had a ma ority in the spring of +,+E. %nly the common people, hea&ily sub ected to Allied propaganda, had made clear their feelings. "he ;talian minister of the interior himself had clearly recogni:ed it( !;f there were a plebiscite, the ma ority would &ote against

war.! #iolitti, who was also against the war, had recei&ed the support of a large ma ority of the deputies( 87. out of E.D. ;n a gesture absolutely unprecedented in a parliamentary go&ernment, those 87. deputies had come one by one to deli&er their calling cards to the personal residence of the head of the neutralist party, in order to signify their refusal to side with the Allies. Salandra, the prime minister, felt himself so repudiated that he resigned. "he labor unions, for their part, were massi&ely opposed to entering the war. As for the people themsel&es, in reality they could hardly manifest their will democratically, because in +,+E, se&enty-eight per cent of the ;talians still did not ha&e the right to &ote. At that time, an ;talian had to possess a school diploma in order to &ote. "hus less than a fourth of the citi:ens were &oters. )ow, then, was ;taly1s entry into the war brought aboutH With the help of street riots carried to the point of direct &iolence, fomented by bands of guerrifondigi MwarmongersN who, by a wholesale breaking of windows, had forced their way into the ;talian parliament to cries of !9i&a la guerra0! Allied funds, principally French, had been distributed in 3ome with extreme generosity. "he newspapers, showered with subsidies e&en more openly than the warmongering French press of +,+A, had whipped up public feelings. 5ussolini had founded a newspaper that was destined to become famous( ;; 4opolo d1;talia. "he future fascist leader had made it an inflammatory sheet, exciting both a fury for war among his socialist readers and patriotism among the irredentists who dreamed of replanting the old fasces on a

maximum of the lands of the old 3oman empire. 61Annun:io, with a bald skull atop an o&erexcited brain, and his lyre in hand, pro&ided the epic tone. "his warmongering mo&ement also en oyed the extremely acti&e support of Freemasonry. All these inter&entionists combined constituted no more than a minority, but they raised a din like the geese of the 3oman capitol of old. Go one else could be heard. "hey took to the streets, screamed, created ha&oc. 9ictor 2mmanuel, frightened by the broken windowpanes of the parliament building, refused Salandra1s resignation. $$$ Salandra played only a modest role in this whole affair. )e was a mediocre politician without any real power. "he real wirepuller was a &ery bi:arre ;talian named Sonnino( a Bew born in Lebanon of a Bewish father and a Welsh mother. Another strange characteristic( his mother had made a 4rotestant of him, ?uite surprising in a country where almost e&eryone was a @atholic. Bew, Le&antine, 4rotestant, half-Welsh, Sonnino would be the standard-bearer of internationalist ;taly. "he Austrian offer, howe&er, offered the ;talians considerable territorial ad&antages on a golden platter, and without a single one of their soldiers ha&ing to suffer a scratch. ;t was presented rather reluctantly, moreo&er, by the Austrians, who complained, not without reason, at the blackmail, but who, at the imperati&e urging of William ;;, had to resign themsel&es to yielding. #iolitti had asked !parecchio! <plenty>. ;n the end, ;taly was going to come away with all of the South "yrol and an autonomous "rieste, as well as recognition of her freedom

of action in Albania and the 6odecanese, without gi&ing up a single lira or shedding a drop of blood. !;taly is following a policy of blackmail against us that has no parallel in history,! $ethmann-)ollweg moaned, all the while he was gi&ing in to it. $ut they were at an auction sale. Sonnino would sell ;taly to the highest bidder. "he ;talian people, inflamed by the Allied propaganda, ga&e no thought to the possible cost of this foreign largesse. For the Allies were offering e&erything( the ;talian "rentino most certainly, but the #erman "rentino as well, which would mean that hundreds of thousands of non- ;talians would be absorbed by a foreign land without their consent. "hat, of course, was strictly contrary to the principle of self-determination for which the French and $ritish politicians later claimed to be fighting. "he people li&ing along the shores of the Adriatic, similarly offered to ;taly by the Allies, were to suffer the same &iolation of their !right.! Who asked the opinion of the inhabitants not only of ;stria, but of 6almatiaH %f AlbaniaH %f the entire string of coastal islandsH "hey numbered in the millions, these largely Sla&ic and Albanian peoples whom the Allies were ready, out of self-interest, to turn into ;talian citi:ens. ;t was for many of these South Slays that the assassins of Sara e&o had unleashed the great 2uropean carnage on Bune 7D, +,+A. ;t was to assure a Sla&ic expansion as far as the 6almatian ports in ?uestion that 3ussia1s 4an-Sla&ists had begun the military phase of the war. Gow these territories were to be gi&en to the ;talians on the pretext that some emperor or other had had his &illa there two thousand years

ago, and that some thousands of ;talian fishermen and shopkeepers had gone ashore one day and taken residence there. $ut why, in that case, not promise Lyon, the nati&e city of the 2mperor @laudius, to ;taly as wellH %r Se&ille, the birthplace of the 2mperor "ra anH %r e&en 4aris, the ancient 3oman LutetiaH And what of London, which @aesar had con?ueredH 3ussia, for her part, wanted no part of such an award of $alkan territory to ;taly. )er leaders opposed it with all their might. $ut the front was collapsing, and #rand 6uke Gicholas feared imminent disaster. So 3ussia had to accept it for the time being. ;n fact, howe&er, she was determined to sabotage the Allied offer and nullify it at the first opportunity. And that was how it turned out. "he Serbians, in +,+,, would be the big winners in the $alkans. "he Allies1 promises, despite the treaties duly signed, were thus empty, a fundamentally immoral game that made a caricature out of the so edifying declarations made by the !defenders of 3ight! in +,+A. What is left to add about the territories in Asia 5inor that the Allies offered to Sonnino as extra bootyH "he ;talians had demanded, in addition to the shores of the Adriatic and the #erman $renner pass, that they be granted @ilicia, Southeast Anatolia, Southern @appadocia, and the region of Smyrna as an Asian gift. $ut the #reeks, when the Allies were begging for their inter&ention the following year, would surely demand in their turn similar annexations in "urkey0 Likewise the 3ussians, who had entered the auction room first, on August +, +,+A. For their part, the

$ritish and French had already secretly chosen the morsels they would cut from the "urkish spoils for themsel&es. "o the Arabs, finally, in order to entice them into the cara&an of death, camels in the lead, the $ritish in great secrecy had promised that the territories they inhabited would be con&erted into Arab states. "hus the same booty in the same area had been promised three, four, and fi&e times. And by what rightH All the inhabitants were "urkish sub ects, i.e. were non-2uropeans. )ad they been consultedH Were they, the ones primarily concerned, willing to be auctioned off like chattelsH 6id they e&en ha&e the slightest idea of these barter-treaties concluded behind their backsH ;t was of no importance to the politicians. "hey were sold to the ;talians, or more precisely to Sonnino, who, through his father, had a bit of the Le&ant in him. ;n order to cement the deal, the Allies committed themsel&es to grant him e&en more territory, because, of course, they planned to snap up and di&ide the #erman colonies in Africa, Asia, and %ceania. "o bring ;taly into the war, they would ha&e promised 9ancou&er and 9alparaiso to Sonnino if he had wanted them. "hese treacherous dealings would result in appalling disputes after the war. ;n +,+D and +,+,, @lemenceau would heap insults upon ;taly. $ut in +,+E, ;taly had to be seduced at any price, especially if the price could be paid by others. "he Allies, if they wished to crush #ermany, had an absolute need of another one or two million soldiers and a new battlefront, in order to take the pressure off the paraly:ed western front, and to sa&e 3ussia, whom the Austrians and #ermans had by the throat, from utter

disaster. "hus, on April 7=, +,+E, was signed the secret ;talo-Allied treaty, would be known to history as the "reaty of London. ;taly pledged to declare war within a month. %n 5ay 7+, +,+E, it was done. ;n the course of the first weeks the ;talians ad&anced to the ;son:o and then, in %ctober +,+E, to Lake #arda. "hey were able to en oy a few local successes after that. $ut they were poorly armed and poorly commanded. At @aporetto they would suffer a crushing re&erse. "hey would e&en be hurled back beyond the 4ia&e. !$ut they1re fleeing, my lions0,! 5arshal @ardona would cry. French units would ha&e to rush to the rescue. ;n the end, instead of being aided by the ;talians, the Allies would be forced to aid the ;talians. ;n a word, they had &iolated the most elementary rights of peoples in the "reaty of London of April 7=, +,+E, only to embroil themsel&es in new complications, military complications that would ?uickly be followed by nationalistic animosities. "he ;talians would no longer be able to stand the French. "he French, in turn, would hate the ;talians. "he inter&ention of ;taly in the war in +,+E had no more effect than a sword thrust into water, or rather into a mire of blood. An e&il business from the start, it turned into a military disappointment. "he Allies gained nothing, and it cost ;taly the blood of her people. For a long time the ;talians would detest the French and the $ritish. %ut of that great blighted hope, Fascism would be born.

CHAPTE ..III

,ore !a"#an Intri0ue ;taly1s entry into the war was no more than a small beginning. After ;taly, some twenty other countries would be snared in the traps set out by 5essrs. 4oincarF and As?uith. 5eanwhile, the #ermans and the Austrians, on their guard, had won o&er another $alkan country, $ulgaria. $ulgaria1s strategic position was important. ;f she entered on the side of the #ermans, she would immediately assure them and the Austrians contact with their new allies, the "urks. %n the other hand, if she swung to the side of the Allies, she could be the decisi&e base for the offensi&e of the 3ussians against @onstantinople, their chief ob ecti&e. She could form a geographical link for the armies of the tsar with those of Serbia, their satellite in the $alkans. "he idea of ha&ing an additional ad&ersary, one the si:e of $ulgaria at their throat was bound to cause enormous worry to the 3ussians, who had been somewhat relie&ed by ;taly1s entry into the war. $ulgaria was thus, for friends and enemies alike, a country whose collaboration seemed essential. $ulgaria1s leaders knew it. ;n August +,+A the country at first stayed ?uietly in its corner. %fficially $ulgaria remained neutral - it was a time to see who would offer the most. Bust as Sonnino had done on behalf of ;taly and as the 3omanians, who would be the last to decide, would do0 "he $ulgarians coldly calculated the ad&antages offered them by the ri&al bidders. "hey felt themsel&es to be Slays. $ut they also had the

blood of 5ongols and "urks in their &eins' and crossbred as they were with #reeks and e&en #ermans, they were now for @onstantinople and now against her. %ne of their kings had married the daughter of the $y:antine emperor, but then again, $asil ;;, called the !killer of $ulgarians,! had taken +E,... of them prisoners and pulled out their eyes as casually as if he were going through their pockets, ,.. years before. And $ulgars ha&e long memories. ;n %ctober of +,+7, )artwig, the 3ussian ambassador in $elgrade, had organi:ed the first $alkan war. )e had launched the #reeks, the 5ontenegrins, the Serbs, and the $ulgarians in an assault on the decrepit "urks. "he $ulgarians flattened the "urks at /irk-/ilisse, at Lule $urgas, and finally at Adrianople. "hey approached the minarets of @onstantinople. "hat was too much for the tsar of 3ussia. /ing Ferdinand of $ulgaria was not an unpretentious person. Bust like his great patron in St. 4etersburg, he dreamed of capturing the capital of the $osphorus and of proclaiming himself emperor there. %f course that wouldn1t do at all for the tsar. @onstantinople was a 3ussian monopoly, a fief that the tsar had reser&ed for himself. "he Serbians, too, were sei:ed by ealousy to see that there were now two strong countries in the $alkans, when they definitely intended that there should ne&er be more than one( their own. "he result was the "reaty of London in 5ay +,+8, which legali:ed $ulgaria1s con?uests. ;t had hardly been signed when the second $alkan war broke out in Bune, the following month. All the peoples between the 6anube and the Aegean Seas had been whipped up by the 3ussian

go&ernment, and they fell on ambitious $ulgaria tooth and nail. "he 3omanians, the #reeks, the 5ontenegrins, the Serbs, descended upon $ulgaria. 2&en the "urks, who had been the common enemy a year earlier, oined in. "he $ulgarians were easily defeated. ;n August +,+8, the "reaty of $ucharest stripped them nearly to the skin( in the west, the Serbians took 5acedonia' the 3omanians took 6obrud a from $ulgaria in the north' and in the south the $ulgarians had to surrender to the "urks Adrianople, the )adrianopolis of two thousand years ago, founded by )adrian, the nati&e of Se&ille who had become emperor of 3ome. After that beating, $ulgaria, howe&er completely Sla& she might be, no longer harbored feelings of solidarity, but rather enmity, towards the Serbians, who had wasted no time carrying out frightful massacres of the 5acedonians, no sooner than they had been wrested from their union with the $ulgarians. As for the 3ussian leaders, they had allowed $ulgaria to be nearly annihilated to assure their own claims on @onstantinople, $ulgaria no longer saw them as protectors but as dangerous enemies. "he $ritish and French go&ernments wished to block without fail an alliance of #ermany and "urkey, which would unite their enemies from the border of 6enmark clear to the heart of Asia 5inor, where $ritish interests were dominant. Winning o&er $ulgaria appealed to e&erybody because she had become militarily strong( the nation had at its disposal half a million soldiers who were generally known to be &ery good fighters.

"o con&ince $ulgaria, howe&er, the Allies would ha&e to guarantee absolutely the restitution of the regions that the 3omanians and the Serbians had taken the year before. "he French politicians fa&ored this approach( it was easier to gi&e away what belonged to others. 5acedonia was not Alsace. With France, then, $ulgaria could easily come to an agreement - at the expense of her neighbors, as we learn from the confidential telegram of the French embassy in $ulgaria, dated Go&ember +,, +,+A <Go. ,, of the archi&es of the ministry of foreign affairs in 4aris>( $ulgaria is ready to grant us her complete assistance in exchange for guaranteeing her the ac?uisition of "hrace as far as the 2nos-5idia line and the return of all the 5acedonian regions, possession of which had been promised her by the Serbo-$ulgarian treaty of +8 5arch +,+7. $y any reckoning, those restitutions cost the French less than a bottle of @al&ados. $ut the SerbiansH And the 3omaniansH And the 3ussiansH "he 3ussian go&ernment demanded @onstantinople as their chief war compensation which $ulgaria also co&eted. "he interests of the $ulgarians and the 3ussians were in absolute conflict. %n the other hand, the Serbians were unconditional supporters of the 3ussians. "hey were the battering ram the 4an-Slays meant to dri&e into the southern flank of the Austrians. ;t was thanks to the Serbians and partially for the Serbians that the 3ussians, after the double crime of Sara e&o, triggered the 2uropean war. )ow could they dismantle the Serbian bastion for the benefit of the

$ulgarians, their direct ri&als on the $osphorusH Go matter. "he 3ussian 4an-Slays could no longer afford the luxury of playing swashbucklers. "hey were in dire straits. "he #ermans had trounced them se&erely. "heir commander-in-chief, #rand 6uke Gicholas, feeling lost, clamored for the inter&ention of other countries, ;taly to start with, as we ha&e seen. )is minister of war was sending him scarcely a ?uarter of the artillery shells his batteries at the front needed if they were to a&oid annihilation. !; ask for trainloads of ammunition and they send me trainloads of priests,! the grand duke sneered. )e would plainly prefer the $ulgarians to the priests. $ut Sa:ono& blocked e&erything( !At a pinch he would accept some partial retrocessions in 5acedonia,! telegraphed Ambassador 4alFologue, who remained &ery cautious. !5. Sa:ono& had ust put forth some other diplomatic plans.! 4romising /ing Ferdinand !some partial retrocessions! was not &ery much, especially since the #ermans were in a position to promise a good deal more. ;t wouldn1t cost them a pfennig to offer the $ulgarians the return of so oft partitioned 5acedonia. 4aris, impatient, prodded the 3ussians mercilessly. "he 3ussian 4an- Slays decided to make the $ulgarians an offer, !sub ect to acceptance by the Serbians.! ;t was plain that the Serbian answer would be no. %ld 4ashich hadn1t co&ered up the Sara e&o killings and pro&oked the war of +,+A ust to go soft for the benefit of his enemy of +,+8. At the beginning of the negotiations of August +., +,+A, he had telegraphed his embassy in 4aris( !Serbia didn1t go to war three times in the last two years to bring about

conse?uences which would make $ulgaria the dominant power in the $alkans. She prefers anything to such a humiliation.! 5onths went by and $ulgaria, despite e&erything, remained fairly well disposed to the 2ntente. $ut how to con&ince the stubborn SerbiansH France and 3ussia made a oint representation to 4ashich. "he only answer they would recei&e was a flat refusal( !Got one centimeter of 5acedonia will become $ulgarian so long as ; can pre&ent it.! ;n these negotiations 3ussia played a strange role. She let the Serbs know that she was not a participant in the French demarche, and that though !constrained and forced into it, in reality she disappro&ed the granting of any concession to the $ulgarians.! ;f the tsarist cli?ue paid lip ser&ice to it today, tomorrow it would do its best to destroy the agreement. %n 5arch A, +,+E the tsar declared to his minister of war( !5y decision is made( "hrace and the city of @onstantinople must be incorporated into the empire.! <telegram from 4alFologue, Go. 8=+> 4aris multiplied her promises in &ain. "he French swore that what Serbia abandoned in 5acedonia she would reco&er a hundred times o&er on the Adriatic, the same gift 4aris was offering to the ;talians0 "he Serbs, sly and mistrustful, did not wish to consider concessions to $ulgaria until after they had wrested from Austria all the booty they were demanding. !Go concession to $ulgaria relati&e to 5acedonia will e&er be considered by us before we ha&e achie&ed the sum total

of our aspirations at Austria1s expense.! <4ashich 6ecember 78, +,+A> ;t was useless, therefore, for the Allies to prolong a discussin that was falling on deaf ears. !"o insist would be to risk offending Serbia with no chance of success.! <4oincarF, *'=n$asion, p. E+A> "he &erbosity of the Serbians would grow e&er more extra&agant. "hey would grandilo?uently propose to charge right through the territory of the troublesome $ulgarians. !We are prepared,! 4ashich asserted, !to occupy $ulgarian territory and thus destroy the military forces of Sofia.! When some months later 4ashich found himself with his backside in the waters of the Adriatic, it would be because he had asked for it. $$$ )a&ing been thus spurned, it was ine&itable that the $ulgarians would side with the #ermans. %n August +, +,+E, @olonel #antscher brought the $ulgarians e&erything they had lost and more besides. "hey e&en saw to it that there was liberal bribery in Sofia, because the $alkan negotiators, as we know, always waged the noble !war of 3ight! with purer hearts when it was paid for in cold cash. "he $ulgarian finance minister, 5. "uche&, had already accepted, with eyes half-closed, a little $erlin gratuity of four million gold marks. "his &ery important leader helped the #ermans relie&e themsel&es of a bit of their financial surplus. Such little gifts aided comprehension. "he #ermans and $ulgarians understood each other better and better. "he pleasant comedy of neutrality went on for another month. At the end of September +,+E, the #erman

5arshal &on 5ackensen, a 6eath1s )ead )ussar - whose high black kepi with skull and plumes still occupied a place of honor at his estate in the neighborhood of Stettin from which, in April +,AE, ; directed our battle for the %der mustered ten splendid #erman di&isions south of the 6anube. "hey would be supported by four Austro)ungarian di&isions. "he &ise was closing. @ould the Allies not see itH %n the Austrian front, the ;talian inter&ention had only led to mediocre results. ;t had been necessary to transfer only two Austro-)ungarian di&isions from the #alician front to the defense of the mountains of the "yrol. "he ;talians had 8+7 battalions at their disposal, the Austrians +A-. Ge&ertheless, Austrian losses were limited to a few &illages and a few support points. #rand 6uke Gicholas, who had counted on the a&alanche of 8- ;talian di&isions to greatly relie&e his front, found himself in a worse state than e&er. "he 3ussian front had been penetrated at #Irlit: on 5ay A, +,+E, and dri&en back to the San. "he following month, the line of the San and also that of the 6niester were o&errun. %n Bune 77, +,+E Lemberg fell. ;n Buly followed a new defeat, the capture of Warsaw in 3ussian 4oland. ;n August, the Gieman line was broken( the #ermans reached the $ere:ina, site of Gapoleon1s brilliant sal&ation of his retreating army. 4ro-Allied historian 3enou&in sums it up( !"he results of the campaign were gra&e. "he 3ussian armies had abandoned all of #alicia, all of 4oland, all of Lithuania. At the center of the front, their retreat exceeded one hundred and fifty kilometers. "hey had suffered enormous losses

from 5ay to %ctober( +E+,... killed, =D8,... wounded, and D,E,... taken prisoner - that is, nearly half of the combat effecti&es.! <*a Crise europ+enne, p. 8++> 5illions of useless conscripts &egetated in the rear depots, !rough louts! who could not e&en be trained because no rifles were a&ailable. ;n such circumstances, could 3ussia afford $ulgaria as an additional enemyH $$$ "he Western Allies hadn1t accomplished much more. ;n Artois, despite the fact that they massed 7, Anglo-French di&isions against +8 #erman di&isions, and in @hampagne, where 8, French infantry di&isions faced +- di&isions of the 3eich, they had suffered a cruel defeat( almost twice as many dead as the #ermans <7E.,... against +A.,...> for &irtually nothing. Boffre himself had been forced to announce on %ctober -, +,+E !a protracted posture of defensi&e operations.! "he Anglo-French disaster at the 6ardanelles and the frightful massacre of the Allied troops at #allipoli at the end of +,+E had made it necessary to find a refuge for the sur&i&ors at Salonika. #reek neutrality was &iolated when the $ritish set up a puppet leader, 9eni:elos, a cunning @retan. "hings were going from bad to worse for the Allies. "he $ritish were making one last official effort to try to hold the $ulgarians to their former neutrality. "hey had offered the $ulgarians 5acedonia as a war bonus, without the knowledge of their Serbian allies, exactly the way French politicians, in August +,8,, would secretly concede to the So&iets the right of passage through 4oland, when the latter

country was categorically opposed to it. "o support his proposal, the $ritish foreign secretary, Sir 2dward #rey, in a speech to the )ouse of @ommons, embarked on an astonishing encomium of the $ulgarians. ;t was %ctober +, +,+E. "he 3ussians were engaged in an operation that was diametrically opposed. After keeping the Allies in the dark up to the last moment, on their own initiati&e they presented the $ulgarians with an ultimatum, demanding that they break off diplomatic relations with the #ermans, an indication of how sincere was the understanding between the Anglo-French and the 3ussians. %ne said white, and the other did black. Gothing remained for /ing Ferdinand of $ulgaria but to send the tsar of 3ussia back to his prayers. %n %ctober =, +,+E 5ackensen and the $ulgarians attacked Serbia( 8..,... soldiers in all, more than half of them #ermans. $$$ "he 7E.,... Serbians, so pro&ocati&e in +,+A, when they had only the unprepared Austrians to face, panicked at the onslaught of the #ermans. "hey appealed for French and $ritish aid, but their allies would not send them so much as a handful of infantrymen. $elgrade fell the first day. "hereafter the Serbians fled towards the Adriatic. ;t was only after a month of unbroken rout that the Allies decided to send #eneral Sarrail from Salonika with D.,... $ritish and French troops towards the last Serbian &alley, almost on the border of #reece' but they didn1t put to flight so much as a single 5acedonian partridge. "hey became bogged down, then were pushed back. "he routed Serbian army was unable to oin up with them. "he Serbs didn1t reach the Adriatic and the famous Albanian

coasts that had been promised to e&erybody until mid6ecember. 6e&oured by typhus, the Serbs no longer had either munitions or supplies. !*e0a@ le0a@! <!$read0 $read0!>, they cried on approaching e&ery hamlet. With them rode the old king, 4eter ;;, in a &ehicle drawn by buffaloes. 2&erywhere they left behind emaciated cada&ers. "he ;talians, who had occupied 9alona, dro&e the last sur&i&ors towards the mountains of #reece, because, for a second time, #reek territory had been &iolated by the Allies at @orfu. "here they left 4ashich shaking in his beard and already about to betray them. "he miserable old fox would soon send emissaries to Swit:erland to begin negotiations with the new Austro- )ungarian emperor, @harles ;, and obtain pardon for the Sara e&o double assassination. As a sign of his good faith, he would ha&e the organi:er of the crime, @olonel 6imitrie&ich, shot as a scapegoat. "he forces of the 2ntente would again attempt a Serbian rescue operation in the region of 6edeagach. "here they would be almost surrounded by the $ulgarians. #ermany now crossed the &ast area between $erlin and @onstantinople at will. )er specialists reinforced the "urkish troops on the Gear 2astern battlefield clear to the threshold of the Sue: @anal. ;t was there, hard by the 3ed Sea, that the $ritish would now try recruiting new candidates for death - this time among the Arabs. 2xcept for the 3umanians, who were delaying their decision, e&eryone in 2urope who could be sent into the fire had already been tossed into the frying pan. 5illions of additional soldiers were needed, workers as well. "he time had come to recruit foreigners en masse.

CHAPTE ..I) Cannon 1odder from the Co"onies An enormous flood of humanity, e?ual in numbers to the French and $ritish armies of +,+A <7,8..,... men in the month of %ctober +,+A> was about to pour out onto all the battlefields of the Allies, from Africa, from Asia, and from %ceania. "he gleam of their countenances, yellow, copper, black, would be reflected on all the seas of the world. Got e&en included in these dro&es were the considerable armies raised in @anada, in Australia, in South Africa, etc., often with the descendants of con?uered French, ;rish forced laborers, and dispossessed $oers. "he $oers, descendants of 6utchmen and French )uguenots, comprised half of South Africa1s population. @anada1s people included se&eral million descendants of old French settlers. Australia had been built with the blood and sweat of ;rish people forcibly brought by the $ritish. "hey may ha&e been 2uropean but had nothing to do with continental ?uarrels and the political machinations of the &ery $ritish who had oppressed them. What Gew Kealander, indeed, could ha&e said in Buly +,+A whether Sara e&o was a $alkan first name or a brand of 3ussian ca&iarH And 5ulhouseH And StrasbourgH What $oer from 4retoria, what Australian ;rishman could ha&e explained why those towns should be #erman rather than French, or French rather than #ermanH Sending them to die by the tens of thousands in the stinking

mud of Artois was already morally indefensible. $ut what of the SenegaleseH %r the $lacks turned gray with cold in the chalky trenches of @hampagne, and the 5alagasies transported like li&estock by sea for a month or longer in order to be cast, stupefied, into the barbed wire entanglements of the @hemin des 6ames - what about themH What could they understand of the warH What could a #erman possibly mean to themH And in what way was he different from a FrenchmanH Why was he ordered to kill the one rather than the otherH And abo&e all, why must he be killed for themH )ow many of them diedH A hundred thousandH "wo hundred thousandH Who bothered to countH "o put those DE.,... luckless wretches through four years of carnage was an abominable genocide, all the more odious in that the ones who recruited all this colored cannon fodder pretended to be their defenders. ;n the recruitment of coloreds, the $ritish 2stablishment had beaten all known records, siphoning off more than a million )indus towards their battlefields - or, more precisely, towards the satisfaction of their interests. 2xactly one million one hundred thousand. 6estitute men recruited in their arid land with tremendous doses of crude and &aried propaganda. 5en who wouldn1t kill a skinny cow, nor e&en a fly, were blindly going out to get themsel&es killed by the hundreds of thousands. Anywhere there was a penny belonging to )is 5a esty, or a barrel of $ritish oil, or a leak in the maritime monopoly imposed on the world by London, these poor de&ils in their knee-breeches, speaking eight hundred different languages and marching behind a

$ritish swager stick, would he used ruthlessly. $$$ "he )indus, thrown in great numbers onto unknown battlefields, and the colored sub ects of the French colonies, had rapidly been followed by other masses of humanity. Goncombatant workers were brought to the factories of France and the Cnited /ingdom to turn out millions of artillery shells, which the Western Allies scattered o&er their battlefronts in a rain of death. "hese workers had been rounded up in the colonies( for example, the future )o @hi 5inh was brought in from "onkin. A great many others had been recruited in @hina( for example, the future @hou 2nLai. ;n all three, million non-2uropeans, for whom the ?uarrels of 2urope were as indecipherable as Sanskrit to an Andalusian &inegrower, were brought to swell the ranks of 2urope1s armies and workers. $$$ Senegal, 5adagascar, "onkin, ;ndia, and @hina had not been sufficient for 2urope1s needs. As early as +,+E it had been necessary to bring the Arabs as well into the ranks of the $ritish. "he 5uslims had then been promised the reward of the @rescent, that is, a great independent Arab kingdom from the 3ed Sea to the 4ersian #ulf, if they oined up with the Allies, and especially with the $ritish troops. "he Arabs could be either &ery dangerous or eminently useful. "urkey, on the side of the #ermans since +,+A, was the keystone of ;slam. "he caliph of ;stanbul was its spiritual leader. "he "urkish empire stretched from "hrace and the $osphorus to the approaches of 2gypt. "ens of

millions of Arabs were united with @onstantinople in the same acti&e and passionate faith. 2&en beyond the Gear 2ast, the spiritual influence of "urkey extended to the most distant colonies of the $ritish 2mpire, especially to the ;ndies, where there were more than a hundred million de&out 5uslims. ;f the $ritish diplomacy pro&ed to be clumsy, the rulers of the 2mpire could anticipate dangerous agitation, insurrections, and re&olts fomented in the &ery heart of their empire. An !;slamic holy war! would do them more harm than a hundred thousand #erman combatants on the western front. "o gain an alliance with those hundreds of millions of 5uslims <two hundred and fifty million then, eight hundred million today> and most especially with those who li&ed in the bosom of the "urkish empire, was therefore of the utmost military and economic interest to the $ritish. "he extraction of petroleum - the blood of the modern world was undergoing an e&er greater de&elopment in those countries, where it constituted a sort of pri&ate preser&e of $ritish interests. $$$ As early as +,+E some particularly clear-headed $ritish agents attempted to bring off an agreement with the Arabs. "he Arab chiefs who exercised politico-religious power in the torrid lands of Arabia, Syria, and 5esopotamia were nomads first and foremost, without much political importance. "hey prayed to 5ecca and tra&eled from oasis to oasis on their camels. "hey li&ed frugally, eating in those days less ca&iar and patF de foie gras than dates. ;n +,+E they were poor and doubtless happier in their deserts than

they would subse?uently be in their caramel-colored palaces in 5onte @arlo, #ene&a, @alifornia, and 5arbella, or in their gold-plated 5ercedes at two million dollars apiece. "he game of tempting those hardy warriors who li&ed only for their faith, was made easier by the fact that the $ritish had a man on the scene throughout the war, a cle&er political representati&e, ".2. Lawrence, who was discreet, realistic and possessed imagination( he was like a skinny @hurchill without the cigar and the cognac. )e had been a pupil in France of the Besuits, the best teachers in the world. 6ry as a camel1s tail, Lawrence had li&ed for years among the tribes of the Gear 2ast, worming his way into the hearts of the $edouins, sharing their li&es, their dates, their tents, and e&en homosexual relations with some of them. "o hear him tell it and to see him dig up piles of stones, he was an archeologist. ;n reality he was a $ritish spy. )e had learned all the Arab dialects and li&ed as frugally as a camel- dri&er. )e would become the great man of AngloArab fraterni:ation( he probably belie&ed in that in all honesty, because in his own way he was a paladin. )e would later renounce all honors and official duties when he saw that $ritain had hoodwinked his proteges. 3eturning to 2ngland in disgust, he would die there in a highly suspicious motorcycle accident. ;n +,+= the plan was definite( Lawrence was going to tip "urkish Arabia into the $ritish camp. "hroughout +,+E there had been great danger. "he only possibility that presented itself to the $ritish at that time was the Arab region of )e a:, bordering the 3ed Sea, an area that was infertile and sparsely populated. ;ts coast was

inhospitable, dominated by the winds of the desert and the burning sun. $ut in the matter of religion, it was of decisi&e importance. ;ts capital was 5ecca, the millennial town of the prophet, the religious center of the 5uslims. "he second town of )e a:, almost e?ually famous, was 5edina. )undreds of thousands of pilgrims came to 5ecca each year. ;t offered an exceptional opportunity for a propaganda coup. "he emir who ruled the $edouins of )e a:, if he took a stand against @onstantinople, would be able to transform the conditions of the Anglo-"urkish conflict completely. )e was named )ussein. )e wasn1t &ery rich, and a few felicitous subsidies facilitated the initial $ritish contacts. "he money wasn1t e&erything, howe&er. "he Arabs were by nature ?uick to take offense' independence was their life. "hey had always li&ed free in their deserts, clea&ing to the sand and the wind. "hey had once possessed one of the greatest empires in the world, from the #anges to Garbonne. @ordo&a had sheltered one of their most mar&elous mos?ues' Sicily, their most elegant court. "he memory of that great past ho&ered in the mind of e&ery Arab like the perfume of a secret and e&erlasting &ine of asmine. "he @olonial %ffice did its best to court the 2mir )ussein. %n Bune +E, the $ritish promised him in writing the reconstitution of a great unified Arab state as soon as the "urks had been &an?uished with the collaboration of the 5uslims. At the time, the $ritish were generous in fixing the boundaries of the future state. ;t was no small country( from 5ecca to 6amascus, from the 3ed Sea to the 4ersian #ulf. Cnder those conditions, the military alliance was

worth a try. Sir )enry 5ac5ahon, $ritish high commissioner of the ;ndies, and 2mir )ussein established the nature of that !great Arab kingdom,! in an exchange of ten letters. From Go&ember A, +,+= on, )ussein would be considered king of the new free Arabia. "he $ritish pledge was categorical, though secret, as was e&erything the $ritish go&ernment signed. ;t was almost too beautiful. "he Adriatic had already been promised to the ;talians by the "reaty of London, which was also secret, whereas in fact that territory had been considered a fief of the Serbo-3ussians since the beginning of the war. With an e?ually imperturbable commercial sense, the $ritish had offered 5acedonia to the $ulgarians in +,+E, whereas by &erbal commitment it belonged to their Serbian ally. ;n the same fashion, the territories granted and guaranteed to the Arabs in +,+= would be granted and guaranteed by these same $ritishers in part to the French and in part to the ;talians. 2&en the Bews would be guaranteed part of the spoils, 4alestine, which had already been allotted to the 3ussians. 5oreo&er, these generous distributors, with the same ealous secrecy, and behind the backs of the Arabs, who were theoretically satisfied, had allocated to themsel&es the most sa&ory morsels of this same Gear 2ast, notably those where petroleum flowed e&en more bountifully than the milk and honey of the $ible. A sextuple distribution0 2ach one was carried out on the ?uiet, with the #reeks ignorant of what had been promised the ;talians, the ;talians unaware of what had been awarded to the 3ussians' nor did the 3ussians know what had been assigned to the French,

nor the Arabs what had been promised to the Bews. "he $ritish had concluded each agreement without the knowledge of any of the other confederates. "hat made se&en separate competitors and beneficiaries who would collapse screaming when they disco&ered at the 9ersailles table in +,+, that there were no less than se&en dinner guests in&ited to eat the same dish at the same time. $$$ 5oreo&er, the $ritish 2stablishment had no sooner promised )ussein, the newly-minted monarch, so&ereignty o&er an Arab kingdom three million s?uare kilometers in area <six times the si:e of France> than on 5arch ,, +,+= they personally secured magnificent possessions for themsel&es in the same territories. "he signatories of that pact, once again a secret one, were the Frenchman, #eorges 4icot, and the $riton, Sir 5ark Sykes, whence the name of the Sykes-4icot treaty. "he $ritish, then, magnanimously allotted themsel&es the petroleum of the "igris and 2uphrates area. "he French were awarded the administration of the coasts of Lebanon and a preponderant influence in Syria, so !preponderant! that it would be established on the day of reckoning in +,+, with cannon fire. "hose agreements annihilated the commitment solemnly accorded to )ussein of a !great Arab kingdom,! which was thereby depri&ed of its most important territories. "he $ritish would end up by bringing an unexpected wolf into the secret sheepfold( the !$alfour 6eclaration! of +,+-, which the Allies udged indispensable if they wished to obtain the support of Bewish finance and the Bewish press in the Cnited States and force Woodrow Wilson1s hand. ;t

would grant the Kionists a !homeland! at the expense of the Arabs and assure to each Bewish immigrant a keg of powder that would work wonders at the proper time. !"his triple play of the Foreign %ffice,! wrote the $elgian historian de Launay, !the starting-point of the contradictions in $ritish policy in the Le&ant, was to be fraught with conse?uences.! ;t would be half a century before the Arabs would succeed more or less in unra&eling this sextuple web of closely wo&en threads in which the $ritish, between +,+E and +,+D, had imprisoned them from head to foot. 6espite the fact that the Arabs made up more than ninety percent of the population of 4alestine in +,+D, they would ne&er succeed in throwing off the ;sraeli web wo&en by $alfour. For the moment, and that was all that interested the $ritish in +,+=, the entire Arab world, mounted on their swift camels, brandishing daggers and kni&es, hurled themsel&es on the "urks, with Lawrence, who had become the intimate friend of the son of /ing )ussein, the 2mir Feisal, at their side. "he latter was a splendid prince, as impressi&e as a prophet when he appeared, wrapped in his white d ellaba and armed with his dagger set with diamonds. )e and Lawrence attracted new allies. "hey didn1t lack for pounds sterling( $ritish banknotes for 5uslim li&es. "hanks to those funds, they ac?uired confederates, stirred up the tribes, and assembled that desert army that $ritish diplomacy alone would ne&er ha&e succeeded in raising. ;n addition to cunning and courage, they had physical stamina, those warriors' though eating little, they were always combat-ready, tireless, indefatigable. "he Arab people, now

often painted as ludicrous re&elers, were then noble, loyal, trusting, and hospitable. "he Cnited /ingdom used them much and misused them e&en more. Without them, how far would the $ritish imperialists ha&e gotten in their riding breechesH ;n the end, poor Feisal would lose out, and would e&en be dri&en from 5ecca by his Saudi ri&al, ibn-Saud, another magnificent warrior. $ut $ritish gold, as it had done in 2urope for centuries, paid all ri&als indiscriminately in order to get them to kill each other ad&antageously. 2urope was dying due to $ritish duplicity and Arabia was on the point of dying, too. ;n the fight against the "urks, the Arabs furnished the $ritish with splendid reinforcement troops from +,+= to +,+D. When facing the "urks in +,+=, the $ritish, ust like the French, had seen their big cruisers go to the bottom in the neck of the Sea of 5armora and their soldiers die by the thousands at #allipoli of misery, cold, and typhus. "he route from the Sue: @anal to Aleppo was open in +,+- and +,+D only because some tens of thousands of 5uslim warriors throughout all of Arabia heroically carried the colors of the hope of the prophet at the end of their lances. "hose colors were not exactly the Cnion Back0 Gor in the course of those battles did one see shining the six-pointed star that now floats autocratically o&er Berusalem0 "he Allied war of !3ight! in Arabia, as elsewhere, was the @annon Fodder from the @olonies omnipotent war of Force. "he 2uropeans ruined themsel&es morally in the eyes of foreign peoples, especially the 5uslims, by stooping to these base plots, flinging showers of lying promises

e&erywhere, cynically hoping to obtain fraudulent di&idends. Sooner or later 2urope would pay for this, and see the mirage of too easy swindles &anish in the burning air of those mar&elous countries.

CHAPTE ..) The S"au0hter 'ra0s On 5eanwhile, on the battlefront of Western 2urope, the gigantic hecatombs of +,+E had not sufficed. "he 2uropeans were going to remedy that by massacring each other more stupidly than e&er. At 9erdun in +,+=, besides a million wounded, 88=,... #ermans were killed, as well as 8=7,... Frenchmen. 2ach bled the other white. %n February 7+, +,+=, on the first day alone, the artillery fired more than a million shells, burying thousands of soldiers ali&e. Along the front there was no longer a spadeful of earth that could still be plowed. %ne no longer bothered to take the weapons from men who had been buried upright. 4hotos were taken' one mo&ed on somewhere else. Somewhere else was Artois, since each commander wished to ha&e an offensi&e to his credit. Falkenhayn had had his offensi&e at 9erdun. Boffre, almost at the same time, began to prepare his own offensi&e on the Somme. )e knew that

only by burying the enemy under hundreds of thousands of shells would he be able to cross whate&er remained, if anything did remain. "he home front made unprecedented sacrifices. 9ietnamese and @hinese machinists worked until they dropped. %n the first of Buly +,+= the bugles sounded the coming &ictory. "he artillery barrage surpassed anything e&er seen before( a gun fired e&ery eighteen meters. ;t was like a forest of steel and resulted in rows on rows of crosses in the cemeteries. $led white at 9erdun, the French were forced to reduce their profligacy in human li&es. At first Boffre counted on launching an attack with A7 di&isions. "hen in 5arch it became necessary to reduce the number to 8A' in 5ay, to 87. 2&en at that, there were a great many colonials among them. %n the other hand, the $ritish reinforced their contingents( 7= di&isions. "housands of cannon and hundreds of thousands of exhausted men stretched out across a breadth of thirty kilometers. For six days the artillery inflicted an annihilating fire on the #ermans. "hen French and 2nglish troops were sent to the slaughter. ;n those days soldiers were still loaded like mules - sixty-fi&e pounds on their backs to engage in hand-tohand fighting0 At the third #erman line of defense, they collapsed from exhaustion. !"he Franco-$ritish,! wrote 5arc Ferro <La #rande #uerre, p. +E.>, !did not get past the insignificant &illages of "hiep&al, 5amet:, @ombles, and @haume. "hey were fighting two against one, but the #ermans had carefully constructed underground blockhouses that made their defense in depth in&ulnerable. "he Allied attempts of 7. Buly, of 8 September, and of 7. September +,+=, failed like

all the rest.! And the price of these useless battlesH "he figures were dreadful. $y the second day the $ritish @ommand had already lost forty thousand 2nglishmen. %ne might think that would be enough. $ut no. Attack after attack0 2ach time throwing away tens of thousands of men. !At the end of the battle,! Ferro adds, !the $ritish had lost A+,,=EA men' the French, +,A,AE+' and the #ermans, =E.,....! "he brief offensi&e of the Somme had taken more than one million two hundred thousand &ictims. "wo million dead and wounded in only two battles in France in +,+=0 And who would benefitH Boffre was replaced by a general named Gi&elle, who would only increase the losses in +,+- and be brought down in turn. All along the front the bodies of those who had died in &ain lay rotting between the lines by the tens of thousands. !"he infantrymen, mowed down by machine guns,! one soldier related, !lie face down on the ground, drawn up as though at drill.! "he rain fell on them inexorably. $ullets broke their bleached bones. 3ats swarmed under the faded uniforms' !enormous rats, fat on human flesh,! in the words of an onthe-spot witness, who continues( !"he body displayed a grimacing head de&oid of flesh, the skull bare, the eyes eaten away. A set of false teeth had slid onto the rotted shirt, and a disgusting animal umped out of the wide-open mouth.! $$$

Was a less atrocious solution at least being approached anywhere elseH What was happening at the ;talian frontH "here, too, the Allies had wished to fight it out, but Austria had cut the ground from under them. %n 5ay +E, +,+= she captured Asiago and took 8.,... prisoners. "hen she marked time. After a conference at @hantilly, Allied plans fixed the dates for a triple offensi&e( first in France, and when success had been attained there, afterwards in ;taly and in 3ussia. %n the ;talian front the attack took place on August 7D, +,+=. "hey would make four tries at it. %n the first try they captured #ori:ia, a ?uiet pro&incial seat where, strangely enough, in a con&ent are to be found the remains of the last legitimate pretender to the throne of France, the @ount of @hambord. "he ;talians, who had a larger force than the Austrians, carried the position &aliantly. $ut they could go no farther. A second offensi&e, in September +,+= failed. "hen a third one in %ctober and a fourth in Go&ember. "hey were stopped at #ori:ia. "he cost( for the ;talians -E,... casualties, and still more for the Austrians. "here, as in France, the offensi&es of +,+= had not e&en ser&ed the gra&e-diggers, who suffered enforced unemployment thanks to the machine-gun fire. $$$ "hat left the 3ussians. "here, a surprise0 When e&eryone was failing, the 3ussians were going to succeed0 %n August +=, +,+=, at the worst moment of 9erdun, #eneral $rusilo&, tough as a @ossack hetman and a capable leader <among so many who were sluggish and of ill repute>

launched an attack through #alicia. )e had prepared his attack intelligently, assembling a hea&y concentration of artillery that finally had sufficient ammunition. "he Austrians had stripped themsel&es of part of their troops and hea&y artillery in order to carry out their offensi&e of 5ay +E against the ;talians. ;f a 3ussian offensi&e fell upon them on the east, they would not be able to resist. A week after Austria had attacked toward Asiago, $rusilo& charged into the Austrian lines. )e was going to recon?uer all of $uko&ina and part of #alicia. "he results were extrordinary( more than A..,... prisoners0 A hard blow for the Austrians. A thousand of their cannon had also been captured. "hey had lost 7E,... s?uare kilometers of territory <compared with the insignificant eighty s?uare kilometers won by the French at 4eronne>. "hat would be the 3ussians1 biggest &ictory, and their last as well. $rusilo&1s right wing, facing 4russia, had not been able to take the offensi&e. "here it had run up against the #ermans. "he 3ussians on the right were brought to a halt, then cut to pieces. $rusilo&, fortunate as he had been, had his horse shot from under him. %nce again, the offensi&e had accomplished naught, despite its initial success. "he 3ussian army was weary, practically falling apart' re&olution was already rumbling, as the ground rumbles and smokes before a &olcano erupts. "he soldiers deserted in dro&es. At /o&el the #ermans annihilated the 3ussian army. 3ussia1s great opportunity was gone. $$$ ;t was then, howe&er, that the last $alkan country not yet in&ol&ed entered the war.

;n 5ay +,+=, when $rusilo& was badly mauling Austria, 3omania thought her hour had come. ;ts go&ernment had waited for two years, not making a bid until it was sure of winning. Gow the politicians thought they could mo&e. $ut a month was lost putting the finishing touches on the declaration of war. ;t was already too late. $rusilo& was no longer winning. he first retreated, then was swept away. "o oin up with him was to board not a &ictorious cruiser but a sinking tub. @lemenceau1s famous words are well known( !Among all the swine in this war, the 3omanians ha&e been the worst.! "hey had extorted from all competitors both the possible and the impossible, concessions of territory, loans, and bribes. As in the case of the ;talians, the French and $ritish had promised ten times as much as the #ermans. $ut the business with the 3eich had been for along time a flourishing one. "he 3omanians had found it in their interest to play for time. $rusilo&, swooping down like a hurricane, was definitely precipitating the downfall of the Austrians, they thought. ;t was all o&er, and it was imperati&e that they not wait an instant longer. !"he lion you think dead might ust make a second Serbia out of 3omania with a single swipe of its paw,! the Austro)ungarian minister of foreign affairs retorted at the final moment to his 3omanian colleague. "he latter didn1t belie&e him. %n August 7-, +,+= 3omania declared war. ;n three months she was to be totally annihilated. %n Go&ember 7-, +,+= the &ictorious #erman army, let by 5arshal &on 5ackensen, entered the empty streets of

$ucharest to the shrill sound of fifes.

CHAPTE ..)I out in the East 3omania ne&ertheless, had been a considerable morsel( +E di&isions, E=.,... men' fi&e times the numbers of the $ritish infantry on August A, +,+A. #eographically and strategically, her position was essential. 3omania had been able to pre&ent the 3ussians, after August +, +,+A, from swarming into the $alkans. )ad she been united with St. 4etersburg from the onset of the war, she would ha&e assured 3ussia1s linkup with the Serbs and made it possible either to bring the $ulgarians o&er to the side of the Allies or to annihilate them, thus opening to 3ussia the road to @onstantinople. "hat was why the 3ussians had done e&erything in their power to break up the defensi&e military pact which bound $ucharest to 9ienna. 3ussian acti&ities to corrupt the 3omanians had been considerable. !6eciphered communications re&ealed to me many times what was going on,! 4oincarF confessed. )e had recei&ed 5. "ake ;onescu, the most notorious of the 3omanians bought by the tsar, in his pri&ate residence in the 3ue du @ommandant 5archand. "he 3omanian doorway to the $alkans was worth its weight in solid gold. "he 3ussians had declared. themsel&es ready to grant them e&erything( "ransyl&ania, $anat, half of $uko&ina. "his generous

promise of spoils seemed rather dubiously optimistic to 4oincarF. )e wrote <L1in&asion, p. 88>( !"hese sales on credit of eastern populations and the pelts of li&e bears are a bit ha:ardous and childish.! $ut the words are certainly apt( sale on credit of populations' populations were !sold on credit! to attract allies. 5. 4oincarF himself agreed to those sales un?ualifiedly. "hey in&ol&ed se&eral million people' "ransyl&ania alone had 8,-..,... inhabitants. Since the 3omanians had dawdled so, the #ermans, with their habitual sense of organi:ation, had been able to prepare for the counterthrust. "hey1d had the time to bring back some excellent di&isions from the 3ussian front, which had been in a state of suspended animation for a month, and these, together with the Austro-)ungarian di&isions, had been massed in )ungary in two great armies. "he greedy 3omanian politicians, thinking only of easy annexations, had stupidly massed almost all their troops at the same point, at the foot of the @arpathians in "ransyl&ania. 2&en at one against two, as was the usual situation throughout +,+=, the disciplined, elite #erman soldiers always won. ;t would be the same in the @arpathians. ;n eighteen days, from September 7E to %ctober +8, +,+=, A..,... 3omanians were swept aside, engulfed as if a tidal wa&e had o&erflowed them. "he linkup of the #erman armies would be ust a matter of tactics. %n 6ecember =, +,+=, at %rso&a on the 6anube, they captured the last 3omanian troops still offering resistance. "he rest were no more than a horde fleeing towards the east. %ne more ally smashed to smithereens. "he bad faith, the !sale of peoples,! the annexations, which were wrong by

any standard, had only ser&ed to aggra&ate the western re&erses of the 2ntente, now painfully parapeted behind their hundreds of thousands of dead at Artois, @hampagne, and 9erdun. For the 3ussians the 3omanian debacle was going to be the straw that broke their back once and for all. "he last hope of the tsar had crumbled. !"he go&ernment,! a delegate to the 3ussian congress of the union of towns declared, !has fallen into the hands of buffoons, sharpers, and traitors.! ;n the 6uma, on 6ecember 7=, +,+=, the socialists called openly for re&olution( !;f you continue to fight this go&ernment by legal means, you are like 6on Ruixote, who tilted at windmills.! "hat same e&ening, 3asputin, the great fa&orite of the tsarit:a, the corrupt and omnipotent colossus, was poisoned, bludgeoned, machine- gunned, and thrown headfirst into the Ge&a through a hole chopped in the ice. "he beaten troops were no longer willing to fight. "he trains of pious priests had been derailed. "he famished people readied their hammers and sickles. "he last prime minister, 4rince #alitsin, was an impotent old man. "he minister of the interior, 4rotopopo&, was a dotard who suffered from complete paralysis. !At any moment! the $ritish ambassador wrote, !3ussia may burst into flames.! Another three months and the tsar would take the final plunge. "he tsarist regime had finally become aware that it was sinking in ?uicksand. ;ts head and arms were still afloat, but

the sea of blood and mire would soon swallow them up. #ermany, on learning of the coming collapse, had tried discreetly to offer the tsar a helping hand. "he /aiser was his first cousin. Wilhelm ;; had ne&er wished to make war against him. $esides, he more than e&er needed all his forces on the western front in +,+=. Gegotiations got ?uietly under way. When the coded telegrams from the 3omanian legation, which were deciphered in 4aris, suggested the danger of a 3ussian withdrawal, the French and the $ritish politicians were terrified. @lemenceau roared, !"hen we are goners0! ;t was imperati&e to ?uell immediately any possibility of a #erman offer and to offer more themsel&es, to promise so many benefits that the beneficiary, o&erwhelmed by the wealth of the gifts, could not refuse. "he system had worked well with the ;talians, the 3omanians, and the Arabs. "he draft of a Franco-3ussian treaty was drawn up by the secretary- general of French foreign affairs, $erthelot, the eminent 4aris collaborator with the $alkan countries, who was said to ha&e personally composed the text of the Serbian refusal of a oint committee to study the crime of Sara e&o. ;n +,+=, in a new offer, $erthelot awarded the 3ussians the Austrian crown territory of #alicia, )ungarian 3uthenia, that part of 4oland ruled by the #ermans, and @onstantinople and the Straits. Armenia as well, which had already been promised to the Armenians. 4lus a large part of Asia 5inor, including the )oly Land, which had been granted earlier to the 2mir )ussein. With that document the French go&ernment cancelled its promises of independence, pre&iously gi&en with great

fanfare to the @:echs, the 3uthenians, and the 4oles. As the 4an-Slays had anticipated e&en before +,+A, they would be reduced to the role of sub ects in three 3ussian &iceroyalties entrusted to three grand dukes. When Ambassador 4alFologue recei&ed the text in St. 4etersburg, with orders to transmit it immediately to the go&ernment of the tsar, he exploded with indignation and sent 4aris the following telegram, which is almost humorous in &iew of the fact that this French diplomat had un?uestionably urged a war of con?uest with AlsaceLorraine as the pri:e( !%ur country is not waging a war of con?uest, but a war of liberation, a war of ustice.! And 4alFologue added( !%ur $ritish and ;talian allies will ne&er go along with us, will ne&er consent to such an increase in territory, an increase that will extend 3ussian power clear to the 5editerranean, clear to the Sue: @anal.! ;t was then necessary to send a French mission to 3ussia posthaste, so fearful was 4aris that St. 4etersburg would make peace with #ermany behind its back. Like 4alFologue, the French minister, 3ibot, refused to preside o&er the mission. Finally, the presidency of the mission was entrusted to the colonial minister, a pudgy little man from the south of France, not &ery polished, named #aston 6oumergue. ;n return for the enormous territories the 4an-Slays were recei&ing, he was supposed to persuade the tsar and Sa:ono& at St. 4etersburg to sign the following text, containing the official commitments 3ussia was making to France(

Alsace-Lorraine will be returned to France unconditionally, not with the reduced boundaries set by the "reaty of 9ienna, but with the boundaries it had prior to +-,.. ;ts borders will extend as far as those of the ancient duchy of Lorraine and will be drawn in accordance with the wishes of the French go&ernment in such a way as to reincorporate in French territory all the iron and steel works of the region as well as the coal fields of the Saar &alley. All other territory situated on the left bank of the 3hine that is now part of #ermany will be completely detached from the latter country. Any such territory not incorporated into the territory of France will be formed into a neutral buffer state. Gicholas ;; warmly encouraged 6oumergue( !"ake 5ain:, take /oblen:, go as far as you like! <5arc Ferro, La #rande #uerre, p. 7A+>. When the mission was o&er, little #aston, grinning from ear to ear, triumphantly stated to the press <4etit 4arisien, Figaro, Le "emps>( !We ha&e a closer and more cordial understanding than e&er0 3ussian collaboration has not failed and will ne&er fail.! "his on 5arch =, +,+-0 A week later to the day, on the stroke of midnight, the tsarist regime would go up in smoke. Little #aston had shown a shrewdness and farsightedness that was nothing short of stunning. $riand, for all his astuteness, had been e&en less perspicacious than little #aston. )istorian Ferro writes( "he 3ussians considered that the Straits comprised the compensation offered in return for Alsace-Lorraine. ;n return for the left bank of the 3hine, they wanted liberty of action on their western border( that is to say that France

should abandon the cause of 4olish independence. $riand hesitated before ac?uiescing, but he resigned himself to it on 5arch +., +,+-. <La #rande #uerre, p. 7A7> "hus $riand, too, agreed to the treaty, but !without 2ngland1s ha&ing been informed.! %nce the French had crossed the 3ubicon, the $ritish would growl, but there was nothing they could do except ac?uiesce. "he year +,+= had seen the battlefields of France strewn with the bodies of hundreds of thousands of $ritish soldiers, and the waters of the 6ardanelles dotted with the drowned sailors of their fleet. For 3ussia to abandon them would mean that the entire might of "urkey would be able to swing round on them on the 2uphrates as well as in the Sinai. Like the others, the $ritish rulers told themsel&es that promising wasn1t the same as gi&ing. All of them would be as slippery as eels when they were called to account for their promises at 9ersailles in +,+,. ;n 5arch of +,+- the 3ussians and the French were e?ually blind. %n 5arch D, +,+-, in star&ing St. 4etersburg, the mob broke into the butcher shops, grocery stores, and bakeries and cleaned them out. 4rotopopo&, the minister of the interior, learned of the incidents without emotion, saying, !;f there is going to be a re&olution in 3ussia, it won1t be for another fifty years.! 3eminiscent of the tsar, who, two days before the war, had written in his personal notebook, !"oday we played tennis. "he weather was magnificent.! And on the following day( !; went for a walk by myself. ;t was &ery hot. "ook a delicious bath.! )appy the empty heads that don1t e&en feel

the hot breath of passing cannonballs. 5inister 4rotopo&1s !fifty years! would last ust four days. %n 5arch +7, +,+-, the 3ussian go&ernment, abandoned by the troops, disappeared. "he duma and the St. 4etersburg So&iet on 5arch +A set up a pro&isional go&ernment. Apparently it was not yet more than halfway re&olutionary. For its president and figurehead it had 4rince L&o&. 4rinces always abound in re&olutions. Sometimes they are named 4hilippe 2galitF, are fanatics, &ote for the decapitation of their relati&es, and afterwards, as a well- deser&ed thankyou for ser&ices rendered, are themsel&es made a head shorter. "o counterbalance the princely crown of L&o&, a Bewish socialist was appointed to the impromptu go&ernment( Aleksandr /erensky. %n 5ay +8, +,+- the tsar1s train was blocked by rioters. %n the night of 5ay +A he abdicated, then went to bed. !; sleep long and moderately,! he wrote calmly in his imperial notebook. For a moment he would still try to ha&e his son accepted as regent of the empire. "hen #rand 6uke 5ichael. "he latter would be 5ichael ;; for a few hours, then abdicate in turn. "hen came the republic. $$$ "he Allies wanted to belie&e in that new republic. !4erhaps it is the renewal of 3ussia,! commented $riand. London and 4aris made haste to send eager delegations. Se&eral cabinet ministers and some socialist deputies went running to the new 5ecca, notably wealthy 5arcel @achin, the future leader of the French @ommunists. "hey were o&erflowing with the elo?uence and enthusiasm of

fraternity. "hey e&en went so far as to appro&e imprudently the formula of the So&iets, !4eace without annexations or re?uisitions.! "he slogan didn1t correspond to the agreement signed by the tsar ust before his o&erthrow, allotting hundreds of thousands of kilometers of territory. ;n that treaty, endorsed by both parties, the tsar deli&ered almost the whole of #ermany to French ambitions. %n the other hand, the @ossacks were to be able to ride clear to Berusalem. "he new 3ussian republicans would at most allow a referendum in Alsace-Lorraine, !under the control of an international commission.! Another affirmation which was &ery little in line with Allied policy( !"he responsibility for the war lies with all of us.! What then of the horrible /aiser solely responsible, and the gibbet already prepared for himH "he illusions were stubborn, and they became e&er more di::ying. "he Allied delegates rushed to embrace the leaders of the re&olutionary go&ernment. "hey parted from their new brothers with tears in their eyes. !"hey set out as shameless partisans,! Ferro tells us, !concerned about the interests of their go&ernments, and they returned from 3ussia singing the glories of the fatherland of the re&olution.! <La #rande #uerre, p. 887> With an eye to keeping up appearances, the 3ussian minister of foreign affairs had made it a point to be soothing in his messages to the Allies. )is foreign program( !"o combat the common enemy to the finish and without hesitation! and to respect !the international obligations incurred by the fallen regime in a steadfast manner.! 4rince

L&o& ha&ing been li?uidated without delay, /erensky became minister of war. )e left to harangue the troops at the front. "he peasant soldiers thought only of deserting the army and getting back to their &illages in time to obtain their share of the distribution of land, the only point in the re&olutionary program that interested them. "he military command fell apart' some generals were assassinated' others &anished. With a glorious lack of comprehension, Gi&elle, the French commanding general, nonetheless demanded that the disintegrating 3ussian army go back on the offensi&e. ;n 4aris, the future 5arshal 4Ftain, always calm and clearheaded, retorted with extreme skepticism, !"he 3ussian army is nothing but a faVade. We must be prepared for it to collapse as soon as it makes a mo&e.! 5iraculously, it did mo&e. "he 3ussian offensi&e demanded by Gi&elle got under way on Buly +, +,+-, on a fortykilometer front( 78 di&isions commanded by $rusilo&, the perennial prime mo&er. "he first day yielded astonishing results' his troops defeated the first line of Austro-#erman forces. $ut there wasn1t a second day. $rusilo& had taken +.,... prisoners' they would be the last. %ld 4Ftain was right. Some 3ussian di&isions refused to attack. "here was !no way to compel the troops to fight,! $rusilo& acknowledged. "he enemy counterattacked' this time it was the #ermans, the soldiers par excellence, dri&ing the 3ussians in a frantic flight through #alicia, which was completely lost in ten days, with +=.,... killed, wounded, and taken prisoner. A month later, #eneral &on )uffier would ha&e only to gi&e the 6uma a little sho&e to take possession of 3iga.

;t was a rout. ;n France, too, it would soon be close to a rout.

CHAPTE ..)II Tremb"in0 eso"ve "he Allied attacks which, it was anticipated, would bring the #ermans to their knees in +,+-, were to be three-fold. First, the attack of the 3ussians. %nce the tsar had fallen, $rusilo& had &aliantly deli&ered his knockout blow. $ut the attack had shattered against the enemy. "he ;talian attack hadn1t come to much in the course of the spring. 4rime 5inister 3osselli <who in the world still remembers that nameH> was a decrepit old man, a spark barely ali&e. ;n the parliament, the socialists were rebellious. !;t1s not tolerable for the ;talian people to ha&e to face another winter of war,! they declared, already feeling cold months before @hristmas. As in the preceding year, it was the Anglo-French front which would ha&e to deli&er and, if necessary, recei&e the big blow. "he new commander-in-chief, Gi&elle, didn1t intend to be satisfied with !pecking away at the front.! )e wanted a breakthrough battle. Lyautey, 4Ftain, and e&en 4ainle&F, the minister of war, put scarcely any credence in an attack. Gi&elle played the prima donna( !We shall break through the #erman front whene&er we wish to.!

"he tactics he en&isioned were to attack a weak point by surprise. ;n one day, he asserted, or at most two days, the #erman front would be broken, and !with the breach thus opened, the terrain will be clear for us to go where we will, to the coast of the Gorth Sea or to the $elgian capital, to the 5euse or to the 3hine.! Gi&elle was opposed by 5arshal &on )indenburg, the powerful and unshakeable #erman military commander. )e was seconded by #eneral Ludendorff, the true military genius of the First World War. "hey were not about to gi&e the French either a weak point or a chance of surprise. "hey knew that strategy must not stifle tactics. "hey had suspected the plan of their ad&ersaries, which in any case had been announced with great fanfare by the newspapers. )indenburg and Ludendorff, silently and with the greatest of care, had prepared huge, impregnable concrete positions twenty kilometers back. Bust before the French offensi&e, they fell back to these lines with great stealth, "he terrain in front of the #ermans was now desolate, &irtually impassable, and flooded o&er a wide area. "he best officers of the French general staff were worried. "he offensi&e was being lured into a trap. Gi&elle, howe&er, was cockier than e&er( !;f ;1d been gi&ing )indenburg his orders, ;1d want him to pull back ust as he1s done.! Gow that the #ermans had made things so easy for him, he launched the attack on April ,, +,+-. "he Anglo-@anadians went o&er the top first, then the French. "he attack extended from the %ise to La 5ontagne de 3eims. "he most famous battle position would be @hemin des 6ames.

*ears later ; passed through that ghastly landscape. )uman skulls still lay around all o&er. "ourists used to carry them away in the luggage-racks of their bicycles. A.,... men were killed in the first few do:en hours. Gi&elle thought he could carry the day by hurling tanks into the battle, makeshift tanks in which the gasoline storage was placed forward. ;n one afternoon, =. of the +7. tanks burst into flames. "he crews were burned ali&e. After three days, the Allies had to break off the battle without ha&ing o&errun e&en a single one of )indenburg1s bunkers. "he returning soldiers were in terrible condition. An officer who witnessed their return from the front wrote, !; ha&e ne&er seen anything more poignant than the two regiments streaming along that road in front of me all day long. !First there were skeletons of companies, sometimes led by a sur&i&ing officer supporting himself with a cane. All of them were marching, or rather ad&ancing with short steps, knees gi&ing way, and :ig-:agging as though intoxicated. "hen came some groups that were perhaps s?uads, perhaps sections, you couldn1t tell. "hey went along, heads down, despondent, weighed down by their gear, carrying their blood- and dirt- soiled rifles by the slings. "he color of their faces scarcely differed from the color of their uniforms. 5ud had co&ered e&erything, dried completely, and then been soiled afresh with more mud. "heir clothing as well as their skin was encrusted with it. Se&eral cars came dri&ing up with a roar, scattering this pitiable flood of sur&i&ors of the great hecatomb. $ut they said nothing. "hey had lost

e&en the strength to complain. An unfathomable sorrow welled in the eyes of these &eritable war-sla&es when they came in sight of the &illage rooftops. ;n that mo&ement their features appeared taut with suffering and congealed with dust. "hose silent faces seemed to proclaim something awful( the unthinkable horror of their martyrdom. !Some territorials who were watching beside me remained pensi&e. "wo of those territorials silently cried like women.! "hus ended, in April +,+-, #eneral Gi&elle1s race to %stend and the 3hine. "he $ritish 5arshal )aig had thought he would do better than his French colleague. )e launched his attack between @ambrai and a Flemish &illage with a complicated name( 4asschendaele. )e was assisted by $elgian troops and by a French contingent. 5arshal )aig, too, thought to carry the day with a massi&e assault by his tanks. "hey penetrated the first #erman line of defense ust in time to be turned into an enormous inferno. "here, too, half the tanks were hit s?uarely in the fuel storage section and destroyed amid the screams of crews being roasted ali&e in their flaming coffins. Afterwards it was the usual butchery. 4asschendaele was one of the biggest slaughterhouses of the war. "he number of 2nglish, Scottish and ;rish who were killed or wounded there is well-nigh incredible( A..,..., !for nothing,! the historian Ferro adds. Gone of which would keep Boffre, the French general, from writing with reference to his $ritish friends, !; should ne&er dare lea&e them to guard the lines' alone, they would be routed.! %r 4Ftain from adding, in +,+-, the year of 4asschendaele( !"he $ritish command is

incompetent.! As may be seen, among the Allies brotherhood reigned. "he news from ;taly did not gladden the Allies. ;n the Li:en:o &alley, amid rock walls a thousand meters high, the #ermans and Austrians during those months were in top form. "hey had finished off the 3ussians. "hey occupied all of Serbia and 3omania as well. For the first time, )indenburg and Ludendorff had agreed to second the efforts of the Austrians, by gi&ing them 8#erman di&isions. @ertain mo&es of the new Austro)ungarian emperor, @harles ;, disturbed them, and by reinforcing him they hoped to restore his enthusiasm. Se&en #erman di&isions would ser&e as the battering ram of the attack. "wo traitors had communicated the Austro#erman offensi&e plans to the ;talian #eneral @armona se&eral days in ad&ance. 6espite the fact that he had A+ di&isions at his disposal, #eneral @armona was worried about !symptoms of a growing spirit of re&olution among the troops.! ;t was already %ctober +A, and snow was falling. ;n three days the principal peaks had fallen to the #ermans. From then on the &alley was open. "he disaster of @aporetto was under way. Some ;talian units heroically sacrificed themsel&es, but others surrendered in entire di&isions. @ountless deserters turned tail and fled. "he "agliamento was crossed. "he ;talian army couldn1t pull itself together until it reached the 4ia&e. "he results were added up( not too many had been killed, about +.,.... $ut the number of ;talian prisoners taken was immense( 7,8,.... 5oreo&er, 8,... cannon-half of the entire ;talian artillery

forces-had been lost, and more than 8..,... rifles, -8,... horses and mules, and the principal food and supply depots. @aporetto meant the complete loss of morale in ;taly. "he phenomenon was not limited to the ;talians. Armies e&erywhere were grumbling. "he soldiers had suffered too much. "hey had seen too many massacres. ;n 3ussia they had set off an explosion, but it was plain that in France, too, there was danger that mutinies would break out and the front gi&e way. ;n August +,+A the deluded people had embarked enthusiastically on !a short war! that would be not so much hard work as a romp. At worst, the French and the 3ussians would meet on the banks of the Spree at $erlin within three months0 As may be seen in photos of the period, in $erlin, 9ienna, London, and 4aris a popular delirium held sway. At 5unich a young fellow named Adolf )itler fell on his knees to thank the hea&ens for that stroke of good luck. "he thousands of trains and the first columns of trucks bore destination points chalked on them in big letters( $erlin for the French' 4aris for the #ermans. ;t was going to be a fine trip. $ut it had finally gone off the tracks. "he common people knew nothing at all, neither how horrible war is <and it had reached new heights in the West during the past half century>, nor how Freemasonry had directed their members in high office to use all possible subterfuges, lies and diplomatic forgeries to pursue interests alien and detrimental to them, the ma ority of common people. "he Sa:ono&s, the $alfours, the 4oincarFs, with cynicism

and hypocrisy, were leading the people to genocide. "here had been the great massacres of +,+A, then those of +,+E, then those of +,+=. Gow it had started all o&er again, for the fourth time, in +,+-. 5ore than half the conscripts of +,+A were dead. Whate&er their country, men wanted no more of it. "here was great misery on the home front as well. "he women were exhausted by the difficult ob of culti&ating the fields in the absence of the men, substituting their feeble strength for the hundreds of thousands of re?uisitioned horses' and with turning out the millions of artillery shells in the war factories alongside alien laborers from the colonies. 4eople were cold and hungry. ;n the beginning the masses had been in complete agreement, because in those days the patriotism of the people was a thousand times more acti&e than it is at present. "he working man was a nationalist. "he a&erage middle-class person got a lump in his throat when a military band passed by. "he socialist deputies, too, had &oted for war, the French as well as the #erman. "he ballyhoo in the press had roused the people. Anyone who had protested against the war in +,+A would ha&e been lynched. "hat was no longer the case in +,+-. "he slaughters of +,+- brought the soldiers to the end of their morale. 5any French units rebelled. ;n each of sixty French battalions or regiments se&eral hundred men on separate occasions flatly refused to return to combat. At Soissons, two regiments which had mutinied attempted to march on 4aris. "he ;nternationale was sung and red flags were wa&ed. ;t was St. 4etersburg in miniature. ;t wasn1t a

general re&olt, but there were more than forty thousand mutineers nonetheless, who for se&eral days made it almost impossible to maintain order. "he military leaders had to resort to reprisals. "here were thousands of arrests( 8,A7men were sentenced, EAA of them condemned to death. 5ost horrible of all, soldiers had to shoot their comrades. "here were ++= executions. Without thousands of imprisonments, the war in the west would ha&e been irretrie&ably lost by the Allies, ust as in 3ussia, and France would ha&e been engulfed in re&olution. ;t was the same e&erywhere. $y hurling their countries into a war of con?uest, or of recon?uest, in +,+A <Alsace-Lorraine on the one side, the $alkans and @onstantinople on the other>, the warmongers had destroyed the foundations of 2urope. )er economic basis was shattered. )er peoples were decimated. ;nternational order had been struck a direct blow. %nly the firm grip of certain statesmen, who had no use for democratic whims, here and there stemmed the catastrophe. "hus @lemenceau, who came to power on Go&ember +A, +,+-, hatchet in hand, ?uelled dissent ruthlessly. !;1ll burn e&erything, e&en the furniture,! the fearless old man of se&enty-six years declared. !Geither treason nor half-treason, ust war0 Gothing but war0! "he so-called !war for freedom! could not be won except by mu::ling freedom. "he 3adical @lemenceau, forcing the panic-stricken parliament to turn to him, became the absolute master of France in +,+-. )e immediately crushed all antiwar opposition, imprisoned his defeatist ad&ersaries, shot those who were traitors or who looked like traitors to

him. 2&en 4oincarF, the 5asonic pro&ocateur of +,+A, who had had no choice but to go along with @lemenceau1s nomination, had been shut up in the gilded cage of the presidential palace, after ha&ing had a mu::le clapped o&er his mouth. ;n the beginning the Socialist party <a third of the #erman deputies> had acted patriotically. "hen its extremists had organi:ed strikes in the war factories, turning thousands of workers away from their obs. "he strikes had seriously impeded production. As for the army, the most disciplined army in the world, it remained and would remain bra&e and orderly right up to the last day of the war. $ut the #erman political arm would not ha&e its @lemenceau. Wilhelm ;; kept far away from his troops. )e was neither a strategist nor a tactician. )e was enthusiastic when his troops were mo&ing ahead, dismayed at e&ery defeat. !4ray for us,! he telegraphed at the moment of the 5arne to his worthy empress, who was busy with her knitting. @hancellor $ethmann-)ollweg totally lacked the psychology of a fighting man. )e had been replaced by a completely unknown functionary. 5ichaelis, who had formerly been in charge of the replenishment of stores in 4russia. A third chancellor had succeeded him, a man named )ertling, a $a&arian member of the !Society of 3esolute @hristians,! and an aged bibliophile. 4ower, to him, instead of being a mar&elous instrument of direct, complete, and decisi&e action, was a !bitter chalice.! )e didn1t drink it for &ery long. Arteriosclerosis depri&ed him of his cup. )e went from one fainting fit to another. At last he recei&ed extreme unction !in a cloud of incense.!

"hings were worse still in Austria-)ungary, where four successi&e chancellors, $erchtold, 5artinit:, Seidler, and 2sterha:y, succeeded each other in the space of a year. #ermany1s great misfortune was this( if the French had had a )ertling <a resolute @hristian floating in incense>, as council president' or if they had simply kept their 9i&ianis, 3ibots, and 4ainle&Fs <hesitant, shaky, tired old democratic nags>, or if, on the contrary, the #ermans had possessed a political leader like @lemenceau, clea&er in hand, the fate of the world would ha&e been different. @lemenceau had been called the father of &ictory, and he deser&ed it. Without him, despite the immense sacrifices of the French soldiers, there would ha&e been no &ictory for France. She would ha&e gone down, if at the height of military disaster, she1d had no one to lead her but a bearded little hypocrite like 4oincarF, 2urope1s most efficient gra&edigger. Since +,+A, France had been beaten e&ery year. !%ne more hemorrhage like 9erdun, and France will fall in a faint,! the newspaper L1)eure had seen fit to write. %ut of the 8,=..,... men of +,+A, there remained only ,=A,... sur&i&ing combatants at the end of +,+-' 7,=8=,... were dead, wounded, prisoners, or missing. 5ore than ten of the wealthiest departments of France had been occupied for nearly three years. War profiteers were arrogantly li&ing the high life. Financially, France had been bled white. ;t had been necessary to issue sixty billion francs in bonds for the national defense. As far as loans went, some had been co&ered only to the amount of A-.E percent.

Small in&estors, their heads turned by the hired press, had laid out billions in the 3ussian loans before +,+A, and now found themsel&es ruined. As for agriculture, it had declined thirty to fifty percent <fifty-two percent of the French soldiers were peasants>. 4rices had already gone up A.. percent and would reach =.. percent by the end of the war. "he bread was &ile, but censorship prohibited anyone from writing that !the mixture of corn and wheat flours can cause alopecia.! Syphilis was ra&aging the country, but there, too, the censors were &igorously plying their scissors. "he information blackout, ordered by narrow-minded and despotic military men, was unbelie&able. 4refects could send reports to their ministers only after they had been submitted for censorship. "he ignorance in which the ci&ilian members of the go&ernment were left was such that the president of the council once learned only from his florist that the army general head?uarters was mo&ing from @hantilly. ;t was imperati&e that the public be completely ignorant of anything that might awaken its suspicions, such as, for example, the news that serious mutinies had taken place or that two million )indus and blacks were being used on the battlefields. %r that anti-colonial troubles had taken place in Senegal, 6ahomey, and Annam, following protests against the deportation of nati&e workers and soldiers to 2urope. %r that without the labor of women, there would be a shortage of artillery shells at the front. ;t was only in a small informal meeting that Boffre had seen fit to state that !if the women working in the factories were to stop for twenty minutes, France would lose the war.!

%n the other hand, the press abounded in mar&elous pronouncements aimed at stirring the masses. #eneral Fayolle( !Boan of Arc is looking down on us from hea&en with satisfaction.! La @roix( !"he history of France is the history of #od.! La&edan, member of the Academy( !; belie&e by the power of all that is holy in this crusade for ci&ili:ation. ; belie&e in the blood of the wounds, in the water of benediction. ; belie&e in us. ; belie&e in #od. ; belie&e. ; belie&e.! ;f La&edan still belie&ed in that wonderful umble, soldiers belie&ed less and less !in the blood of the wounds,! and the public had more and more doubts about the regenerati&e effects of !the water of benediction.! Far from benediction, what France was experiencing in +,+- was hunger, hundreds of thousands of widows and orphans, and millions of soldiers ground up in the mill of trench warfare. $ritish censorship was no less fanatical and idiotic. %n its orders, the press asked that the works of Wagner, 5o:art, and 3ichard Strauss be outlawed. Leon 6audet in 4aris titled an article !6own with Wagner.! 6arer and @ranach narrowly escaped being taken down from the walls of the Lou&re and the $ritish 5useum. Gow, after three years of war, in France as well as in #ermany, socialist and syndicalist leaders, who were only a handful in +,+A but were many in +,+-, spoke against these prohibitions and tried, despite a thousand complications arranged by the police, to rescue public opinion from this appalling state of affairs. Some of them were undoubtedly ringleaders ready to ser&e

any cause, with an eye to making a row, and often hired for that purpose. For example, the @ommunist agitators of $erlin. ;n +,+E, after two pre&ious meetings in $ern, a pacifist conference had been held at Kimmerwald in Swit:erland. ;t brought together a total of thirty-eight delegates, but an attempt at @ommunist infiltration had been e&ident. Lenin, "rotsky, 3adek, and Kino&ie& were there, teeth bared like Siberian wol&es. "he following year, the son-in-law of /arl 5arx, Longet, and his followers held a pacifist demonstration at the French socialist congress of April +=, +,+= which attracted much attention. "heir motion demanding a peace with no annexations obtained a third of the ballots( ,.. &otes against +D... Another conference was held at /ienthal. ;ts manifesto already had the tone of the %ctober +,+- harangues at St. 4etersburg( 4roletarians of 2urope0 5illions of cada&ers co&er the battlefields. 5illions of men will be disabled for the rest of their days. 2urope has become a giant human slaughterhouse. Abo&e and beyond the borders, abo&e and beyond the fields of battle, abo&e and beyond the de&astated countryside, proletarians of all countries, unite0 At /ienthal, Lenin1s proposal to turn the war of nations into ci&il war triumphed, recei&ing two thirds of the &otes. %n February +D, +,+-, the committee set forth its plan of battle to the proletariat( to turn their weapons not against their brothers, the foreign soldiers, but against imperialism, the enemy at home. %ne astonishing note( a million copies of that antimilitarist

manifesto were distributed in #ermany' in France, on the other hand, only ten thousand copies could be distributed in secret. ;n 4aris, anyone who was not for the war was a traitor, so much so that the syndicalist leaders were all gi&en a special physical examination by a re&iew board. Gone of them, howe&er bowlegged, escaped induction. "he chief of the Second $ureau, @olonel #oubet, saw to it that special treatment was reser&ed for them, ordering them !to certain Saharan regions where the rolling of roads coincides with the shaping of character, and from which one does not always return.! "he wish was expressed clearly and elegantly. $$$ 4acifist propaganda during the First World War was abo&e all the work of the left and especially of the extreme left. "he industrialists, the financiers, and the middle classes should ha&e been more concerned than anyone about the senseless destruction of wealth as well as the massi&e elimination of the cream of the labor force, the youth. "he conser&ati&es, on the contrary, during those four years li&ed in a hermetically sealed world of claptrap and illusions. ;t was the intellectuals, from $arrLs to 4aul $ourget and )enri 5assis, who most elo?uently praised the extraordinary benefits of the war and most execrated the sa&agery of /ant, Giet:sche, Schopenhauer, and the other #erman barbarians. Alone in this tumult of hate, 3omain 3olland published his Au-dessus de la mFlFe M90o$e the BattleN which for all its title was nothing but a long lyrical sigh in fa&or of peace.

"he men of the left, French or foreign, were not necessarily agents of 5oscow and enemies of society. %ften they were simply friends of mankind. %ne of the latter was @amille )uysmans, secretary-general of the Second ;nternational, a $elgian with the long ringed neck of a restless boa. )e was intelligent, caustic, cynical for its shock &alue, and profoundly tolerant. ;n +,+-, /amil - he was called that in Antwerp-had urged pacifism along rational and strictly logical lines. "he pre&ious conferences in Swit:erland had been too impassioned, and abo&e all too much controlled by Lenin and the other $olshe&ik theoreticians, for whom the world was an ob ect to be manipulated cold-bloodedly. A serious conference was needed in which the ad&ersaries would meet again to deal in depth, without pre udice and without intemperate language, with the possibility and the conditions for a peace of reconciliation. As secretary-general of a Second ;nternational stricken with paralysis, )uysmans dreamed of restoring to the ;nternational the use of its limbs. ;t was in that spirit that in +,+- he con&oked what has been called the Stockholm @onference. "here the direct representati&es of the enemy peoples were to get to know each other, exchange &iews, and weigh the chances of a !peace without annexations or indemnities.! Was such a peace possibleH Would it be possible to end a war in which all had been partly responsible, in which neither side, despite se&eral million dead, had achie&ed decisi&e results, or seemed in a position to do soH "he matter was worth discussing. ;t was not discussed, howe&er, and for a good reason( those principally concerned, the French delegates, had been forbidden to

attend the conference, the 4aris go&ernment ha&ing refused to grant them the passports that would ha&e enabled them to make the trip. "he French go&ernment did not want anyone talking peace in any way, shape, or form. "o talk of peace would be to make concessions, to admit to a few faults, to renounce certain claims. %ne could imagine that in similar negotiations the enemy, especially the #ermans, who had been the big winner up to that point-would not grant e&erything, acknowledge e&erything, deli&er e&erything. $ut was it really unreasonable to be reasonableH ;n +,+-, there were already se&enteen million men dead, wounded, or taken prisoner. "rying to sa&e the li&es, blood, and freedom of millions more who would be lost if the war continued, was that really so criminalH Wasn1t all that blood worth a few sacrifices, a few blows to one1s egoH 5any delegates came to Stockholm but the most important, the French, were not there, kept at home by their police, who would thenceforth consider them dangerous suspects. 2&en a man like @amille )uysmans, who was not French, became the ob ect of a relentless persecution by the French police after the Stockholm @onference. "hey whipped up campaigns to discredit him e&erywhere. )e was !the man of Stockholm,! paid of course by the #ermans. "he newspapers repeated it o&er and o&er without letup. )e was so defamed that after the Allied &ictory in +,+D his own followers, who were ashamed of their leader, barred him in $russels from access to the 5aison du 4euple. For ten years he suffered a persecution that was comparable

to the ordeal, in France, of 5. @aillaux. 2&en before +,+A @aillaux had understood that the French and the #ermans were interdependent, and that it was necessary to effect a reconciliation with the #ermans instead of fighting them. For his effrontery, he was repudiated for se&eral years. @amille )uysmans had to expiate his bid for peace for a longer period( ten years. ;t was then that /ing Albert ;, the 3oi @he&alier of the Allies, summoned )uysmans to his palace at $russels. Cp to that time the $elgian monarch had refrained from speaking. "he passions and the hatreds were such that to say anything slightly fa&orable to !the man of Stockholm! would ha&e been to commit suicide. ;n +,+-, before going to the Stockholm @onference, the so-called agent of the kaiser had &isited /ing Albert in person on the Flanders front, where he commanded the $elgian troops facing the #ermans. )uysmans wanted to be sure that the congress he was organi:ing at Stockholm did not constitute either a challenge or an obstacle to the military and political plans of the man who occupied the &ery first place, morally, on the Allied side. "he others, 4oincarF, #rey, Sonnino, $ratianu, had been double or triple dealers. Albert ;, on the other hand, was the &ictim of his country1s geography, which made it a railroad turntable through which all trains claimed the right of passage. )is own conduct had been noble and proper. )e listened carefully to @amille )uysmans. )is straightforward answer was, word for word, as follows( !*ou are right. ;t is necessary to negotiate. Go second war, whate&er my go&ernment may think of it. @arry on your efforts. ; will protect you.!

!; could ha&e told the truth,! )uysmans wrote to de Launay, the $elgian historian, !but ; held stubbornly to what the /ing himself said, and that1s the way it was.! ;t was handled rather solemnly. "he king later cleared @amille )uysmans-who later became prime minister-in the presence of two $elgian generals !whom he had summoned and charged in my presence to tell the truth,! )uymans himself related on coming out of the royal palace. $ut that honest man paid for his efforts-which, howe&er illconsidered in &iew of the passions of the time, were humane and correct in any e&ent-with ten years of being slandered. !"o destroy my effecti&eness,! )uysmans stated, !the French secret ser&ice tried to represent me as a man in the pay of #ermany. ;n $elgium that accusation was belie&ed in the French-speaking part of the country and also in $russels.! "here were also certain semi-official negotiations, in&ol&ing Austria-)ungary and #ermany, which might ha&e made it possible as early as +,+- to re-establish peace. )ow and why did they failH

CHAPTE ..)III Stabs at Peace "he proposals of the new Austrian emperor, @harles ;, were the most important. ;n +,+= the young monarch had ust succeeded Fran: Bosef,

the emperor as old as $elgium <both were born in +D8.>. "hus @harles ; had not been in&ol&ed in any way in the unleashing of the war in +,+A. )e had little liking for the #erman /aiser, his ally by chance. )is two brothers-in-law, 4rincess Sixtus and Sa&ier of $ourbon 4arma, were fighting in the armies of the king of $elgium on the western front, against the #ermans. @harles ; was neither a reformer like Boseph ;; nor a tactical genius like a 5etternich. )e was not &ery aware of political realities, but he was sincere and bursting with a goodwill that on occasion made him nai&e. )e was profoundly honest, but of course honesty in politics seldom carries one &ery far. $$$ @harles ; had no capable ministers at his side, or at least any he could trust( $erchtold, the clumsy bungler of Buly +,+A, had been replaced by a gloomy-eyed )ungarian, and then by @ount @:ernin. "he latter, sensing that e&erything was tottering beneath him and that @harles ; himself was headed for a fall, pro&ed unreliable. @harles ; had an intense desire for peace, a two-fold peace( domestic peace, by granting to each of the separate nationalities-@:ech, Sla&, )ungarian, and #erman-an e?ual area and an autonomy of &ery broad rights' and peace with foreign countries as well. "he young emperor was not only prepared to renounce all annexations, despite the fact that Serbia and 3omania were then in the hands of the Austro#erman forces, but was also ready to grant his $alkan ad&ersaries important territorial concessions. "o ;taly, too, which up to then had achie&ed little on the battlefield, he would cede the ;talian-speaking part of the "yrol. "o Serbia,

responsible for the assassination of the Austrian crown prince but now thoroughly whipped, its go&ernment ha&ing taken refuge at @orfu, he was willing to grant broad access to the Adriatic Sea. #enerous almost to the point of nai&etF, @harles ; was ready to offer still more to the Allies, who at that time were at a decided disad&antage on e&ery front. "aking the initiati&e of offering peace was fraught with risk for @harles. "he #ermans were watching him, and they were much stronger than he was. "hey had the power to crush Austria in twenty-four hours. Cp to then, the Austrians had been dependent on the constant help of the #ermans. Left on their own in +,+A, they had been beaten in Serbia, indeed chased out of $elgrade. ;t had re?uired the inter&ention of #erman and $ulgarian di&isions to send 4ashich packing off to @orfu in the Adriatic. ;n #alicia, when $rusilo& had o&errun them, captured 7E,... kilometers of territory, taken hundreds of thousands of prisoners, and been on the point of bursting through into )ungary, it was the #erman army again that had sa&ed the Austrians from disaster. 2&en in 3omania, it was #eneral 5ackensen who had con?uered $ucharest, not an Austro-)ungarian general. "he #ermans thus had some rightful claims on the regime in 9ienna, all the more so because without the untimely steps of Austria in +,+A, #ermany almost certainly would not ha&e been dragged into the war. $y running the risk of antagoni:ing the /aiser, @harles ; showed commendable courage. "he Allies should surely ha&e gi&en immediate consideration to these actions on the part of @harles ;,

especially since he had not entrusted the negotiations to dubious underlings, but to his own brothers-in-law, who were officers in the Allied armies. "he emperor sent his meddlesome mother-in-law, 5aria Bosepha, to GeuchPtel in Swit:erland to meet her two sons, Sixtus and Sa&ier de $ourbon-4arma, and to charge them with the imperial peace mission. An offer to meet made to enemies does not necessarily obligate one side to re&eal its hand, to commit itself in ad&ance, and list its concessions, while the other remains silent and presents a countenance as inscrutable as the sphinx. "he two $elgian officers upon whom the emperor was ready to rely had brought along preliminary demands drafted by the Allies which were &ery se&ere, indeed almost insolent in the light of the fact that the French and the $ritish had ust suffered terrible defeats in Artois, in Flanders, and in @hampagne, and had left se&eral hundred thousand men lying dead on the battlefield. "he preparatory position of the 2ntente was brutally frank. Any conditions preliminary to a peace acceptable to the 2ntente must include the following indispensable demands( <+> "he restitution of Alsace-Lorraine to France without compensation of any kind on the latter1s part. <7> "he re-establishment of $elgium <8> "he restoration of Serbia with the addition of Albania. <A> "he restoration of @onstantinople to 3ussia. "hese were enormous demands, which @harles ; had to accept before negotiations could be admitted e&en in principle. "he more so in that in +,+= no part of AlsaceLorraine had yet been recon?uered by the French' on the contrary, the #ermans were occupying the ten wealthiest departments of France' moreo&er, the Serbians no longer

had possession of a s?uare centimeter of their territory' and the 3ussians had been unable to send a single warship to @onstantinople, while the Allies had been completely thwarted when they tried to reach the city by way of the 6ardanelles. "he astonishing thing was that amid all these considerable claims, there was not the slightest allusion to the booty the ;talians were to get, although the Allies, by the secret "reaty of London in +,+E, had nonetheless promised them the "yrol and millions of new citi:ens in 2urope and Asia. Gor was there any ?uestion of what the Albanians might think about being deli&ered to the Serbians, or the "urks about being deli&ered to the 3ussians. ;t was a demand that the peoples of the Adriatic and the $osphorus merely be put on the block, and not be consulted at all. Where, then, were the famous self-determination principles which had been trumpeted so &irtuouslyH @harles ; did not allow himself to be discouraged in the face of these exaggerated demands. )e sent a reply which was in large measure an acceptance to the two princes, who returned to GeuchPtel( he was in agreement with regard to Alsace-Lorraine and $elgium. With regard to the territory of the South Slays occupied by his troops, he proposed the creation of an autonomous kingdom consisting of $osnia)er:ego&ina <Austrian territory before +,+A>, Serbia <by then already captured>, Albania, and 5ontenegro, !existing on its own, but within the framework of an Austrian federation which for centuries has pro&en its worth as a unifying body.! "hat last proposal was not final. ;t could be discussed. "he function of a conference is discussion. 2mperor @harles ;

had been conciliatory in the extreme. )is initial concessions were enormous, since he was a member of a military coalition in a &ictorious position dealing with an Allied military coalition which in +,+= had reaped nothing but humiliating and terribly bloody defeats from Flanders to #allipoli. $ut he was unaware that the Allies he was appealing to were bound by a series of secret and often contradictory treaties which bound them to deli&er extra&agant spoils to their confederates. Go honest negotiations could alter these arrangements. 4rince Sixtus, after se&eral trips back and forth to GeuchPtel, saw 4oincarF in 4aris. )e got in touch with $riand as well. After meeting those two, Sa&ier and Sixtus then went to see 2mperor @harles ; in person. ;n great secrecy and at great risk, @harles went to meet his two brothers-in-law in Luxembourg-two $elgian officers in ci&ilian clothes, in territory occupied by the #ermans. "he Allies still belie&ed then <5arch 77-78, +,+-> that they would win the battle of Artois, where instead they were about to be ground up like a round of beef. !; want peace, ; want it at any price,! said the young emperor of Austria-)ungary. )e declared himself willing, after the initial basis of agreement had been reached with the Allies, to put as much pressure as he could on Wilhelm ;; to take part in the negotiations. %therwise he would not hesitate to sign a separate peace. @harles ; would go yet further. 9erbal offers might be misinterpreted or e&en disbelie&ed. )e seated himself at a desk and there, in the town of Luxembourg, where he risked at any moment being found out and seeing brothers-in-law

arrested, wrote on 5arch 7A, +,+- a three-page letter committing his proposals to paper. ;n that handwritten letter, @harles ; heaped ci&ilities upon his ad&ersaries( !"he traditional bra&ery of the French army is admirable,! he wrote. )e felt !deep sympathy! for France. ;t was ! ust to gi&e her back Alsace-Lorraine.! $elgium1s rights !must be fully restored.! As for Serbia, he was no longer speaking of a federation but was ready to accord her not only complete independence, but !e?uitable and natural access to the Adriatic! as well as broad economic concessions. All that Austria asked was that Serbia, enlarged and enriched at her expense, should no longer tolerate on her soil such anti-Austrian criminal organi:ations as the $lack )and, which had been so conspicuous at Sara e&o. "his was an entirely understandable re?uest. 4ashich would be so impressed by the scope of these proposals that he would send emissaries to Swit:erland to discuss them. "o soften up the Austrians, he would e&en ha&e his ex-confederate, @olonel 6imitrie&ich, shot. "he document written by @harles ;, which was of potentially decisi&e conse?uence to 2urope, is now a&ailable to the world. 6e Launay, the famous $elgian historian, has published it in its entirety. )ad it been taken into consideration in +,+-, the li&es of se&eral million people might ha&e been sa&ed, and @entral 2urope would not ha&e become the white world1s great land of in ustice in +,+,, and the most menacing colonial territory of the CSS3 twenty-six years later. %n 5arch 8+, +,+-, 4rince Sixtus saw 4oincarF again. 4oincarF continued to e?ui&ocate, but ne&ertheless thought

he could no longer lea&e his Allies in ignorance of the facts. At that time the French president of the council-there were four different ones in +,+- up to the time @lemenceau came in and cleaned house-was Alexandre 3ibot. )e was an old fellow, whose ner&es were shot. )e peered owlishly at anyone he was talking to from behind glasses as yellow as a couple of lemons, which he was fore&er wiping clumsily. What he feared most was not the #ermans, but that his own parliament that might lash out at him. "he announcement of peace negotiations meant risking a parliamentary rebuke. What if they turned his old bones out of the presidential chairH )e refused to see 4rince Sixtus, despite his being an Allied officer and the bearer of peace. ;t was still necessary, howe&er, to inform the Allies and warn Lloyd #eorge. "here the terms of the problem were already completely changed. For $ritain, what counted was not Strasbourg, or $russels, or the 6almatian coast' it was the #erman fleet and the #erman colonies. @harles ; had not included them in his basket of gifts. "hen there were the ;talians. %n April +D, +,+-, at St. Bean de 5aurienne, Lloyd #eorge and 3ibot had confirmed and amplified the +,+= "reaty of London. "hey1d had to deal with 5inister Sonnino. "he only thing that interested Sonnino in a peace with Austria was getting "rentino, "rieste and the eastern shore of the Adriatic. "hat was what the French and the $ritish has promised ;taly to induce her to enter the war. Gothing less would satisfy her. "he indefatigable 4rince Sixtus started off on his way again to a meeting with an en&oy of @harles ; at Kug, in Swit:erland and a second meeting at Lausanne. Finally, though an Allied officer, he proceeded secretly to 9ienna on 5ay D, +,+- to see

2mperor @harles. From the )ofburg he brought back the emperor1s agreement drafted by the minister of foreign affairs, @ount @:ernin, !accepting the principle of an exchange of territories with ;taly.! So an initial proposal was offered there as well. Sonnino, with his considerable cle&erness, was trying for further concessions, which as a matter of fact had already been offered in +,+E, when 4rince &on $Olow had attempted to halt ;taly1s entry into the war. "hat was not the tragedy. @harles ; had asked that in exchange for numerous concessions he be guaranteed the integrity of what would be left of Austria after losing at least $osnia-)er:ego&ina, "rieste, and "rentino. "he nai&e emperor did not suspect that powerful 5asonic and anticlerical forces within the French go&ernment did not intend Austria-)ungary, the most important @atholic country of 2urope, to be in existence after the hostilities. Secret agreements had already been made that would car&e her up, dismember her pro&inces, and barter away millions of her inhabitants. !%nce this basis of agreement is accepted,! @harles ; reiterated to 4rince Sixtus, !Austria-)ungary will be able to sign a separate peace.! Were there any obstaclesH *es, there were. "he French translation made by the prince was ?uestionable' it did not seem to correspond to the text of 9ienna drafted in #erman. ;t was possible that 4rince Sixtus had embellished the offer a bit, which negotiators are apt to do but such misunderstandings were usual at the start of negotiations( negotiations were made to remedy such things, to make e&erything clear. %n the Allied side, especially on the side

of the French, e&erything could easily and rapidly be brought into harmony. $ut 3ibot had clamped his big yellow spectacles onto his nose. )e was going to sabotage e&erything. WhyH ;n a month it would be clear. Sixtus proceeded to London. )e saw Lloyd #eorge and the king, and discussed the limits of the possible peace( #ermany includedH %r a separate peace with Austria aloneH "o decide that, Lloyd #eorge proposed a meeting between the $ritish and the French at @ompiLgne. "hat Allied conference would ne&er take place. France would not reply, and conse?uently $ritain would not attend. 3ibot had done his best to scuttle it e&en before Lloyd #eorge set out on his ourney. )e had hoisted himself up on his creaky old limbs at the rostrum of the French assembly to launch this cowardly and pro&ocati&e denunciation( !"hey will come to ask peace, not hypocritically as they do today in this shifty and circuitous manner, but openly and on terms worthy of France! <applause>. !)ypocritically! and in !a shifty manner! were strong words when the Austrian emperor himself and officers of the $elgian army had offered e&erything and risked e&erything with nai&e sincerity. "hus the French minister publicly committed an infamous deed, not only offering a scarcely disguised insult to @harles ;, but informing the emperor of #ermany that his fellow monarch of Austria-)ungary had proposed peace negotiations to the Allies behind his back. A bit later @lemenceau would go still further. "he unfortunate @harles ;, in order to escape the wrath of William ;;, issued the denial that is standard in diplomatic

affairs. @lemenceau, when he had become president of the council, would read to the assembly @harles1 secret letter with the ob&ious aim of creating a fatal estrangement between his two enemies. ;t was a base mo&e that wrecked any chance of future peace negotiations with Austria. Why did 3ibot, !that old malefactor,! as 4rince Sixtus would call him, and @lemenceau after him, allow themse&es to sink so lowH ;n the first place, they were no longer in a position to discuss an e?uitable peace, since half a do:en secret treaties, signed by their colleagues and the $ritish, had put up for auction some hundreds of thousands of s?uare kilometers of 2urope and tens of millions of her people. %nly an o&erwhelming &ictory would make it possible for them to honor their commitments. Any other issue of the war would bring them insoluble problems, starting with the delection of their dearly bought allies. Austria was also the target of a relentless conspiracy, that of Freemasonry, for two centuries a mortal enemy of that &ast @atholic country. Freemasonry wanted Austria-)ungary1s hide, wanted it rended, lacerated, in pieces. 3ibot was one of the most important figures in French Freemasonry. $enes, the @:ech, was the most important figure in the Freemasonry of @entral 2urope. )e laid claim to the entire northern part of the Austro- )ungarian empire with such &oracity that in +,+,, with the 5asonry of the entire world behind him, he would swallow up more non@:echs than @:echs. 4recisely at the &ery moment of these negotiations, a world congress of Freemasons met in 4aris, the seat of the sinister #rand %rient, on Bune 7D, +,+- to !create a society founded

on the eternal principles of 5asonry.! Austria-)ungary was the exact opposite of that society. 6uring the latter part of Bune, +,+- in 4aris, Freemasonry passed a death sentence on Austria-)ungary proclaiming that minimum conditions of peace re?uired the independence of $ohemia and the !liberation! of the di&erse nationalities of Austria-)ungary, !goals which could not be reali:ed without the annihilation of the Austro-)ungarian empire.! Bust three days before the rabidly anti-@atholic 5asonic congress had been held, 3ibot had been bent on bringing about the downfall of @harles ;. 3ibot1s speech, indeed, had been the forward to it. ;t was the choice appeti:er preceding the ban?uet at which the conspirators of the left would de&our @atholic Austria-)ungary, prepared for them in ad&ance with malignant gloating by old 3ibot. Astonishingly, the #ermans, who might well ha&e considered themsel&es ustified in angrily reproaching Austria-)ungary, their ally, for ha&ing secretly treated with the enemy, were extremely reser&ed in their protests. WhyH $ecause they had done the same thing. "wo officers of the $elgian army had been the liaison agents of @harles ;. $y a strange coincidence, the agents of the 3eich were $russels ci&ilians. $oth of them had been warmly encouraged, and at the same time, by /ing Albert ;, the same who had been anxious to gi&e his support to the socialist @amille )uysmans when he, as president of the Second ;nternational, was endea&oring to call a peace conference at Stockholm. After the war the $elgian king was e&erywhere held to ha&e been the model ally. A statue was erected to him at 4aris in

which the warrior faithful beyond all others was ad&ancing on horseback towards &ictory. ;n truth, /ing Albert distrusted the war aims of the Allies from the first day of the war to the last. )e ne&er allied himself with them completely. )e wished to remain in his historic role of a neutral, knowing-history had taught him well-the cupidity of both sides, which were always ready to occupy and use his country. 2&en in +,+A he had refused to oin up with the routed French and $ritish armies in the south. %n the contrary, he had withdrawn in the direction of Antwerp. After the autumn of +,+A he had clung to the *ser, a little $elgian stream, stubbornly refusing to lea&e his country. )e did not belie&e a single perfidious word of the fine speeches of the Allies( liberty, ustice, rights of man, which they used to co&er up their own interests. )e had no choice but to be guided solely by the interests of his country. "he interest of $elgium, wedged between two powerful nations, and to whom foreign wars could bring nothing but grief, could only be 4eace. Albert ; had let his two officers of $ourbon-4arma tra&el to Swit:erland, to Luxembourg, to 9ienna, to London, and to 4aris. )e had seen them return empty-handed. )owe&er, another possibility had arisen, this one stemming from the #ermans and launched in $russels, his occupied captial. "he new negotiations in&ol&ed, on the $elgian side, three principals. "he first was @ardinal 5ercier, the primate of $elgium. )e was a tall, emaciated philosopher, a so&ereign spirit, of supreme dignity and ma esty. As a young student, ; would

be disco&ered by him. )e was my first teacher. ; still see him scrutini:ing me, bright-eyed like a watching bird, ma estic despite his gauntness, like a 5ichelangelo prophet. "he second negotiator was a Frenchwomen, a 3ochefoucault become $elgian through her marriage to a member of the house of 5erode, in +,+A headed by a count, today by a prince. "he third was a man of business, the ben:ine king of $elgium, $aron 2&ence @oppFe. "he #erman who would be the decisi&e element in these other secret, semiofficial negotiations was the $aron &an der Lanken. As an embassy attache, he had known the young 4aul de la 3ochefoucault. "he fortunes of war gained him a key post in the military administration of $elgium. "he @ountess of 5erode, concerned for all who suffered the misfortunes or the rigors of the occupation, had many a time spoken to &an der Lanken, much as she had done in 4aris before the hostilities. ;n particular, she had got him to accept a petition from @ardinal 5ercier re?uesting pardons for two men negotiations, their en&oy was officially authori:ed to make an initial pardoned se&enteen, e&ery $elgian then awaiting execution. ;t was thus that the $elgian primate, wishing to thank the #erman diplomat, had gone to see him at the home of the @ountess de 5erode. "hen for the first time they spoke of the possibility of re-establishing peace. "he cardinal challenged the representati&e of the 3eich to assist in negotiations between #ermany and the Allies. "he #erman took the cardinal at his word and set off for $erlin. ;n %ctober +,+= he saw the cardinal again, who, after hearing him, expressed his dissatisfaction. A new trip to

$erlin at the beginning of +,+- resulted in a meeting at $ad /reu:nach between the chancellor of the 3eich, the secretary of state for foreign affairs, 5arshal &on )indenburg, and #eneral Ludendorff. "his select assembly, at the end of April +,+-, agreed to the concession of certain territories of the 3eich southwest of Alsace and in Frenchspeaking Lorraine. ;t wasn1t yet at the point of the French army entering 5et: to the sound of trumpets, but a trend was taking shape. ;t must not be forgotten that in the spring of +,+-, the #ermans had the upper hand' yet they were prepared to cede some territory. !When ; made contact with the go&ernment of the 3eich,! Lanken later wrote, !it appeared straight off that $erlin attached the greatest importance to this endea&or. @hancellor &on $ethmann-)ollweg and the secretary ga&e me encouragement at e&ery point.! A more astonishing piece of information( !;t was the same with Field 5arshal &on )indenburg and with #eneral Ludendorff, otherwise so difficult to approach. As is fitting to note at once, during the entire course of this affair #eneral Ludendorff ne&er failed to ask for information about it and concerned himself with the success of what ; was doing.! "hat was not, to be sure, total appro&al, but it was the manifestation of a desire on the part of the #ermans to negotiate. When during the entire course of the war was there any such attitude on the part of the Allied authoritiesH When did a French or $ritish politician or military man e&er make a similar gestureH "he #ermans might ha&e said no for fear of ha&ing their enemies say that they had reali:ed they were going to lose

the war. *et, e&en before the negotiations, their was en&oy officially authori:ed to make an initial concession unconditionally. A cle&er negotiator, once he had that thread in his hands, would no doubt pull out more of the skein. "he name of that negotiator was e&en mentioned. $aron &an der Lanken had indicated he would begin the negotiations between the #ermans and the Allies with one of his 4aris ac?uaintances from before the war, a man who was surely the most ingratiating politician in France( $riand. $etween the two world wars, Aristide $riand became the best known French politician in 2urope, his &oice gra&e and softly harmonious, his mustaches hanging down like a drooping bush, poorly dressed in skimpily made business suits, and dropping ashes e&erywhere from his e&erlasting cigarettes. ;n Bune +,+-, he had resigned from his position of prime minister three months too soon. 6espite that he could be the perfect unofficial delegate of the Allied authorities. "he @ountess de 5erode, ha&ing obtained a passport from &an der Lanken, left for 4aris where she immediately met with $riand. She deli&ered a proposal for an inter&iew with Lanken in Swit:erland. $riand immediately went, on Bune +,, to confer with 4oincarF. "he latter was not &ery enthusiastic. Ge&ertheless, he authori:ed $riand to see &an der Lanken. 5eanwhile, a second $elgian dFmarche had gi&en impetus to the action of the princess at 4aris. A second emissary had arri&ed in France to further support &an der Lanken1s proposals. )e had not wanted to act, howe&er, without first recei&ing the consent of the head of the $elgian

go&ernment, 5. de $ro?ue&ille, who, like his king, had taken refuge at Sainte Adresse, near Le )a&re. )e sent them the letter from &an der Lanken, offering to meet with an Allied emissary. $riand, @oppFe, and $ro?ue&ille planned to meet in 4aris at the 3it:. $ro?ue&ille was affirmati&e( !"he #erman proposals are of a serious nature.! $riand was impressed. )e made up his mind and got ready. $ut alas, France was a democracy( the 3ibot go&ernment fell. A new go&ernment was formed by 4ainle&F, a confused but honest mathematician, who was better at uggling logarithms and hypotenuses than diplomatic subtleties. ;t was necessary to start preparing the way all o&er again. @oppFe, $riand, 4oincarF, and the new prime minister weighed the possibility of negotiation. !We ha&e to go all the way,! 4ainle&F concluded. 4oincarF was still cool to the idea, but didn1t oppose it. )e was a man who rarely stood in opposition to things( )e cast his net, stood stock-still, waited for the other party to get caught. 3ibot, who had already torpedoed the peace pro ect with 2mperor @harles ;, remained in the cabinet as minister of the interior, which was not &ery reassuring. $riand outlined a plan of negotiations that went further than the #erman proposal, as was only to be expected. ;nstead of a part of Alsace-Lorraine, he laid claim to all of it, and he demanded war preparations as well' on the other hand, !France will not raise the ?uestion of the left bank of the 3hine nor the political and economic freedom of the #erman people.! As in poker, both of the two parties had thoroughly studied their cards. "he obstacles presented were by no means insurmountable. "his sort of preliminary was usual in e&en

the most modest negotiations. @oppFe, informed before returning to $russels, saw &an der Lanken. $riand himself proposed September 77, +,+- as the date of the meeting in Swit:erland. @oppFe confirmed to him in writing the confidence he now had in their success. !"his turn of e&ents had gi&en the @ountess de 5erode and me an absolute con&iction that #ermany is ready to make the greatest possible concessions, so that the withdrawal from the occupied territory, indemnities and reparations, as well as the restitution of Alsace-Lorraine to France, may be en&isaged with a &irtual certainty of success.! @oppFe had reason to express these &iews. %n September ++, +,+- the /aiser himself had presided o&er a meeting at the imperial palace of $elle&ue, decisions of which went far beyond the concessions granted at $ad /reu:nach. All the top military and ci&ilian leaders had attended the meeting. "he #ermans, needless to say, were not going to gi&e up e&erything before their emissary had e&en talked to $riand. $ut if &an der Lanken was to be belie&ed, they would ha&e gone a long way. !5y plan,! he explained in his memoirs <p. 778>, !was to get $riand, by the manner in which ; listened to him, to lay out his &iews as plainly as possible, and to a certain extent to learn his final Jprice.1 "hen to get to $erlin the fastest way, press for an immediate answer, and get it back to $riand in Swit:erland with all possible speed.! 6eLaunay, the $elgian historian, who scrutini:ed with a magnifying glass e&ery passage of the dossier and inter&iewed e&ery possible witness, sums up the con&ictions of the /aiser1s unofficial emissary( !Lanken assured @oppFe and the @ountess de 5erode that

he had recei&ed orders to conclude the peace and that if the proposals he was charged to make to $riand were deemed insufficient, he would immediately ask $erlin for new instructions.! <5istoire de la diplomatie secrAte, p. DA>. )e would later add( !#i&en the weariness of the belligerents, a solution could ha&e been found to the problem of Alsace-Lorraine.! %n September 7+, +,+-, the e&e of the meeting with $riand, $aron &an der Lanken detrained at %uchyLausanne and put up at the )otel du @hateau. "he @ountess de 5erode and $aron @oppFe were already in town, at the $eau 3i&age )otel. !Lanken,! de Launay explains, !expressed his con&iction that the proposed inter&iew would be fa&orable to a peaceful decision. )e confirmed to them that he1d had contact with the #erman general staff again and that the negotiations were beginning auspiciously.! "he meeting of the next day was to take place at the &illa of a French general who was a friend of $riand. "hey waited in &ain for $riand to arri&e. %n September 78, $aron &an der Lanken, empty-handed, took up his &alise, shocked at this e&asion on the part of the French negotiator, without an excuse or e&en an explanation. ;t was 3ibot, the Freemason, who had made it all miscarry. With honeyed words he had put the ?uestion to the $ritish go&ernment( !Wouldn1t it be a good idea to a&oid the trap set for 5. $riandH! What reply could the foreign secretary of the Cnited /ingdom ha&e gi&en except that it was necessary to a&oid falling into a trapH What trapH As with 9ienna1s proposal, the #erman proposal had been properly and courageously brought forward by impeccable

intermediaries under the aegis of the Allied go&ernment of $elgium. !What seems to us unspeakable,! 6eLaunay wrote, !was 4oincarF1s weakness, 3ibot1s bad faith ... 5illions of men were still to die for two Alsatian fortresses.! All the attempts for peace which were still to follow, including the one entrusted to Goullens, the French ambassador at St. 4etersburg, would routinely miscarry, one after another. "he plans of Freemasonry were to be pursued implacably, howe&er great the massacre. #ermany and Austria-)ungary were to be annihilated.

CHAPTE ..I. President /i"son6 4Co"one"4 House ;t is impossible to speak of the many significant peace attempts of the First World War, all of them failures, without mentioning the peace negotiations of the Americans, or more precisely of Woodrow Wilson, the president of the Cnited States. "hose negotiations, too, failed. $ut they were of a ?uite special nature' and they were going to change the face of the world. ;n the first place, they were the earliest of all the attempts, since they were begun as early as +,+A, before the start of the war. "heir sincerity ?uickly became suspect. "hey were fairly ob ecti&e in +,+A-from 5ay to Buly in the first instance, then in the month of September after the great

#erman &ictories in France and 4russia-and they e&en re&ealed a certain tendency to acknowledge that Wilhelm ;;, the emperor of #ermany, was the only one who desired peace. From +,+E to +,+- they would slightly, then strongly fa&or the Allies, although that was rather hypocritically camouflaged because it was imperati&e not to displease the American &oters, who were ,. per cent for neutrality. "he secret adherence of Wilson1s go&ernment to the Allies would end in the spring of +,+-, with the entry of the Cnited States into the war. "he great and total e&olution of the war dates from that point, when it was transformed from a 2uropean war to a world war. "he paltry French-$ritish-3ussian-#erman ?uarrels would be left behind. %n the one hand the tsarist power would collapse, and @ommunism would take its place. %n the other hand, a giant America would hurl the enormous weight of its power, untried and until then almost unknown, onto the scales of world politics. ;nter&ention by the Cnited States would change e&erything. ;t would gi&e an entirely new orientation to the 2uropean war then bogged down in Flanders. ;t superimposed a completely new world of elemental power on the death throes of an anemic 2urope, a 2urope that was stupidly destroying itself as a world power. ;n a few decades, two giant land masses would bring to an end two thousand years of 2uropean expansion. From +,+on, the war of 2urope was no longer anything but ci&il war' the world was changing fore&er. "here is no explaining the First World War without an examination in depth of the role that the Cnited States of America assumed between +,+A and +,+D. Who at that time

was the dri&ing force in the Cnited StatesH 2&eryone spoke of Wilson, who ?uickly became considered the master of humanity1s destiny. %n the other hand, few speak of @olonel )ouse, a secret, almost mythical figure, who was the all-powerful mentor of 4resident Wilson. Who was this shadowy @olonel )ouseH Who, indeed, was WilsonH $$$ Woodrow Wilson, the president of the Cnited States, was an austere and strict @al&inist, the son, grandson, and son-inlaw of 4resbyterian ministers. !)e said his prayers on his knees morning and night throughout his life. )e read the $ible e&ery day. )e wore out two or three $ibles in the course of his life. )e said grace before e&ery meal.! <$ullitt, President Wilson& p.8=>. $ullitt has left an impressi&e portrait of this !puny fellow! with the !big soft mouth!( )e had light gray eyes and lackluster blond hair. )e was thin, pale, and weak. )is eyesight was extraordinarily deficient. )e was hardly out of his baby clothes when he had to wear glasses. 5oreo&er, from infancy on he had intestinal trouble which plagued him throughout his life. )e was coddled by his father, his mother, and his two older sisters, but these troubles persisted, gi&ing him migraine headaches and stomach ailments. )e was so sickly that his parents didn1t send him to school. )e didn1t learn the alphabet until he was nine years old and didn1t know how to read until he was ele&en.! )is homely features were made still more plain by the eyeglasses riding on his prominent nose and by his astonishingly bad teeth. Although he ne&er smoked, they

were mottled with caries, so that when he smiled, brown and blue stains appeared amid flashes of gold. )e had a li&id complexion, with unhealthy red blotches. )is legs were too short for his body, so that he looked more distinguished seated than standing. )e was so poorly informed about international affairs that he couldn1t tell one country from another on a map. 4arsimonious, he was horrified at the cost of a cable and hesitated a long time before sending one. )is only di&ersions were billiards and proper family reading sessions in the e&ening. Looked at this way, howe&er, the portrait of Woodrow Wilson does not adhere strictly to the realities, or as least it is not complete, because throughout his career Wilson was simply a screen for others. "he real master of the Cnited States in those days, right up to the fateful 9ersailles peace conference was not Wilson but the man who owned him outright and had made him president of the Cnited States and partner in +,+- of the Allies in the First World War. "his mentor of Wilson1s was a mysterious !colonel! who did not occupy any official post whatsoe&er. Secret, insinuating, he worked strictly behind the scenes and under co&er. )e was not e&en a colonel. )is name was 2dward 5andell )ouse. !"he public was mystified, that1s for certain,! wrote @harles Seymour, the well-known American history professor. )ouse1s father, of Bewish origins, had come from 2ngland' his middle name was that of a Bewish merchant who was a friend of his father. )is father, on arri&ing in America, had first been a 5exican citi:en. "hen he had fought to make

"exas into a republic. Astutely, he had taken his pay for that collaboration in land. Later he parted company with the federal go&ernment to the Gorth, then threw in his lot with it anew. !Four different flags,! he laconically said. "he family became &ery rich through the trade in cotton by sea during the !somber and stormy! nights of the War between the States. Arms trade and munitions made them money as well. "hese acti&ities were capped by the purchase of an entire block in the city of #al&eston. "he son, Wilson1s future manager, was raised there in an en&ironment of gunpowder. !5y brother,! he related, !one day had half of his face blown off. )e remained disfigured for the rest of his life. ; don1t know how ; managed not to kill myself a hundred times o&er.! ;n school he carried a little pocket arsenal( !;n addition to a re&ol&er, ; had a big knife. "hose weapons let me keep my comrades at a respectful distance.! )e spent some time in the mountains !where he could do some shooting.! When he was se&enteen years old he fell in lo&e with another kind of fighting( political battles, and became a sort of secret agent for William "ilden, the 6emocratic presidential candidate in +D-=. !; ended up reali:ing that two or three senators and a like number of representati&es, in concert with the president, directed the affairs of the country all by themsel&es.! ;n twenty-fi&e years he would succeed in reser&ing the direction of the country for himself, not ust sharing it with two or three senators. Was he at least a normal beingH

!%ne day,! he recounted, !when ; was soaring &ery high on a swing, one of the ropes broke and ; fell on my head.! 6id it crackH ;n any e&ent, the rope of the political swing did not break. )is father died and left him a large fortune made during the @i&il War, and )ouse set out to con?uer "exas politically. "exas in those days, as he described it, was !a frontier state where the law was in the ser&ice of the indi&idual with the keenest eye and the ?uickest hand, and where you died with your boots on.! %ne day, in a bar in @olorado, a giant of a man insulted him( !; grabbed my six-shooter and cocked it, but the bartender umped o&er the counter and threw himself between us. Fi&e more seconds and ;1d ha&e killed my man.! "hus prepared, he embarked on the career which would one day make him the man who directed the thinking of America1s president. )ouse became the campaign director for a gubernatorial candidate of the 6emocratic party, a man named )ogg, who was elected primarily because of )ouse1s dri&e. !"hat campaign,! )ouse recalled, !was a real battle.! "hanks to )ogg, )ouse was abruptly promoted from a @olorado barroom brawler to the rank of colonel. Afterwards he would ne&er be called anything but !the colonel.! @olonel of whatH %f nothing. )e had ne&er passed a single hour of his life in a military barracks, but #o&ernor )ogg had the power at that time in "exas to name anyone at all an honorary colonel. $$$

"exas grew too small for him. !;1m beginning to get tired of it,! he sighed. !#o to the front lines0 "hat1s where you belong from now on0! )ogg told him. "he front was the 2ast @oast' it was Gew *ork. )is attention was drawn to the go&ernor of Gew Bersey, a man named Woodrow Wilson. According to police records, he hadn1t killed or robbed anyone' his speeches, &ery academic, were oiled with an abundance of the moral platitudes so dear to the &oters, and he was said to be easily managed. 4rime presidential material0 proposed )ouse, his choice made, immediately mobili:ed his agents( !; prop to di&ide the forty "exans into four s?uads and to entrust each s?uad with the assault on one of the doubtful Southern states.! )e set up propaganda centers in e&ery city, as would nowadays be done in the launching of a new brand of detergent. %n Go&ember E, +,+7, Woodrow Wilson, riding on the shoulders of @olonel )ouse, was elected to the presidency. Wilson formed his first cabinet, and )ouse made it a point not to accept any post. $ut his hand was e&erywhere, in&isible, and ?uick as lightning. At the end of +,+8, when Wilson sent him to see Wilhelm ;;, he had armed him with this simple and astonishing introduction( !;n the Cnited States, he is the 4ower behind the "hrone.! ;t was Wilson himself who spelled power with a capital 4. ;t was in that capacity that Wilhelm ;; was going to recei&e him, and it was from that time we date the first attempt of the C.S. to a&ert the 2uropean war. "hat !4ower! was going to become the supreme power not only of the Cnited States, but, the following year, of the First World War. Without the secret but persistent intrigues

of this manipulator, there would not ha&e been any "reaty of 9ersailles, still less the Second World War, the poisonous mushroom spawned out of the rottenness of the preceding one. @olonel )ouse was the key figure of +,+A-+,+D. ;n the 2urope of those years no one e&en suspected )ouse1s existence, apart from a few heads of state and, in +,+,, a do:en leaders of the so- called !peace! conference. @lemenceau in pri&ate would call him the !superci&ili:ed escapee from the wilds of "exas.! For the world as a whole, there was only Wilson. Wilson would be recei&ed at 4aris in Banuary +,+, as the most important luminary in the world. "he man who was really the most important, howe&er, and had been since +,+8, was the other one, the shadow, for whom a hotel room sufficed in $erlin, in London, or in 4aris. ;n +,+- and +,+D, in furti&e silence, )ouse would bring to the Allies, those de&ourers of men, two million fine American lads, not to mention billions of dollars and prodigious ?uantities of raw materials. )ouse gained his mastery o&er Wilson all the more swiftly because the latter had always li&ed phenomenally aloof from 2uropean problems. !5r. Wilson,! @olonel )ouse ?uite crudely explained, !had no experience with affairs of state.! )e added( !"he attitude of 4resident Wilson with regard to the 2uropean situation bordered on indifference.! "hat indifference was natural enough. "he platform on which Wilson had made it to the presidency of the Cnited States would ha&e gi&en one to belie&e that the world didn1t exist beyond the 4otomac.

!"he 6emocratic platform,! )ouse noted, !does not contain a single word on the sub ect of foreign relations or problems, except for one allusion to the 4hilippines. ! "hat indifference was in truth shared by nearly all of America. At the beginning of Wilson1s presidency,! )ouse frankly related, !there were few citi:ens of the Cnited States who could claim any knowledge of 2uropean affairs of state or who had any interest in them.! <=ntimate Papers of Colonel 5ouse, &ol. +, p. 7-7> As for diplomats, the incoming 4resident Wilson, who took office in +,+8, was ill-ser&ed in a way scarcely possible to imagine. All the important diplomatic posts of the Cnited States were distributed after the elections almost by auction among the electoral supporters of the new president, whate&er their degree of ignorance. !; am being swamped by office seekers,! )ouse moaned. !Bob applicants are dri&ing me cra:y0 Six hundred employment re?uests for a single post. 2&erybody wants something. All the eccentrics in the country are at my heels. A hungry pack,! he concluded. )ouse had to pass on the candidates for federal udgeships. "wo were too fat. Another had no chin. "here was only one left who was presentable. !; still ha&e someone to recommend,! )ouse went on to say, patient as Bob, !but he has a big wart behind his ear, and ; shall recommend to him that he take care not to show that side of his head.! ;n the appointment of new ambassadors-the proceding ones, the 3epublicans, ha&ing been swept aside like empty food

cans-the precedure was no different. !"he people running the party saw nothing in the post of ambassador but the means of gi&ing an appointment to political figures whose support it was important to hang onto.! <5ouse& ;, 7+.> Wilson had finally sent as ambassador to $erlin a udge who had got the position from )ouse when he himself recogni:ed that he had no chance of obtaining it on merit. As for the new American ambassador to London, he didn1t know e&en the rudiments of the ob. !"hat man,! )ouse tells us almost eeringly, !asked 5r. $ryan <the secretary of state> to be so kind as to reser&e a place for him in the kindergarten so that he might learn the essentials of his ob as ?uickly as possible. $ryan laughingly replied( JFirst ;1d ha&e to learn them myself.1 ! "he ambassadorial candidate for kindergarten was named #erard. When he had arri&ed in London, he1d had to resol&e !the infernal ?uestions of dress,! and was condemned to wear knee-breeches to ceremonies at the court. !; find,! this impromptu diplomat wrote, !that it is a laborious task taking a duchess to dinner.! "he $erlin staff as well had not found it easy to fit in at the imperial salons. !We Americans,! #erard, the new ambassador, wrote to )ouse, describing his first trip through $erlin in the retinue of the court, !had rather a lugubrious air in our black tails. We must ha&e looked like a burial procession in those carriages all enclosed in glass.! "hey were called !the black crows! there. "hese newly appointed diplomats had all set out aimlessly, to $erlin as to London, without ha&ing recei&ed a single line of instructions from Wilson. !A short time after the

appointment of 5r. 4age to the embassy to the court of St. Bames,! )ouse recounted, !; asked Wilson if he had gi&en the new ambassador any additional instructions. "he president replied in the negati&e.! As the $ritish prime minister would one day say, !"hey were skating on thin ice.!

CHAPTE ... America Chooses Sides Wilson li&ed modestly. When )ouse stayed with him, they shared the same bathroom. After the e&ening meal the president would read the !Ad&entures in Arcadia! aloud. )e would wind up the clock, let the cats out, and be up at six thirty the next morning. )is White )ouse guests were not o&erindulged( !"here was nothing to smoke and only water to drink,! recalls )ouse. !)e appeared literally incapable of handling more than one thought at a time, !; regret to say,! wrote )ouse, !he would sometimes act on &ery important matters with hardly any consideration.! <5ouse& ;, p. +.8>. $ehind this presidential front, )ouse made his own mo&es unobtrusi&ely. !)e could walk on dead lea&es as silently as a tiger,! said Senator #ore. )ouse en oyed his power behind the throne, and for eight years he would pull the strings of presidential power. Wilson appeared ?uite comfortable with the arrangement( !5r. )ouse is my alter ego. )e is myself independent from

me. )is thoughts and mine are one.! )ouse exercised his power as unelected president in the affairs of 2urope, which at that time were not of the slightest interest to the public or the politicians. "he world would witness the strange spectacle of a Cnited States president accompanying )ouse to his train in the most deferential manner. !@olonel! 5andell )ouse was being sent off to 2urope to represent the Cnited States and the president among foreign rulers without any official mandate. From Banuary +,+A to the end of Buly +,+A he sent Wilson numerous letters con&eying his interpretation of what ailed 2urope( the conflicts were idiotic and only a non-2uropean arbiter could bring them to an end. ;n 2urope, )ouse created an exotic impression. #erman generals tried to talk military strategy with the !colonel! without much success. )ouse finally explained he was more a political strategist than a field tactician and went on to meet the /aiser. "he /aiser recei&ed )ouse warmly at 4otsdam( !)is 2nglish is clear and concise,! )ouse wrote Wilson, !)e is too much of a gentleman to monopoli:e the con&ersation. )e speaks and he listens. )e wants peace because #ermany1s interest demands it. )e expresses good will and admiration for 2ngland.! )ouse re&ealed his plans for peace( !; told the /aiser why ; undertook my mission and why ; was in #ermany in the first place. ; wanted to talk with him. An American would probably be better than a 2uropean in sol&ing problems.!

)ouse was &ery proud to announce that the /aiser had accepted his !conclusions!( !; ha&e succeeded as much as ; could ha&e expected. ; am &ery satisfied with the result.! )ouse belie&ed that the only threat to peace was the /aiser and that since he had won him o&er he had in fact sol&ed e&ery problem. All that remained was a formality( a &isit to 4aris and London in order to seal peace in 2urope. ;t would be in these two cities, howe&er, that )ouse would experience patent failure. ;n 4aris the politicians were playing musical chairs as usual. 6uring the "hird 3epublic Frenchmen were ruled by an a&erage of E.. ministers per decade. )ouse arri&ed in the midst of a frantic shuffle of portfolios. )e could find no one to whom he could talk about his mission. ;n any e&ent 4aris was totally absorbed in the 5adame @aillaux affair, which had chased all other issues from the headlines for more than a month. "here was no way )ouse could compete with such an attraction. )e left 4aris on Bune ,, +,+A empty-handed. ;n London he met with similar lack of interest( !London is completely in&ol&ed in the social whirl. ;t is impossible to do any business now. 4eople only think about Ascot and garden parties. ; am on barren ground,! )ouse wrote. For the most part he would meet people who studiously a&oided responsibility. )e finally managed to be recei&ed by Foreign 5inister Sir 2dward #rey, whose main interest lay in fishing and bird calls. )e knew A+ different calls, he informed )ouse. )ouse found him !uninformed about the Cnited States and its institutions.! 2&erywhere he went, he tried to sell his peace plan( !; insist on the importance of

adopting a precise policy of international collaboration aimed at practical goals.! "his was exactly what his pompous interlocutors did not want. )ouse compared the &arious attitudes( $erlin was une?ui&ocally positi&e, in 4aris no one wanted to talk to him, and London was deathly afraid of talking peace, indeed e&en of the possibility of talking peace. At that time the Sara e&o assassination had not yet occurred. "here was no official display of anti-#erman posturing, although the $ritish 2stablishment hated #erman trade competitors. "wo months later the $ritish go&ernment and press would noisily broadcast that the /aiser had wanted the war. ;n mid-Bune +,+A, howe&er, he was the only one who took the time to listen and to appro&e of )ouse1s plan. )e alone accepted American mediation to preser&e peace in 2urope. )ouse was at a loss to explain why the others had pro&ed to be un cooperati&e. #rey hinted a reason( !; must take French and 3ussian susceptibilities into account.! <5ouse& ;, 8.-> Why would peace talks upset the French and the 3ussiansH Sir William "yrell shared #rey1s concern( !; am looking for a way to approach the #ermans without upsetting the 2ntente1s other members.! "he admission was re&ealing. "he situation was growing urgent( by then a whole week had elapsed after the Buly 8, +,+A Sara e&o assassination. "he $ritish go&ernment e&en refused a &erbal communication with #ermany. )ouse tried in &ain( !; attempted to get an answer before my departure, but Sir 2dward diplomatically sidestepped

the issue.! With this final brush-off )ouse wrote the /aiser a threepage letter on Buly ,, +,+A( 5y purpose in undertaking this ourney was to find out the possibilities of creating a more cordial relationship among the great powers. @onsidering the prominent position *our 5a esty occupies in the world and its well-known desire to maintain peace, ; went immediately to $erlin as *our 5a esty knows. ; will ne&er forget *our 5a esty1s kindly support of the plan con&eyed by my mission as well as the clear exposition concerning present world conditions kindly offered by *our 5a esty. *our 5a esty ga&e me all the assurances of its bene&olent appro&al concerning my 4resident1s pro ect. ; left #ermany happy at the thought that *our 5a esty would use its high influence in fa&or of peace. ;n 2ngland he had not been able to see the $ritish monarch from near or far while in 4ostdam he had been in&ited to the emperor1s table and had been free to con&erse with him at length. "he $ritish ministers who had welcomed him were extremely e&asi&e' )ouse was seen as a untimely nuisance. $$$ Wilson was still elated at )ouse1s $erlin success and thought peace was at hand( !*our letter from 4aris,! the president wrote, !written as soon as you left $erlin caused me a profound oy. ; belie&e and ; hope you ha&e laid the first foundation for a great achie&ement.! %n Buly 8+, +,+A )ouse wrote his last letter to the

president( ; ha&e failed to con&ey to them the urgent necessity for immediate action. "hus they let things drag on without gi&ing me the definiti&e answer which ; wanted to send to the /aiser. ;f my pro ect could ha&e been ad&anced further #ermany could ha&e exerted pressure on Austria and the cause of peace might ha&e been sa&ed. Forty-fi&e days had gone by in London and )ouse had not con&inced anybody. 4rofessor @harles Seymour of *ale would write after the war( !;f only the $ritish had decided to consider )ouse1s proposals in time we might ha&e reached an international agreement before the Sara e&o murder.! !5y go&ernment,! concluded 4age, Cnited States ambassador in London, !did e&erything in its power to pre&ent war.! "he go&ernments of France and $ritain had demonstrated their bellicosity by re ecting the American offer. "hey were set on war and were not about to be sidetracked into peace. "he /aiser often said during his post-war 6utch exile( !)ouse1s &isit in $erlin during the spring of +,+A almost pre&ented the war.! "he Allies1 lust for war was such that e&en when the #ermans had the ad&antage they still refused to negotiate, regardless of the frightful cost in li&es. )ouse would later switch o&er to the $ritish side but at the time he left no doubt as who was responsible for the war( !; am often asked who is responsible for the war,! he wrote on April +E, +,+E. !; ne&er commit myself. $ut here ; can say what ;

think( ; do not belie&e the /aiser wanted the war. ! For two more years Wilson would se&eral times sincerely attempt peace negotiations, while at the same time )ouse drew closer and closer to the Allies. Wilson1s efforts were cause for marked irritation among the Allies, whose unswer&ing goal was to crush #ermany. Gothing else was allowed to inter&ene. Apart from his desire for peace Wilson1s persistent efforts were also undertaken with an eye on the electorate, which was almost unanimously neutralist. Cntil April +,+- the Cnited States go&ernment maintained its course for peace. ;n the end, it took all of )ouse and $alfour1s mastery of intrigue to railroad America into the war.

CHAPTE ...I !i0 !usiness $y the fall of +,+A American big business had a clear perception that the 2uropean war, horrible as it was, could translate into windfall profits. Wilson1s peace efforts had weakened the impact of the charge of war profiteering, and business felt ustified to sei:e the opportunity of the century. Within a few years the Cnited States, with only four and a half million industrial workers at the beginning of +,.., would become not only the granary of the world but an industrial giant. "he warring nations needed American raw

materials( copper production would increase by half in four years, :inc production would double, steel would ump from 88 to AE million tons, coal production would increase by +-7 million tons. America1s industrial capacity would increase fi&e-fold in the years after +,+A. Shipbuilding would reach three million tons compared to 7..,... in +,+A. ;ndustrial profits would soar between 7. to E. per cent. American exports would grow in four years of war as much as in the preceding +7E years of American history. Wheat and flour exports would double, meat and steel exports would ?uadruple. "he economics of the war would make America-based banks the recipients of half the world1s gold. As a whole banking in the Americas benefited from the 2uropean uphea&al. 5assi&e markets in South America, which until this point had been controlled by $ritish capitalists, opened to American business. American in&estment in Latin America increased +8 times in these few short years, and American companies came to control more than two thirds of all fruit, rubber, sugar, oil, nitrate and copper exports. American businesses would gain A- per cent of $ra:il1s international trade and E. per cent of 9ene:uela1s during the war years, and would export twice as much as the $ritish companies. American-based banks mo&ed into Latin America. 5organ #uarantee "rust in Argentina, 5ercantile in 9ene:uela and 4eru, Gational @ity in $ra:il and Cruguay were only the most important. *et, although the war had created opportunities for the banks, the great ma ority of Americans still regarded it as an incomprehensible conflict in which

the Cnited States should a&oid any in&ol&ement. From the outset the Allies had bombarded America with anti-#erman atrocity stories. "heir impact was limited, because aside from the neutralist sentiments of the people, the American news media, much of which was controlled by influential Bews, was pro-#erman for its own reasons. Bewish money and manpower had been hea&ily in&ested in the $olshe&ik re&olution, and regarded #ermany as a &ital component in their bid to o&erthrow the 3ussian go&ernment and install a @ommunist regime. ;t was not until +,+- that #ermany outli&ed its usefulness( by then, the tsar had been o&erthrown and the /aiser had pro&ed himself useless in con&incing his "urkish allies to relin?uish their 4alestinian pro&ince as a home for the Bews. Although the "urks were unwilling to let go of 4alestine, particularly at a time when the fortunes of war were weighing in their fa&or, the $ritish 2stablishment was more than eager to promise 4alestine to the Bews of the world in exchange for a fa&or. Lord $alfour transacted the bargain( as a consideration for Bewish assistance in bringing America into the war on the $ritish side, the go&ernment of #reat $ritain would deli&er 4alestine into Bewish hands once the war had been won. "his $ritish promissary note became known as the $alfour 6eclaration. Bewish assistance was indeed in&aluable in re&ersing almost o&ernight America1s entrenched neutralism. Suddenly Allied propaganda recei&ed full co&erage in American newspapers. From +,+- the public was fed fantastic stories dressed up as news, such as the !disco&ery! that the #ermans had secret gun emplacements in the Cnited States ready to bombard Gew *ork and Washington. "his

alarming !news! had been planted by the Allies as early as %ctober +,+A and had succeeded in finding its way into presidential intelligence reports( !We ha&e good reason,! said an alarmed Wilson to )ouse, !to belie&e that the #ermans ha&e built in our own country concrete platforms for guns as powerful as the ones they are using in $elgium and France. As far as ; am concerned ; do not say aloud what ; know of this report. ;f it got out the whole country would be stirred to such an extent that ; fear the conse?uences.! 6espite his credulity, at the time Wilson wanted peace, but it was remarkable that he could belie&e such ob&iously absurd information, to the point of ordering an army general to conduct an in?uiry !with the utmost discretion.! "here was also the !re&elation! that the #erman military attachF in Washington was going to blow up Gew *ork1s port and subway. An official in?uiry dispro&ed the rumor. $$$ )ouse understood the power of rumor mills and manipulated news. ;n the early days he tried to calm Wilson down( !#eneral Wood1s in?uiry will demonstrate the inanity of these rumors. 5ost misunderstandings are caused by lying reports or come from sowers of discord.! "hus, in the early years of the war, all Allied efforts to bring the Cnited States into the war failed. "he $ritish ambassador in Washington regretfully reported( !At least DE.-o of the Americans want neutrality.! Wilson knew that' he also knew it would be political suicide to oppose neutrality in his +,+= bid for a second term. Geutrality was Wilson1s campaign theme. )e called for

!strict neutrality, a real spirit of neutrality, a spirit of impartiality and goodwill towards all interested parties! at e&ery opportunity. 6uring the election campaign Wilson, indeed, placed the #ermans on the same footing as the $ritish. Wilson1s relationship with #ermany was ne&ertheless an ambi&alent one. )e knew almost nothing of #erman history and culture and had a deep hatred of #erman philosphers, or rather his conception of them. Somewhat in line with @lemenceau1s railing against the 5unich beer halls as temples of #erman thought, Wilson explained as early as August +,+A, his a&ersion( !#erman philosophy is essentially an egotistic concept, de&oid of any spirituality.! Where had Wilson gotten such an interpretation so de&oid of knowledge and rationalityH As a @al&inist, he regarded /ant, )egel and Schopenhauer as threats to his religious con&ictions and his concept of politics. ;n his mind the #erman philosophers, not the kaiser, were responsible for the war. Wilson1s irrational hatred was shared by most of his cabinet, which included a strong contingent of pro-$ritish sympathi:ers as well. "he secretary of state, William Bennings $ryan, whose son-in-law was ser&ing as a $ritish officer, was told by his cabinet colleague, Lane, on 5ay E, +,+E( !; belie&e not a single cabinet member has a drop of "euton blood in his &eins. "wo among us were born $ritish' two of my cousins and three of 5rs. Lane1s cousins are now fighting in the $ritish army.! )ouse felt it necessary to caution the members( !We must be &ery careful in the way we act because as you know the

Americans are &ery emotional.! <5ouse& ;, 8E+> )ouse1s reference to American emotionality epitomi:ed the attitude of the Washington pro-$ritish elite towards the people they ruled( the Americans like a potentially hostile mass, had to be treated cautiously, and manipulated into accepting what was deemed best for them by their $ritish betters. Ambassador 4age, who represented the Cnited States in London, found it hard to hide his pro-$ritish fer&or, and became a relentless propagandist for the $ritish 2stablishment. )ouse, forgetting how condescendingly he1d been treated in London <or possibly because of it> became an eager errand boy for the lofty $ritish lords. 2xercising the caution he had urged on the members of cabinet, he de&ised a secret code to communicate with the $ritish ambassador in Washington. Starting out by being the ambassador1s confidant, he became his accomplice. For the first two years of the war Washington was the scene of ama:ing double dealing. %fficially the go&ernment loudly proclaimed its neutrality, with Wilson declaring( !"his is a war which does not affect us in any way. ;ts causes are totally alien to us.! <5ouse& ;, 8A7> While the American people were lapping up these fine speeches which reflected their own &iews, their elected representati&es were sabotaging the &ery neutrality they had been entrusted to preser&e. Wilson1s a&ersion to #ermans was somewhat mitigated by his political aspirations. )e planned to launch another peace offensi&e. After the #erman &ictories of August +,+A, Wilson wrote to Kimmermann on September E, +,+A( !Gow

that the /aiser has ust demonstrated so well the strength of his armies, wouldn1t he find that if he accepted peace negotiations today, he would make a gesture which would confirm the peaceful intentions he has always been proud ofH! "he #erman ambassador in Washington immediately informed )ouse( !;f the 2ntente is sending a signal, #ermany will show itself reasonable.! <5ouse& ;, 8D8> After con&ersing with the ambassador, )ouse recorded in his diary on 6ecember 7-, +,+A( !;f ; could obtain from the Allies their consent to start negotiations ; would find the #ermans &ery well disposed.! $$$ "he $ritish foreign minister, Sir 2dward #rey was less forthcoming( !All we can promise here, if #ermany sincerely and seriously seeks peace, is that ; will agree to consult our friends on conditions they will deem acceptable.! )ouse had been recei&ed by #rey in London but he was gi&en a lecture on 2nglish blackbirds as compared to the "exan &ariety. #rey had refused to discuss any peace proposals except to ask )ouse( !"he president must not talk about peace conditions.! )ouse was told in London that the $ritish go&ernment would send one and a half million more troops to the war :one and !like Wellington at Waterloo, catch the fox by the tail.! "he French go&ernment was also disinclined to talk of peace. )ouse noted( !"hey not only want Alsace-Lorraine but much more. "hus one cannot e&en en&isage peace.!

<5ouse& ;, AA-> French bureaucrats and politicians alike were blunt with )ouse( they did not want to hear anything about peace. )ouse was percepti&e enough to establish the wide difference between the rulers of France and the great mass of Frenchmen( !;n France,! he wrote 4resident Wilson, !the ruling classes do not want peace but the ma ority of the people and the men in the trenches all want peace &ery much.! $ack in $ritain, )ouse had come to similar conclusion( !"he war has not rallied the appro&al of the 2nglish people and if public opinion were to be heard, one would see how really unpopular the war was.! "he horrors of war, instead of sobering go&ernments, would inflame them e&en more. #reed was o&erpowering. "he allies $ritain had recruited from the far corners of the earth regarded peace as a blight on their spoils of war. !South Africa,! noted )ouse, !has no intention of gi&ing up #erman Africa, which it has sei:ed ... Australia likewise will not gi&e up #erman %ceania.! Since the Allied spring offensi&e of +,+E had failed miserably, the Allies decided to star&e the #ermans into submission by a blockade. "he employment and conduct of blockades was strictly regulated by international law. "he $ritish had been the prime ad&ocates for the protection of neutral &essels throughout the seas. "he first )ague @onference had enshrined the !in&iolability of pri&ate property during na&al warfare! and the second had, at Sir 2dward #rey1s urging, !consented to renounce all principles defining contraband during warfare.! At the +,.- )ague @onference the $ritish declared(

;n order to decrease the difficulties of neutral trading countries in time of war, )is 5a esty1s go&ernment is ready to forego the principle of wartime contraband with nations willing to sign a con&ention to this effect. "he right of inspection will be maintained only for the purpose of &erifying the merchant ships1 neutrality.! <5ouse& ;, AE=> "he $ritish state secretary 3oot supported these same principles, i.e. the guaranteed immunity of the belligerents1 pri&ate property on the seas( !%nly the contraband of arms and munitions would be prohibited. "ransport of goods and raw material would be free of all controls and free of any hindrance.! "hese declarations represented $ritish interests then. ;n +,.- the $ritish establishment1s lifeline and power depended on the importation of goods and raw material from the rest of the world. When their own treaties and declarations no longer suited them, howe&er, the $ritish go&ernment deliberately &iolated the +,.- )ague "reaty, as well as all the other international treaties it had signed. ;t was like changing the rules of cricket in the middle of the game. When war broke out the $ritish ignored the pro&isions of the treaties they signed( they intercepted neutral &essels, including American &essels, and imposed a forced sale of their contents. %n September =, +,+A )ouse informed Wilson( !$ritain is pre&enting access to neutral ports. First it inspects the ship1s contents, and if there is foodstuff a forced sale is imposed.! <5ouse& ;, 8==> "he outrage was so flagrant that e&en the pro-$ritish cabinet member Lane was prompted to write on 5ay E,

+,+E to )ouse( "he $ritish are not beha&ing well. "hey are detaining our &essels' they ha&e created a new international code. We ha&e shown much indulgence and tolerance for the way they ha&e taken the seas as their pri&ate toll-gates. < 5ouse& ;, E+7> )ouse declared the $ritish practice !illegal! and stated on Bune 7, +,+E( !"he $ritish people would ne&er ha&e tolerated such practices if they had been in our position.! <5ouse& ;, E7.> "he American &oters were getting irate( )ow dare the $ritish stop American exportsH )ouse felt the danger and on Bune 8, +,+E warned Wilson( !"he $ritish put e&erybody in the same bag regardless of nationality.! %n 5arch ,, +,+E the publisher of the San Francisco 6aily @hronicle was the first to demand retribution against $ritish law-breaking( !$ritain was wrong in declaring a blockade against #ermany. ;f $ritain further persists, our go&ernment will be totally ustified in putting an embargo on war materiel.! Lloyd #eorge panicked at that prospect writing )ouse on Bune 7, +,+E( !"he cause of the Allies would be seriously threatened if the Americans stopped supplying their armies at this time.! <5ouse, ;, E+D> )ouse tried to con&ince the $ritish to return to a less &exing conception of international law. Without consulting their partners at the )ague, they had disregarded their own signatures on the treaties and embarked on a piratical policy against the nations of the entire world. Wilson wanted some kind of !gentleman1s agreement! to end this flagrant

&iolation of international law. )e proposed that !the nomenclature of contraband goods be limited to war materiel only and all the rest ha&e total commercial freedom. 5erchant &essels, whether neutral or belligerent, must tra&el freely outside territorial waters as long as they do not carry contraband thus defined.! Wilson1s proposal to the $ritish was almost identical to the instructions Sir 2dward #rey had gi&en his delegates at the +,.- )ague @onference. )ouse pointed out it should not be difficult for the $ritish to honor their treaty obligations since they had the most to benefit( !"he threat of submarine warfare would be remo&ed. According to the principle of freedom of the seas the country with the most o&erseas colonies would benefit the most. $ritain would get the lion1s share <of the agreement>.! <5ouse, ;, AED> For the $ritish 2stablishment, howe&er, the lion1s share was far from enough( it wanted all and e&erything. Since 4hilip ;; of Spain and Gapoleon of France had confronted the $ritish monopoly of the seas without success, it was unlikely that )ouse and Wilson would ha&e much impact on the rulers of the @ity, London1s financial ner&e center. "he #ermans welcomed Wilson1s proposals. #erman diplomat 6ernberg informed Washington( !;f $ritain accepts freedom of the seas, the #ermans will immediately e&acuate $elgium.! <5ouse, ;, A=+> Wilson1s good intentions were, howe&er, thwarted within his own cabinet by the pro- $ritish lobby. "he president instructed his ambassador in London !to present his &iews with the utmost &igor.! "o this presidential order, Ambassador 4age replied that he had no desire to present any such &iews to the $ritish go&ernment.

#erman compromise and American peace mo&es did not interest the $ritish go&ernment, the chief ob ecti&e of which at that time was to draw the Cnited States into the war. "he $ritish wanted to tap America1s dollars and America1s young men for their war. #rey re ected Wilson1s offer with polite cynicism( !"he Cnited States1 entry into the war is of great benefit to #reat $ritain, while acceding to your demand would mean that we would be acting as a neutral.! <5ouse, ;, A=D> Wilson1s efforts were gi&en wide publicity to impress American &oters, who were getting more and more outraged with $ritish &iolations, but behind the scenes the $ritish lobby was inexorably dragging America into the war. )ouse felt confident in writing( !"he 4resident sympathi:es from the bottom of his heart with the cause and aims of the Allies.! <5ouse& ;, E7.>. )ouse was then playing a double game( &ocal protestations of neutrality for the sake of the electorate, while scheming with the $ritish to destroy America1s neutrality. %n Bune +, +,+E )ouse was able, before lea&ing London, to inform the $ritish cabinet confidentially( !;t is my firm intention to insist that the 4resident does not wage a token war. We must oin it with all the strength, the &irility and tenacity of our people in such a way that 2urope will remember our inter&ention for at least a century.! "he date was significant( Bune +, +,+E. American participation had already been decided on and it would not be a token war. )ouse, somewhat carried away by his war fer&or, cabled Wilson( !%ur inter&ention will decrease rather than increase human losses.! "he American young

men who would die on the Argonne front in +,+D would sadly contradict )ouse1s absurd statement.

CHAPTE ...II The 2usitania Affair For one year the American people had been led to belie&e what their go&ernment was saying, ne&er knowing what it was scheming. As early as February +,+E the $ritish were ?uite sure they could get away with anything, so much so they had not hesitated in using the American flag on their own &essels. %ne could well imagine the international outcry if #erman ships had done the same thing. !Washington,! wrote 4rofessor Seymour <5ouse, ;, A.A>, !ad&ised #reat $ritain as to the dangers of flying American flags on her ships without any authori:ation.! "his maritime fraud was, of course, known to the #ermans. Strangely, )ouse1s humbling experience in 2ngland did not pre&ent him from returning as a discreet and reliable $ritish ally. "he American electorate had still to be handled with care. "he +,+= elections had to be won because a defeat could threaten the administration1s war plans. 4resident Wilson organi:ed days of prayers for peace. "hat suited e&erybody, especially those who en&isioned spending the war reaping profits from it. "here was, howe&er, a danger that the banks in&ol&ed in financing the &arious belligerents would be damaged in the conflict. "he lending

institutions would be hard put not to take sides when it came to protecting their in&estments. A defeated side could well drag leaders down with it. "he Allies1 large fleet ?ualified them as preferred borrowers. "here were large ?uantities of cotton and munitions to be sold and shipped. "he American public was sold the notion that such loans would be good for business and prosperity. Wilson helped the loan program when he informed the banks( !"he go&ernment sees no ob ection in opening banking credits to all belligerents.! ;n theory it sounded impartial but in reality the Allies would recei&e ,E per cent of the loans and #ermany E per cent. 4rofessor 4ierre 3enou&in, a staunch supporter of the Allies, had to admit( !American economic and financial relations were almost exclusi&ely tied to #reat $ritain and France. )ow could such a situation not ha&e political conse?uencesH "he neutrality of the Cnited States is no longer impartial.! At the beginning this imbalance was not an issue. )ouse maintained( !We will act not only to sa&e ci&ili:ation but also for our own benefit.! "o the banks, the Allies were attracti&e clients. "hey paid well and on time with money borrowed from the Cnited States go&ernment. $$$ "he #ermans had not reacted &iolently to this situation. "hey were finding alternati&es. @ut off from the sea, they supplied themsel&es by land. "hey increased their purchases from Gorway by D. per cent, from 6enmark and Sweden by 7.. per cent. "hey would e&en buy 2nglish tea in Sweden.

"he $ritish ha&e always had a &ery flexible conscience when it came to looking after their own interests( they would attack neutral &essels carrying goods to #ermany and at the same time sell their surpluses e&en if they knew the #ermans would e&entually use them. 4rofessor 3enou&in explained this mercantile practice( !;n order to reduce trade deficits #reat $ritain thought it wise to re-export their surpluses e&en if the enemy would e&entually profit by that. As the 2ntente1s banker, the $ritish go&ernment ranked financial considerations abo&e all else.! "hus the $ritish were fencing to the #ermans what they had piratically rifled from neutral ships, and neutral ships were sunk with increasing fre?uency by the $ritish na&y. 3eaction against $ritish piracy was offset by the #erman sinking of the *usitania on 5ay -, +,+E, off the southern coast of ;reland. "he tragedy was used as a propaganda bonan:a by the $ritish lobby in the Cnited States. "he liner was $ritish, not American, but one hundred and eighteen of her passengers were Cnited States citi:ens. !We will be at war with #ermany within a month,! declared )ouse. 4age, the pro-$ritish Cnited States ambassador in London was elated, and cynically hoped for another such sinking. %n Buly 7+, +,+E he cabled )ouse( !;t is strange to say but ; only see one solution to the present situation( a new outrage like the *usitania sinking that would force us into war.! %n Banuary ++, +,+= )ouse cabled Wilson with similar cynicism( !2ngland should be grateful for all acts of terrorism committed by #ermany because each person-

man, woman or child-killed on land or sea, is dying for 2ngland.! Facts mattered little, e&erything was used for the propaganda mills. ;n +,+A the $ritish story that #ermans were cutting off children1s hands had done wonders on the propaganda front and so had the $ritish &ersion of the *usitania sinking. )ouse cabled Wilson again to tell him how happy he was that the #erman :eppelins had bombed London and killed two hundred people. )e ?uoted the remark of $ritish minister on the matter( !;t1s a pity they did not shake up the west of 2ngland, where recruitment has been lagging.! $$$ "he *usitania ga&e the American press a field day. "here was an explosion of ournalistic outrage about the murder of innocent tourists. "he massi&e press exploitation of these unfortunate passengers was decisi&e. ;t did not drag America into the war within a month as )ouse had predicted, but it nearly did away with America1s neutrality. "he *usitania &ictims were combined with the stories of #erman gun emplacements in $rooklyn, the cutting off of $elgian children1s hands and other barbarities. "he #ermans had now become "eutons and )uns. ;t took half a century to establish the truth about the *usitania. An underwater exploration of the sunken ship re&ealed that its hulls were full of ammunition. "he $ritish arms dealers had used tourists to camouflage their war materiel. "hey had used twel&e hundred li&es to hide their contraband and collect their ill-gotten gains. "he #ermans were aware of this deception and were well

within the bounds of international law by attacking an arms-carrying enemy &essel. "he *usitania was a warship disguised as an ocean liner by the $ritish arms merchants. "hey lured twel&e hundred innocent people to their deaths and they alone bear the guilt of this tragedy. As they unconscionably flew American flags on $ritish ships to co&er up their trafficking, so did they use innocent people. "he truth about the *usitania came half a century late. ;t was historically important but was of no rele&ance to the e&ents of World War ;. "he case illustrates well that truth at the time is better than the truth later. "he #ermans were o&erwhelmed by the superior $ritish propaganda machine. "he sheer weight of its per&asi&e influence could turn lies into facts throughout the world. #ermany was ne&er able to put its side of the story across for lack of a propaganda network, and was forced to go along with $ritish fraud. ;t indemnified families of American citi:ens lost in action and undertook not to attack passenger-carrying &essels !without due warning! and not before !the li&es of non-combatants had been ensured protection.! Such a declaration made all #erman submarines &ulnerable. )ow could submarines inspect armed &essels like the *usitania without being shot at as soon as they surfacedH "hey would be blown apart in short order. Furthermore, the *usitania incident supplied the excuse to place guns on American merchant &essels. "hus, for a year and a half, the entire #erman submarine fleet would be restricted to its bases in #ermany while the Allies plied the seas as they wished.

"his one-sided imposition on the #erman go&ernment was deemed intolerable e&en by members of the Wilson administration. %n %ctober 7, +,+E the secretary of state told )ouse( !;f our merchant ships are armed, they will ha&e e&ery ad&antage o&er enemy submarines expected not to fire without warning. "he $ritish cannot ha&e their cake and eat it too. ;t is unfair to force a submarine to warn a ship likely to use the warning time to sink it.! 2&en the most pro-$ritish member of the Wilson administration, Ambassador 4age, remarked on February +, +,+=( Submarines are a recogni:ed weapon of war as far as the $ritish are concerned, as they are also using them. ;t seems absured to me to expect a submarine to surface and be responsible for the security of the passengers and crew and at the same time make itself a target. 5erchant &essels not only shoot submarines on sight but are certainly ordered to do so. $ritish minister Arthur $alfour confirmed this &iew( !;f the captain of a merchant ship disco&ered a submarine across the bow it is my opinion &ery likely that he would endea&or to ram it. ; frankly admit that if ; were in command of that ship ; would act likewise.! <5ouse& ;;, 7A.> 5eanwhile, )ouse was attempting a last maneu&er( on February +D, +,+= he sent to the Allied ambassadors an unofficial note proposing to disarm all merchant ships. ;n return they would no longer be attacked without warning or torpedoed unless they resisted or attempted to escape. "he Allies did not hide their displeasure. )ow could the $ritish not be displeased by attempts to thwart their piracyH $ritish pro&ocation on the seas was one way to bring the

Cnited States into the war sooner or later. For the plan to succeed it was necessary that #erman submarines sink as many American &essels as possible. ;t was the only way to turn American public opinion in fa&or of war. From then on the top priority $ritish ob ecti&e was to dri&e #erman submarines to sink American ships. $$$ "he American public would put up with two or three more sinkings. After that it was easy for the press to stampede people. Submarine warfare was the Allies1 trump card, guaranteed to bring America into the war. "he Allies had found the battlefields ?uite punishing and were looking forward to the arri&al of millions of American soldiers and billions of American dollars. Any maritime agreement had to be strenuously opposed. "he blockade would force the #ermans into na&al warfare in&ol&ing American &essels, which in turn would force America to oin and win the war for the Allies. Although )ouse went along, others had reser&ations. Secretary of State Lansing ob ected to being made an unwilling accomplice in a flagrant &iolation of international law. %n February 8, +,+= he stated( !Since all merchant ships coming to America ha&e been armed with guns ; belie&e we are really asking too much of #ermany.! For the preceding twenty months, #ermany had ac?uiesced to the point of being &irtually at the mercy of the allies on e&ery sea lane. $ut the $ritish go&ernment needed blood, not conciliation. 4ro&ocations were multiplied. #ermany was left to choose between defeat or self-defense. 2ither way would play into $ritish hands. %n February 7,, +,+= #ermany was forced to declare that from now on !armed

merchant &essels would be considered as auxiliary cruisers and treated as such.! ;t was now easy for Wilson to demand with indignation that #ermany guarantee the life of American passengers on $ritish &essels. )e did not suggest how the #ermans could possibly distinguish Americans from other passengers. 5ost Americans did not reali:e a war was on. 4rofessor Seymour wrote( !"he onus is on the tra&el lo&ers to a&oid using belligerent &essels when their presence on board is likely to lead to international incidents. $y refraining from crossing the combat :one Americans would no longer imperil themsel&es.! "he #ermans had set aside specific combat :ones which had been recogni:ed by the Cnited States( !@ongress did not want a military confrontation with #ermany. ;t adopted the #erman definition.! <5ouse, ;;, 7AA> "his wise decision exasperated Wilson. )e opposed @ongress on the issue( !; cannot consent to any restrictions concerning the rights of American citi:ens.! <5ouse, ;;, 7AE> "he statement was irrational. 3estrictions as to war :ones did protect people from getting killed. Such restrictions are in effect daily, as in people being detoured from the paths of an a&alanche or the scene of a fire. ;t was not necessary for Americans to board armed &essels to go to 2urope. "here were many alternati&es. Wilson1s grandstanding on American rights was ob&iously linked with $ritish pro&ocation. )ouse was concerned that the president had o&erplayed his hand( !"he president and

Lansing ha&e, ; belie&e, put themsel&es into a mess.! All the polls indicated that ,. per cent of Americans were still opposed to any military inter&ention in the 2uropean war. Within a year a handful of pro&ocateurs would use the submarine issue to bring America to the edge of disaster. Cnfortunately, the American people did not know they were being hoodwinked. "he two thousand pages of notes left by )ouse belatedly re&eal the frantic acti&ities of the pro-war lobby. All the notes in&ol&e the year +,+E. !5y opinion has not changed( the conflict is ine&itable.! !We must act decisi&ely.! !; think to send more communications <to #ermany> would be a mistake.! <5ouse> !%ur hopes,our aspirations, our sympathy are closely bound to those of the democracies.! <4age, C.S. Ammbassador in London> Another +,+E document reports a con&ersation between Wilson and $rand-Witlock, an American diplomat based in $russels( -$rand-Witlock( !; do not accept our state of neutrality. ; am on the side of the Allies with all my soul and mind.! -Wilson( <loudly> !And so am ;.! )owe&er, Wilson would keep his feelings from being made public until after the next year1s elections. 4laying to the electorate he would, instead, say sanctimoniously( !; ha&e no right to force the American people to participate in a war they do not understand.! <5ouse, ;;, 7=8> )ouse was back from London. )is complicity with $ritish

foreign minister #rey was such that they had de&ised a secret code for their correspondence. Scores of letters and cables would bypass go&ernment channels, establishing a pri&ate line of communication between the foreign minister of a belligerent state and the president1s ad&isor of a neutral one. %ne of these secret messages to #rey shows how at odds )ouse was with real public opinion in the Cnited States( !"he nation continues to show itself clearly opposed to war and ; seriously doubt that @ongress would support the president if he decides otherwise.! <Buly D, +,+E' 5ouse, ;;, -.> *ale 4rofessor @harles Seymour describes what the American people felt during these months of intrigue( "he blockade that the $ritish had tightened at the beginning of summer had raised a storm of complaints from the American shippers. "hey loudly denounced Wilson and the State department for ab ectly accommodating the $ritish while neglecting American interests. "hey demanded reprisals <against the $ritish>.! <5ouse, ;;, D7> )ouse conceded that the American public was not buying pro-war arguments( !%ur ?uarrel with #ermany does not stir much emotion in the West of the country or to the south of %hio. "hat1s three-fourths of the country.! <5ouse, ;;, =.> )e added( !As for the rest of the country ; noticed that it is the old men and sometimes women who are displaying bellicosity.! Cnited States senators also expressed their will not to tolerate $ritish maritime blackmail( !"he Senate demands that e&er stronger pressure be put on 2ngland and its allies so that they can renounce their restrictions affecting neutral

trade.! *et on August A, +,+E )ouse was writing to Ambassador 4age and describing !his sadness! that !ninety percent of our nationals are opposing our going to war.! <5ouse, ;;, -A> Allied propaganda directed at the American public was often fa&orably recei&ed, e&en though the stories were getting taller. For instance the Cnited States ambassador in $erlin cabled( !"he /aiser is losing his mind, he spends his time praying and studying )ebrew.! <5ouse, ;;, +7A> A note from Wilson himself informs us( !Gorthcliffe assured us last night that the kaiser is dying of throat cancer.! Stories about blood-thirsty )uns resurfaced in the news. %n August 7=, +,+E )ouse warned( !#erman agents will no doubt try to blow up hydroelectric plants, gas and electricity stations, subways and bridges in cities like Gew *ork.! )ouse urged Wilson to exploit the *usitania sinking to the point at which !the rupture with #ermany became ine&itable and the Cnited States would be forced to enter the war on the side of the Allies.! <5ouse, ;;, ,= > Secretly, he would submit to #rey a 5achia&ellian peace plan to be presented to the #erman go&ernment. "he conditions were to be made unacceptable to ensure they would be re ected by the kaiser. "he re ection would then enable the Cnited States to oin the Allies in order to sa&e the peace. !;t goes without saying,! )ouse explained to the $ritish minister, !that ; will not let the #ermans know we are in agreement with the Allies, but ; will attempt on the contrary

to con&ince them they <the Allies> will re ect our proposals. "his could influence them in accepting them. ;f they did not, their refusal would be enough to ustify our inter&ention.! <5ouse& ;;, +.-> "he message was as tortuous as the "almud. 2&en Wilson thought the offer was too blatantly in fa&or of the Allies. When )ouse con&eyed to #rey that if !the @entral powers still re ected our proposals we would be obliged to oin the Allies! Wilson inserted the word !probably! between !would! and !be obliged.! ;t looked more diplomatic. )ouse shamelessly flattered Wilson to get his way. Whene&er the president acted on )ouse1s ad&ice )ouse would write( !Ge&er indeed has a more noble role fallen to a son of man.! <5ouse, ;;, +.D.> Wilson1s susceptability to such outrageous flattery was no small factor in his decisionmaking. ;t is a fact that Wilson hated #ermans. 5any documents attest to it. %ther people dislike Americans, Arabs, $lacks or-crime of crimes-Bews. Wilson disliked #ermans. "hat was no doubt his right, but it also made him particularly unsuitable to act as a referee. 6espite his a&ersion to them, Wilson did not mean deliberately to push the #ermans into ruin. )e did it because )ouse, the brain of the operation, maneu&ered him into the 2uropean war in +,+-. "he American diplomat William $ullitt wrote with some honesty( !)ouse was Wilson1s alter ego and he had decided to drag the American people into a war under the pretext of a humanitarian gesture, to help the Allies reali:e their aims.! Wilson1s erratic beha&ior between %ctober +,+E and 5ay

+,+= can be attributed to )ouse1s deceitful actions. )e always talked peace while acti&ely promoting war. Wilson ne&er saw through )ouse because he was an a&erage politician with a mediocre &ision of the world. )e regarded )ouse1s international meddling with admiration because it was all ?uite beyond him. )ouse was always careful to make the president belie&e he <Wilson> had all the ideas. Sometimes, howe&er, )ouse o&erplayed his hand. Wilson was &ery uneasy with $ritain1s &iolations of international law and attacks on neutral ships and really felt he had the duty to impose sanctions. ;t took all of )ouse1s flattering talent to coax the president back on the $ritish path. All this anguished Wilson, because basically he would ha&e rather had peace' he saw himself as a friend of mankind. Cnfortunately, his mind was &apid, his will was weak. )e did not rush into war, he was pushed into it. A domestic e&ent also increased Wilson1s inaction. A widower, he had suddenly fallen in lo&e with a certain 2dith $olling #alt. "he courtship absorbed him so much that he let )ouse &irtually do all his thinking. Says )ouse himself( !)e was madly in lo&e, with the :eal of a sixty-year old who suddenly felt old.! "he president was no longer reading his correspondence, including #rey1s communications. %n 6ecember +D, +,+E the ailing president married 5rs. #alt. She would be, from now on, the only interest in Wilson1s life and lea&e her own mark on the presidency, particularly after the war. Apart from marital bliss, Wilson was preoccupied with prophecy. )e had &ague notions of rallying all the world1s people to a higher ethic.

"he Allies laughed at Wilson behind his back. "hey listened to his &isions but only for the purpose of emptying America of its dollars when the time came. Wilson had the key to the cash box, so they endured his preaching. )ouse was determined to trap the #ermans. )e brought substantial support to the Allies and the ultimatums he engineered after the sinking of the *usitania and the Arabic intimidated the #ermans on the seas for months. "he Allies greatly benefited, but showed little gratitude. #rey explained that whate&er concessions Wilson extracted from the #ermans, none were of any concern to the 2ntente. "he $ritish go&ernment ne&er shared Wilson1s ?uest for peace. For Lloyd #eorge the war had become an excellent business and he was in no hurry to settle it. )ouse described the $ritish prime minister1s satisfaction( !$ecause of the fact that people will ha&e ac?uired better habits and young people will ha&e been sub ected to serious training, one will li&e longer. 4roducti&ity will be increased because the la:y will be forced to work and keep on working. "he added workforce will add more than a billion dollars to the wealth of #reat $ritain. Further, people will lead a far simpler life and that should sa&e millions of dollars.! <5ouse, ;;, +A- > )ouse added that Lloyd #eorge had concluded his remarks( !War can go on indefinitely.! #rey had so little interest in Wilson1s peace plan that he saw fit not to talk about it to his allies. 4rofessor Seymour remarked that #rey !was so con&inced the Allies would re ect the plan that he did not e&en discuss the possibility of accepting it. #rey made clear that the Allies would be

suspicious of any conference.! %n Go&ember 7E, +,+E )ouse wrote( !"he offer ; brought with me and which was to secure the &ictory of the Allies deser&ed, it seems to me, to be more warmly recei&ed.! <5ouse, ;;, +AE> "he offer was thrown into the trash can. From $oulogne in France, )ouse sent Wilson the last $ritish offer( !;t is understood that if the Allies make any significant progress during spring or summer, you should not inter&ene, but should the war turn to their disad&antage or become static, then you would come in.! <Lloyd #eorge proposal to Wilson' 5ouse, ;;, +D- > "he $ritish percei&ed American inter&ention as a stop gap in case of defeat, as did the French. )ouse had promised the Allies he would not breathe a word to any one about the offer. )e warned Wilson it was strictly pri&ate between himself and the allied leaders( !; ha&e gi&en my word that ; would not talk about it to anyone in America, with the exception of Lansing and yourself.! "hus, for the duration of the First World War, the American people had no inkling of the international shenanigans being acted out in their name, but against what they desired. Wilson was well aware of the people1s strong neutrality( !; do not belie&e that the Americans want to get into the war, whate&er number of our countrymen get torpedoed.! <$ullitt, President Wilson, 7D7> "hree men with the power to make war imposed their secret diplomacy on one hundred million Americans kept in complete ignorance.

CHAPTE ...III

/i"son /avers @olonel )ouse was con&inced that !We are the only nation on earth to get them <the Allies> out of trouble.! <5ouse, ;;, +E=> ;n +,+D it became e&ident( the Allies were sa&ed from drowning by the Cnited States, but in +,+= the French go&ernment shrugged its shoulders at the mention of American inter&ention. *et #rey told )ouse, Americans would risk being treated in #reat $ritain as !a negligible ?uantity.! "he Allies were certain of inflicting a phenomenal defeat on the kaiser by summer. Ambassador 4age concurred with this expectation and warned Washington !of the necessity of imposing a crushing defeat without negotiations on the #ermans and for the Allies to dictate any conditions they wanted.! <5ouse, ;;, 7E-> While waiting for such a wondrous outcome, )ouse departed for #ermany on Banuary 7., +,+=. )is report to Wilson is rather depressing( !; must say before entering #ermany through the Swiss border that e&erywhere ; ha&e gone ; found in the go&ernments the same obstinacy, the same selfishness and the same hypocrisy.! <5ouse, ;;, +DD> 6espite his pro-$ritish bias he was rather de ected( !)istory will, ; fear, se&erely udge the men who were selfish enough and had so little foresight to let such a tragedy happen.! "he gap between )ouse1s words and deeds left many perplexed. "he #erman chancellor told him( !; do not understand why my &oice remains without echo. ; deplore war and its frightful conse?uences and ; say loudly that my conscience cannot bear its responsibility.! <5ouse, ;;, +=8>

)ouse recogni:ed he had been well recei&ed in #ermany when he returned to 4aris on February 8, +,+=. )e also reali:ed that the #ermans were losing patience. "he withdrawal of their submarines from combat duty under American pressure had cut off their supply lines and had exasperated the army and especially the na&y. "he blockade had depri&ed women and children of food. 5illions of them went hungry and some died of star&ation. )ouse callously wrote that( !; find it fair war for the 2ntente to try to star&e the #ermans and reduce them to sue for peace.! "he $ritish blockade was causing famine and it was now likely that the military would change this situation by returning to submarine warfare in the Atlantic and elsewhere. )ouse was struck by the fighting spirit of the #erman high command. %n February +A, +,+= in London, )ouse attended a dinner with #rey, $alfour, Lloyd #eorge and As?uith. )e ga&e them his impressions( !"he #ermans are at peak efficiency and they can strike a decisi&e blow, break through the lines and occupy @alais or 4aris. ;f they do, it is possible that the war will end.! At the same time the Allies were also rushing to breach the #erman lines. Geither side reached its ob ecti&es. "hey would slaughter each other by the hundreds of thousands. Lloyd #eorge was unconcerned and stuck to his opinion that the war !could go on indefinitely.! 9erdun illustrated this policy( six hundred and fifty thousand died to gain ground the si:e of a football field, and then it was lost again. For two years, across an area four hundred miles wide, a war of attrition would wear on( a few feet would be won

and then lost. 5illions of men would die, powerless, in this slaughterhouse. 2&en @hurchill, who had been responsible for the massacre of #allipoli, would write later( !"here is no more bloody war than a war of attrition. Future generations will find it incredible and horrible that such practices could ha&e been imposed by the military.! @hurchill failed to mention, howe&er, that 4oincarF, #rey and )ouse were not military men. )ouse now firmly belie&e that only America could !pull 2urope out of its terrible dead-end.! ;n other words, America could add another mountain of dead to the other mountain of dead already blocking the hori:on. )ouse was ready to confront the #ermans with his unacceptable plan. )e was getting ready to explain, with a tearful eye, to the American people that he had tried e&erything and that war was the last recourse. "he #ermans went out of their way to a&oid war with the Cnited States. "hey were fighting on the 3ussian front, in Serbia, in 3omania, in ;taly, on the 6ardanelles, and in Asia 5inor as well as on the entire breadth of the French front, and they had no wish to deal with another enemy. "o keep the peace with the Cnited States the #erman submarine fleet remained at its base at )eligoland. #erman captains were punished by their go&ernment for their mistakes. Large indemnities were paid e&en in such debatable cases as the *usitania. ;n 5arch +,+=, eight allied &essels were sunk. 2ach carried American passengers but none of them lost their li&es, thanks to #erman caution. ;ndifferent to #erman accommodation, )ouse asked Wilson to break diplomatic

relations with #ermany and presented the president with a draft note to this effect. %n April ++, +,+= )ouse e&en cabled the Cnited States Ambassador in $erlin to warn him about the possibility. %n the same date the #ermans once again informed Washington of their willingness to a&oid all incidents at sea. %n April +A, +,+= the 3eich ambassador in Washington presented )ouse with an official document-it is noteworthy that foreign diplomats went directly to )ouse and not Wilson( 5y dear @olonel )ouse( 5y go&ernment is ready to conduct submarine warfare with all due respect to the rights of neutrals. ;t is standing by the assurances already pro&ided to your go&ernment and it had gi&en such precise instructions to its submarine commanders, that within the bounds of human foresight errors can no longer be committed. ;f, contrary to our intentions, some do occur our go&ernment is committed to correct them by all the means in its power. "he ambassador added that this assurance was gi&en notwithstanding $ritish &iolations of international law and $ritish use of American citi:ens to co&er up their arms traffic. )ouse con&inced Wilson to issue a strongly worded answer to the conciliatory #erman offer. %n April +D, +,+= )ouse replied through the president( !Cnless the ;mperial go&ernment declares immediately that it will forthwith forsake its current methods of submarine warfare against passenger ships and freighters, the Cnited States

go&ernment has no other alternati&e than to break diplomatic relations with the #erman 2mpire.! )ouse openly bragged he had forced the president1s hand( !; called on my best means of persuasion to keep him in a state of mind imper&ious to any compromise.! Would )ouse succeed in breaking relationsH "he #ermans would not oblige him. "hey announced that submarine commanders had been sent new instructions and they would be !ready to do their utmost in keeping military operations, during the entire war, strictly within combat areas.! "he concessions were humiliating for #ermany but the Cnited States go&ernment was also asked to exercise its neutrality and be watchful that !all belligerent powers adhere to principles of humanity.! ;f the Cnited States go&ernment declined !#ermany would then face a new situation and would be absolutely free to act accordingly.! <5ouse& ;;, 7-+> "he American people were kept in the dark about the whole affair and no newspapers e&er mentioned any of the real concessions made by #ermany. Wilson was perplexed and asked )ouse what he thought of the #erman answer. )ouse admitted that since #ermany had accepted the American conditions !there was no &alid excuse to break diplomatic relations with $erlin.! <5ouse& ;;, 7-7> )ouse used the word excuse rather than moti&e or reason. %n 5arch +., +,+= )ouse, using the code the $ritish go&ernment had de&ised for his exclusi&e use, cabled Sir 2dward #rey( !;f you deem it useful ; will renew our offers by cable e&ery two weeks. Let me know, if you please, whether ; should act this way or on the contrary wait until you signal me. $e assured, my dear friend, that ; think of

you all the time and that ; would like somehow to lighten the burden weighing so hea&ily on your shoulders.! "hus #rey was kept informed by )ouse about e&erything. %n 5ay 7-, +,+= #rey was told on the same day the terms of a new #erman offer. "he document is of great importance( !6ear Sir 2dward, ; want to attract your attention to one thing( the #erman chancellor declares that #ermany would accept a peace based on the borders of states as they exist today on the maps.! <5ouse& ;;, 87+> ;t was the end of 5ay and #ermany was &ictorious on both the Western and 2astern fronts. *et it was willing to gi&e up the gains its army had won to that point. "he Allies would not hear of it. Besserand, the French ambassador in Washington, reacted immediately( !France will not accept under any circumstances listening to plans which include the word peace.! <5ouse& ;;, 877> #rey wrote to )ouse endorsing this fanatical reaction( !Go 2nglishmen will tell France at this stage( 6on1t you think it1s time to make peaceH! "he Allies interpreted #ermany1s desire for peace as a sign of weakness and were all the more determined to press on with a war of attrition. "heir greatest fear at this stage was #ermany1s acceptance of the American peace plan. At the time any American input was seen as interference. )ouse was aware of the 2uorpean &iew when he wrote( !American patricipation <in the conflict> could become embarrassing for the Allies if it touched on the secret treaties which Wilson knows nothing about.! <5ouse& ;;, 878> "he $ritish wanted American dollars and American soldiers but re ected Wilson1s sermoni:ing about land grabs and

colonialism. Wilson, as obtuse as he was, had finally awakened to the schemes of the allies. !)e suspected,! wrote Seymour, !certain Allies of pursuing selfish plans and he was not as con&inced as his friend )ouse of the necessity of taking sides with them.! )is reser&ations were such that at the end of +,+= American policy could appear to ha&e turned against the Allies.

CHAPTE ...I) 4He Ke%t 7s Out of /ar.4 "he withdrawal of #erman submarines pro&ed counterproducti&e for the Allies. "he fewer ships that were sunk the less America was likely to weigh in for the $ritish. American ships had to be sunk and American indignation had to be raised. For this purpose the $ritish needed the #erman submarines back in action. )ouse was designated for this mission of pro&ocation. %n Go&ember +-, +,+=, a few days after the elections, he would write( !;f we ha&e to go to war let it be against #ermany.! *et a number of e&ents were still to thwart the $ritish lobby in America. "he mail scandal particularly angered Wilson. "he $ritish had gotten into the habit of sei:ing American mail on Cnited States ships they searched. $ritish inspectors had control of all American correspondence for whate&er purpose they chose. )ouse ?uotes Wilson( !"he

way this thing is going ; think solid retaliation is the only way to deter them.! <5ouse, ;;, 8EA> "he China incident was the last straw. "he $ritish boarded the C.S. ship China by force, sei:ed the mail and began to interrogate the American passengers, who were then taken off the ship as prisoners. ;t was piracy at its worst. )ouse was embarrassed and had to write to his $ritish friends( !; cannot concei&e that the $ritish could ha&e taken fifty people off the American &essel China.! Sir 2dward #rey harshly dismissed )ouse1s lament. )ouse wrote( !Sir 2dward could hardly in&ent anything that would more surely cool the ardently pro-$ritish sentiments of Americans such as myself.! <5ouse, ;;, 8A+> Seymour wrote( !5r. Wilson was extremely troubled by the Allies1 attitude, particularly when #ermany, which had submitted to the president on the submarine dispute, was not gi&ing him any problems at the moment.! )ouse did not hide his apprehension( !;t is starting to get on the 4resident1s ner&es. From now on his suspicions of Allied moti&ations will only deepen.! <5ouse, ;;, 88,> "he $ritish practice of blacklisting also angered American opinion. !%n Buly +D, +,+= the #o&ernment of the Cnited /ingdom published a list of more than eighty American corporations with which it was forbidden to trade because they had commercial relations with an enemy of the Allies. "he number of blacklisted companies has now risen to fifteen hundred.! <5ouse, ;;, 8AD> "hus, fifteen hundred American companies were cut off from credit, supplies, and trade. %ne wonders what would ha&e happened if #ermany had committed the tenth of such an action0

4rofessor Seymour explains the boycott( !$ritish shipping companies were ad&ised not to accept freight from the proscribed firms. @ompanies of neutral countries were gi&en to understand that if they took freight from the blacklisted American firms they too would run the risk of seeing their freight re ected in $ritish ports. $ankers of such countries would no longer finance blacklisted traders.! %n Buly 77, +,+= ad&iser 4olk wrote to )ouse( !"he blacklist ust published by the $ritish go&ernment is creating considerable irritation' something will ha&e to be done.! "he next day Wilson lost patience and )ouse was asked to recall Ambassador 4age from London. )ouse was grasping for excuses( !"hey are perhaps imprudent in their methods, blinded by their interests or their immediate needs!' adding, !"he Allied attitude results for the most part in that they do not reali:e they ha&e a kind of instincti&e feeling for considering the high seas as inalienable $ritish property.! "hus the $ritish-American conflict worsened from week to week. American public opinion demanded countermeasures. @ongress had also lost patience( ;n September +,+= 4resident Wilson was gi&en special powers authori:ing him !to take, if necessary, &iolent means of reprisal.! $ritish Ambassador @ecil haughtily replied( !;f you attempt to put these measures into effect, it would result no doubt in the breaking of diplomatic relations and the end of all trade between the two countries.! <5ouse, ;;, 8E-> "he State 6epartment reported( !%ur relations with #reat

$ritain are worsening,! while Wilson complained pri&ately that !the Allies are exasperating beyond description.! 4eople wondered whether the threat of an American inter&ention would be di&erted from #ermany and against the Cnited /ingdom. $y the end of +,+= this threat became ?uite real. "he Cnited States go&ernment was prompted to act. A decision was taken that would change the $ritish role fore&er. "he Cnited States would no longer tolerate $ritish rule o&er the seas of the world, $ritish dictatorship o&er neutral countries, $ritish sei:ure of mail, kidnapping of American passengers and blacklisting of American companies. "he Cnited States took the historic step of building one hundred and thirty-se&en new ships. Shortly, the $ritish na&y was facing an American fleet of e?ual might, which would soon grow mightier. $ritannia1s pretension to rule the wa&es had decreed that #ermany would be prohibited from expanding its maritime trade. $ritain had started a war to pre&ent such a possibility. "he $ritish claim of dominion o&er the seas was now being challenged and swept away by $ritain1s keenest trading partner. "he $ritish monopoly might be broken at last. %ther countries, including Bapan, would e&entually outstrip the $ritish. Wilson was as determined as @ongress( !Let us build a stronger na&y than theirs and let us act as we see fit.! <5ouse, ;;, 8E8> "he $ritish had practiced too much perfidy and hypocrisy for their own good' they had shot themsel&es in the foot. ;n +,+= @ongress struck a fatal blow at arrogant $ritish

imperialism. $$$ American public opinion against the $ritish was also reinforced by the testimony of millions of ;rish-Americans who had fled the ruthless coloni:ation of their nati&e land by $ritain. "heir forebearers had been slaughtered and persecuted for centuries by the $ritish and more recently they had &i&idly felt the bloody massacre of ;rish patriots during 2aster, +,+=. "he $ritish had put down the ?uest of ;rish independence with more sa&agery than it had massacred Kulus in Africa. "he inhuman treatment traditionally reser&ed for ;rish prisoners in $ritish ails triggered widespread indignation in the Cnited States( !American sympathy went without ?uestion to the ;rish prisoners, who were &ery harshly treated. "his was ob ecti&ely reflected in a Senate resolution.! <5ouse, ;;, 8E8> Sir 2dward #rey sent )ouse on August 7D, +,+= a stern reprimand( !"he attitude of the Senate, &oting for a motion in fa&or of ;rish soldiers without worrying about atrocities committed in $elgium, caused us a painful impression.! )ouse ab ectly disowned the Cnited States1 motion and e&en apologi:ed to the $ritish( !... it surpasses the record of blind acts committed by my unfortunate country.! "he $ritish reference to $elgium particularly angered Americans. State Secretary Lansing replied at once( !... the hypocritical language of the $ritish as far as $elgium is concerned fills us with indignation.! <5ouse, ;;, 8EE.> 2&en the pro-$ritish 4age conceded( !. . . the $ritish would ha&e fought alongside the French e&en if the French go&ernment had &iolated $elgium1s neutrality to reach #erman soil

more efficiently.! "he ?uestion now was whether the Cnited States would cut off aid to the Allies. +,+= was a &ery bad year for the Allies. "he $ritish were losing e&erywhere. 2&en the &aunted 3oyal Ga&y lost a ma or sea battle off Butland, on 5ay 8+, +,+=, despite the fact it outnumbered the #erman force two to one. "heir losses were double those of #ermany, despite the fact that a $ritish spy ring had informed their admiralty of #erman Admiral &on Scheer1s plans for breaking the blockade. 9on Scheer had no wish to fight it out with the bulk of the 3oyal Ga&y and had planned to lure a number of $ritish cruisers close to Gorwegian coast. Since his plans had become known, he had to face the entire 3oyal Ga&y. "he clash was hard fought and #ermany lost six ships and 7EE+ sailors' the $ritish lost twel&e ships and =.,A sailors. $ritish pride was hurt by facing a better na&al force, with better crews, better commanders and more accurate firepower. "he $ritish, galled by their defeat, switched their attention to the propaganda front with rancorous &engeance. "he $ritish claimed that a #erman submarine, the C-E8, had torpedoed six Allied &essels near the American coastline. An official in?uiry confirmed the C-E8 had sunk six &essels, but !well outside Cnited States territorial waters.! 4rofessor Seymour also agreed( !"he C-E8 actions were strictly within the norms of maritime war usage.! "he $ritish hardly conformed to this usage. #erman ambassador $ernstorff pointed out that $ritish submarines sank #erman freighters without warning and without regard

for human li&es e&ery day of the week. %nce more an anti-#erman campaign in the Cnited States had failed miserably. 6espite famine and pro&ocation the #ermans stuck to their policy of not gi&ing )ouse an excuse to push America into the war. "he price was hea&y. "he blockade was star&ing ci&ilians while the $ritish were shipping millions of tons of arms without fear of #erman attack. /aiser Wilhelm had ordered the policy because he belie&ed his moderation would lead to peace. "he #erman policy of moderation lasted throughout +,+=, $ritish propaganda notwithstanding, as indicated by State 6epartment reports( !#erman submarine warfare was conducted according to maritime law.! "his report appears in the )ouse pri&ate papers. "he /aiser1s policy, howe&er, was being increasingly critici:ed in #ermany. "he principal argument put forward against the chancellor was that he ga&e in to the Cnited States although he knew &ery well the American go&ernment did not act as a neutral( it put pressure only on #ermany while allowing $ritain to break international law #ermany ambassador $ernstorff officially warned 4resident Wilson as early as %ctober +D, +,+= that #ermany could no longer sacrifice its national interest( !"he #erman go&ernment foresees the time when it will be forced to take back its freedom of action.! <5ouse, ;;, 8-A> Wilson was full of misgi&ings( !;f we send $ernstorff back and go to war, we will be co&ered with flowers for a few weeks' then calls will be made on our money. "he money we gi&e will not last long and then there will be demands

for an unlimited number of soldiers. Admitting that we subscribe to all their <the Allies> demands.! Wilson1s comments were ?uite prophetic. A few months later he would see his worst fears reali:ed. )ouse was &ery concerned o&er Wilson1s frame of mind at the time. @ongress demanded sanctions against the $ritish go&ernment. )ouse could clearly see the day where both Wilson and @ongress would decide to stop the flow of goods and money to the Allies. As the Go&ember election grew near, )ouse was faced with a ,. percent non-inter&entionist electorate. 2&en when his infatuation with $ritish pomp and his allegiance to the $ritish 2stablishment impelled him to promote war, he was forced by political realities to appear pro-American. Likewise, Wilson had to set aside his secret hatred of the #ermans, as well as )ouse1s machinations, if he wanted to win the election. )e presented himself as the peace candidate who would defend American neutrality at any cost. *et his peace promises did not sway the electorate which wanted more tangible proof. ;t became a matter of hiding any pro-Allied leanings and con&incing the &oters that the administration was more than +.. percent for peace and neutrality. Wilson ne&er tired of referring to the Allies1 war as a complex mystery( !"he origin of this peculiar war or its ob ecti&es ha&e ne&er been re&ealed .. . history will ha&e to search a long time to explain this conflict.! <$ullitt, President Wilson, 7D.> Such statements made it difficult for the American &oters to imagine that their author would throw them into a foreign

war-one he himself admitted he could not understand. ;n Buly +,+= Wilson recei&ed the 6emocratic nomination for president. )is campaign slogan was built around the theme( !)e had kept us out of war, he has maintained our neutrality.! As $ullitt pointed out, howe&er, !Wilson, knowing he had been trying for the last eight months to drag Americans into the war, had such a bad conscience about it that he a&oided during all his campaign speeches any mention of ha&ing maintained neutrality in the past.! "his notion was left to others, such as #o&ernor #lynn of Gew *ork, to propagate. "housands of posters and leaflets were distributed in e&ery American town, particularly in the West, where anti-war sentiment ran stronger. !)e has maintained America1s neutrality! became the 6emocratic party slogan. "he massi&e propaganda blit: made Wilson synonymous with peace and neutrality. $ullitt added( !;f the American people had known he was trying to get them into war he would ha&e experienced a crushing defeat.! Wilson remained aloof throughout the campaign. !"he 4resident has left e&erything in our hands. )e has not phoned, made the slightest suggestion or gi&en any ad&ice,! said )ouse. )ouse was thus empowered to run a pro-neutralist campaign as he saw fit. )e was determined to sabotage this policy as soon as the elections were o&er. )e would find a way to dri&e the #ermans into some act of desperation, which he hoped would re&erse neutrality. )ouse had by then become a master of ruse and subterfuge and felt ?uite confident his talents could be used to influence e&ents(

!%ne can always rely on the #ermans to commit some psychological mistakes at the critical moment.! For )ouse the campaign was ust another necessary duplicity. "he American people were being duped on a massi&e scale. )ouse in his role as standard bearer of neutrality would say or promise anything to secure Wilson1s re-election, which in fact would guarantee his own tenure in the seat of power. With another term up his slee&e, e&erything would be possible for )ouse. "hus, on Go&ember -, +,+= Wilson was re-elected president of the Cnited States. $ut the results showed that )ouse had not fooled all the people. Wilson was elected by a small margin. For a while it looked as if he had lost. "he Gew *ork "imes e&en announced his 3epublican opponent the &ictor. Later, a &ictory celebration was organi:ed for Wilson, but it was more like a funeral. )ouse declined to attend because he did not want to be associated with defeat. !Lansing and 5c@ormick went and they told me they had ne&er been to such a mournful e&ent.! <5ouse, ;;, 7D7> Finally, after four days of hope and despair, Wilson emerged as the winner by a head. !)e owed his election to the ambiguous &otes of the Western States, all in crushing ma ority against the war! <5ouse& ;;, 7D7>. Wilson1s inaugural speech still reflected his campaign promises( !; formally declare that the time has come for the Cnited States to play an acti&e role in establishing peace in the world and ensuring its continuance. ; solemnly undertake to keep my country out of war.! <5ouse& ;;, A77, A7D>

Wilson appeared to be genuinely impressed by the strength of anti- inter&entionist sentiment in America. $ack in the White )ouse he clearly, for a few weeks at least, respected the popular will. When )ouse tried to broach the sub ect of America1s participation in the war for the first time, Wilson stood up to his alter ego. Sigmund Freud and $ullitt called it Wilson1s last stand( When on Banuary A, +,+- )ouse pressured him to prepare for war, Wilson replied( "here will be no war' the country has no intention whatsoe&er to let itself be dragged into this conflict. We are the only neutrals among the great peoples of the white race and to cease being neutral would be a crime against ci&ili:ation. <5ouse& ;;, 7DD> Four months later )ouse and the Allies would be swamping Wilson and the !crime against ci&ili:ation! would start to take shape.

CHAPTE ...) A Home for the Je5s 3arely had &oters indicated so clearly to an elected official why they had gi&en him their &otes. "he neutrality issue crossed party lines. "he 3epublican platform had demanded that Wilson guarantee neutrality. After se&eral months of standing firm, Wilson was gradually being softened up by the relentless )ouse. )ouse regarded neutrality as a strategem to enter war and Wilson

was a horse to be ridden into battle. !"he 4resident,! said )ouse with some arrogance, !can modify his &iews. As ; ha&e said before, he often and easily changes his mind.! "he contrast between Wilson and )ouse o&er neutrality was une&en. Wilson was rather honest but his mind was like a wet sponge, easily manipulated. )ouse, the honorary "exas colonel, was power hungry and deceitful. )e knew the American people would ne&er ha&e elected him and he made it his business to pull all the strings behind the scenes, behind Wilson. Wilson tried to respect his election commitment but )ouse ne&er let up. "he tug of war would go on for months, like the plot of some detecti&e no&el. $$$ Wilson was disappointed with the Allies( they did not want peace, they had imperialist designs, they did not share his &ision for a better world. )e had reached the conclusion that neither the #ermans, whom he did not like, nor the Allies, whom he distrusted, were worth a war. America would not oin the massacre for their sake. )ouse, on the other hand, was committed to $ritish interests and was committed to deli&er America to fight a $ritish war. Wilson and )ouse were no longer of one mind or one another1s alter ego. ;n fact, )ouse set out to undermine Wilson1s mo&es for peace( !; did all ; could to stop Wilson from launching another peace offensi&e without first ha&ing recei&ed the Allies1 consent.! <Letter to Seymour>. )ouse later commented that Wilson1s peace proposals were !offending the Allies.! <5ouse& ;;, A8+> 3ebuffed by the Allies, Wilson now wanted to reach 2uropean public opinion directly and create popular peace

mo&ements among all the belligerents. )ouse immediately told Wilson( !"he Allies would interpret such a pro ect as inimical.! Wilson did not want to appear hostile, so he dropped his plan. ;nstead, he asked )ouse to go to 2urope once more. )ouse said no( !;t would take too much time and ; would ha&e to struggle with all sorts of unfa&orable arguments. Gone of them could ignore that ; was there to talk peace and ; would rather go to the kingdom of hell than &isit these countries with such a mission.! <5ouse& ;;, A88> Wilson was somewhat taken aback. )is alter ego preferred hell to peace. When Wilson stated that the matter of submarine warfare and its attendant international laws should be settled without any further delay )ouse replied he could see no reason !to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for #ermany.! Wilson decided to send a message to all the countries at war as well as the American people. )e wrote it himself and showed it to )ouse who immediately was critical of its content( !; dread the reaction it will pro&oke. "he phrase Jthe causes and ob ecti&es of this war are obscure1 raises strong ob ections.! ;n his secret notes )ouse complained( !2ach time he <Wilson> talks about the war he offends the Allies.! <5ouse& ;;, A8=> "he !offending! phrase was ne&ertheless correct. "he war had been prepared in secrecy, with lies and pro&ocations. ;ts aims and ob ecti&es had been carefully obscured by the schemers who had set it in motion. 4erhaps without reali:ing it, Wilson was directing the spotlight on a crime. )ouse could not countenance such a suggestion and put on a performance for a change of phraseology( !; begged him <Wilson> to modify the text ; critici:ed and to replace it

with something which would allow the Allies to belie&e the president sympathi:ed with them.! <5ouse& ;;, A8-> )ouse wanted the president to perform a kind of dialectical somersault( his ?uest for peace had somehow to con&ey to the Allies that he really did not want it. !; suggested the insertion of a clause specifying he did not ha&e the pretension to interfere or demand peace.! Busserand, the French Ambassador in Washington, also spoke for the $ritish when he stated( !"he Western front is in all likelihood condemned to stagnate for at least a year and perhaps more.! ;t was a war of attrition which the $ritish were in no hurry to stop, while the thousand-year-old fabric of 2uropean ci&ili:ation was being torn apart. "he outcome of the differences between )ouse and Wilson would be profoundly affected by the inter&ention of certain Bewish personalities, as well as by Lloyd #eorge, an ardent war ad&ocate. Lloyd #eorge1s first announcement was of !a policy based on the knock-out principle, which would exclude any possibility of negotiations with #ermany! <5ouse& ;;, AA.>. "his was the same Lloyd #eorge who less than twenty years later would go to $erchtesgaden to salute with warmth and admiration the new chancellor of #ermany, Adolf )itler. Sir 2dward #rey was also replaced by the Bewish peer, Lord $alfour, while another Bew, Sonnino, had been made foreign minister of ;taly. ;n the Cnited States, Bewish financier $ernard $aruch had enlarged his influence within the administration. French premier #eorges @lemenceau1s

e?ui&alent of )ouse was the Bew #eorges 5andel, known legally as Beroboam 3othschild, and his financial ad&iser was another Bew called /lot:, who was appointed finance minister of France. <*ears later /lot: would end up in ail as a con&icted swindler.> )ouse was delighted with all the changes. $alfour would make it his personal business to change American public opinion. ;n +,+= he came to the Cnited States to lay the groundwork among financial and press circles. ;n +,+- he made his famous $alfour 6eclaration, which was to bring about one of the greatest re&olutions in the world. "he 6eclaration appeared ?uite innocuous( it granted to the Bews of the world a !home! in 4alestine. "he Bews would not interfere with the existing inhabitiants of 4alestine, the 4alestinians. "he 4alestinian way of life and property would be respected and there was not the slightest hint of expanding the !home for the Bews! at the expense of the 4alestinians. $alfour1s plan raised concern in many countries( it created a precedent for other peoples to claim a home in a land they may ha&e inhabited as far back as two thousand years ago. "he precedent would open the door for many to claim land they had li&ed in far more recently. $alfour was ?uick to put the lid on the whole issue with the help of Bewishcontrolled newspapers and international news agencies. )e reasoned that issues are raised by the press, not people, and if the press did not debate his plan no one would ?uestion it. "hose who did were ne&er reported. $alfour belie&ed in the sacred duty of the press to manipulate the many for the benefit of the few. )e chose America to implement this

policy. At the beginning of the war the ma ority of Bews had been fa&orable to #ermany. "sarist 3ussia, their mortal enemy, had been attacked by #ermany, and the /aiser was looked upon as the man who would deli&er 4alestine as a home for the Bews. Although there had been occasional &iolent reactions against them, it was in #ermany they felt most at ease. "hey had ac?uired enormous influence in finance and business, in the news media and the uni&ersities. "hey regarded their own language of *iddish as akin to #erman and they liked to be in&ol&ed in #erman culture. /aiser Wilhelm treated them with deference. "he richest man in #ermany was a Bew named Albert $allin, who was an ad&iser to the /aiser' the most influential members of the 3eichstag were Bews. $ritish Bews thought highly of the /aiser( Lord 3othschild sent a cable wishing the /aiser well when the war broke out. American Bews were ust as fa&orable to #ermany, as the war co&erage of the Bewish-controlled press in +,+A and +,+E will testify. When $alfour came to the Cnited States in +,+=, he was ama:ed at the strength of the Bewish lobby and Bewish influence in finance, politics and the press. $alfour was satisfied the Bews could direct the country in any way they pleased. ;t was his task to harness and direct this tremendous power for the benefit of his $ritish associates. @ertain e&ents had made a reorientation of Bewish loyalties necessary. $y +,+-, "sarist 3ussia had been destroyed and it looked as if the /aiser1s "urkish allies would pre&ent him

from deli&ering 4alestine to the Bews. As far as $alfour was concerned #ermany had outli&ed its usefulness and any Bewish loyalty to it was totally out of date. "he $ritish were now to hand o&er 4alestine after $alfour and )ouse helped them win the war by bringing America to their side. ;t was a simple deal( the Bews would bring America into the war, thus ensuring a $ritish &ictory. For this ser&ice #reat $ritain would make 4alestine !a home for the Bews.! $alfour had yet to con&ince American Bewry. )e had to make them change sides almost o&ernight. "he most elo?uent and persuasi&e ad&ocates of Kionism were enlisted to tell American Bews that their dream of a return to Berusalem was about to be reali:ed after two thousand long years. ;t was an emotional appeal designed to bring American Bewry to the side of the 2ntente. $alfour and his agents were successful beyond all expectation. American Bewry switched o&er to the side of the Allies in +,+-. Bewish financial and press networks were now placed at the disposal of the Allied war effort. After the war, $alfour explained his promises were only in his mind( ust so many propaganda slogans to promote whate&er he was trying to do at the time. "he Bews he had con&inced did not see them that way. "he $alfour 6eclaration was a time bomb bringing war and destruction throughout the course of the twentieth century. $$$ "he $ritish go&ernment was informed by )ouse of the Wilson administration1s e&ery mo&e. )ouse, backed by the full power of American Bewry, was in &irtual control of America. ;n turn the $ritish were in control of )ouse. )e took his orders from London and acted as a kind of

unofficial $ritish &iceroy of the Cnited States. "he new order left Wilson weaker and more isolated than e&er. )e had become withdrawn and no longer made any attempt to confer with )ouse on the sub ect of peace. ;n the eyes of the new power brokers 4resident Wilson was ust a figurehead and was treated as such. "his de&elopment greatly concerned the #ermans. %n 6ecember +7, +,+= the #erman go&ernment declared itself ready to talk peace with all of its ad&ersaries. "he #ermans were hoping Wilson, now that he was taken at his word, could somehow influence the Allies to sit down at the peace table. "hey soon found out the president was in no position to wield such influence. "he $ritish 2stablishment had sent a high le&el agent, Sir William Wiseman, to Washington. )is ob was to instruct )ouse of London1s re?uirements. "he #erman peace call got short shrift. Wiseman informed )ouse( !;t is impossible to negotiate with the #ermans since they did not specify any conditions.! "he $ritish answer was ?uite dishonest since !conditions! are discussed at the negotiating table, not before. Again, the president was left out by the $ritish, who communicated with )ouse as the unofficial head of state of America. -;n London, C.S. Ambassador 4age immediately informed the $ritish go&ernment that Wilson was not in the least interested in the #erman peace call. ;t was an outright lie which Seymour deplored( !5r. 4age has so little sympathy with 5r. Wilson1s policy that he ga&e the $ritish to understand the American administration would not take the #erman appeal seriously.! <5ouse& ;;, AAE>

;n fact, Wilson wrote a note all by himself and for the first time in his life did not show it to )ouse. )e appealed to both the Allies and #ermany to exchange &iews( !"he belligerents each insist on certain conditions. "hey are not incompatible, contrary to the fear of certain persons. An exchange of &iews would clear the air.! "his was exactly what the #ermans wanted and the Allies re ected. When )ouse read the note after it had been sent, he moaned( !"hese words will enrage the Allies.! )e formally disassociated himself with the entire content of Wilson1s note because !the Allies were ob&iously not in a mood to welcome it.! "he statement indicated that )ouse was more concerned with the Allies1 mood than the interests of America. "he #ermans answered Wilson at once( !A direct exchange of &iews was the best way to reach peace. #ermany renews its call for a conference.! <5ouse& ;;, AA,> "he Allies would come to a conference only if the #ermans were defeated and chained( this was the gist of their reply to Wilson. $oth Wilson and #ermany had failed in all their peace initiati&es. "here was no longer any reason for the #ermans to restrain their submarines. "he people were about to re&olt. "hey could no longer endure the famine and demanded the breaking of the $ritish blockade. Already more than one hundred thousand workers had gone on strike in $erlin, closing down strategic factories. %ne third of #erman deputies were socialists opposed to the military. As in St. 4etersburg, they called on the people to re&olt. #ermany was faced with choosing between famine and

re&olution on one hand, or hurting the feelings of American officials on the other. Wilson1s secretary of state, Lansing, was aware of #ermany1s dilemma when he concluded on 6ecember 7+, +,+=( !We are on the e&e of war.! )ouse and the $ritish lobby were concerned that Wilson might still thwart their war plans. )ouse sounded the alarm in a number of notes( !S is &ery concerned ... he belie&es Wilson wants peace at any price! <Banuary 7, +,+->. !* is ?uite downcast. According to him the president has lost his ner&e! <Banuary A, +,+->. )ouse1s fears were reali:ed on Banuary 77, +,+-, when Wilson addressed the Senate( !We must reach a peace without &ictory. 4eace must be based on the right of each nation to decide its own destiny without the inter&ention of a more powerful external enemy.! "he speech reflected American public opinion but profoundly upset $ritain. )erbert )oo&er, although he was anti-#erman, backed the president( !Wilson expressed what many people thought and waited for someone with the courage to proclaim.! "he future American president then asked Wilson( !"he next step is to ask all belligerents whether they accept the principles expressed in your speech. ;f they don1t, what are their ob ectionsH ;f they agree it will be fitting for you to con&oke them in a conference.! Wiseman, $alfour1s liaison man with )ouse in Washington, con&eyed the $ritish reaction( !$y insisting too much on peace among the Allies you Mthe AmericansN are doing great harm to the cause of democracy! <5ouse& ;;, A=E>. !6eep resentment against Wilson,! wrote )ouse. !"he Allied press

keeps refering to his unfortunate mention of Jpeace without &ictory.1 2&erybody sees a contradiction on our part in wanting #ermany to escape punishment.! )ouse ne&er stopped agitating for war. %n Banuary 7E, +,+he urged Wilson( !;f ; were you ; would be cautious enough to hasten the state of readiness of the na&y and the army.! %n Banuary 8., after the Allied failure to answer Wilson1s last peace call, the #erman ambassador announced that #ermany had now decided to break the $ritish blockade regardless of American reaction. "he #erman forces were in good position on both 2ast and Western fronts. 3ussia, attacked from within and without, was about to collapse. "his meant a million #erman soldiers could be brought back to the Western front. Further, the defeated 3ussia would supply #ermany with all the wheat and meat it wanted, which in those days 3ussia had in abundance. "he #erman go&ernment hoped to offset the impact of the $ritish blockade and perhaps ward off an American inter&ention. Cnfortunately for #ermany, tsarist 3ussia would stagger on for another two months. 5anifests of #erman ships were published in order to warn American tra&elers of potential dangers, in still another attempt to a&oid American in&ol&ement. "he $ritish did not reciprocate but instead increased their acts of piracy. Wilson was appalled( !; feel as if the planet is suddenly rotating the other way, after going from 2ast to West it is now going from West to 2ast. ; ha&e lost my balance.! "he /aiser left the door open for a re&ersal of the

submarine decision if the president !succeeded in laying acceptable grounds for peace.! )e also promised to !safeguard American interests to the best of his ability.! Wilson countered by reaffirming( !We do not wish to help selfish aims,! which seemed more directed against the Allies than #ermany. )ouse kept a close watch on Wilson( !)e Mthe presidentN mo&ed his books around the desk ner&ously, he walked up and down the room ... We were painfully killing time, there was nothing left to say. Finally the president suggested we play billiards.! )ouse and the $ritish lobby intensified their pressure on Wilson to break for diplomatic relations with #ermany. After agoni:ing for three days, Wilson finally yielded and agreed to inform @ongress that relations were now broken with the 3eich. 2&en then Wilson still clung to rays of hope( !"he president still refused to admit that a diplomatic break automatically means war.! For )ouse and his associates it most definitely meant war( !"he break in diplomatic relations will lead to war ipso facto(1 <5ouse& ;;, ADA> Wilson was &ery ill at ease. )e feared public reaction. ;ndustrialist )enry Ford had told him( !; ha&e not met, between Gew *ork and San Francisco, a single man who wanted war.! Although the #erman ambassador was officially expelled, Wilson allowed him to stay another two weeks. )e was still in Washington when the Swiss ambassador, representing #erman interests, entered negotiations to !re-establish relations between Washington and $erlin.! )ouse was alarmed( !)igh officials at State fear Wilson might

weaken.! "he return of #erman submarines, howe&er, sta&ed off )ouse1s anxiety. ;t was the only thing that would change American opinion. ;f the #ermans were to succeed they had to hit hard and win the sea war ?uickly within six months. "hey had worked out that their hundred and fifty submarines would sink three million tons of shipping during that period, one third of the $ritish merchant na&y. "his would also frighten neutral countries away from exporting goods to $ritain. 2xports of wool from Australia, cotton from America and wheat from @anada and Argentina would be stopped. American inter&ention would come too late to sa&e London. "he submarines resumed combat duty on February +, +,+-. $y the end of the month fi&e hundred and forty thousand tons of $ritish &essels had been sunk. $y April the figure would reach eight hundred and se&enty-four thousand tons. "he French historian 3enou&in wrote( ;t is estimated that a steamship on the #ibraltar-London route would ha&e one chance in four of not making it home. #reat $ritain is therefore in the process of losing at an alarming rate its best merchant ships, those bringing wheat from @anada and Australia, raw material from the Cnited States and meat from South America. "he #erman plan had succeeded beyond expectations. $ritain was losing on land and sea. "he $ritish Admiralty brass was running scared( !;f the losses incurred during the second week of April continue at the same le&el in the

following weeks, it will be impossible to ensure the supplies of the $ritish isles. $ritain might be forced to capitulate.! <3enou&in, *a Crise europ+enne, AA+> #eneral 3obertson, @hief of the $ritish #eneral Staff, informed Field 5arshal )aig on April 7=, +,+-( !"he maritime situation has ne&er been worse than now. Bellicoe Mcommanding officer of the $ritish na&yN says almost daily things are desperate.! "he tsar of 3ussia was o&erthrown on 5arch +E, +,+-. "he $ritish were massacred in the battle of Artois on April = and the French experienced a similar fate in @hampagne on April +=. "he Allies were reeling. !Admiral )olt:endorff1s promise in Banuary to bring #reat $ritain to heel before the end of August is about to be reali:ed.! <3enou&in, *a Crise europ+enne& A++> "he #erman na&y ga&e the $ritish a taste of their own medicine. "hey did not like it, and like the pro&erbial bully cried foul. "he American press was now all ears to $ritish wailing and waxed emotional o&er $ritish-American kinship. "he pro-$ritish inter&entionists got a tremendous boost when big business weighed in on their side. American exports to $ritain came to a grinding halt. "he arms merchants, the cotton and wheat traders could no longer transport their wares. "hey were hit in the pocketbook. %&ernight #ermany became the enemy, regardless of the rights and wrongs of the conflict. 4rofessor 3enou&in states( !$ritain and its allies accounted for three ?uarters of American exports. Within days American ports were piled with goods which ships were no longer loading. "he resulting losses were not only hurting

the arms manufacturers and big business on the 2ast @oast, but industries in %hio, 5idwestern farmers, and cotton growers in the South.! "he whole nation felt the pinch and many minds were changed. #ermany was to blame' #erman submarines had become intolerable. ;n the same way, the banks oined the pro-war side. "hey had lent billions of dollars to the Allies-nineteen times more than they had lent to #ermany-and they li&ed in dread of a #erman &ictory. Who would repay the multi-billion dollar loans if the Allies were defeatedH For the bankers it was imperati&e that their debtors win. "he $alfour 6eclaration had influenced the American press to switch to a pro-war policy. 5any publishers were Bews and the Allies1 war now became their war for Berusalem. "hey felt Berusalem was well worth a war' America owed it to them. Wilson was ust at the end of his tether. )e was besieged by all the interests fanning the flames of war. )e was stigmati:ed for being !humiliated by #erman submarines! and !betraying national honor.! "he pro-war coalition was now mo&ing to force the president1s hand. %n February - the State 6epartment told the arms dealers to defend themsel&es by any useful means. Wilson was pressured to endorse in @ongress a demand gi&ing him !the power to arm merchant &essels.! Such &essels would force #erman submarines to attack or be sunk, as soon as they appeared. After four days of debate the )ouse appro&ed the motion. "he Senate resisted for another ten days as twel&e senators highly critical of the

motion filibustered. Wilson accused the senators of reducing !the great go&ernment of the Cnited States to ridiculous impotence.! Since he could not obtain confirmation in the Senate, Wilson issued a presidential decree authori:ing the con&ersion of merchant ships into de facto warships. As expected, a number of American ships were torpedoed, among them the 9lgon3uin and the #iligentia. *et e&en after these sinkings the American people, as distinct from the pro-war special interest groups, did not let themsel&es be carried away. )ouse complained bitterly( !;n 5issouri they don1t seem to understand what1s at stake. "hat1s the pathetic side of this business.! )ouse found it incomprehensible and !pathetic! that middle America would not rush enthusiastically into a bla:e of bullets, bombs, and shells. "he pro-war coalition created a way to turn the American people-those who had to do the fighting-into determined foes of the #ermans. "he sure-fire plan was known as the !Kimmerman telegram! affair.

CHAPTE ...)I The 43immerman Te"e0ram4 Go one has e&er understood &ery well what took place in the Cnited States at the time of the !Kimmerman telegram! affair, except that it was responsible for turning the American people in fa&or of war.

;t was said at the time that #ermany had proposed an alliance with 5exico. For the 2uropeans of +,+-, 5exico was a little bit like 4apua( they knew &ery little about it. "hey had a &ague notion of bandits, sombreros, and cactus. Few people had any knowledge of 5exico1s culture or its history. "he Americans, on the other hand, had a far greater awareness of 5exico. 5exico had lost half its territory to the Cnited States. 5exicans still grie&ed in +,+- for the relati&ely recent loss of "exas, @alifornia, Ge&ada, Ari:ona and parts of Wyoming and @olorado. "o them it was not only their land but their )ispanic heritage that had been taken away. For centuries San Francisco, Los Angeles, San 6iego, Salinas, Sacramento, Albu?uer?ue, 4ueblo, Alamogordo, 2l 4aso, San Antonio, Amarillo were wonderful names that had been a part of them and &ery much remained in their patriotic consciousness. Americans, howe&er, were now li&ing in the former )ispanic pro&inces and did not take kindly to anything resembling a 5exican claim. "here was fear and resentment on both sides of the border. "here was renewed resentment when the Cnited States na&y occupied the 5exican port of 9era @ru: and #eneral 4ershing led an army into 5exican territory. ;n those days it did not take much to bring in the C.S. gunboats. At the slightest sign of unrest, American troops were sent to !restore order.! After +,.. the Cnited States in&aded Gicaragua, )onduras, the 6ominican 3epublic, @uba, and in +,+=, 5exico. Without too much worry about !the rights of self-

determination,! the Wilson administration presided o&er the in&asion of )aiti in +,+E, the 6ominican 3epublic and Gicaragua in +,+=. Bust as Louisiana and Alaska had been purchased earlier, the administration bought the 9irgin ;slands from 6enmark. ;t is not an act of *ankee-baiting to recall such imperialism but rather a matter of stating historical facts. 4rofessor $owan, director of the American #eographical Society, made the point candidly( !Since the annexation of the )awaiian ;slands the Cnited States ha&e spread their influence and control o&er new territories faster than any other power including imperial 3ussia. From +,.D to +,+there were ele&en annexations, protectorates, purchases extending o&er half million s?uare miles. ;t was impressi&e.! "he Cnited States, like all other great powers, had not forged their unity by handing out candy to their neighbors. "hey had used force, e&en on their own citi:ens in the Southern states. "he ;ndians had been forcibly remo&ed from their tribal lands, until they no longer were a factor. While 4resident Wilson talked of freedom of the seas and the rights of self-determination to the people of 2urope, he refrained from dwelling on that sub ect on the home front. ;n +,+- the Cnited States in&aded 5exican territory and there was little debate on human rights. As for the #ermans, who felt the Cnited States might attack them at any moment, it is possible they might ha&e had some interest in allying themsel&es with 5exico. "hey had seen France seek an alliance with 3ussia against their country. "hey had seen the $ritish turn to Bapan in +,+A and

urge the Bapanese to declare war on #ermany. ;t is therefore concei&able that #ermany wished to keep American troops on the 5exican border. A conflict would ha&e di&erted American troops and resources away from 2urope. #erman interests and 5exican nostalgia for its lost pro&inces could pro&ide the basis of a 5exican-#erman alliance against a $ritish-American coalition. As to whether such a 5exican-#erman alliance was e&er consummated, the answer is negati&e. Go treaty was e&er signed at any time. ;t may ha&e been considered, but e&en that is con ectural. "he possibility was based solely on the content of the !Kimmerman telegram,! of which the dispatch and interception ha&e remained clouded with mystery to this day. "he exploitation of this dubious document shook America to its foundation. "he Allies had finally hit the ackpot, the break )ouse had worked and waited for so long. "he !Kimmerman telegram! burst out of shadows of intrigue. ;n February +,+-, one of )ouse1s men, Frank 4olk, telephoned his boss( !"he $ritish Admiralty has intercepted and decoded a sensational telegram sent by the #erman foreign minister to his ambassador in 5exico, )err 2ckhardt.! )e did not know the content but belie&ed it was to the effect that 2ckhardt had been instructed to conclude a #erman-5exican alliance whereby #ermany would help 5exico reco&er "exas, Gew 5exico and Ari:ona. "he phone call was &ery strange. "here was confusion as to the source of the information, which to this day has not been cleared up. First, the $ritish Admiralty was supposed to ha&e intercepted the telegram, then followed a second &ersion, and a third and a fourth &ersion, all contradicting

each other. 4rofessor Seymour examined the e&ent( !A messenger carrying the telegram had been apprehended by our border patrol near the 5exican border ... We MC.S. intelligence operati&esN made a copy of the dispatch sent to )alifax among $ernstorff1s papers... "he dispatch was hidden in a mysterious trunk which the $ritish sei:ed.! "hese different &ersions were floating around Washington when )ouse added yet another &ariant( he had not been informed by 4olk but by $linker )all, chief of $ritish na&al intelligence. !;t was $linker )all who pulled off this coup. )e decoded the telegram and sent it to us.! <5ouse& ;;, A,D> Fifty years later 4rofessor 3enou&in offered another explanation( !"he coded message was sent to Gew *ork by the American ambassador in $erlin and transmitted on the $ritish cable line.! "his last &ersion is ust as bi:arre as the others and does little to dispel the confusion. !5any people expressed doubts as to the authenticity of this document,! said 4rofessor Seymour. %ne fact, howe&er, remained( )ouse was on record, the 7=th day of February +,+-, as stating the information had come from a phone call. )e did not at that time ha&e the original document or a copy of it nor did he ha&e the testimony of a direct witness. ;t has also been established that the $ritish didn1t intercept the telegram at the #erman embassy in 5exico. )ouse1s declaration on February 7= was based on hearsay and lies. !"he way in which this dispatch was intercepted pro&ides fuel for endless con ectures,! wrote 4rofessor Seymour. A number of Washington obser&ers were pu::led by the time se?uence of the affair. "he telegram was dated Banuary

+=, +,+-. )ouse re&ealed its existence on February 7=. Forty days had elapsed. Why would the $ritish arid )ouse ha&e waited forty long days to release news that would bring America closer to warH For them, time was of the essence. 6eliberations o&er dates and facts did not bother )ouse and 4olk. "he only thing that mattered was to use the telegram, un&erified as it was, to anger and panic the American people into the war. !5r. 4olk,! wrote Seymour, !thoroughly exploited this communication( the publication of the $erlin telegram would change irritation into rage. ;t would strengthen enormously the support people would gi&e Wilson in any action he might take against #ermany.! "hus, this highly suspicious document, which many belie&e today to ha&e been cooked up by $ritish espionage operati&es-who are specially trained in the art of forgery and pro&ocation-was wa&ed in Wilson1s face by )ouse as irrefutable proof of #erman perfidy. Somehow the Kimmerman telegram left Wilson skeptical. )e wondered whether ust a phone call offered enough e&idence. )e had seen no proof of its authenticity and felt uneasy. $esides, said Seymour, !Wilson was troubled that the publication of the dispatch might trigger a crisis he could not control.! )ouse harassed the president. )e demanded the dispatch be released for immediate publication. %n the following day February 7-, )ouse wrote to Wilson( !; hope you will publish the dispatch tomorrow. ;t will make a profound impression on @ongress and the whole country.! <5ouse& ;;, A,-> )ouse was so sure the president would do as he was asked that he cabled

Ambassador 4age in London( !As far as we are concerned we already are at war.! 6espite all the pressure Wilson hesitated. )ouse became frantic( !S called me twice from Washington. "he president1s inertia worries him greatly. Like Lansing he wants me to come to Washington in order to push Wilson into action.! <5ouse& ;;, E.E> )ouse had become the 5oses of the pro-war lobby. !All Mthe war lobbyistsN would turn to )ouse as the only man who could be relied on to direct the president1s will,! wrote Seymour. ;n his note, dated 5arch 7-, )ouse wrote that he had gone to hustle Wilson( !)e Mthe presidentN confessed to me he did not feel up to assuming high presidential functions at such a critical time.! "hen )ouse begged the ?uestion( !What is needed is a man made of tougher stuff, with a less philosophical mind than Wilson. A man who can conduct a brutal war.! <5ouse& ;;, E+.>. Who could this man be except )ouseH Wilson spoke nobly during America1s last days of peace( America1s entry into the war will mean that we are losing our heads like the others ... ;t will mean the ma ority of people in this hemisphere are falling prey to the insanity of war and are no longer thinking ... %nce the people are at war they will forget there was such a thing as tolerance ... What a frightful responsibility it is to ha&e to lead our great peaceful people in the most terrible war, the most de&astating that has e&er befallen the world and which appears to sap the &ery core of ci&ili:ation0

6uring the month of 5arch )ouse would mercilessly pursue the peace idealist. "he president was no match for the relentless )ouse and finally ga&e in. %n April =, +,+- the president went to @apitol )ill with clenched teeth and announced that America had declared war( !"he reason for our action will not be &engeance. We do not want to affirm by a &ictory the material strength of the Cnited States, we simply want to defend the rights of humanity of which we are the only champions.! <5ouse& ;;, E+A> As stirred as they were by Allied propaganda and the Kimmerman telegram, the American people were still wondering whether they had been told the truth. )ouse complained that Americans ! ust could not get the message. "he #ermans had to fight the country which they had done e&erything to keep out of the war. ;t was a se&ere blow, which they hoped would be offset by the o&erthrow of the 3ussian empire. "he tsar1s abdication on 5arch +E, +,+- did not end the war between 3ussia and #ermany. As dispirited as the 3ussian armies were, the war went on. "he /erensky regime did not cease hostilities, and managed to keep more than one million #erman soldiers away from the Western front. American inter&ention made it imperati&e for #ermany to make peace with 3ussia. #ermany1s sur&i&al depended on how long it would take to disengage its army from 3ussia, and how long it would take for American troops to cross the Atlantic.

CHAPTE ...)II evo"ution in ussia #ermany had managed to delay America1s inter&ention from +,+E to +,+-. Submarines had been withheld from combat, apologies gi&en and reparations paid, but time had now run out. Within months the Cnited States would be able to send -E.,... soldiers to do battle in 2urope. "he American na&y would sei:e #erman ships stationed in neutral ports and South American na&ies would be pressured into following suit. "he na&y would in fact replace the =..,... tons of $ritish shipping which the #ermans sank e&ery month. Within a year, two million C.S. troops would be fighting alongside the Allies. #ermany lost its race against time. "he 3ussian front had been baneful for #ermany. ;t was responsible for losing the 5arne battle in France, when #eneral &on 5oltke, panicked by the 3ussian ad&ance in 4russia, had depri&ed his right flank of two army corps. ;t was a war both the /aiser and "sar Gicholas ;; had tried to a&oid to the last minute. "he two monarchs were cousins and maintained good personal and national relations. "he tsar was a peaceful man, rather soft and sad. )e would ne&er ha&e been in&ol&ed in war had he not been railroaded into it by the 4an-Sla&ic cabal and other conspirators. )e regretted constantly that he had been forced to declare war on #ermany against his wish. "he #ermans had immediately tried to bring to an end a

futile war which tied down half their army. ;n 6ecember, +,+A the /aiser delegated his ad&iser, Bewish financier Albert $allin, who owned most of the #erman merchant fleet, to negotiate a truce, with the king of 6enmark acting as official intermediary. "alks were held with @ount Witte, a leading 3ussian diplomat. "he negotiations stalled when the tsar felt he could not make 4eace without the Allies1 agreement. From 5arch to 5ay +,+E a new attempt for peace was made. #erman Foreign 5inister &on Bagow informed the tsar that #ermany, in exchange for peace, would pre&ail on its own "urkish allies to let 3ussia reali:e its ambitions in @onstantinople and the 6ardanelles-where the $ritish had ust recei&ed a se&ere thrashing. "he secret proposals, dated 5arch +. and 5ay 7E, +,+E, were transmitted by 5aria 9asiltshiko&a, the tsaritsa1s lady- in-waiting. "he war lobby in 3ussia ?uickly sabotaged this initiati&e. Go sooner was the tsar in possession of the proposals than a plot was engineered to disgrace the tsaritsa1s aide. "he tsar failed to stand by her and let her be stripped of her title and exiled by his own enemies. "hree months later a third attempt was made. "his time it was conducted by the president of the 6eutsche $ank, )err 5onkie&ich. "he new offering still included @onstantinople, and also added a ten billion gold mark loan. %n August ++, +,+E the negotiations were scuttled by the pro-war 5inister Sa:ano&. A fourth attempt, organi:ed by the grand marshals of #ermany and 3ussia, also failed. "he 5arxist re&olution of 5arch +,+- was launched to the cries of !6own with the war0! that was good news for the #erman military planners. "he tsar had recently declared

again his unswer&ing support for the allies, and his o&erthrow changed 3ussia1s position. $ut if the #erman go&ernment was to get any benefit from a 3ussian withdrawal, speed was of the essence( the Kimmerman telegram affair was hastening America1s entry into the war. "he tsar1s demise was well organi:ed and swift. 6espite his weakness and incompetence, he had decided to lead the 3ussian armies personally, with disastrous results. 5any of his generals were e?ually inept, and his ministers were chosen on the ad&ice of the lice-ridden degenerate 3asputin, who was himself ad&ised by his constant shadow, the Bewish usurer Simano&ich. "he tsar referred to 3asputin as !a saint called #regory from the pro&ince of "obolsk.! "he 3asputin-Simano&ich manipulation of the imperial family had gone on for ele&en years. 3asputin had mesmeri:ed the tsaritsa and her dauughters. 3asputin spoke and the tsaritsa rushed to implement his orders, while at the same time she treated her husband with condescension( !; suffer for you ust as if you were a helpless small child in need of guidance but yet listen to bad ad&isers, while the man sent by #od tells you what to do.! 3asputin1s hold was such that when he sent an apple to the tsar to !strengthen his resol&e,! the potentate of all the 3ussias did not dare eat it because he regarded it as a holy relic. 3asputin1s reign finally came to an end on 6ecember +-, +,+=, when he was poisoned, repeatedly shot and then thrown into the icy Ge&a ri&er by his enemies at court. "he imperial family was de&astated by 3asputin1s death. "hey followed, pathetic and isolated, his funeral cortege.

)is hearse carried an icon inscribed with the names Alexandra, %lga, "atiana, 5aria and Anastasia( the tsaritsa and her daughters. "he $ritish ambassador in 3ussia himself was at the center of a scheme to o&erthrow the tsar if he should e&er lose his stomach for war. London was apprehensi&e( the shock of 3asputin1s demise might dri&e the tsar to peace. "he ambassador had gathered a coterie of wealthy bankers, liberal capitalists, conser&ati&e politicians, and disgruntled aristocrats to o&erthrow the tsar. $ecause of his hatred for #ermany, the $ritish fa&ored #rand 6uke Gicholas to succeed the tsar. Since +,+A the $ritish ambassador had aided and abetted the conspirators, but their &ery disparity neutrali:ed any positi&e effect they might ha&e had on the 3ussian monarchy. Ge&ertheless, $ritish inter&ention into the internal affairs of 3ussia robbed 3ussian nationalists of any chance of sur&i&ing the coming onslaught of international communism. While 3ussia was drowning in sub&ersion and treason, only the tsaritsa displayed any firmness of character. She exhorted her husband to assert himself and take charge( *ou must not gi&e proof of weakness. "he 6uma has no right to make war and peace pronouncements( that1s your decision. $ang the table with your fist, do not make concessions, show them who is the boss, and belie&e your tough little wife. 3ussia likes the bite of the whip, 3ussia cra&es it. $e like 4eter the #reat, ;&an the "errible or "sar 4aul, crush all before you0!

"he pious and humble tsar could neither concei&e nor comprehend such exhortations. )e prayed #od for a solution but he was paraly:ed with indecision. "he $ritish had spread rumors that the tsaritsa was pro-#erman, because of her #erman background, and was working for a separate peace with #ermany. #eneral 6enikin wrote in his memoirs( !2&eryone knows the tsaritsa is demanding a separate peace at any cost.! "here has ne&er been any documentation to back this allegation. Gor has there e&er been proof that 3asputin was connected with the #ermans. "rotsky himself admitted in his 5istory of the Russian Re$olution( !2&en after the 3e&olution not the slightest proof was disco&ered that established a link between 3asputin and the #erman Army.! As peace-lo&ing as the tsar was, he remained totally loyal to the Allies, who for their part were only using him. %n 5arch -, +,+-, only a week before being o&erthrown, and fi&e months before being murdered at 2katerinburg, the tsar ga&e assurances to French 5inister 6oumergue that 3ussia would remain firmly committed to the Allied war. "he tsar1s unre?uited loyalty to the allies had di&orced him from the realities of 3ussia. "he war had drained 3ussia1s enormous resources and food supplies had been reduced by half. $ankers1 speculations had raised the cost of li&ing by 8.. percent and the people went hungry. !"here will be massi&e food riots at any time,! a police report stated in Banuary +,+-. #loom was the order of the day among the tsar1s corrupt and incompetent ministers. Ga&y minister #rigori&ich kept repeating( !Go one in the armed forces trusts us any more.! War minister 4oli&ano& lamented( !"he dam is cracking

and catastrophe can no longer be contained.! ;mperial 3ussia was propped up by the rotten pillars of a false elite. %n February 78, +,+- St. 4etersburg had a garrison of +D.,... men, almost ten di&isions. Four days later they would flee in panic. "he re&olution started with a march of ,.,... women textile workers. "hey were on strike because they were hungry, and for no other reason. "o cries of !$read not war,! they marched in orderly fashion, without the backing of any political parties. "he next day the men, who had noticed little police interference, went on strike. "hey oined the women marchers to the cries of !6own with the war! and !6own with autocracy.! Some students and petty-bourgeois elements also oined in the impro&ised march. Got a single political party supported these demonstrations. "he crowd was tired of so much death in a war they did not understand, and tired of being hungry. When the police were ordered to contain them, the crowd good-naturedly in&ited them to oin the march. "here were no incidents. "he authorities and the bureaucracy had no understanding of what moti&ated these people. "he tsaritsa blamed the situation on a Bewish politician she called /edrinsky( !; would like to belie&e that this /edrinsky will be hanged for his seditious speeches. )e must hang now. "hat will be an example to the others,! she cabled her husband. !/edrinsky,! or rather Aleksandr /erensky, a left-wing socialist, was instead in&ited to oin the cabinet a week later. %n February 7E, +,+-, the streets of St. 4etersburg were

filled. %rators harangued the crowds. War minister 4oli&ano& was unconcerned( !"here are,! he cabled the tsar at 5ogile&, !a few strikes. "hey are of no importance.! "he tsaritsa informed her husband the next day( !2&erything is ?uiet in St. 4etersburg.! Ge&ertheless, there had been some shooting, and some people had been killed. "he tsaritsa sent another telegram in the e&ening( !"hings are taking a turn for the worse in the capital.! She urged that order be restored. %n February 7-, +,+- a battalion of #eorgians was brought into St. 4etersburg. "he fourth company of the 4a&losky regiment suddenly started shooting at the police, but casualties were light. Some of the mutineers were ailed, but others took their place. "he incident created enough confusion to shift the soldiers1 loyalties to the side of the protestors. Armed men began marching with the crowds they had been sent to stop. "he 3ussian go&ernment declared a state of emergency in St. 4etersburg, but the bureaucracy was in such disarray that the notices could not be posted for lack of brushes and glue. "rotsky commented sarcastically( !"he authorities couldn1t e&en stick a poster on a wall.! 4olice chief 3od:ianko sent the tsar a telegram( !"he moment of truth has arri&ed. "he future of the country and the dynasty is being decided now.! "he tsar read the telegram but did not understand it( !"his fat 3od:ianko is again sending me nonsense ; do not e&en think of bothering to answer.! ;n the face of go&ernment indecision, the crowds took the initiati&e. 4risons were opened and prisoners oined a march towards the 5ariensky 4alace, where the

go&ernment was in session. "he politicians and bureaucrats were terrified at the news. "hey switched off all the lights and hid themsel&es in closets and underneath desks and tables. "he panic subsided when it was learned the crowd had gone somewhere else. "he president of the council, 4rince #olitsin, was so shaken up he asked 3od:ianko( !$e kind enough not to ask me for anything, because ; ha&e resigned.! 5eanwhile the crowd had entered another palace, the "aurid, where the 6uma, the 3ussian legislati&e assembly, conducted its deliberations. "he tsar had ust dissol&ed the 6uma, but a pro&isional one had been set up in its stead. "he chamber was crowded with thousands of people, with hundreds making speeches in a carni&al atmosphere. /erensky rushed to the crowd with open arms. Go one ?uite knew how to deal with his effusions. Gew cabinet ministers were appointed at random, and 4rince L&o& was hosted on a group1s shoulders and declared head of the go&ernment by acclamation. "he only cohesi&e groups amid the chaos were the so&iets. So&iet cells spread across 3ussia waiting for the opportune moment to mo&e against the wobbly 3ussian go&ernment. ;t is remarkable that until this point, not a single leftist leader had directed the crowds. 4eople demonstrated against hunger and the war, but made no specific demands. @onfusion was the order of the day. Far away at the front the tsar sent his wife a telegram on February D( !"he weather here is splendid. ; am sure you are well and peaceful. Strong troop detachments ha&e been sent to the front. Lo&ingly yours, Gika.! "he tsaritsa was

?uick to reply that all was not well( !;t is necessary to make concessions. Strikes are continuing and many troops ha&e gone o&er to the re&olution.1 At )elsinki se&eral officers had been thrown ali&e beneath the fro:en ice. ;t was only then that the tsar reali:ed something was wrong. )e left his head?uarters to oin his family. )is train was constantly stopped by the mobs who had taken control of the railways. At St. 4etersburg his personal guard had mutinied against its officers and was demanding their arrest, the infantry had gone o&er to the re&olution, and most of the generals had fled, including the go&ernor of St. 4etersburg. %n 5arch +A, +,+- the tsar, crushed by widespread betrayal, agreed to the formation of a new go&ernment. $ut it was too late. )is weakness had allowed treason to prosper and his power was gone. #rand 6uke Gicholas urged him to abdicate. "he tsar wanted nothing more. )e perse&ered at his position only from a sense of #od-ordered obligation to fulfill a sacred duty. )e informed his generals that he was willing to sign their demand( !; agree to abdicate in fa&or of my son who will stay by my side until his ma ority, and to name my brother #rand 6uke 5ichael Alexandro&ich as regent of 3ussia.! "he abdication was not enough for some politicians. %n 5arch +E, +,+- 4etrograd representati&es #ushko& and @hulgin demanded that the tsar sign his abdication in fa&or of his brother 5ichael alone, and accept 4rince L&o& as council president. "he next day the reign of "sar 5ichael ended abruptly when the crowd shouted that they didn1t want any 3omano& on the throne. "hus ended one of 2urope1s oldest dynasties(

it was shouted out of power. "he tsar ne&er reali:ed that his weakness was responsible for his demise. ;n his farewell address to the 3ussian army he still displayed an ama:ing lack of perception as well as a misguided loyalty to the Allies who had betrayed him( !Whoe&er thinks of peace in these days, whoe&er wants peace, is a traitor to the fatherland.! /eeping an alliance with unworthy allies was more important than sa&ing his own country. "he new go&ernment seemed to be e&en more determined than the tsar to keep 3ussia in the war. %n 5arch 7+, +,+the new foreign minister 4aul 5ilyuko& declared( !"he international obligations which will be honored by the 3ussian 3epublic also include agreements concluded secretly.! "hus, despite A million dead, the new 3ussian republic would continue sacrificing 3ussian blood for the Allies. "he Allies were delighted. "he French and $ritish politicians were of the opinion that the new 3ussian republic would send more troops to the front. "he republic1s commitment to war was bad news for #ermany. ;t meant maintaining a huge army on the 2astern Front and risking being o&erun by the Americans. For #erman war stategists the demise of the new 3ussian republic was a matter of sur&i&al. ;t had to be brought down at any cost. "he downfall of the tsar did not bring the @ommunists to power. ;n the spring of +,+- there was scarcely a single hard-core re&olutionary in St. 4etersburg or 5oscow. Stalin had returned from Siberia but he li&ed in the shadows,

barely sur&i&ing. "he #ermans knew the only man who could make 3ussia explode was 9ladimir ;lyich Clyano&, also known as Lenin. "hey also knew that to enlist Lenin for that purpose was &ery dangerous( he could inflame 2urope as well as 3ussia.

CHAPTE ...)III 2enin eturns to ussia ;n 5arch +,+- Lenin was almost unknown in 2urope except among a few groups of the extreme left. #erman intelligence, howe&er, knew who Lenin was( he was more powerful than a million 3ussian soldiers. "he Austrians could ha&e captured him at the beginning of August, +,+A in @racow, 4oland, but they let him escape to Swit:erland. For two and a half years he li&ed in a room atop a Kurich sausage factory, breathing its rank fumes. )e had no money and often thought of committing suicide. )e seemed to ha&e lost hope of e&er coming to power( !We are old and we will not li&e to see the decisi&e battles of the re&olution.! Lenin represented the hard core of the re&olution. )e was uncompromising and could not stand half-solutions. "he whole bourgeois system had to be smashed to bits. "here would be no ?uarter, no concessions. )e had become a deadly enemy of the moderate left, which he saw as compromised in both ideology and action.

Lenin would rather wander in the political desert than tolerate any sort of social democrat or 5enshe&ik. 5oderate re&olutionaries sickened him. )e regarded them as false re&olutionaries. )e had no time for soft organi:ations and belie&ed that the re&olution had to be handled by specialists or !professional re&olutionary technicians,! as he called them. @rowds were only useful in the framework of an iron organi:ation, subordinated to professional re&olutionaries. )e compared the implementation of re&olution to a surgical procedure( e&erything had to be prepared, cold-blooded, and skilled. Lenin1s will was cold and indomitable. "hose who knew him said he was all brain. )e certainly was the brain of the re&olution. When he died, his brain was measured at +-.. cubic millimeters, among the largest e&er recorded. Gow his mental power would change the world. ;n +,+A the $olshe&ik party had consisted of only a few people in 3ussia. "here were se&en members of the directorate, three of whom were underco&er police. Lenin had to flee to @racow and then to Swit:erland. )is mood alternated from suicidal at his lack of means to elation at the raging world war. )e sa&ored the titanic clash of the world1s imperialist and bourgeois powers and saw war as the sal&ation of $olshe&ism( !Without the war! he wrote, !we would see the union of all the capitalists against us.! )e regarded the de&astation of 2urope as the clearing away of obstacles for building uni&ersal communism. For #ermany, Lenin represented the last chance to pry 3ussia away from the Allies. "he 5arch +,+- uphea&al in St. 4etersburg had o&erthrown the tsar but kept 3ussia in

the war. "he #ermans felt Lenin had the power to plunge 3ussia in a bloody all-consuming re&olution which would make it impossible to continue the war against #ermany. "he Allies had not the slightest knowledge of Lenin but the #ermans had had him under close scrutiny since +,+A. "he decision to use Lenin was not taken lightly. "he #ermans were well aware that Lenin wanted to bring down imperial #ermany e&en more than imperial 3ussia. For Lenin world re&olution was to start from #ermany, not 3ussia. #ermany had a ready- made mass of workers organi:ed along political lines, and the Socialists were close to a ma ority in the 3eichtag. 3ussia, on the other hand, was composed of eighty percent peasants and two percent workers, who were unorgani:ed and unindoctrinated. %nly war, by displacing the peasants from their land, would make them susceptible to indoctrination. "he notion that they could own the land they tilled would bring them to communism, although Lenin did not consider them a ma or asset compared to the enormous #erman proletariat. #ermany1s decision to use Lenin in +,+- was ill-timed for his schemes for world con?uest. )is agreement to go to 3ussia was perhaps the greatest mistake of his life. ;f he had had the patience to wait another eighteen months he might ha&e benefited from #ermany1s +,+D debacle and taken o&er $erlin in place of the mediocre Liebknecht. Lenin had the genius for organi:ation and action which Liebknecht lacked. )e might easily ha&e imposed his will on #ermany. "he right man at the right place at the right time, he could ha&e launched his world re&olution from #ermany and swept 2urope away. Lenin always regarded his action in St. 4etersburg as

secondary. )is prime interest was in #ermany. )e was not interested in any country as such, but only in its re&olutionary potential. *et although he knew #ermany offered the most fertile ground, Lenin opted to lead the re&olution in St. 4etersburg. For once his cold reasoning was o&erruled by his need for action. When the #ermans knocked at his door, he could not resist the call to organi:e a re&olution, e&en in the wrong country. "he #ermans played their Lenin card with mathematical precision, but politics, like war, can be full of surprises. "hey expected Lenin to put a swift end to the armchair re&olutionaries who had committed 3ussia to the Allies1 war, yet Lenin almost failed and had to flee to Finland for safety. "rotsky was still in Gew *ork and Stalin, although back from Siberia, was in hiding. %ther @ommunist leaders had not fared well in the 5arch re&olution, demonstrating themsel&es to be mediocrities. ;n fact, some #ermans had fa&ored backing Stalin( they thought they could control him more easily than Lenin. $oth Lenin and Stalin were regarded as akin to germ warfare( the &irus had to bring down a hostile neighbor without affecting those who had released it. Would the &irus die off after ha&ing performed its assigned taskH @ould it be containedH "hese were the ?uestions which preoccupied the #erman high command. "he #ermans would achie&e the first phase of their ob ecti&e( Lenin would e&entually put an end to 3ussia1s participation in the war. "he second phase was to destroy or contain the deadly &irus. Lenin1s duplicity, howe&er, was

greater than that of any #erman 5achia&elli( he ?uickly demonstrated who was using whom. A willing tool of the #ermans because they had gi&en him the opportunity to implement his re&olution, now that he had what he wanted Lenin felt free to turn against #ermany. %nce in power Lenin would de&elop a policy of no war, no peace, which would drag the #ermans into months of sterile talks. #ermany remained an inch short of &ictory, but was doomed to remain there until its defeat. %rginally, Lenin had tried to bypass the #erman authorities, planning to cross #ermany clandestinely, with a forged Scandina&ian passport and a false beard and wig. "rotsky recalled( !All the plans of escape with make-up, wigs, and false passports collapsed one after another.! $efore lea&ing Kurich, Lenin had been appalled at the bourgeois character of the 5arch re&olution. )e sent a telegram to his followers in St. 4etersburg( !Absolute suspicion. 6eny the new go&ernment any backing. %ur party would be shamed fore&er if it became in&ol&ed in such treason. ; would rather break with anyone in our party if that person were going to make any type of concessions to Jsocial patriotism.1 ! @oncessions were, howe&er, being made at this &ery moment by his $olshe&ik comrade Leon 3osenfeld, also known as #eorge /amene&, together with the +, $olshe&ik delegates to the go&ernment council. %&ercoming its fear and repugnance of the part-Bewish communist leader, the #erman go&ernment made a special sealed train a&ailable to Lenin, his wife, and +E other $olshe&iks of his choice. "hey were shipped across

#ermany to the $altic Sea, where they stopped at Stockholm and finally reached St. 4etersburg on April 8, +,+-. "he bourgeois re&olutionaries sent a delegation to greet Lenin at the Finnish border. "here they presented him with flowers, which he hated. All their eagerness to please left Lenin cold and contemptuous. )e turned his back on them and deli&ered a short but radical speech. Lenin1s attitude was reported to /erensky and his entourage of cra&en politicians. "hey concluded that Lenin was dri&ing a hard bargain. At the same time they were dogged by a morbid fear that he did not simply want to oin the political club and share its spoils with them. /erensky had attempted to allay the fears of his colleagues, who had spread the word that Lenin was a #erman agent( !Bust wait until Lenin arri&es and you will find out he is a good man.! "he accusation was meant to discredit Lenin in the eyes of 3ussian workers. "he !social patriots,! as "rotsky called the bourgeois re&olutionaries, had defined their policy toward Lenin in the 6uma( !"he &ery fact that Lenin came back &ia #ermany will harm his prestige to such an extent that there will be nothing more to fear from him.! Lenin had anticipated this accusation. $efore boarding the #erman train he had garnered testimonials of good beha&ior from socialist leaders all across 2urope, including the #erman 5arxist theoretician Le&y. %ne testimonial to his good 5arxism, co-signed by 2urope1s 5arxist luminaries, read( !"he 3ussian internationalists who are now lea&ing for 3ussia to ser&e the re&olution will be

helping us by fostering uprisings among the proletarians of other countries, particularly those of #ermany and Austria, against their own go&ernments.! "he testimonial did not mention by what means the !internationalists! were returning to 3ussia, and the reference to !particularly those of #ermany and Austria! was inserted at Lenin1s re?uest in order to refute the accusation that he was a #erman agent. "he accusation was purely political. Lenin had been gi&en money and the use of a train by #ermany, but he was ne&er an agent as such. )e used the #ermans for his own purpose, ust as the #ermans had used him for theirs. Lenin could hardly wait to destroy imperial #ermany once his 3ussian opportunity had been sei:ed. Lenin was not the only recipient of foreign money. "rotsky recei&ed substantial funds from Bewish banker Bacob Schiff in September +,+-. Schiff1s correspondent in Stockholm, the Warburg $ank, e&en managed "rotsky1s account in the Swedish capital. Lenin, like "rotsky, gladly accepted money where&er it came from. ;f the bankers wanted to in&est in the business of re&olution that was their business' Lenin would ust use the money to achie&e his goals. Lenin1s eagerness to accept any kind of money led the financiers of the re&olution to belie&e they would get a return on their in&estments. With the exception of the Bewish bankers, Lenin repaid his financial bankers not with money but with re&olutions in their own countries. Lenin1s policy was to dupe the enemy at all times( agreements and debts were only &alid in the eye of the bourgeois. For Lenin they were the tools of expediency. ;n this respect he pro&ed himself the supreme dialectical materialist, far abo&e any of his colleagues, who were always embarassed to talk about

#ermany1s financing of Lenin. "he historical fact was that without the #erman millions and the Bewish millions, ad&anced at a critical time, Lenin1s re&olution and plans for world sub&ersion would ne&er ha&e gotten off the ground. ;t was a ludicrous demonstration of 5arxist prudery to promote the thesis that the re&olution was financed by passing the hat among the proletariat. @ommunist historians ha&e made themsel&es ridiculous in attempting to gloss o&er Lenin1s most outstanding characteristic( his masterly handling of money in the ser&ice of his re&olution. For Lenin the notion that the end ustified the means was ne&er an issue. Although charges of #erman backing raised against Lenin had a certain impact, they were weakened by the mediocrity of those who made them. From 5arch +,+- until Lenin1s final grab for power, there were four successi&e go&ernments within se&en months. "hey were all composed of bourgeois re&olutionaries, each of which competed for the position of most inept and most mediocre. "heir dismal performance would dri&e the disappointed masses to the one man who appeared to know what he wanted( Lenin. )is talent for organi:ation was e&erywhere apparent. 2&ery street, e&ery building, e&ery factory was the target of Lenin1s agents. !)e deftly manipulated,! wrote Sou&arine, !the le&ers of the party and utili:ed professional re&olutionaries to the best of their abilities, while at the same time ustifying his tactical plan doctrinally.!. 4eace had now become a popular issue. "he bourgeois re&olutionaries felt uneasy any time they heard the crowd shout !6own with the war.! "sarism had only recently been o&erthrown to the same !6own with the war0! shouts. $ut

the war kept going and people continued to die at the front and star&e behind the lines. 2&erywhere the people had had enough. Lenin correctly si:ed up the situation. %n 5arch 7-, +,+the 4etrograd So&iet publicly disa&owed 5ilyuko& and his promises to the Allies. "he soldiers1 so&iet on the 2astern front had &oted o&erwhelmingly against continuation of the war, as indicated by the &otes of their delegates at 5insk( =+. against D. !6own with the war0! was accompanied by !4eace without annexations or reparations.! "his formula, de&ised by Lenin, was all the more cle&er because it aped the high-minded principles of 4resident Wilson. 5ilyuko& lost his ministry at the beginning of 5ay +,+-. 4rince L&o& immediately made concessions, offering fi&e seats to the socialists. )e remained president purely for decorum1s sake. "he most powerful man at this time was War 5inister /erensky, but he did not put an end to the war. "he soldiers repeated the slogan( !;f peace is infamous, gi&e us an infamous peace! from one end of the front to the other. Some priests got into the act by preaching peace at any cost. 6eputy 4atriarch Filonenky was cheered by the troops. !Soldiers,! he declared at the 6uma, !were kissing my hands and feet.! 5onths went by and the frightful toll of war continued to mount, from the $altic to the @aspian. Scur&y and typhus reaped a grim har&est. "he bourgeois re&olutionaries did nothing, and the soldiers ust walked away from the front. ;n a few months, more than 7 million soldiers deserted. 5ost of them were peasants going home to take o&er the land that had been promised to them. "rain loads of reinforcements would reach the front almost

empty. Soldiers literally umped out of them all along the route. French and $ritish socialist leaders came to 3ussia to harangue their socialist counterparts in 4etrograd( their mission, they explained, was to rekindle the martial ardor of the 3ussian army. "he &isit pro&ed embarrassing to the bourgeois re&olutionaries. "he $ritish emissaries tried to sal&age the situation by promising @onstantinople to 3ussia as ust one reward among many for remaining in a glorious war. Such promises only infuriated the people all the more, and the Allies were accused of practicing !4an-Sla&ic charlatanism.! "he Allied emissaries included wealthy French @ommunist 4arty boss 5arcel @achin, who was informed that the 3ussian go&ernment would support a popular plebiscite in Alsace-Lorraine after the war ended. "he $ritish were dumbfounded when the 3ussian go&ernment proposed not only the liberation of peoples con?uered during the war but of all oppressed peoples. 4articular reference was made to the people of 2gypt and ;reland. "he $ritish socialists were particularly shocked at the notion of liberating ;reland. "he French socialists were also ner&ous at the prospect of liberating French colonies without the opportunity of sociali:ing them first. $ack in 4aris and London politicians of all stripes were wondering whether it was Wilson who had whispered such outrageous suggestions into the ears of the 3ussian go&enment. $$$ "he Allies were not about to let the 3ussian alliance

disintegrate for the sake of policies which, e&en if agreed upon, were not to be implemented before the end of the war in any e&ent. ;n that spirit, they agreed to the 3ussian radicals1 slogans( !4eace without annexations or reparations!' !An internationally controlled plebiscite for Alsace-Lorraine!' !3esponsibility for the war belongs to e&erybody and e&erybody must participate in indemnifying the &ictims.! ;n exchange for the acceptance of these terms, the 3ussian go&ernment was prepared to launch one last offensi&e to speed the end of the war. French general Gi&elle bombarded the 3ussian )igh @ommand with demands that general Alexye& start the offensi&e immediately. $$$ /erensky was still attempting to placate the Allies when he decided to go to the front and raise the troops1 morale for a final battle. $y then the 3ussian army was a mere facade. Se&enty generals had been discharged and many others had been assassinated by their men. "housands of @ommunist agents had &irtually replaced the generals and were manipulating the troops for their own purpose. /erensky, howe&er, surprised many by his tireless efforts on the front from 5ay +E to Bune 7A, +,+-. 6espite chaotic conditions, his oratory managed to inspire more than 8..,... men to fight one more battle. %n Bune 7A, +,+- the men were placed under the command of #eneral $rusilo&, and. /erensky ordered a new offensi&e. %n Buly +, +,+- $rusilo& threw his 78 di&isions in a 8.-mile-wide assault with the ob ecti&e of capturing Lemberg. "he 3ussians broke through the Austrian-#erman lines and took +.,... prisoners by nightfall.

"he gallant 3ussian effort was stymied, howe&er, when two reser&e di&isions refused to follow up the day1s &ictory. $rusilo& conceded there was no way to force them to battle. "he #erman high command, anticipating this last 3ussian offensi&e, had rushed six additional di&isions to the -7 already fighting on the 2astern front. "he #erman counteroffensi&e was formidable. %n Buly +,, +,+- the #ermans dro&e $rusilo& out of #alicia. %&er the next ten days $rusilo& would lose +=.,... men. %n the $altic front #eneral &on )uttier wiped out 3ussia1s "welfth Army and captured 3iga, the largest port of the $altic states. 3ussia had been dealt a de&astating military blow. "he news of $rusilo&1s offensi&e unleashed massi&e demonstrations in St. 4etersburg. For the first time the $olshe&iks mixed with the crowd for the purpose of directing it. $olshe&ik agents shouted( !All power to the so&iets0! ceaselessly and soon the cry was taken up by other demonstrators. Leon "rotsky <Le& 6a&ido&ich $ronstein> had finally oined Lenin, after being detained in London. $ronstein shed his Gew *ork name to become "rotsky, the communist leader, the right hand man of Lenin. $oth men were &ehement and radical orators whose fiery speeches made the bourgeois re&olutionaries sound ?uite insipid. "he crowds flocked o&er to Lenin in dro&es. ;n Bune +,+-, howe&er, the @ongress of So&iets was a long way from controlling 3ussia. +.E $olshe&iks had been elected to the 6uma, but that only represented some +A percent of the assembly. Lenin reali:ed that the 3ussian proletariat was !less conscious, less organi:ed, less prepared than the proletariats in other countries,! and he

was anxious to get beyond the 3ussian state as ?uickly as possible( the re&olution must be 2urope-wide or it would fail. !Socialism,! explained Lenin, !cannot win immediately or directly in 3ussia.! With only one sixth of the power in the hands of the so&iets, Lenin tried to explain his policies for sol&ing 3ussia1s problems directly to the people. "he process was arduous, and he knew that only a dictatorship would enable him to consolidate power. Lenin knew the $olshe&iks could not reach power through laws, elections and consensus, but only through force. Like a tiger, he waited for the precise moment when he could pounce, for he knew power was ne&er gi&en, but always taken.

CHAPTE ...I. 1"i0ht to 1in"and ;n Bune +,+-, an uprising took place against the go&ernment installed by the 5arch re&olution. Lenin had done all he could to indoctrinate the 3ussian workers, but their numbers were small compared to the 3ussian population as a whole. )e had not been in&ol&ed with the e&ents of 5arch, and he felt the new uprising would be the &ehicle to power. )e had, howe&er, serious reser&ations. "he crowds were by his own admission ignorant and undisciplined. Would he risk the future of his organi:ation by depending on an incoherent mobH Lenin opted, against his better udgement, to throw himself, his party, and his resources into this second re&oluton.

"his fateful decision to oin a re&olution that ?uickly failed has been obscured and ignored by communist historians. Although Lenin played an essential role in its de&elopment, "rotsky twisted this historical fact with a subterfuge( !Lenin,! wrote "rotsky, !was sick and had li&ed in a Finnish country house since Bune +,. Geither on this day nor on the following days did he go to 4etrograd.! <"rotsky, The Russian Re$olution, &ol. ;;, p. +7A> "he assumption that Lenin would miss getting in&ol&ed with unprofessional re&olutionaries was reasonable. )is mind was too methodical for such an ad&enture. What is pu::ling, howe&er, is that 3ussia1s master re&olutionary could really ha&e been absent from 4etrograd during such critical days. Since early Bune the 3ussian capital had been in ferment, and on Bune +D, +,+- a huge demonstration had gathered and united both workers and soldiers. "he demonstration was felt throughout 3ussia. !"he Bune +D demonstration,! wrote "rotsky, !made an immense impression on the participants. "he masses saw that $olshe&ism was becoming a force' the fence-sitters were drawn to it. We were compelled to act on this.! "he next few days saw &iolent clashes between anarchists, @ommunists and anti-@ommunists. 4risoners were released from ails and soldiers mutinied. "he bourgeois re&olutionaries, fearing for their li&es, had finally turned against the $olshe&iks. Lenin himself denounced, on Bune 7E, +,+- !the sa&age screams of rage against the $olshe&iks.! While all this was going on, Lenin, according to "rotsky, was con&alescing in Finland. Go one e&er explained the nature of Lenin1s illness. So&iet archi&es ha&e produced

nothing on this ?uestion. While e&ery aspect of Lenin1s acti&ities has been religiously recorded, there is no explanation as to the sudden illness which forced him to recuperate abroad. "he @ommunist &ersion, or rather non&ersion, of this critical time in Lenin1s history is more than pu::ling, it is false. "here is no doubt that Lenin was in Finland on Bune 7+, +,+- for reasons which were then unknown, but had nothing to do with the state of his physical health. "here is also no doubt that on Buly A, +,+-, the day the second re&olution erupted, Lenin was in 4etrograd. Far from ill, he harangued the crowds in the pouring rain from the balcony of the ballerina /shesinskaya1s palace, urging the masses to storm the "aurid palace. "hus Lenin was leading the re&olution on Buly A in the 3ussian capital. $ut what had Lenin done in Finland between Bune 7, and Buly 8, +,+-H Lenin1s stay in Finland happened to coincide with $rusilo&1s offensi&e. ;t was precisely when 78 3ussian di&isions were hurled into a final offensi&e against the #ermans that Lenin left for Finland. "here, he would meet with #erman agents, from whom he would recei&e new funds in exchange for sabotaging the 3ussian ad&ance. "he fact of #erman financial aid to Lenin has ne&er been refuted. $efore boarding the #erman train Lenin had of his own admission run out of funds. "he #ermans had in&ested in him for ser&ices rendered. Gow, the $rusilo& offensi&e pro&ided the opportunity for the #ermans to find out whether Lenin had been a good in&estment. @ould he sabotage $rusilo&H Lenin needed and

got more money in Finland. When he returned to 4etrograd on Buly A, +,+- he finally ga&e the orders to take to the streets-which he had totally forbidden pre&iously. Lenin knew how much it cost to run a successful re&olution, and he did not want an anarchist rabble ruining his chances. )e wanted a dictatorship and now he had the funds to impose it. Lenin ordered his people to oin the ranks of the anti-war protesters. 4ublic opinion, howe&er, was still concerned with 3ussia1s moral obligation to !fight the enemy.! Feelings ran high when "rotsky, Kino&ie&, and /amene& screamed in the 6uma that the army had to lay down its arms. "hey were called anti-3ussian Bews out to destroy the 3ussian fatherland. Lenin was publicly accused of being a #erman agent. "rotsky himself wrote( !;n the shops, in the street, e&erybody was talking about #erman money.! Angry 3ussians stormed the head?uarters of the $olshe&ik newspaper 4ra&da and ransacked it from top to bottom. Gext came the party head?uarters, and Lenin took flight. Lenin and "rotsky became dirty words. "wo weeks before they had been hailed as heroes of the proletariat. "he crowds chanted( !6eath to the Bews, death to the $olshe&iks.! )ow Lenin, with his cold calculating mind, could ha&e let himself be in&ol&ed in such a miscalculation almost defies comprehension. ;n fact, in their eagerness to sabotage $rusilo&1s offensi&e, the #ermans had pressured Lenin to act against his own best udgement. "hey had also underestimated 3ussian reactions to an attempt to stab a fighting army in the back. As demorali:ed and fed up as

they were with the war, the 3ussian people were not ready for the betrayal of their soldiers and their fatherland. Lenin1s re&olution of Buly A, +,+- failed. )e was exiled and his collaborators were ailed. "he #ermans, lacking sensiti&ity in their e&aluation of the 3ussian psyche, had been too hasty. $rusilo&, the one military hero, had been beaten by the treason of the $olshe&iks, who lost him Lemberg and 3iga and Lenin was a #erman agent( such was the 3ussian perception of Lenin1s attempted re&olution. "he half-socialist go&ernment, yesterday so despised by all, experienced a sudden turn of fortune. /erensky was not only absol&ed of the $rusilo& catastrophe but was made prime minister. 4eace had escaped the #ermans and re&olution had escaped the $olshe&iks. Autumn was coming, and the future was gloomy for both the /aiser and Lenin.

CHAPTE .2 ed October For the preceding twenty years Lenin1s theory of re&olution had been inflexible( 3e&olution, particularly in a country where the possibilities for political action are non-existent, is not e&erybody1s business. 3e&olution must be organi:ed and led by professional re&olutionaries, the &anguard of the working classes who are trained in e&ery aspect of clandestine

struggle. "he party constitutes this &anguard. ;t must be organi:ed in relation to its insurrectional &ocation and to external conditions of instability( that is to say, the party must be totally centrali:ed, authoritarian and re ecting any concession to &erbalism. When he departed from his theory on Buly A, +,+- he must ha&e rued the day and pondered /arl 5arx1s obser&ation( !; ha&e sown dragons and ; ha&e reaped fleas.! For Lenin was in no way a democrat' he was an 2stablishment elitist. )e considered uni&ersal suffrage a stupidity, at best a temporary tool. )e belie&ed people were by nature incapable of political realism, let alone of planning a re&olutionary future. "he best brain had to impose its will on the masses. "he proletariat must be led for its own good, with or without its consent. Lenin ne&er tired of stating that he was the man for the task( his mind and his organi:ing ability were superior to all others. )e often likened the masses to bleating sheep, but he himself was more of the nature of a lion. "he failed Buly re&olution sent Lenin back to s?uare one. Gext time there would be no more popular outbusts. "he professional re&olutionaries would ne&er again allow the crowds to lead them( they would infiltrate them and take control of them. ;ron discipline would pre&ail in e&ery detail and would be enforced ruthlessly. "he situation was, howe&er, ?uite different from the one he had encountered on his April return, when he was greeted with flowers. Lenin was discredited and hated as a traitor by the 3ussians. "he Allies, who had reali:ed that he had

the potential to pull 3ussia out of the war, were targeting him, and the ;nternational was publicly denouncing him. *et Lenin would master this impossible situation within two months. %ld 4rince L&o& had on Buly E handed o&er the presidency to /erensky. 3ussia was still in the war but not on the offensi&e. "he front had been broken and the #ermans controlled the road to 4etrograd from 3iga. /erensky, the socialist fa&ored by the Allies, deli&ered endless speeches and promises. ;n fact he was presiding o&er growing anarchy. )unger was constantly spreading' looting was commonplace. While mobs sei:ed lands and homes, killing their occupants, /erensky concentrated his efforts on reducing working hours. "he 3ussian army was falling apart for lack of food and supplies. "he only ammunition reaching the front was manufactured in Bapan and could not be used with 3ussian weapons. ;t was at this time that #eneral /ornilo&, a war hero who had escaped a #erman prisoner of war camp, decided to !sa&e the nation from catastrophe! by taking power. What Lenin had attempted from the left, he would attempt from the right. )e had been appointed commander-in-chief of the 3ussian armies in Buly +,+-. )e was supported by a part of the bourgeoisie, but in words only. "rue to form, the bourgeois &ision was mean and petty( they would whisper words of support for /ornilo& but ne&er at the expense of their own purses. %n August 7- /ornilo& launched a coup d1etat without

financial support. Supported by disenchanted workers, &arious patriotic elements, and three @ossack di&isions, he marched toward 4etrograd along the railway lines. /erensky, panicked, frantically cried for help in all directions. "he $olshe&ik leaders he had ailed oined in the mournful chorus. "rotsky feared his end was near, Stalin lamented( !"he So&iets ha&e now reached the end of a tormented agony! <Sou&arine, p. +E,>. Lenin, who had escaped to Finland, stated( !Gow they are going to put us, all of us, before the firing s?uad, they ne&er had a better time to do it.! Lenin understood timing( in a similar case he would not ha&e missed the opportunity to shoot his opponents, as he later would demonstrate. /erensky had ailed the $olshe&iks because he feared their ability to o&erthrow him. Gow as /ornilo& approached he saw them as sa&iors( he would release them, he would arm them, and they would do battle with /ornilo&. "he $olshe&iks could not belie&e their eyes( the man who had ailed them was putting them back in the saddle. Lenin followed e&erything from Finland. )e organi:ed thirty thousand men to block /ornilo&1s access to 4etrograd. /erensky re?uisitioned all food and supplies, to hand them o&er to the $olshe&iks. /ornilo& met the wellarmed, well-disciplined and well-fed $olshe&iks with soldiers exhausted by days of forced marching and months of pri&ation. )is appeal to the bourgeois for money to feed his men had yielded nothing. "he lack of supplies forced /ornilo& to gi&e up and witness the disintegration of his forces. /erensky was sa&ed but he could no longer return the

$olshe&ik tiger to its cage. Lenin explained his position( !;f the party sa&ed /erensky from a military coup it was only with the aim of disposing of him in a more definiti&e way.! %nly /erensky1s mercantile mentality and sudden burst of panic could ha&e led him to belie&e otherwise. Lenin had learned his lesson well( the crowd would be inflamed by professional agitators and insurrection would be carried out like a commando raid. Ge&er again in 3ussia would people be let loose to play at re&olution. Gow the $olshe&iks were armed( guns had gi&en them power. Lenin summed it up( !"he time has come.! Gow that /ornilo&1s coup had been a&erted, /erensky asked the $olshe&iks to put down their arms, only to be laughed at. "rotsky became ruler of the 4etrograd So&iet and Lenin mo&ed in for the kill. Lenin organi:ed what he considered a prere?uisite for a successful re&olution( !@reation of an insurrectional head?uarters, occupation of strategic locations, and specific re&olutionary operations.! All his instructions were gi&en from his hide-out in Finland. Fearing assassination, he would not return to 4etrograd until the e&e of the insurrection, when e&erything had been put into place according to his orders. Lenin still had to deal with those @ommunists who wanted a left-wing coalition with other parties as a way to ensure &ictory. )e was determined to use them for all they were worth and at the same time to ignore what he regarded as half-baked and treasonable ideas. )e wooed them by speaking their language( !"he party will guarantee the peaceful de&elopment of the re&olution, the peaceful

election of delegates by the people, a peaceful policy of consensus among all left-wing parties within the So&iets, the experimentation with other parties, programs, the sharing of power among parties! <Sou&arine, p. +=7>. While the left-wingers were lulled into supporting the So&iets by such a soothing &ision, Lenin worked fe&erishly for the implementation of his real policy. Ac?uiring power and ne&er letting it go was Lenin1s aim. )e made clear that to his henchmen( !Assuming power is a matter of insurrection. 4olitical programs will appear only after power has been sei:ed. ;t would be disastrous to wait for the doubtful elections of Go&ember -. 4eople ha&e the right and the duty to settle matters by force, not by &otes. Any re&olutionary who would let such a moment escape would be guilty of the highest of crimes.! When the time came, Lenin ad&ised what to do with the left-wing compromisers( !We must wage an implacable war against them and expel them mercilessly from all re&olutionary organi:ations.! Lenin was only interested in results. )e hired the best professional agitators of the day because he knew they would always outperform the hot-heads. ;f Lenin were operating today, he would use banks, computers and the news media as the most efficient ways of imposing his will. #orky was ama:ed at Lenin1s manipulati&e power, at his utter lack of scruples, and his contempt for people( !Lenin is no towering leader but a cynical manipulator without any regard for honor or people1s welfare or human li&es.! ;n fact, Lenin had no feelings toward humanity because the only thing that mattered to him was the re&olution. 4eople were to be used merely as tools to ser&e Lenin1s

re&olutionary abstractions. )is all- encompassing mind worked out in detail the implementation of his re&olutionary theories. ;ndifferent to money or the trappings of power, he understood the substance and chemistry of power. /erensky had gi&en the $olshe&iks power in the form of arms and money for the purpose of opposing a right-wing re&olution. Lenin used the power to consolidate and expand. "he 3ussian army was targeted for further infiltration. Lenin brought the cell system, whereby secret agents were positioned at e&ery decision-making le&el of the armed forces, to a science. "here were 7..,... soldiers, whom /erensky had kept away from the front, around 4etrograd. Lenin infiltrated the whole corps in no time. "he 4etrograd garrison became Lenin1s own pri&ate army. 6iscipline was ruthlessly enforced, and political indoctrination ne&er let up. After years of neglect and disorder, the army had found someone with the iron will to regiment and moti&ate them. "he men may not ha&e understood Lenin1s ideology but they respected his dri&e and single-mindedness of purpose. /erensky had no understanding of what Lenin was about. )e regarded the $olshe&ik leader as ust another politician peddling issues and promises as a way to get &otes. )e ne&er for one second thought that Lenin could ha&e meant a word he said. "o /erensky it was all an act, part of the haggling in the ba:aar of politics. When the show was o&er, they would all sit down and share the spoils of power. /erensky was ?uite confident that his haggling ability

would get the better of the $olshe&iks( they would recei&e some power but would share it with /erensky and his cronies. Fi&e days before the insurrection that would sweep him out of power /erensky pondered confidently( !$olshe&ism is falling apart and we ha&e nothing to fear, 3ussia is with us.! /erensky saw that &ery few people actually supported $olshe&ism, but he had ignored Lenin1s recruitment of forty thousand shock troops among workers and disaffected soldiers in the 4etrograd area. /erensky disposed of a military and police force se&enty times superior to Lenin1s shock troops, later known as the 3ed #uards. 5ore than ten million soldiers were nominally under /erensky1s control, but in fact they were totally disorgani:ed and demorali:ed, unusable for any purpose. As far as the hundred and forty million 3ussians, they were too hungry to be for anybody. "he chaos brought by years of inept go&ernment had turned the population into an inert mass. %ut of millions of soldiers and people /erensky could in fact rely on barely +.,... men0 "rotsky wrote( !We were certainly weak but we $olshe&iks were facing an enemy far more numerous but also much weaker than us. Gumbers ha&e nothing to do with politics.! )istory abounds in similar cases where a small, wellorgani:ed number of people has o&erwhelmed huge crowds. Lenin knew the necessity of extreme prudence and absolute secrecy. )e remembered that his small and simple central committee had been infiltrated by three tsarist underco&er agents. )e was distrusted by e&eryone, e&en his closest allies, like /amene& and Kino&ie&. Lenin ga&e orders, but ne&er discussed or re&ealed his

whole plan. Since he was a supreme tactician and strategist he needed neither debate nor appro&al from other members of the So&iets. "o do so would ha&e meant security leaks and the ruination of any plan. Lenin belie&ed the greater the surprise, the greater the &ictory. @onsultation and the seeking of consensus were always made to hide and protect his real intent. %nly when his purpose had been achie&ed would he inform his So&iet colleagues of what had happened. $y then it was a fait accompli& history. "he last days of the /erensky go&ernment ground out slowly and silently. ;t rained hea&ily. 2&ery day at noon, 4etrograd was shaken by a blast from the old cannon of the fortress of St. 4eter and St. 4aul. %n %ctober 78, +,+- Lenin, in complete disguise, mo&ed to a hide-out in the workers1 district of 9iborg. "he area was under &irtual 3ed #uard control. 2&erything was ready. %n the night of the twenty-fourth the @entral @ommittee was con&ened secretly. A single man, carrying Lenin1s orders, ga&e each member precise instructions as to what to do, hour by hour. "he #eneral @ongress of So&iets was to be held the following day. Lenin had decided not to wait for its opinion, which could ha&e been negati&e, and took steps to thwart potential trouble( !At the first attempt of doubtful elements Mthose who would treat with /erenskyN to take to the streets, you will wipe these criminals from the face of the earth.! Lenin organi:ed the insurrection meticulously( the town was di&ided into :ones under the authority of militia leaders. 2ach ob ecti&e was clearly defined, as were the

forces re?uired to reach it. 2&eryone recei&ed weapons suitable to the role he had been assigned. 2ighty machinegun emplacements were ready to open fire. "wo specially selected members of the @entral @ommittee would direct the sei:ure of the railways, the post office, and the telephone and telegraphic exchanges the minute the insurrection order was gi&en. Food supplies had been organi:ed for all the insurrectionists. "he insurrection head?uarters were located at the Smolny palace, but Lenin had also installed another high command at the St. 4eter and St. 4aul fortress, ready to take o&er if for any reason the first high command ceased to function. While Lenin1s iron-fisted preparations were being carried out, /erensky was still playing politics as usual. ;n the dead of night, the $olshe&iks sei:ed all of 4etrograd1s strategic centers( communications, rail stations, power stations, food and weapons depots, all printing plants and the state bank. "he next morning #eneral /o&inko& informed /erensky( !"he situation in 4etrograd is terrible. "here are no riots in the streets, but that is only because the $olshe&iks ha&e taken control of them. 4ublic buildings ha&e been occupied and people are being arrested systematically. Security guards ha&e abandoned their posts. "he $olshe&iks also ha&e a list of public officials to be arrested.! 6ue to a delay by the na&al units, the army head?uarters and the Winter 4alace had not yet been taken o&er. $ecause the insurrection was conducted with military precision 4etrograd was relati&ely ?uiet. Lenin refused to appear in public until all public buildings were under his control. At last the na&al detachment arri&ed and landed from the Ge&a

ri&er. "he cruiser Aurora lay off the Winter 4alace, ready for combat. An ultimatum for surrender was gi&en. "here was no response. 6uring the course of an hour and a half the Aurora fired thirty-six times, with only two hits. "he damage was negligible, but as Lenin pointed out, the noise was enough to get results without destroying the building. "he thousand defenders of the palace capitulated while the cabinet ministers stayed seated around the council room table. "hey surrendered without any resistance. "heir leader, /erensky, had disappeared in the morning. 6ressed as a women, he was spirited away in the official car of the Cnited States embassy. "he bombardment had no impact on 4etrograd1s daily routine. 4eople continued to go to the theaters, which remained open during the entire insurrection. "he ruble was worthless' people paid with an egg to get in. As soon as his men were in control of the Winter 4alace Lenin took off his wig and hea&y glasses and for the first time appeared at the @ongress of So&iets. After four months of hiding out, Lenin had planned and achie&ed a re&olution from his Finnish lair. ;t was his masterpiece. )is sudden re-appearance had a prodigious effect. )e was hailed and acclaimed interminably. )e had forced e&erybody1s hand, and he had won. ;n politics winning is e&erything. Lenin owed it all to his secret tactics. "he re&olutions of the spring and summer, on the other hand, had failed for lack of a dominating mind. As the applause died down Lenin announced that the war would stop immediately and that all land was forthwith confiscated. )e created an !iron go&ernment! run by !people1s commissars.! All knee- erk democrats were

excluded. Lenin demanded that a new @entral 2xecuti&e @ommittee be elected. "he $olshe&iks were in full control of the go&ernment, and the absolute masters of 3ussia. What would 5arxism bring the 3ussian peopleH Within the first eighteen months eight and a half million would be executed or star&ed to death, as many dead as in four years of world war. "his massi&e slaughter did not trouble the $olshe&ik leaders. "rotsky1s answer to critics was( !5elancholy pondering Mon the slaughterN did not pre&ent people from breeding.! %n the night of the coup-%ctober 7E, +,+- old style-Lenin announced that he would cease hostilities with #ermany. Se&en months after the tsar1s downfall #ermany would finally be able to close down its eastern front. Although Lenin and the /aiser had coincidental interests, both were in actuality playing with fire. Lenin needed peace but had no intention of helping the #ermans. "he capitalist 3eich was a prime enemy, to be brought down by &iolent re&olution. Lenin was not going to do anything to strengthen #ermany if he could help it "he kaiser for his part knew that Lenin had always wanted to o&erthrow his regime, and kept an uneasy watch on $olshe&ik de&elopments.

CHAPTE .2I !rest82itovs#

Lenin1s telegram to the #ermans for a cessation of hostilities illustrates his 5achia&ellian turn of mind. )e proposed a three-month truce only to delay a formal peace treaty. "his would lea&e #ermany without the benefits of a clear-cut agreement. "he arrangement would gi&e Lenin time to consolidate @ommunist rule and to prepare 3ussia as a base to export re&olution without freeing the #ermans to concentrate on winning the war in the West. Lenin belie&ed the #erman workers would follow the $olshe&ik example and rise up against the /aiser. While #erman-So&iet negotiations were going on he launched a !peace campaign! addressed to all belligerents, !a peace without territorial gains or indemnities.! While he appealed to the &arious go&ernments, his chief appeal was directly to the people. Lenin was well aware that the people ha&e no say in such matters. "hey lea&e for war, make war and come back from war with closed eyes and sealed lips. "he go&ernments, which are a front for a handful of conspirators-the 4oincarFs, the Sa:ono&s, the @hurchills, the Sonninos, the )ouses, the $ethmann-)ollwegs-are the only ones to launch wars. $ut Lenin was already culti&ating his image as a man of conciliation. "he manipulators of go&ernments were at the time perplexed by Lenin1s ob&iously outrageous suggestion. "hey had railroaded their own countries into war for the express purpose of ac?uiring loot and land, and thus dismissed Lenin1s proposals as the posturing of a madman. "he only head of state to respond fa&orably was Wilson. With patent nai&etF Wilson belie&ed he could con&ert Lenin to his own Fourteen 4oints for peace. )e sent Lenin

enthusiastic congratulations which must ha&e made the So&iet leader laugh contemptuously. Wilson1s telegram dated 5arch +,+D addressed to the @ongress of So&iets read( !Let me take the opportunity on the occasion of this So&iet gathering to express the sincere sympathy felt by the American people for the 3ussian 4eople. "he American people is heartily with the 3ussian people in its determination to be fore&er free of autocratic go&ernment and to be master of its own destiny.! Four days later on 5arch +E, +,+D Lenin replied( !"he 3ussian So&iet Federated Socialist 3epublic takes the opportunity on the occasion of 4resident Wilson1s message to express to all the world1s people its firm belief that the happy day is not far off when the working masses of all countries will free themsel&es from the yoke of capitalism and will establish a socialist state.! Lenin1s Foreign 5inister Kino&ie& did not hide his contempt for the American president when he told the Cnited States ambassador in 5oscow( !With our words we ha&e slapped 4resident Wilson in the face.! ;ronically, Wilson1s capitalist phraseology was &irtually the same as Lenin1s anti-capitalist pronouncements. As early as Banuary D, +,+D Wilson had written the gist of his famous Fourteen 4oints. )e had orginally wanted to establish them before entering the war. "he main points were( !"he right of self-determination for all people,! !the abolition of secret diplomacy,! !freedom of the seas! and !peace without annexations or indemnities.! )ow the $ritish and their allies would allow people selfdetermination when they already had disposed of their

freedom in secret treaties was another ?uestion. Lenin had accurately assessed all the go&ernments bound by secret treaties( !"he war is waged by sla&e traders haggling o&er cattle.! ;n fact the Allies were haggling o&er the 3hineland, "yrol, Sudetenland, 4russia, @arpathia, 6almatia, Smyrna, Armenia, 5osul, $aghdad and Berusalem, as well as other territories scattered all o&er the world. For se&eral years millions of people had been secretely swapped without their knowledge. Wilson wanted commitments in fa&or of self- determination, but it was too late' the bids and the deals were closed, as the president would reali:e a year later in 9ersailles. All peace negotiations would fail on this account. Lenin knew &ery well there was not the slightest chance of con&incing the Allies of renouncing their booty of land and people. )is cynical intelligence understood the usefulness as well as the uselessness of Wilson1s peace demands. )e would go along, propose an unrealistic peace, since he knew the allies would ne&er accept it. Lenin calculated that the uphea&al caused by the allied remapping of the world would open the way to communism. Lenin added a new dimension to traditional imperialism, and to such ethnic enmities as that between Sla& and "euton( the introduction of @ommunist imperialism. Cnlike con&entional imperialists, who sought to grab a specific piece of land, @ommunist imperialism sought to con?uer the entire world. ;t was a basic difference that would transform the world. From Lenin on, age-old ?uarrels only

played into the hands of the @ommunists. %nly cooperation would sa&e nations with a common history and culture. $$$ ;n 4etrograd Lenin had no choice but to bring peace to the masses &ery ?uickly. )is %ctober &ictory was still fragile, and was geographically and numerically limited. /erensky was still in 3ussia, in the town of #atshina, only a few miles from 4etrograd. )e still had a force of loyalist troops and appeared hostile to Lenin. ;n the countryside resistance to @ommunism was on the rise. Lenin admitted, !2&erything is hanging by a thread.! "he thread was a #erman one. ;f he let go of it he would be swept out of power as surely as the tsar or /erensky. #ermany was no longer going to put up with Lenin1s ambi&alence, and sent him an ultimatum. Lenin reali:ed he could no longer string the #ermans along, particularly since his own sur&i&al was threatened. %n Go&ember 78, +,+Lenin and "rotsky were forced to sue for peace and to begin negotiations with #ermany o&er the terms a month later at $rest- Lito&sk. $oth sides would gain and lose. #ermany would win by ha&ing imposed its armistice demands but Lenin would win by cunningly prolonging the negotiations for four months. "he $olshe&ik delegates ranged from the grotes?ue to the sly( a con&icted murderess back from Siberia, @omrade $i:enko, and a drunken laborer who picked his teeth with his fork were put forth as the people1s representati&es, dictating the people1s will. $ehind these front men operated three of the most important $olshe&iks, the real negotiators. "hey were Abramo&ich, 3osenfeld and $ronstein, who

were now going respecti&ely by the names of Boffe, /amene&, and "rotsky. "hey turned the negotiations into a 5arx $rothers routine that left the #ermans bewildered. At the sight of the drunkard, the murderess and three de&ious Bews, #eneral Ludendorff asked in ama:ement( !)ow can we negotiate with such peopleH! Ludendorff would ha&e liked to march on to 4etrograd and 5oscow and wipe out the $olshe&ik nests, but that would necessitate maintaining a large #erman army in 3ussia, and #ermany needed all its forces on the Western front. At last #ermany and Austria agreed in principle, in order to end the dialectical antics, to let the people li&ing within #erman-occupied parts of 3ussia decide of their own fate by way of a plebiscite. "hat was the trio1s first demand. Another demand was made to the effect that #ermany should e&acuate the territories and let the $olshe&iks organi:e the plebiscite. "he #ermans, who had obser&ed how on %ctober 7E, +,+- less than +. per cent of the population had imposed Leninist dictatorship on the rest of the country, refused to entertain this notion. Gegotiations were thus interrupted for ten days, from 6ecember 7D, +,+to Banuary -, +,+D, and the $olshe&iks gained &ital time. "hese delaying tactics helped Lenin1s foreign policy but did little to help him on the home front. ;n fact he was losing ground despite massi&e repression at e&ery le&el. "he working masses had elected only +-E $olshe&ik members out of -+- members of the @onstituent Assembly. ;t was a stinging rebuff which Lenin was not about to tolerate. %n Banuary +D, +,+D the new assembly met to take their seats for the inaugural session at the "aurid 4alace. As they arri&ed they were threatened and harassed by the $olshe&ik

police. "he whole district was under a state of siege, with machine guns positioned on e&ery roof top. "he next day at E(A. in the morning the @onstituent Assembly was summarily dissol&ed, after only a few hours1 existence. Sou&arine reported what happened a few hours later( !"he workers organi:ed a peaceful march to demonstrate sympathy with the men they had elected. "hey carried the red flag. Suddenly, without any warning, they were mowed down by machine-gun fire.! 7+ workers fell dead on the pa&ement. "hus did Lenin treat the proletariat in its &ery first popular demonstration against his regime. Such was the plebiscite, enforced by machine-guns, which "rotsky wanted at $rest-Lito&sk, and which the #ermans were not prepared to grant. "rotsky in&ented new ways to delay the negotiations. %n Banuary 77, +,+D he engineered, through the central committee of the $olshe&ik 4arty, a no&el proposition( the So&iets would not sign a peace treaty. "hey would declare peace unilaterally and demobili:e. "rotsky calculated this tempori:ing would gi&e the #erman 5arxists time to organi:e in #ermany. 4rofessional agitators had had a certain success in promoting the slogan !4eace without annexations! among the #erman workers. "he most aggressi&e agents of $olshe&ism in #ermany were /arl Liebknecht and 3osa Luxemburg, both coreligionists of "rotsky- $ronstein, /amene&-3osenfeld, and Boffe-Abramo&ich. Luxemburg and Liebknecht had orders to exert maximum pressure on the #erman negotiators at $rest-Lito&sk to force them to accept "rotsky1s demands. Steelworkers1

unions were enlisted to spearhead public demonstrations. Soon, fi&e hundred thousand workers would oin the protests. ;t took all of Ludendorff1s skill to defuse a potentially disastrous situation and put the men back to work within a week. Ludendorff thus experienced the sub&ersi&e actions of alien agents within the borders of #ermany, which he called !so many daggers stabbing our soldiers in the back.! "he #erman )igh @ommand could no longer tolerate $olshe&ik intrusion in its internal affairs. At that time occurred a fortuitous e&ent for #ermany( the immense land of Ckraine, rich in the wheat so critically needed in Austria and #ermany, proclaimed itself an independent republic. A Ckrainian delegation came to $rest-Lito&sk to sign a separate treaty of peace and collaboration with #ermany. "he richest part of the land would escape the So&iet grasp. %n February ,, +,+D at two o1clock in the morning, the #erman-Austrian-Ckrainian peace was signed. Ckraine would immediately deli&er a million tons of wheat to Austria. When the $olshe&iks attacked the Ckrainian capital of /ie&, #erman- Ckrainian collaboration became an alliance, which would free #erman troops from Southern 3ussia. "he treaty had thwarted "rotsky1s blackmail. ;n a state of rage he stormed out of $rest-Lito&sk on the first train to 4etrograd. Without a peace treaty, the #erman troops were ordered to ad&ance toward 4etrograd. "he #ermans met no resistance and their offensi&e was swift( !;t is the most

comical war ; ha&e e&er experienced,! said #eneral )offman who led his troops by train. !An infantry detatchment is loaded, along with machine guns and a mortar, on a train riding to the next station. "he $olshe&iks are taken prisoner and the station is captured. "hen a new detachment is brought up by rail and so it goes.! At that rate the #ermans stood to reach 4etrograd within two weeks. Lenin reali:ed that his delaying tactics at $rest-Lito&sk had not paid off. ;n fact, they had backfired. "he possibility of utter defeat for his @ommunist re&olution was real. "his time, he knew, he would ha&e nowhere to run. Lenin reorgani:ed his priorities. )e was prepared to agree to almost anything as long as he could retain some part of 3ussia as a @ommunist base. "he French 2mbassy, desperately trying to keep him in the war, was offering di&isions and millions in gold. "he @entral @ommittee agreed to accept !the help of the French imperialist bandits against the bandits of #erman imperialism.! "he /aiser1s !bandits! were by now half way to 4etrograd, ust +.. miles away from Lenin1s stronghold. "rotsky, who had wanted to put up a fight, was finally won o&er to Lenin1s &iewpoint and pro&ided him with the crucial &ote re?uired to sign a peace treaty. %n February 7=, +,+D the $olshe&ik delegation appeared once more at $rest-Lito&sk. "his time there were no delaying tactics. "he So&iets hardly looked at the documents. %n 5arch 8, +,+D they signed a peace treaty with #ermany. For Lenin the choice had been peace or extinction. !*es,! declared Lenin, !this peace is our most horrendous defeat' yes, this peace is a ma or humiliation for

So&iet power. $ut we are ust not in a position to force history.! $$$ #ermany1s gamble on Lenin had paid off. Without him 3ussia would still be at war. Furthermore, Lenin had been neutrali:ed, ust as his re&olutionary doctrine was about to spread like a typhus epidemic. Little was left of the 3ussian empire( the $altic countries, 4oland, $yelorussia, Ckraine, @rimea and "iflis were in #erman hands. "he So&iet empire had shrunk to the si:e of an indigent pro&ince. 3omania, 3ussia1s ally, had been defeated by #eneral &on 5ackensen. ;t capitulated fi&e days after $rest-Lito&sk. $esides losing the 6obrud a, 3omania had to lease its oilwells to Austria and #ermany for a period of ninety years as well as gi&e #ermany an option on all meat, corn and feedstock for the following eight years. For #ermany the satisfaction of winning on the 2astern front was marred by the landing of hundreds of thousands of American troops on the coast of $rittany and $ordeaux. $ut the $ritish blockade was of little import now that #ermany had access to all the food and raw material at their door-step. #ermany was poised to win the war in 5arch of +,+D( plentiful supplies were assured, $olshe&ism had been pushed back into an icy corner of 3ussia, and the wealth of 3ussia was at #ermany1s disposal. %nly the inter&ention of the Cnited States go&ernment threatened #erman &ictory. *et, the 3eich had to make up for lost time with a tremendous thrust westward. "he #ermans were led by the greatest military genius of World War ;, #eneral

Ludendorff, the right-hand man of 5arshal &on )indenburg. "he #erman war machine was at the peak of its efficiency( in less than three months =..,... soldiers were brought back from the 2astern front, along with all their e?uipment, to reinforce #erman positions in @hampagne and Artois. Ludendorff was methodically massing the entire #erman army for the final round.

CHAPTE .2II 2udendorff at the &ates WWhere was France at the end of +,+-H! "his was the ?uestion AndrF "ardieu would ask in his book, 4eace. "ardieu had been a relentless propagandist for 4an-Sla&ism at the beginning of the war and would later become president of the @ouncil of 5inisters of France. "ardieu answered his own ?uestion une?ui&ocally( "he re&erse of April, +,+- created among a number of people a desire for immediate peace. "here was mutiny at the front, defeatism in the rear lines, and treason on the march. 3omania had deli&ered its wheat and oil to the enemy. Lenin1s rise to power had sent hundreds of #erman battalions against us. American war preparations were particularly slow. %ur armies were immobili:ed by lack of gasoline. "he $ritish had suffered the disaster of 5arch, +,+D and the French had suffered an e?ual disaster at the @hemin des 6ames. "he #ermans were on the 5arne and

4aris was being bombed. @onfidence in the French head of go&ernment was low and it was said in the )ouse that he was losing the war. %n September 7,, +,+, @lemenceau publicly re&ealed a bitter exchange he had had with $ritish 4rime 5inister Lloyd #eorge( Lloyd #eorge( !6o you recogni:e that without the $ritish na&y you could not ha&e carried on the warH! @lemenceau( !*es.! American oil shipments to France pre&ented a collapse of the war effort. "ardieu, sent by @lemenceau to the Cnited States, has gi&en some telling figures( !;f ; had not succeeded at the beginning of +,+D in obtaining from 4resident Wilson the massi&e help which raised our MpetroleumN reser&es from A-,... tons on February + to 78-,... tons by April 8., the two battles, one defensi&e and the other offensi&e, which decided &ictory would not ha&e been won.! )ow would Ludendorff first win, then lose these battles, which the French would ha&e lost without American oil and the $ritish na&yH First-hand witnesses like @lemenceau and his military aide, #eneral 5ordac?, offered the best record of France1s near collapse and #ermany1s brush with &ictory. #eneral 5ordac?1s record of e&ents, on a daily basis, has been acknowledged as factual by most historians. %n 5arch 7+, +,+D, at nine in the morning, the $ritish were under attack at St. Ruentin. For fi&e hours they had been relentlessly pounded by Ludendorff1s ninety di&isions. "hen #eneral )uttier, who the pre&ious year had con?uered 3iga,

threw in the 2ighteenth #erman Army. Within hours the $ritish front had collapsed and the $ritish retreated in panic. "he Allied front line had been breached. #eneral &on 5arwit:1s Second Army and #eneral &on $illow1s Sixteenth followed suit. !Within forty-eight hours,! wrote 3enou&in, !the $ritish were retreating in a rout.! @lemenceau was informed by the military on April 7E that M$ritishN #eneral )aig would ha&e to capitulate before two weeks and that the French army would be lucky if it could do the same. <@lemenceau, Greatness and /isery of #ictory, p. 77> !France is in supreme danger. "he $ritish are running for the Gorth Sea to get home. )aig has no more reser&e troops and 2ngland cannot pro&ide men for immediate combat duty! <@lemenceau, p. 7E>. "he #ermans had opened up a ma or breach exactly at the unction of the $ritish and French armies, which were split in two. $oth could think only of sa&ing their own hides. "he $ritish priority was to co&er their escape routes, namely the @hannel ports of the Gorth Sea, and the French stro&e to defend 4aris. 5arshal Foch himself said( !Ludendorff1s di&isions ha&e ust swung open both hal&es of the door.! French ministers met in haste with the generals in 6oullens. French president 4oincarF was brought in for appearance1s sake, but now it was @lemenceau who was in command. )e offered the $ritish reinforcements on the condition they would accept #eneral Foch as supreme commander of all Allied forces. "he $ritish ob ected at first, but e&ents would

soon change their minds. Ludendorff fanned out his troops from south-west to north-west. )uttier reached 5ontdidier. "he Allies had a brief respite when some of )uttier1s di&isions arri&ed late from the 3ussian front. "he Allied losses were enormous. ,.,... French and $ritish soldiers were taken prisoner. %n April 8, +,+D the $ritish were forced to accept Foch1s leadership. "heir acceptance was only tactical, and only for the purpose of securing more French troops to co&er their retreat. Foch1s actual recognition as !@ommanding #eneral of Allied Forces! only came on April +-, +,+D, when the $ritish were hit by Ludendorff1s second offensi&e. "he second offensi&e began on April D, +,+D between ArmentiLres and La $assFe. "he Sixth #erman Army1s thirty-six di&isions crossed the ri&er Lys, and annihilated two 4ortuguese di&isions which had bogged down in the mud of Flanders. "he #ermans sei:ed /emmelberg, the highest hill of the region, on April 7E, +,+D. "his was a ploy to draw French di&isions away from the main front. After the Allies fell into the trap, Ludendorff then applied maximum pressure against the weakened Allied front. While Ludendorff prepared for the next thrust, he had to deal with the scarcity of munitions and supplies. Austrian and #erman soldiers had to li&e on a ration of 8A grams of meat, +A grams of fat and +=E grams of bread per day. Supply con&oys were critically short of gas and horses. *et the #ermans still managed to deli&er two ma or consecuti&e blows against the $ritish. @lemenceau wrote( !; ust saw one of the last $ritish contingents. ;ts sorry state was proof that our excellent ally

was on its last legs.! <@lemenceau p. A-> At the conference of Abbe&ille on 5ay 7, +,+D Foch was ust as alarmed( !"he last enemy offensi&e brought losses of men and materiel out of all proportion to the losses of the last three years. $ritish infantry suffered greater casualties than they e&er ha&e before. "he French suffered similar losses and it is ine&itable that worse is to come.! @lemenceau was stunned when the $ritish decided to cut their losses and let go of nine di&isions. "he loss of 7..,... men in 5arch, +,+D was more than they could stand. "he mo&e almost triggered a fist fight between Lloyd #eorge and @lemenceau. Foch admitted( !"he outcome of the war now depends on the success of an enemy offensi&e at certain locations.! $oth $ritain and France were demorali:ed. "he French Socialist boss 5errheim was already conceding defeat( !We are in the position of losers.! 2&en "ardieu, the flamboyant war-monger, had grown gloomy( !#eneral #ough1s $ritish army broken and thrown back on Amiens. "he 5arch 78 #erman bombing of 4aris and the rupture of the Anglo-French front brought us back to the worst hours of +,+A.! Ludendorff concentrated his third offensi&e against the French. "he shock was such that only the redeployment of French troops from Flanders sa&ed France from collapse. "he battle took place at @hemin des 6ames and soon became a bloodbath. $odies piled up in mountains( A77,... French soldiers were killed, almost a third of France1s casualties for the entire war. %n 5ay 7-, +,+D the /ronprin: - the #erman @rown

prince - ordered thirty di&isions to take the offensi&e along a thirty-mile front. "he ob ecti&e was to penetrate French lines to a depth of fifteen miles and reach their munition and supplies depots. "he offensi&e was successful beyond expectations( !After the @hemin des 6ames catastrophe, the rupture of the French front, our troops ha&e been thrown back to the 5arne ri&er.! <"ardieu, 4aix, p. A=> "he French lost another +=.,... men. "he #ermans took E.,... prisoners. %n 5ay 7, Soissons fell and on 5ay 8+ the #ermans took 6ormans and @hateau-"hierry after crossing the 5arne. Ludendorff was within an hour1s dri&e of 4aris. "he most important witness to this debacle was #eneral 5ordac?, who reported directly to @lemenceau( 5ay 7-, +,+D( @hemin des 6ames, supposedly an impregnable fortress, fell without resistance at the first #erman thrust. "he bridges of the Aisne ri&er were taken and to this day we were still trying to find out how. 5ay 7D( Fisme fell and the #ermans reached Soissons after taking a considerable number of prisoners. "here is great emotion in 4aris. 5ay 7, and 8.( "he #ermans take Soissons, cross the Arlette ri&er and reach the 5arne on the 8.th. 5ay 8+, Bune +( "he #ermans control the 5arne from 6ormans to @hateau-"hierry. "he #erman offensi&e had ad&anced three times further than expected by Ludendorff himself. ;t took incredible

French efforts to stem the tide. #eneral 5ordac? concluded( !6uring the battle of the @hemin des 6ames, the Allies lost =.,... prisoners, -.. cannon, 7... machine guns, a large amount of artillery and air force materiel, ma or depots of munitions, supplies and food. "he railway, so &ital to supply @hPlons from 4aris, was no longer usable.! ;t was a disaster. "he general did not e&en mention the enormous number of dead and wounded. $$$ As if that weren1t enough the #ermans had launched a fourth offensi&e in the direction of @ompiLgne. )ere again #eneral 5ordac? has left some in&aluable notes( 5ay 7D( #eneral 6uchesne &isits the $elleau head?uarters. )e is in command of the Sixth Army and he has retreated to %uchy-le-@hPteau. "he #ermans are ad&ancing and we ha&e nothing to oppose them. 6uchesne is complaining that since the beginning of the offensi&e he has not seen any great leader emerging. We are sleeping the night at 4ro&ins, head?uarters of #eneral 4Ftain, who critici:es Foch for ha&ing sent the reser&es to the north of France and to the Somme 3i&er. )e has been totally opposed to it. )e said the di&isions were badly deployed and the artillery had failed. %n 5ay 7, we ust escaped the #ermans on our way to 4Lre-en-"ar-denois. At Fresne, #eneral 6egoutte informs us that di&isions had been thrown into battle without any artillery support. ;t is a tragic sight to see the general poring o&er tattered maps while couriers on motorcycles keep arri&ing announcing the ad&ance of the enemy. ; left him knowing ; would ne&er see him again. ;t is one of the most

heart-rending memories ; ha&e of this war. We are returning to 4aris. "he situation is confused. "he )ouse of 6eputies is in a panic. %n Bune +A, +,+D the )ouse of 6eputies was crawling with cowards and conspirators. "here were motions to punish those responsible for the debacle. @lemenceau fought like a tiger to sa&e his defeated generals. !;f ; had gi&en way a single minute,! he said, !the whole )igh @ommand would ha&e gone.! And #eneral Foch would ha&e been the first to go. Said @lemenceau( !; do not boast when ; say ; sa&ed him.! Without this irascible old man of se&enty-six years, often rude and with a cloudy political past, France would &ery likely ha&e collapsed by mid-Bune of +,+D. As with all drowning democracies, it took a strong man to sa&e France. @lemenceau was that strong man, tireless and intractable. Former #erman @hancellor 4rince &on $Olow wrote( !As in the days of the @on&ention, leaders emerged to handle the crisis.! @lemenceau, with a scarf wrapped around his neck, a rumpled old hat on his head and a walrus moustache, ran from crisis to crisis, firing the incompetents and raising the morale of the exhausted and dispirited soldiers. $$$ #ermany did not ha&e such an asset. @hancellor $ethmann)ollweg was a culti&ated man but out of his depth in politics. Sad and uninspiring, he had muddled through blunder after blunder. As early as +,+A, he had lost all credibility and was unable to conduct serious negotiations. "he kaiser fired him in Buly, +,+- and a new chancellor, #eorge 5ichaelis, was appointed. "he new minister pro&ed

himself totally incompetent and only lasted three months. )is successor was @ount &on )ertling, well-meaning but also inept. )e was a sickly academic and a priest was always on call to gi&e him the last rites. )ertling somehow sur&i&ed politically for twel&e months. )e was then replaced by 4rince 5ax of $aden, an amiable man of wholly liberal thinking, who was o&erwhelmed by the position and resigned three months later. Gone of these men were a match for the formidable @lemenceau. "hey dissipated #erman military gains with turgid politics. @lemenceau, on the other hand, was thundering his way out of defeat( !; am presenting myself to you,! he roared to French deputies, !with only one thought( total war. All defeatists will be court martialed. "here will be no more peace campaigns or demonstrations, there will be no more treason, no more half-treason. 5y program is the same e&erywhere( ; wage war at home, ; wage war outside. ; will continue the war until the last minute, because the last minute will be ours.! #ermany might ha&e been imperial, but somehow traitors were tolerated. While @lemenceau turned the firing s?uad on the slightest traitor, #erman traitors were left to undermine national resol&e. Socialist congressman declared with impunity( !We will sabotage the #erman army in order to start world re&olution.! Socialist congressman Strobel declared that a #erman &ictory would be !contrary to socialist interests.! Former @hancellor &on $Olow wrote( !"here were many traitors to the nation among our socialists, while they were none among the French, the $ritish, ;talian or $elgian

socialists.! /arl Liebknecht and 3osa Luxemburg, the @ommunist Bewish agitators who were instigating riots in $erlin for the purpose of o&erthrowing the #erman go&ernment at the end of the war, announced( !"he re&olution will start as soon as the military situation worsens.! "he imperial go&ernment not only did not punish the traitors but it did nothing to back or encourage those socialists who were loyal and patriotic. @ommunist saboteurs were allowed to disrupt war factories and push their propaganda on the workers, a situation which no other country tolerated. 9on $Olow noted the difference( French law punished to the utmost propagators of !pacifism and defeatism.! "he editor of the socialist and pacifist paper $onnet 3ouge was arrested and put to death a few days later. ;nterior 5inister 5al&y was fired and exiled in disgrace because he was accused of being soft on pacifism. Former foreign 5inister @aillaux was ailed as a defeatist and barely escaped with his life. "he 2gyptian banker $olo 4asha was arrested for !corruption! with #ermany and for pacifism. "he charge was groundless but he was ne&ertheless courtmartialed and executed twenty-four hours later at 9incennes. 4ompous declarations about liberty and fraternity ust made @lemenceau laugh( !Woe to the weak. Shun all who would put you to sleep. We are at the height of an implacable war of domination.! @lemenceau committed excesses and in ustices but they were based on the unshakable con&iction that nothing could stand in the way of the war effort.

@lemenceau1s ruthlessness came ust in time. Ludendorff was almost at the gates of 4aris and the French authorities were preparing to flee south ust as in +,+A. @lemenceau had somehow singlehandedly managed to stem the panic and re-establish order. 6espite its outstanding success on the battlefront, #ermany was still short of &ictory. )indenburg had hundreds of thousand of troops in 3ussia and Ckraine, which were now essential if #ermany was to win the war. "he troops were left there to ensure the deli&ery of wheat to Austria and #ermany. Forty other di&isions had also been forced to remain between /ie& and 3iga in case Lenin should sudddenly break the $rest-Lito&sk "reaty. Ludendorff desperately needed these di&isions' his military genius could not offset their absence fore&er.

CHAPTE .2III 9: Points and an Armistice ;n +,+D the Cnited States go&ernment landed 7,.D7,... soldiers on the continent of 2urope. "hat was double the number of the entire #erman army on the 3ussian front. ;n Banuary only +,E,... Americans had landed but six months later the number swelled to +,7..,.... ;n addition to men, the Cnited States poured in materiel and food. %&ernight the $ritish and the French were being replenished with whate&er they had lost, or whate&er they needed.

;n +,+- American bank loans to the Allies had accounted for ,E per cent of Cnited States exports to 2urope. "he Allied imports were enormous( fi&e billion tons of food, fi&e billion tons of supplies, and a billion and a half tons of steel. Ludendorff was aware of the massi&e American influx but calculated that he could still outmaneu&er the enemy. When Admiral &on )int:e, the /aiser1s en&oy, asked him whether he could defeat the enemy totally Ludendorff answered( !@ategorically yes.! Within three months Ludendorff had o&erwhelmed the Allies on three separate occasions with +8. di&isions, while he still had -- in reser&e. For the final thrust he would deploy two million men between 3eims and the Argonne ri&er. ;n France a ?uiet soldier was waiting for him( #eneral 4Ftain, who was later to become marshal and head of state. 4Ftain was called !the &ictor of 9erdun! because for six months he had held the #erman army in check in the city of 9erdun. While Foch was an aggressi&e general, 4Ftain was primarily a defensi&e strategist. )e was careful to keep casualities to a minimum. )e had noticed how other French generals had tried to hold out in front-line positions only to ha&e their men massacred. )e chose to duplicate )indenburg1s strategy. )e would secretly abandon his forward positions and build up formidable defenses in the rear. As 4Ftain knew, Ludendorff would no longer be co&ered by his artillery once he reached the reinforced rear lines.

%n Buly +E, +,+D Ludendorff attacked 4Ftain with A- of his 7.- di&isions. )e o&erran the first lines with the greatest ease, but his hea&y artillery had pounded empty terrain. 4Ftain1s artillery was swiftly wheeled back. 4Ftain1s guns met Ludendorff1s First and "hird Armies with millions of -E mm shells. At first Ludendorff fell into the trap. )is troops ad&anced three miles and crossed the 5arne ri&er, but he stopped them going any further. Since the debacle of @hPteau-"hierry Foch reali:ed he had to organi:e a massi&e counterattack. ;n that spirit he sent no ma or reinforcements to 4Ftain1s defensi&e positions. Foch ran the risk of annihilation but he had decided more out of stubborness than skill to employ his offensi&e strategy. %n Buly +D, +,+D he ordered #eneral 5angin to make a frontal attack. ;t was on that day that the #erman )igh @ommand would make its only ma or error of the whole war( it underestimated the potential of tanks designed for assault. ;t is an irony of history that in +,A. and +,A+ the #erman 3eich would rout the armies of its opponents all o&er 2urope, thanks to the tanks of the pan:er di&isions. $ut in +,+- the #erman )igh @ommand had not yet been con&inced of the efficacy of tanks. "he $ritish and the French had failed in their first tank offensi&es, losing half their armor in a hail of artillery fire. ;n +,+D, howe&er, the Allies had built much impro&ed &ersions. "he Allies sent thousands of them, in a continuous wa&e, until a breach of the Ludendorff front was effected. "his time #erman fire power was not able to stop the flow of new tanks. 5angin ad&anced thirty miles deep into the #erman lines and took twel&e thousand prisoners in one

day. "he #erman supply lines were o&errun as well. 6espite this re&erse Ludendorff managed to maintain order and discipline. )e organi:ed an orderly redeployment behind Fismes and established a new #erman front on August 7, +,+D near the ri&er 9esle. "he setback was not a ma or disaster but for the first time the #ermans had lost the initiati&e. )indenburg was confident( !Fi&e times during the war ;1&e had to pull back my troops and ; always ended up beating the enemy. Why shouldn1t ; succeed a sixth timeH! Ludendorff was also optimistic about his prospects( !"he #erman army will be able to take the initiati&e again.! Ludendorff still had 7.E di&isions at his disposal. )is soldiers were battle-tested and had always displayed the highest bra&ery and discipline. "he Allies conceded they did not ha&e the man-power to match such an enormous and well-organi:ed force. "he lack of Allied man-power would soon be remedied by an influx of +,+AE,... American soldiers. $y Buly +,+D the Cnited States had sent 7- di&isions to France. Gineteen of them were combat ready and the rest could be sent to the front within four months. %n Buly 7- @lemenceau sent a telegram to #eneral 4ershing( !@ordial congratulations for the creation of the First American Army. )istory awaits you, you will not fail it.! %n August -, +,+D Foch was ele&ated to 5arshal of France. "he next day he stealthily mo&ed his troops towards Amiens. A thick fog &eiled his maneu&ers. "he #ermans were surprised by the attack, particularly the number of

tanks in&ol&ed, and were forced to retreat another ten miles. "he Allies now controlled the road from Amiens to 3oye. Ludendorff conceded( !"his is a black day for the #erman Army.! )e would wait another three days for a complete report to e&aluate #ermany1s chances of &ictory( !We must face facts and figures. We are at the limit of our strength, the war must end.! $$$ Ludendorff had said the definiti&e word. 4eace was no longer a wish( it was a necessity. #ermany would ha&e to negotiate a peace and agree to compromises. ;ts bargaining power would be lessened, but would still carry some weight. #ermany had lost a battle but its forces were still in France, while none of the Allied armies were in #ermany. Ludendorff had in mind a peace in which the status ?uo ante bellum, borders and all, would be restored. Since %ctober +,+- many leaders of the West had become concerned at the rise of @ommunism. Lenin had stated that the $olshe&ik re&olution would sweep the world, and the intrusion of @ommunist agitators was becoming e&er more e&ident. "he Allies were faced with choosing between a policy of conciliation to meet a uni&ersal threat or the old policy of secret treaties, expansionism, colonialism and re&enge. "he odds were slim that they would opt for conciliation. "hey had not wanted to hear or talk of peace when they were losing on the battlefield year after year. Gow that they had experienced some success the possibility of peace seemed e&en more remote. @hancellor )ertling had little understanding of Allied intentions. %n September 8, +,+D he told his ministers( !We must say to our enemies( you can see for yoursel&es that

you cannot beat us, but we are ready, as we ha&e been on many occasions before, to conclude an honorable peace.! )is offer was greeted with derision by the $ritish and the French. "hey had decided to end the conflict on the battlefield and to crush #ermany. After a lull in the fighting the Allies took the offensi&e on August 7. and ad&anced on the Ailette and @ambrai. )indenburg and Ludendorff were forced to retreat and establish a new front. For #ermany there was yet hope of bringing back its di&isions from 3ussia. ;f @ommunism was gaining influence across the world, it was not faring so well in 3ussia itself. Lenin was increasingly challenged by nationalist forces, anti-$olshe&ik armies and other hostile elements, which were constantly increasing. ;n desperation he decided to sign an accord of cooperation with #ermany to free his hands and deal with his internal enemies. "he accord allowed for the return of a half a million #erman soldiers to the Western front. $ut it would take three months to mo&e them and by then it might be too late. "he American forces had oined the front and were pro&ing excellent soldiers. Ge&ertheless, in mid-September #ermany, though weakened, was certainly not defeated. "ardieu noted( !$y September 7D, +,+D the enemy had lost most of the ground it had won from 5arch to Bune but there are still =D di&isions in reser&e, representing more than one million men. "hey may be weakened, but so are the Allies.! $$$ "he war continued to inflict massi&e casualties on both sides. "he /aiser kept repeating( !We must catch the right

moment to settle with the enemy.! $ut the time ne&er came. Within three weeks #erman1s fortunes turned markedly downwards. )er allies $ulgaria and Austria were defeated, and "urkey capitulated. #ermany was now alone in the face of &astly superior forces. Ludendorff showed great heroism, but he ust didn1t ha&e the numbers. St. Ruentin, 3oulers and Lille fell and Ludendorff retreated to the Siegfried line. "he "urkish and $ulgarian defections and the warning that Austria would soon capitulate prompted Ludendorff to send a telegram to the #erman )igh @ommand on September 7+( !We should make contact with the Cnited States.! %n %ctober +, +,+D Ludendorff, somewhat agitated, summoned two liaison officers from the $erlin @hancery to his head?uarters. )e ga&e them the following message( !Would you please transmit a pressing demand regarding the immediate dispatching of our peace offer. "he troops are holding out today but one cannot predict what will happen tomorrow.! Later Ludendorff sent a second message( !%ur situation is still honorable. An enemy breakthrough, howe&er, can occur at any time, in which case our peace offer would come at the worst time. ; ha&e the feeling ; am gambling. "here is the likelihood that at any time and at any place a di&ision can fail in its duty.! ;n fact no #erman di&ision e&er failed in its duty. Soldiers and officers alike stood their ground. "hey waded kneedeep in mud in my nati&e &alley of the Semois and as a young boy ; recall witnessing the unshakable #erman de&otion to duty. Sedan remained #erman right until the day of the armistice.

%n %ctober 7E, +,+D $ritish 5arshal )aig confessed to Foch and 4ershing that his troops were tired out and the enemy remained extremely tough( !We are exhausted. "he units need to be re-organi:ed. #ermany is not militarily broken. ;n the past weeks #erman armies ha&e retreated while fighting &ery bra&ely and in the best order.! )aig1s obser&ation was born out by the facts. %n September 7. Ludendorff still had =D di&isions in reser&e. ;n the last hour of the war se&en were still a&ailable, while +8, were on combat duty. "ardieu agreed( !"he &igor of the #erman resistance in critical circumstances was e&ident until armistice day.! <Peace, p. D8>. A few days before the armistice the French military thought they would ha&e to spend another winter at the front. Foch told the )ouse ust twel&e days before @ompiegne( !; am not in a position and no one is in a position to gi&e you an exact date. "he war could last three months, maybe four or fi&e, who knowsH! Lloyd #eorge also watched the casualties( !3ight now each of our armies is losing more men than in any other week during the first four years of the war.! "he war had yielded no &ictors. $oth sides were tired and bloodied. @hurchill himself, who was no friend of #ermany, admitted publicly that only the great ?ualities of the #erman people could ha&e enabled them to maintain a struggle against three ?uarters of the world. After +E.. days and nights of intensi&e combat #ermany was, at the beginning of +,+D still fighting the Allies well outside its own territory. ;n %ctober +,+D #ermany declared its willingness to cease

hostilities on the basis of Wilson1s fourteen points. "he /aiser had, through third parties, already informed Wilson that #ermany would e&acuate France and $elgium without conditions. "he /aiser1s offer had stood since August D, +,+D, but remained unanswered by the Wilson administration. ;t would take another +..,... dead before Wilson acknowledged the #erman appeal. Ludendorff had ad&ised an end to hostilities, howe&er when he saw the Allies had ignored the #erman appeal, he reported( !"he #erman army is still strong enough to contain the enemy for months. ;t can win locali:ed battles and infleict hea&y casualties on the Allies. 5arshal )indenburg likewise told the 3eich chancellor on %ctober 8, +,+D( !Although my position is becoming more critical by the day the #erman army remains solid and continues to resist all Allied attacks.! Cnlike 4oincarF who, far from the trenches, screamed for more blood, )indenburg was a deeply compassionate man( !2ach day lost costs the li&es of thousands of good men.! "he old marshal also felt the gra&ity of @ommunist sub&ersion inside #ermany and its link with 4etrograd. "he @ommunists were waiting for the defeat of the #erman army to launch an uprising. Already #erman supply lines were being infiltrated by 3ed agitators. ;t was reminiscent of St. 4etersburg in 5arch +,+-. $$$ Although the So&iets had publicly stated their aim to communi:e the entire world only @hurchill, among all the Allies, took the threat seriously( !"he $olshe&iks represent an international conception of human affairs which is totally alien and hostile to all our

ideas of ci&ili:ation.! <World Crisis& &ol. ;9, p. +D> After two months of ignoring the #erman peace appeals, Wilson finally replied on %ctober D, +,+D. )e asked ?uestions which had already been answered by the #ermans in their first appeal( !6oes the #erman go&ernment accept the Fourteen 4oints in their entiretyH Will the #erman go&ernment e&acuate all occupied territories immediatelyH 6oes the #erman go&ernment speak on behalf of the authorities who ha&e waged war until nowH! %n %ctober ++, +,+D the #erman 3eich replied. #ermany agreed to e&erything( !"he new go&ernment appro&ed by absolute ma ority speaks in the name of the #erman people.! %n %ctober +A Wilson sent a second note demanding the destruction of all #erman military power and the transformation of #erman political institutions. William ;; knew what it meant( !"his aims s?uarely at the remo&al of the monarchy.! 6espite Ludendorff1s strong opposition <he resigned in %ctober 7=>, the go&ernment, headed by 4rince &on $aden, ga&e in to all demands !in the name of the #erman people.! %n %ctober 7D, +,+D Wilson sent a third note demanding an armistice whereby !it would be impossible for #ermany to take up arms.! "he armistice and peace, Wilson cabled, could only be negotiated with !representati&es of the #erman people and not with those who ha&e ruled the people until now.! %nce more the #erman go&ernment agreed. When Ludendorff protested on behalf of the #ermany army, the new &ice-chancellor, 4ayer, replied curtly( !;

know nothing of military honor, ; am ust a wicked bourgeois, ust a ci&ilian.! Such talk made the #erman socialists feel that their time was coming at last. !"he socialists,! wrote historian 5arc Ferro, !were calling the tune. "hey were in power and were waiting for @hancellor &on $aden to obtain Wilhelm ;;1s abdication. "hey pressured him to resign, implying that a re&olution would follow.! "he predictions of re&olution were not idle talk. %n Go&ember 8, +,+D the first mutinies would occur in /iel. $efore resigning Ludendorff had stated on %ctober 7E( !;f the army holds out another four weeks, and winter sets in, we will be out of the woods.! Cndersecretary Solf then asked point blank( !;f a refusal <to comply with Wilson1s demands> breaks the negotiations, will you take the responsibility for itH! !*es,! replied Ludendorff. )indenburg also opposed Wilson1s demands( !;t would be better to keep on fighting and sa&e our honor.! "he Allies reali:ed they could still break their teeth on the #erman bone. "hey were bent on a war of attrition. For his part, Wilson was learning, after #ermany had agreed to all his demands, that it was in his own camp that peace was not wanted. "he Allies had no time for his kind of peace, in which the $ritish would no longer rule the seas, and where French, ;talian, #reek and central 2uropean politicians could not tear at #ermany like ackals after the war. %n %ctober 8, +,+D Wilson decided to ask the Allies

!whether they were disposed to conclude peace under the conditions and principles already known.! Wilson was of course referring to his Fourteen 4oints, which particularly stressed !peace without annexations.! "he points had been read in @ongress on Banuary D, +,+D( +. !%pen con&entions openly arri&ed at.! For the pre&ious three years the Allies had signed, in the utmost secrecy, a series of con&entions for the purpose of sharing the spoils of war. 7. !Absolute freedom of na&igation upon the seas.! $ritain had not the slightest willingness to abide by such a point. 8. !Abolition of as many economic barriers as possible and the establishment of commercial conditions for all nations.! "he French go&ernment wanted ust the opposite in order to keep #ermany down fore&er. A. !Arms in each country will be reduced to a minimum.! "he Allies wanted to keep their superiority of arms but wanted #ermany totally disarmed. E. @oncerning colonies( !"he interests of the populations concerned will carry the same weight as colonial claims.! "he Allies had already confiscated #erman colonies for themsel&es and had no intention of asking the nati&es what they thought about it. =. !2&acuation of all 3ussian territory.! "he Allies agreed to this point. Lenin, who had been contained in a narrow corner of 3ussia, was now unleashed to spread communism throughout the world. -. !$elgium must be e&acuated and restored.! 2&erybody agreed. D. !"he wrongs caused to France by 4russia in +D-+ in

relation to Alsace- Lorraine must be righted.! "his point was sub ect to multiple interpretations. ,. !A rectification of ;talian borders must be effected in accordance with the principle of nationality.! "his point was negated by the secret "reaty of London signed by $ritain, France and ;taly in +,+E. "he treaty ignored the principle of nationality, since it promised the ;talians South "yrol, including 7A.,... #erman inhabitants. +.. !Autonomous de&elopment of the people of Austria and )ungary.! ;n +,+, the two countries would be encircled by a band of states controlled by the Allies. "his remapping of @entral 2urope was done without the consent of its millions of #erman, )ungarian and Slo&ak inhabitants. ++. !;nternational guarantees for the independence and integrity of 3omania, Serbia and 5ontenegro.! "his point was &ague and did nothing to sol&e long-standing historical issues. +7. @oncerning the nations under "urkish rule, mostly Arab( !Full security and the right to independent de&elopment without any interference.! "his point was illusory. ;n a secret treaty with France the $ritish had gi&en themsel&es the lion1s share of the 5iddle 2ast which included territories, populations and oil. Furthermore, the $ritish 2stablishment had promised the Arab country of 4alestine to the Bews of the world. "he 4alestinians were of course ne&er consulted. +8. !An independent 4olish state will be created which will comprise territories inhabited by 4olish populations and which will be gi&en free access to the sea.! "he word !access! was understood by the Allies as meaning !annexation! and the point failed to mention that the

territories !inhabited by 4olish populations! were also inhabited by more than ten million non-4olish people. +A. !"he establishment of a general association of nations.! "he Allies regarded this point as ust another of Wilson1s grand ideas of no rele&ance or future. Should the #ermans ha&e refused to go along with Wilson1s Fourteen 4ointsH Like most other 2uropeans, they had no knowledge of Wilson1s physical and psychological state. A man debilitated by illness can often be harmful to others( he is betrayed and irritated by his body. )is character is affected and so is his range of actions. Wilson had been sick and ailing since childhood. )is eyes, his stomach, his bowels and his ner&ous system were affected by illness. )is biographer, $ullitt, wrote( !At se&enty years of age he was suffering from gastric problems, migraines, ner&ous disorders and stomach troubles! <4resident Wilson, p. 7=A> Freud later diagnosed him as suffering from !typical ner&ous depression! and noted his paranoiac reflexes, particularly in his belief that he was the reincarnated @hrist. Although he did not set out to cause trouble, his absolute belief that he could do no wrong boded ill for humanity. )e belie&ed his higher principles would change human nature and the world but his physical and mental condition made him unaware that he was being mainpulated by intriguers and conspirators, both inside and outside America. "he First World War was abo&e all an imperialist war. "he

ob ecti&es were strictly material and territorial. Go one was fighting, as in +,A., for ideals or a new concept of world order, but to ?uench a thirst for more trade, more people and more land. "his greed for gain would soon submerge Wilson in 9ersailles, where his hopes for a better world would be fore&er dashed. )e may ha&e reali:ed then that politics is the gra&eyard of good intentions. "he #ermans, lacking $ritish political cynicism, had decided to go along with Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints. "hey were not concerned that some conditions were o&erly se&ere because they belie&ed their near &ictory in the summer of +,+D would ensure them an honorable peace. "hey had been impressed by certain conciliatory statements Wilson had made concerning #ermany( !We are in a way ealous of #erman greatness and there is nothing in our program to thwart it.! Wilson had also taken a number of public stands on #ermany( We know now that we are not the enemy of the #erman people and they are not ours. "hey did not start nor wish this horrible conflict. We did not want to be drawn into it either but we feel that we are in a way fighting for the #erman people, and one day they will reali:e it, as much as for oursel&es. A most mo&ing declaration. "he #ermans, howe&er, would ha&e placed less reliance on it if they had heard Wilson1s pre&ious comments, this time speaking as a true politician,

to the effect that( !We must not attach too much importance to promises.! What would remain of Wilson1s promises a year laterH "he Allies &iewed the Fourteen 4oints as a threat to the gains they had already made. For diplomatic reasons they had not publicly opposed them but they were far from agreeing to them. Wilson meant to impose them, one way or another. ;f the Allies failed to recogni:e the sacredness of his principles he would bring them to reason by financial pressure( !$ritain and France,! he wrote to )ouse, !do not ha&e the same ideas as we ha&e concerning peace. After the war we will be able to force them to think like us, because among other things, they will be in our hands financially.! <$ullitt, 4resident Wilson, p. 8.=, 8+,>. "he Allies, who were still unsure of winning the war, went through the motions of placating Wilson. 4ri&ately they were seething, and feared a premature armistice would undermine their latest battlefield gains. "hey needed American troops to ensure total &ictory on their terms. Wilson1s messianic liberalism made for a poor performance in public relations and diplomacy. )e treated opposition to his ideas with disbelief and contempt( unbelie&ers would be financially arm-twisted or bypassed. "his attitude led him to negotiate the conditions of the Go&ember ++ armistice without e&en consulting the &arious pressure groups controlling the politics of America. )e ignored the traditional American way of seeking consensus through consultation and bi-partisan compromise. "he 3epublicans were not in&ited to be associated with his Fourteen 4oints,

despite Wilson1s demands being presented as a national plan and policy. Wilson would go to 9ersailles embroiled in a bitter and sordid political fight. )e would not be the spokesman of a united America' he would pursue his own policy and &isions. Further, his ill-ad&ised attempt to impose ten candidates of his own choice in an upcoming senatorial election backfired( eight of the ten Wilson-picked candidates lost by a landslide. ;t was a stinging rebuff that did little to enhance his prestige or credibility on the e&e of his departure for France. Apart from losing face at home and abroad, Wilson also lost control of the Senate. Without Senate appro&al Wilson lacked the power to commit America to an international treaty such as that of 9ersailles. 2&erything he would sign would be at the mercy of a hostile @ongress. @ongress would indeed re ect the treaty which Wilson had signed at 9ersailles. "he armistice with #ermany was signed on Go&ember ++, +,+D. "he treaty negotiations would start in Banuary +,+,, but they were doomed to failure from the outset. 2ach participant obser&ed the usual diplomatic niceties, but before the first session e&er started there was scarcely a single issue generally agreed on by the Allies. Wilson, who had been so bent on imposing his point of &iew, no longer had a ma ority in his own country. ;n a rare flash of realism Wilson expressed doubts as to the results of the 9ersailles "reaty( !"his will cost us thousands of li&es and billions of dollars, ust to end in an infamous peace which will condemn us to another and worse war

than this one.! <$ullitt, President Wilson, p. 7,->. $ehind the lights and applause, which were da::ling a gullible public, the greatest failure in history was taking shape.

The Scoundre"s of )ersai""es

CHAPTE .2I) The Armistice; a 1raud Let us pray to #od our so&ereign will now ha&e courage to die on the battlefront,! declared @ount Augustus &on 2ulenberg, one of the /aiser1s closest aides. "he all-powerful /aiser, howe&er, who had been the god of war for years, was melting like butter during the last days of the war. )e knew it was the end, and he had decided to retire to a comfortable life of exile at the castle of Aberemonge. )e would not see a #erman uniform until 77 years later, when the Waffen SS spearheaded the con?uest of )olland. "he #erman army, despite its courage and discipline, was slowly losing ground. $ut it was not the Allies who were responsible. "he #erman army was undermined behind its own lines at home. Since +,+-, 5arxist agitators and agents

had, under Lenin1s direction, conducted a relentless campaign of sub&ersion and sabotage. "he new So&iet 2mbassy in $erlin was the center of @ommunist sub&ersion in #ermany. Some of Lenin1s agents had been arrested and found in possession of documents and money pro&ided by the embassy. @onsiderable funds were remitted to the Bewish managers of @ommunist insurrection( /arl Liebknecht and 3osa Luxemburg. 5ore than -..+. of @ommunist leaders in 3ussia were Bews and practically all the @ommunist bosses who would appear across 2urope in the following weeks would also be Bews. While the #erman army fought with patriotic fer&or, alien sub&ersi&es were tearing their homeland apart. "hey took control of #ermany1s greatest seaports, sabotaged #erman warships and spread terror among the population. %fficers were murdered and arsenals blown up in /iel and LObeck. "he terror reached $remen, Wilhelmsha&en, Altona and )amburg. 5arxist thugs were organi:ed into !;ron $rigades! and sent by the trainloads to all strategic points of #ermany, where munitions and arms were sei:ed. "hey took control of railway stations, bridges and road intersections. $erlin was now falling prey to $olshe&ik mayhem, where ri&al 5arxist gangs would fight it out for the pri&ilege of destroying #ermany. Soon $erlin was at the mercy of ruthless !people1s commissars! and so was the rest of #ermany. ;t was against this background of 5arxist terror that #erman politicians decided to negotiate the end of the war. A frightened en&oy called 2r:berger was sent to Foch to recei&e a document demanding #ermany1s unconditional

surrender and to be signed forthwith. 2r:berger had difficulty in contacting @hancellor &on $aden because the !people1s commissars! in $erlin had fired him from his ob. "he head of the #erman go&ernment had been stripped of all power when 2r:berger was summoned to sign a document written in French. After much waiting, 2r:berger recei&ed a telegram from $erlin( !"he #erman go&ernment accepts the armistice conditions presented on Go&ember D.! "he telegram was signed !3eichskan:ler Schluss.! Foch was bewildered by the name !Schluss!( !Who is this @hancellor SchlussH Who is this gentlemanH Geither our )igh @ommand nor our go&ernment has e&er heard of him.! Foch was glaring at 2r:berger with distrust. For a while the #erman en&oy was at a loss for words because he also had no knowledge of @hancellor Schluss. )e might ha&e smiled during a less momentous occasion but composed himself to defuse a misunderstanding that was turning nasty. !Schluss,! he explained, !is not the new chancellor. )e is neither a congressman nor any kind of politician. JSchluss1 is simply a #erman word meaning Jperiod.1 ! ;n fact the telegram sent was sent anonymously by someone who dictated the !period! to signify the end of the message. "hat was 4eople1s @ommissar 2bert, who was no chancellor. $erlin was without a chancellor, a secretary of state and an emperor. A terrorist rabble had occupied go&ernment buildings by force in total illegality. 4eace had started with a fraud. "he telegram agreeing to Allied conditions was in the name of non-existent chancellor and was therefore legally worthless.

"he Allies were concerned o&er the situation in #ermany. "he 5arxist re&olution could easily spread to $elgium and France. ;ndeed, Lenin had planned to use #ermany as his base for communi:ing the world. "he armistice treaty was drafted to punish #ermany to the utmost and ?uench the Allies1 thirst for &engeance, but its immediate result was to sa&e @ommunism and make it into a force strong enough to threaten the world. "he treaty ordered the #ermans to withdraw immediately from the $altic states, Ckraine and @rimea. "he #erman presence had kept the @ommunist &irus bottled up in 4etrograd. "he remo&al of #erman troops would open the way for Lenin to in&ade these countries. Self-interest alone would ha&e dictated that the Allies use the #ermans as a bulwark against the 3ed tide, but they were so o&erwhelmed by hatred for #ermany they had become blind to the conse?uences of their action. "he armistice was in fact remo&ing practically all of #ermany1s defense means( E,... cannon, 8,... trench mortars, 7E,... machine guns had to be surrendered. ;n addition, the Allies confiscated E,... locomoti&es and +E.,... railroad cars, as well as the entire #erman air force and na&y. "hree million #erman soldiers suffering from exhaustion and years of pri&ation had to make their way home on foot. ;t was an inhuman ordeal. 5eanwhile, gangs of Bewish @ommunists were unleashing a reign of terror in e&ery city of #ermany. "he bourgeoisie, paraly:ed with fear, was hiding in its cellars. 2r:berger was still hoping that the Allies would e&entually

come to their senses by the time of ratifying the peace treaty. )e was also encouraged that the armistice had been concluded only after the acceptance by all parties of Wilson1s Fourteen points-guaranteeing a ust peace. Would this undertaking be respectedH 2uropean apprehension in the face of the $olshe&ik 3e&olution should ha&e induced wisdom. $ut it was not to be. @lemenceau was after blood when he stated( !"he day of &engeance has arri&ed. #ermany will wait in &ain for us to hesitate one minute.! )ow did @lemenceau reconcile his statements with his country1s acceptance of Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints( !"here will be no annexations, no reparations or indemnities of a puniti&e nature!H

CHAPTE .2) !ritish 'ema0o0uer( Strangely enough the ones who, e&en before the arri&al of delegates to the peace conference in 4aris, were the spokesmen for a policy of &engeance were not the French but the $ritish 2stablishment. 5ore than any other country, $ritain had taken great care to ensure that the war would pro&e profitable to its trade and imperialism. "he $ritish 2stablishment would allow nothing to stand in the way of its greed for gain.

;n +,+A the $ritish empire owned a ?uarter of the world. "o ensure 9ersailles would not upset its institutionali:ed policy of pillage and piracy, the $ritish imperialists had, ahead of the e&ent, stuck cle&er stickers on the spoils of the #erman and "urkish colonial empires. %f particular interest were the 5iddle 2ast oil fields and #erman possessions in Africa. London needed "anganyika, an African region of great strategic and economic importance for them, to link its northern colonies of 2gypt and Sudan to its southern Africa lands, which they had fairly recently stolen from the $oers. Long before the armistice, the $ritish had appropriated for themsel&es the #erman colonial empire as if by di&ine right. "he $ritish empire now controlled 8E,A=-,=E= s?uare kilometers of the 2arth1s surface, +. times more than it did in the +Dth century. ;t had also ac?uired what it had stri&en for for three centuries( dominion of the seas. "he $ritish simply confiscated the entire #erman na&y and merchant marine. All the #erman ships had been taken to 2ngland at the base of Scapa Flow and were to be distributed among the &ictors, who by Armistice 6ay included most of the world1s countries. "he distribution was typically $ritish( -..-. of the ships would go to $ritain and the balance to the rest of the world. "he war had also well ser&ed the $ritish policy of !di&ide and rule! by which $ritain reser&ed the right to foment unrest and wars in 2urope. ;t has always been an article of faith for the $ritish 2stablishment to stop any 2uropean country from becoming too strong commercially or otherwise. #ermany had been a prime target of this policy because its ships threatened to compete with $ritish cartels

and monopolies. #ermany was earmarked for destruction only because it was successful. ;t oined a long list of countries which at one time or another o&er the years found themsel&es embroiled in wars and conflict against nations backed by $ritain. "he $ritish 2stablishment had seen them as a threat, real or imagined, and had immediately set their agencies in motion to deal with the problem by fomenting wars. $ritain had always regarded 2urope as a patchwork of alien entities to be manipulated for the greater glory and wealth of the $ritish 2stablishment and had ne&er considered itself as part of 2urope. !2ngland is only bound to 2urope but it is not part of it,! declared @hurchill. $ritish support for one country doing its bidding was ne&er longstanding. As soon as it had ser&ed its purpose it was abruptly discarded. Friendship or loyalty were ne&er a consideration. Lord 4almerston clearly explained $ritish policy( !#reat $ritain has no lasting friendship or enmity with anyone' it has only permanent interests.! 2&en @lemenceau remarked( #reat $ritain has ne&er ceased to be an island defended by the sea. $ecause of this it deems it necessary to multiply the causes of discord among the people of the continent, to ensure the peace of its con?uests. @onsiderable means were put at the disposal of this policy. $ritain1s 2uropean policy has mostly consisted in keeping the people of 2urope in check( using some to check the others. %n Armistice 6ay $ritain had once more reached its goal( it had eliminated its competitor by foul play.

Spain in it heyday had suffered a similar fate. Spanish ships had opened up the Gew World, watched by a aundiced $ritsh eye. ;nstead of exploring new worlds themsel&es, the $ritish unleashed a fleet of pirates on the unsuspecting Spaniards. 4irates who stole the most gold, murdered the most Spaniards and sunk the most galleons were automatically knighted by her $ritannic 5a esty, and cut in on a percentage of the booty. For 7.. years the $ritish 2stablishment li&ed off the proceeds of their piracy against Spain. Gapoleonic France was also under constant $ritish attack for its attempt to unify 2urope. "he $ritish had fa&ored Gapoleon as a re&olutionary tearing France apart but when he became emperor he had to go( a strong France could not be tolerated. 6uring the entire +,th century 2urope was kept in a constant state of turmoil and wars, of which the only beneficiary was $ritish imperialism. Go&ember ++, +,+D marked the downfall of #ermany, the +,+A trade competitor of #reat $ritain. "he $ritish were ?uite &ocal in demanding reparations from a prostrate #ermany, perhaps to deflect attention from the fact they had already helped themsel&es to the lion1s share of #erman assets. *et the $ritish were not through with #ermany. She was going to be used to fuel the mills of $ritish politics. Lloyd #eorge was facing elections and he decided to ride the wa&e of enthusiasm created by the Allied &ictory o&er #ermany. "he $ritish &oters had for the last four years been sub ected to an orgy of anti-#erman propaganda and Lloyd #eorge thought the war hysteria had been s?uee:ed for all it

was worth. )e would appeal to the &oters on the benefits his go&ernment had got out of the war. $ritain had already destroyed #ermany and he saw no point and certainly no profits in kicking a dead horse "he $ritish 2stablishment was at that time eyeing France as the next competitor to be knocked down. "he French had lost almost 7 million men during the war and they were thirsting for &engeance and reparations. "he war had been fought on their territory and they felt entitled to the lion1s share. Since the $ritish lion had already taken care of that, Lloyd #eorge felt the French would pro&e obnoxious upon waking up to find out there was nothing left to s?uee:e out of #ermany. "hey might e&en turn against the $ritish with the rage of a cheated partner. Furthermore, since the French go&ernment had firmly implanted in its sub ects the notion that France was responsible for winning the war, the issue of &engeance and reparations became an emotionallycharged national issue beyond the scrutiny of knowledge or reason. @hurchill was instructed to meet with Lloyd #eorge in order to de&elop some kind of bipartisan policy to deal with likely French expectations and recriminations. "he 2stablishment e&en contemplated helping #ermany to reco&er enough to create a counterweight to the French. %n April ++, @hurchill dined with Lloyd #eorge at +. 6owning Street. @hurchill narrated the e&ent( We were along in the main hall under the ga:e of 4itt, Fox and Gelson. "he greatness and magnitude of our &ictory produced in us a feeling of lightness and detachment. *et our task was in no way terminated. 5y mind was shared

between apprehension for the future and a desire to help a defeated enemy. We went on talking about the great ?ualities of the #erman people, of the terrible struggle they had to bear against three-?uarters of the world, of the impossibility of remaking 2urope without #erman participation. We thought at the time they were actually dying of star&ation. We thought famine and defeat would slide the "eutonic population into the deadly abyss that had already de&oured 3ussia. ; suggested we should, without waiting for any more news, send to )amburg half a do:en ships filled with food. Although the armistice conditions were not to lift the blockade until peace had been signed, the Allies had promised to pro&ide sufficient food and the prime minister look upon my proposition fa&orably. %utside, the songs and the hurrahs of the crowd were reaching our ears, like wa&es on the shore. $ut sentiments of a differenct nature would soon pre&ail. @hurchill and Lloyd #eorge waxed pompous on helping the hungry in the comfortable club atmosphere of 6owning Street. "hese were noble thoughts which, howe&er, were not meant for public consumption but rather to be dissipated in the fumes of after-diner cigars. %utside, the world of electioneering and politicking had little time for highmindedness. A week after the dinner, Lloyd #eorge was won o&er to the idea of whipping up more anti-#erman hysteria as the best way to win the election. $ritish master propagandists had demonstrated how effecti&e their anti- #erman lies could be both at home and abroad. For a politician like Lloyd #eorge it was nothing to change issues or policy. ;n August, +,+A

he was a staunch opponent of the war. "hen he changed his mind in exchange for a cabinet post. "hree years later had had become prime minister of the pro- war party. Anti#ermanism was a pro&en recipe for winning elections and Lloyd #eorge fully intended to use it. With a certain black humor @hurchill commented( !"he war of the giants had ended' the bickering of pygmies has started.! <World Crisis& 9ol. A, p. 7-.> $ritish propaganda had portrayed /aiser Wilhelm ;; as an absolute monster who, alone, had wanted the war. "he /aiser bugbear, )un horror tales about atrocities and dastardly sinkings of !innocent ci&ilian ships! such as the *usitania has been most profitable for $ritish politicians. "hey were once more wa&ed in the face of the crowds. "he &oters had been well conditioned for four years and responded enthusiastically by sweeping Lloyd #eorge and his coalition go&ernment for another term. "he $ritish 2stablishment thought it unwise to switch hate hysteria from the #ermans to the French too abruptly. Although it had the utmost confidence in the &oters1 pro&erbial lack of memory, it reali:ed the electorate had actually become addicted to anti-#erman hysteria. "he crowd demanded that the /aiser and his )uns, who had allegedly multilated $elgian children and shot 3ed @ross nurses, and killed $ritish sub ect should be hanged, and )unland pay fore&er for their ghastliness. A police report at the time read( !"he same sentiments dominate in all classes ... "he #ermans must pay for the damages they ha&e caused with their last cent, e&en if they ha&e to pay for a thousand years.!

@abinet 5inister $arnes was cheered by the crowds when he cried out routinely( !"he /aiser must hang.! Lloyd #eorge was e?ually &ehement and promised( !"he emperor of #ermany will be udged and e&entually put to death.! @hurchill had long since ettisoned his temporary magnanimity and had oined the bloodthirsty pack in demanding that the /aiser be put on trial and hanged. 2&en that did not satisfy the &oters, who insisted that !a punishment worse than death be guaranteed. @hurchill noted( !Women displayed the most &iolence. All the classes and all the parties in the town of 6undee demanded the /aiser1s hanging. ; was obliged to demand he be brought to ustice.! )anging the /aiser and bleeding #ermany white might ha&e made the $ritish electorate delirious but it did not make economic sense. "he use of free #erman labor would only increase unemployement at home and would also depri&e #ermany of money to pay its enormous war debt. ;t was really a matter of trying to pluck a plucked chicken. After the elections politicians soon forgot, pri&ately at least, all their blood-curdling promises and went back to the business of money. Lloyd #eorge commissioned $ritish economist Bohn 5aynard /eynes who came up with a maximum figure of 7 billion pounds sterling for reparation. "here was such an outcry-the amount was deemed to be far too low-that the commission1s recommendations were ?uickly swept into the dust bin. @hurchill still tried to con&ince his constituents of 6undee

that the figure of 7 billion pounds sterling !was reasonable and sensible.! )e carefully addressed the &oters( "he #ermans must pay reparations MapplauseN' they must pay large reparation MapplauseN. ;n +D-. they demanded large reparations from France. We will make them pay +. times more Mlong applauseN. "wo hundred million pounds, that is to say E billion gold francs multiplied by +.' that makes 7 billion pounds. @hurchill had thought he had sold the &oters but soon reali:ed no one had bought his argument( "he next day they started taking a close look at my figures. An arrogant telegram was sent to me from an important chamber of commerce( !)a&en1t you forgotten a :eroH! "he local newspapers were stridently screaming +7 billion, +E billion0 "hese figures were flying off the lips of men and women who, only yesterday, were satisfied with 7 billion. %&erwhelmed, @hurchill beat a hasty retreat( !Well, naturally, if we can get more ...! Lloyd #eorge knew the insanity of such demands but he was not going to be outdone on the hustings, where he repeated the famous statement( !We will s?uee:e the #erman lemon until the pips s?ueak.! )e raised the figure to 7A billion pounds sterling, +7 times more than he had been ad&ised by economic experts #ermany could possibly pay. !*es,! he proclaimed before a delirious crown, !they will pay this to the last cent, e&en if we ha&e to search their

pockets.! ;n +,+D #erman pockets were more likely to be filled with holes than cents. $ut the inflationary rhetoric had propelled Lloyd #eorge and his coalition to a landslide &ictory with D8.-o of the seats in the )ouse of @ommons. )is prime ministership was secured for se&eral more years. @hurchill made another political somersault, umped on Lloyd #eorge1s bandwagon and was minister for war. "he triumph of demagoguery in $ritain ensured the failure of the 9ersailles @onference. Go $ritish minister was about to lower the figure. ;t was accepted dogma, not only belie&ed by the 2nglish population, but also unanimously by the French. Lloyd #eorge tried to shed his electoral promises the following month and on many later occasions, but always without success. )e was stuck with them for better or worse.

CHAPTE .2)I The ,orass of Paris Lloyd #eorge arri&ed in 4aris at the beginning of Banuary, +,+,, flanked by a retinue of emirs, mahara ahs and prime ministers from @anada, Gew Kealand, Australia and all the other far-flung outposts of the $ritish empire. @lemenceau suspected !perfidious Albion! had once more doublecrossed the French, and said as much to Lloyd #eorge( !"he &ery next day after the armistice ; ha&e found you to be the

enemy of France.! Lloyd #eorge replied( !Well, isn1t it our traditional policyH! "he altercation reflected $ritish policy without embellishment. France had replaced #ermany as the enemy. Although @lemenceau was able to establish that $ritain was the enemy, he was unable to see that only a reconciliation with #ermany pre&ented him from de&eloping such a thought. "his ignorance was shared by many of his compatriots and was always cle&erly exploited by the $ritish 2stablishment. $efore +,+A most Frenchmen li&ed in total ignorance of all their neighbors. "hey tra&eled little because they were satisfied no country could match their own. "he famous author @harles 5aurras had only once in his lifetime left France, and that was to take, as a young man, a short train trip to $russels. 4ierre La&al, a @abinet minister ++ times, told me he had also been in $elgium by train( !$ut ; did not see anything because my train was going to $erlin where ; had been in&ited by Streseman, and it was dark.! @lemenceau knew so little about anything foreign he could not distinguish between 6utch and $elgian currency. "his could be understandable coming from o&erseas &isitors, but France had li&ed next to these !foreigners! for more than 7,... years. "hus was post-war 2urope poisoned by $ritish perfidy and French hatred and ignorance. 4etty s?uabbles were the order of the day. ;t was such an en&ironment that Wilson would reach 4aris

on Banuary +A, +,+D. )e bore his hallowed Fourteen 4oints as if he had come down from Sinai with them. )e was sure they would illuminate the world. )e was ?uite prophet-like about it. For @lemenceau the Fourteen 4oints were ust so much airy nonsense. )e would not say so publicly, howe&er, and instead set out the welcome mat for Wilson. )e organi:ed a fa&orable press and arranged for French academician La&edan to write( We saw him in ;llustration Ma famous maga:ineN, we ha&e admired him and our descendants will admire him. 4resident Wilson will appear in the poetry of the coming centuries like 6ante, whom he resembles in profile. "he future generations will see him leading, between the perils of this infernal world, the $eatrice dressed in white which we call peace. We salute in our hearts, in the temple of our gatitude, this eternally memorable man. )ail 4resident Wilson, high priest of idealism. Left-wing author 3omain 3oland was not about to be outpuffed and threw in his own lofty encomium( )eir to Washington and Abraham Lincoln( con&oke the @ongress of )umanity0 $e the arbiter of all free people0 And may the future generations call thee the 3econciliator0 While incense was la&ishly dispensed @lemenceau was preparing to neutrali:e Wilson1s points. Like the $ritish, he had come to resent American success. "here was plain ealousy and also a feeling that American growth would create a new center of power. $oth the $ritish and

@lemenceau belie&ed that their respecti&e countries should be the center of the world and disliked the idea of a new contender. Allied anti-Americanism was really scandalous. "he 2ntente had railroaded America into a war that was none of her business. "he wheat and steel the !Allies! had recei&ed from America sa&ed them from defeat, and American soldiers sa&ed them from annihilation. "he !Allies! often charged that the Cnited States was obsessed with business, and undoubtedly American business had benefited from the war. $ut after all, businessmen are out to sei:e opportunities and to make a profit. Go one had forced the !Allies! to buy from America. "he #ermans would ha&e umped at the chance had they not been blockaded. @lemenceau wrote( !America, for a relati&ely small loss of li&es, would materially benefit at our expense out of all proportions! <Greatness and /isery, p. +ED>. ;n comparison to French or #erman losses it may ha&e been small, but it was +..,... American men, dead in a war of no concern to them. @lemenceau also resented the fact he had been helped. ;t was a matter pride' he would ha&e liked to ha&e won the war all by himself. Apart from matters of pride, ignorance and ingratitude there was also a fundamental difference of ideology. @lemenceau1s ideas of self- determination had little to do with Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints( !We must ha&e the courage to say it( we did not go into war with a program of liberators,! he said.

$efore reaching 2urope, Wilson had let known his misgi&ings to his associates( !"he men with whom we are going to negotiate do not represent the opinion of their people.! ;n fact few of the 9ersailles con&entioneers represented their own people. "he latest Senate elections were a &irtual denial of the Americans1 pre&ious mandate for Wilson. @lemenceau would, within a few months, be trounced in the French presidential election. 9eni:elos had been thrown out by his #reek people. 2r:berger, the unfortunate #erman signatory of the armistice, would be assassinated, a &ictim of #erman outrage. "he $ritish were continuing their !di&ide and rule! policy. "he French, blinded by their hatred of #ermany, were locked in obscurantist policies. "he #ermans were treated as pariahs. And there was in addition a horde of !creditor nations! who had hopped on the war bandwagon against #ermany at the last minute and demanded their share of the spoils. 9ersailles was a hornets1s nest of ?uarrelsom and conni&ing mediocrities. @lemenceau called it !a peace full of treacheries ust like the ambushes of war.! @hurchill called it !a s?uabble of pygmies,! and at least on this matter both were right.

CHAPTE .2)II The Soviets in &erman(

While 7- Allied countries sent their delegates to swell the ranks of the !treacherous s?uabblers! at 9ersailles, #ermany was sinking into chaos. So&iet commissars had established a reign of terror across #ermany. $a&aria had been taken o&er by a bloodthirsty @ommunist ust out of ail. )e was a Bew from #alicia who had turned professional agitator for the So&iets. )is hair and beard were solid with grime because he ne&er washed. )is skin was waxy, like death, and he always wore an oily beanie which appeared fused to his skull. )is name was /urt 2isner. !)e was,! wrote the French historian $enoist-5Fchin, !one of those hybrid figures that history seems to produce during periods of chaos and political mayhem.! <5istory of the German 9rmy, 9ol. ;, p. 7-..> 4aul #enti:on, the French author who witnessed the $olshe&ik terror in 5unich, said( !2isner was like an %riental warlock.! 2isner had been in&ol&ed with the theater business and was adept in theatrics. )e had somehow de&eloped an attentioncatching oratory, both strident and nebulous. %n Go&ember -, +,+D, a meeting organi:ed by the socialists massed more than +..,... people to celebrate the re&olutionary exploits in /iel, )amburg and Lubeck. Gothing more than an outpouring of speeches was on the agenda. 2isner appeared suddenly, backed by a &ociferous group. )e was hoisted on the speakers1 platform and burst out into &iolent tirades. "he crowd, who had endured four years of hunger and suffering, responded to 2isner1s rhetoric. )e whipped them up into a fren:y and led them into the streets, with the help of trained professional agitators. Within hours the 5arxist-led mob

had taken control of all go&ernment buildings, railway stations, post offices and factories. 5unich had fallen. ;t was an incredible e&ent. While #ermany was heroically holding out against the combined Allied and American onslaught, a Bew <and con&icted criminal> from #alicia was sitting on the throne inside the royal palace of $a&aria. %n the same e&ening of Go&ember -, +,+D, he declared a !republic,! and unleashed his commissars to !mete out ustice.! Fearing for his life, /ing Ludwig ;;; fled with his family, in the nick of time. "hus one of the most @hristian and traditional states in #ermany had been o&erthrown in the course of a single night by an alien thug. 2isner appointed fellow Bews as ministers. A fanatical @ommunist called 2rich 5Ohsam, the Bewish commissar of the 3ed #uards, declared 5unich under !the dictatorship of the proletariat.! 2isner put him in charge of state security. "he dictatorship1s first act was to !break diplomatic relations! with $erlin. 2isner then proclaimed #ermany1s guilt in the war and proceeded to send the Allies documents !establishing the culpability of the 3eich.! "he so-called documents were out-and-out forgeries in&ented by 2isner and his cohorts. )e then called on the Allies to accept his !loyal oath and repentance.! While 5unich was reeling under the terror of the sudden coup, the $a&arian heartland had become horrified. Within a few days $a&arians both in and outside 5unich had composed themsel&es and begun to fight back against the in&aders. A huge crowd assembled near the palace occupied by 2isner, to the cries of( !6own with 2isner, demon of ;srael0 6own with 2isner,

Budah1s murderous clown0 2isner to the gallows0 We want $a&arians to run $a&aria0 $a&aria for the $a&arians0! 2isner dismissed the demonstration as the work of !extremists! and con&ened immediate elections to legitimi:e his coup. $y then the $a&arians had lost their fears of the armed commissars and &oted massi&ely against the 2isner regime( in a +D.-seat congress, +-- anti-2isner congressmen were elected. 2isner dismissed the results. Six days later, a lieutenant in the defeated #erman army shot him in the face, point blank. 5Ohsam succeeded 2isner and called upon @ommunist agitators from Augsburg, FOrth, WOr:burg, and Lindau, to rush to the rescue. 5Ohsam was determined to impose @ommunism ruthlessly by force of arms, against the wish of the o&erwhelming ma ority of $a&arians. $$$ "he 5arxist !republic! poured out edicts( !all pre&ious laws are in&alid Workers will work when they want . . . )istory is the enemy of ci&ili:ation, and teaching it, is fore&er abolished.! "he commissar for foreign affairs sent a telegram to 4ope $enedict S9 complaining that the former foreign minister of $a&aria !had fled to $amberg after ha&ing stolen the keys of the ministry1s bathrooms.! )e also informed the pope that $erlin minister Goske was !a gorilla! concluded the telegram( !We want eternal peace.! @ommunications among fellow 5arxist ministers were no more sane. "he foreign minister informed the transport minister in another telegram(

!5y dear colleague, ; ha&e declared war against WOrttemberg and Swit:erland because these pigs did not send me =. locomoti&es. ; am sure of &ictory. ; know the pope personally and ;1ll get him to bless our arms.! "he era of the insane and the exalted was soon to be replaced by steely- eyed 5arxist-Leninist bureaucrats. "hey had not been sprung out from ail or an insane asylum but had been sent to $a&aria directly from 4etrograd by Lenin1s ;nternational. Lenin had set his mind to ha&e direct control of $a&aria which was ust next door to Allied territories-his gateways to Western 2urope. Lenin sent three of his most murderous commissars to take control of the $a&arian 3ed army( the Bews Le&ine1, Le&ien and Axelrod, who had earned their stripes in mass terror under $ronstein-"rotsky. "hey immediately decreed( !"he days of ideology are o&er. We now ha&e martial law. "he firing s?uad is taking the place of speeches.! %pponents and alleged opponents of the trio were rounded up and summarily shot to death. Whole massacres of hundreds of people at a time were common in the streets of 5unich. While the murder of defenseless ci&ilians was carried out in $a&aria, the delegates at the 4aris 4eace @onference had their first meeting. Far from being horrified at such massacres, the Allies could not contain their glee. "he $a&arian bloodbath was a gift from the gods, which meant that #ermany would be split and more #ermans would be killed. Allied diplomatic en&oys were rushed to 5unich to kowtow to the bloodthirsty trio. "hey offered food and money to bolster their opposition to $erlin. Although the war had ended, #ermany was still under Allied blockade,

which was ruthlessly enforced. "he first state of #ermany to benefit from a lifting of the blockade would be @ommunist-controlled $a&aria. $$$ 2&erywhere in #ermany Lenin1s agents spread death and destruction. "he $olshe&ik agents would complete the Allied blockade by paraly:ing international food supplies with sabotage and strikes. "he $olshe&iks had closed down the 3uhr coal mines and people had little heat during the winter of +,+D to +,+,. "housands of children died of star&ation. Lenin thought a star&ing people would pro&ide good re&olutionary recruits for the final @ommunist assault on $erlin. 3egiments from the #erman army reached $erlin on 6ecember ++, +,+D. ;n accordance with his function as the new president of #ermany, Socialist Friedrich 2bert was at the $randenburg #ate to greet them( !; salute *ou-you whom no enemy has beaten on the battlefield.! "hese were the sur&i&ors who had left 7 million of their comrades on the battlefront. "heir features are drawn and their eyes reflect an awful exhaustion,! wrote French historian $enoist-5Fchin. !"hey ha&e polished their boots and belts, but it is like a funeral march. "he old steel helmets are decorated with oak lea&es. "he Chlan ca&alry musicians intoned, with Wagnerian splendor, %eutschland >0er 9lles. $ut the heroes knew, despite their day of recognition, that they were coming home to a country that had been torn apart by sabotage and re&olutions.

%n Go&ember ,, +,+D, the socialist leader 4hilip Scheidemann had proclaimed #ermany a !republic.! At the same time, he launched what he called the !3epublic of the So&iets.! Scheidemann and the more radical elements in the Socialist 4arty decided to oin the 5arxist gangs who were beating up people in the streets and had occupied all of the city1s newspaper offices. 5any returned soldiers were set upon and &iciously mugged' their medals and stripes were ripped off their uniforms. Wounded men were trampled to the ground and kicked by @ommunist thugs who had ne&er been at the front. Although Scheidemann admitted !;t was not a nice sight,! he decided to form a coalition between !moderate and extremist! socialists, which was named !the @ouncil of the 4eople1s @ommissars.! Scheidemann would later explain, !"he re&olution was ine&itable and it was necessary to lead it in order to a&oid complete anarchy! <The Collapse, p. 787>. "he @ouncil of the 4eoples1 @ommissars consisted of three !moderates! <2bert, Scheidemann and Landsberg> and three !radicals! <)aase, 6ittmann and $arth>. %n Go&ember ,, +,+D they were ensconced in $ismarck1s former dining room at the Wilhelmstrasse. Scheidemann himself described how $erlin had fallen prey to So&iet mobocracy( 2&ery morning /arl Liebknecht gathered his troops in the Siegesallee. "he focusing point was the statue of 2mperor

%tto the La:y. "he principle was to create constant disorder, to keep !)ell! in motion, and abo&e all fill the streets with the unemployed. ; remember one Sunday e&ening in Go&ember. ;t was raining. 2bert and ; were working with War 5inister ScheOch. We were told a crowd of demonstrators was approaching. We had the gates closed and all the lights in the front rooms switched off. "he crowd was approaching in the dark with red flags and inflammatory placards. "hey screamed o&er and o&er( !6own with 2bert-Scheidemann0 )eil Liebknecht0! "he Wilhelmplat: was getting filled with a huge crowd pressing against the gates. We stood still in an unlit room. #radually things ?uieted down. Liebknecht climbed on top of a car and addressed the crowd with monotonous and repetiti&e slogans. )e was drunk with his power and the number of people listening to him. )e was gi&ing &ent to the worst incitements( !"he traitors are right in there, the Scheidemanns, the social-patriots. We could storm their lair right now ... 0! "his triggered a roar of appro&al. "hen a band of highly excited soldiers forced their way into the council room. "hey said they were talking on behalf of $erlin1s 8. garrison units. ;n the midst of tumult and screams they shouted out their demands. ;t appeared later that these people did not represent anybody because none of the units mentioned had any knowledge of them. Liebknecht kept making speeches. Gaturally, ; was the recipient of the worst insults. "hey called me a traitor, and extremist, a lackey, a thief, a fraud.

;t was like sitting on dynamite. We worked day and night to the screams of demonstrators. We were besieged and hardly defended ... As far as setting a foot in the streets, no one would e&en think of it. 5eanwhile, a newly formed group called !the council of the deserters! was oining the @ommunists. "here was a lot of talk among the radical left about emulating our 3ussian comrades, who were the first to ha&e flown the flag of freedom.! <Scheidemann, Collapse& p. 7EA.> "he !4eople1s @ommissars @ouncil! had been gi&en the !press commissariat! only to find out all the press rooms had been in&aded by rioters who were indeed emulating their So&iet comrades. Scheidemann became &ery frightened at what was going on in the Socialist-@ommunist go&ernment during Go&ember and 6ecember, +,+D( !"he 3eich, and $erlin in particular, was like a mental asylum.! <Scheidemann, Collapse& p. 78E.> $$$ "he asylum did contain many criminally insane indi&iduals( Liebknecht and Luxemburg belonged in that category. "hey exploited the misery and panic of a people both out of work and star&ing, for their own fanatical purposes. "he duo incited an extraordinary re&olutionary ferment. "hey poured oil on the fire because it ser&ed their interests. Luxemburg feared the return of the soldiers from the front. "hey represented a disciplined force still led by patriotic officers. She was right. "he soldiers who had fought four long years for their country1s honor were shocked and sickened at the sight of the 5arxist pandemonium

confronting their eyes and ears. "o neutrali:e any possible reaction Liebknecht and Luxemburg ordered the Spartacists, as the @ommunists in #ermany called themsel&es at the time, to form +A battalions with a thousand men each. "hey would wear red armbands and would control the streets. Ga&y mutineers were organi:ed in a di&ision of the !9olksmarine,! which made the imperial palace their head?uarters. "hey also occupied the 3eichsbank and the 4russian parliament. "he third formation was the !Sicherheitswache,! the secret police in charge of all intelligence and the enforcement of the re&olution. Liebknecht took control of the three armed groups. "o control congress he created his own parliamentary police, the 3epublikanische Schut:truppe, which wore red-andblack armbands. Lenin had explained his plan succinctly( !We now see clearly how the re&olution will progress( the #ermans, the French, the $ritish will do the work and socialism will triumph.! 2bert was more the hostage than the ally of the Leninists. Spies tailed him e&erywhere. )is correspondence was read or stolen and his telephone lines were tapped. 2bert finally reali:ed he could be li?uidated at any time. Although both 2bert and Scheidemann were men of the left they somehow remained patriotic. "hey felt now their only chance of sur&i&al was the army, or what was left of it after they had undermined it with their Socialist-@ommunist coalition. 2bert was kept isolated from e&eryone, but a telephone line

almost sa&ed him. Cnknown to the Leninists there was in 2bert1s office a secret line linking, since +,+A, the chancery to the #erman )igh @ommand. 2bert managed to contact 5arshal &on )indenburg in /assel, at his head?uarters in the historic castle where Gapoleon1s brother Berome once reigned o&er Westphalia. "he flimsy wire linking $erlin to /assel would decide the fate of $erlin and #ermany. "he first contact was far from friendly. )indenburg had little time for 2bert, whom he considered a frightened capti&e of the extemists. Although 2bert needed the army1s help, he was fearful of a military dictatorship. )e wanted to use the army to eliminate the extreme left but not the !moderate! left. After asking for help 2bert lost his ner&e and canceled his re?uest. "he $olshe&iks were not ?uite ready to grab total power. ;n the beginning of 6ecember, +,+D their militias were wellarmed but badly commanded. "hey needed another month to bring their troops to combat readiness. )indenburg on the other hand was watching his troops fall apart. "he men were tired and wanted to go home. 5any did-without authori:ation. As the barracks emptied the @ommunists mo&ed in to sei:e weapons and e?uipment. )indenburg knew if he wanted to act he would ha&e to mo&e immediately. !"he Spartacists,! wrote $enoist-5echin, !felt they were gaining ground. A few more days and they would be the masters of #ermany! <9rm+e allemande, &ol. ;, p. D7>. "he Spartacists sought mastery of #ermany but Lenin was their master. Scheidemann, who had been playing both

sides to sa&e his skin, ne&ertheless would accuse his coalition partners of being on the payroll of Lenin. "his was pro&en by the famous radio message of So&iet Ambassador Boffe in #ermany. "he message was a lengthy accounting of funds recei&ed by the @ommunist Bew to pro&oke the re&olution in #ermany. ;t read( !Soldiers and sailors, keep your arms. %therwise the capitalists will soon disperse you. @on?uer the real power, gun in hand and form a go&ernment of workers, soldiers and sailors with Liebknecht as leader.! "hus a foreign power was already trying to impose its puppets on the #erman people. "he Spartacists were becoming more insolent by the day. %n 6ecember += they demanded that )indenburg be fired. %n 6ecember +- they summoned the soldiers1 council to a meeting and organi:ed a &ote decreeing( !"he supreme command of the army and na&y will be entrusted to people1s commissars and to the @entral @ommittee.! !All insignia of rank will be abolished.! !"he soldiers themsel&es will designate their officers.! %fficers were discharged and disarmed and often set upon physically by Leibknecht1s thugs. At his head?uarters )indenburg was outraged( !; will ne&er accept that the insignia ; ha&e worn since ; oined the army be torn from my uniform. ; do not accept this decision which concerns the right of command among career officers. ; recogni:e this decree as totally illegal, apart from usurping the decision-making process from the national Assembly.! 2bert managed to con&ince his coalition partners to

postpone their decrees until the Banuary +,, +,+, legislati&e elections. )e con&inced them that the implementation of such measures could pro&oke a far stronger reaction than expected. ;n two months )indenburg had seen the frightened 2bert change his position at least 7. times. At the beginning of the war 2bert had said, on August A, +,+A( !"his is the most beautiful day in my life.! 2bert switched issues and policies according to whome&er he spoke with last. )e was basically honest but his essential lack of courage inclined him to manipulate and be minipulated. )indenburg and his right-hand man, #eneral #roner, no longer belie&ed ;n him. "o them only the army could still stop @ommunism. Like Bulius @aesar, )indenburg decided to cross the 3ubicon, in this instance the Spree. %n 6ecember 7., +,+D #eneral #roner went to $erlin, accompanied by 5a or Schleicher, who would in +,87, be the last chancellor of the Weimar 3epublic. Schleicher was an intelligent soldier but strong-willed and abrupt. #roner was a superb organi:er who had ust accomplished the flawless repatriation of all the #erman armies from the front. Without any real power to back them up except their courage, they went to confront the re&olutionary council. 2bert, at least for the moment, was won o&er by the courageous soldiers. Lenin1s agents became hysterical at the sight and ran to the streets screaming for the masses to arm themsel&es. "he na&al re&olutionaries rushed to the chancery and cordoned off all accesses. 2bert was trapped like a rat. !We were there without a single armed man to help us and

without any means to oppose rampant thuggery,! 2bert said. 2bert was lost. %nce more he used his direct and secret telephone line to the )igh @ommand. !"he go&ernment is imprisoned,! he whispered, his mouth close to the recei&er. !*ou ha&e always told me that if it e&er came to that you would come to our help. "he moment has come.! "he response from )igh @ommand was swift( !We will immediately march from 4otsdam to free you.! "he situation was deteriorating rapidly in $erlin. "he chief of police, 2ichhorn, was on the payroll of 3osta, the So&iet information office. )e had taken army head?uarters with the help of armed na&y deserters. )e captured the @ommanding %fficer Wels and two of his assistants and had his 3ed guards beat them up sa&agely. 2ichhorn informed them they would be put to death if 2bert made the slighest mo&e. "he @ommunists thought they had $erlin well in hand and relaxed their blockade of the chancery. 2bert breathed a sigh of relief and the eternal turncoat rushed to his secret telephone to ask )indenburg to stop his troops marching any further. !"he marshal and ; ha&e reached the end of our patience,! #eneral #roner answered. !*ou are destroying the morale of #ermany1s last loyal troops.! 2bert had cried wolf so many times he had now lost all credibility, and the #erman army continued its march to $erlin. "hree months before, the #erman army had been A million

men strong. %n 6ecember 78, +,+D the #erman army, on its way to wrest $erlin from the $olshe&iks, was only a handful of loyal patriots, D.. in all. "he deserters and mutineers under @ommunist control manning $erlin1s fortifications were supported by tens of thousands of armed $olshe&iks. #eneral %tto Wels was held capti&e and was expected to be murdered at any moment. !Weis,! wrote Scheidemann, !was still held prisoner in a cellar below the castle1s stables. 3adke, the head of the sailors, announced in the e&ening he would no longer answer for %tto Wel1s life. "hey were now trying to occupy the 9owXrts printing plant. We could not ust abandon Wels.! ;n the dawn of @hristmas, +,+D, the #erman troops bombarded the palace occupied by the $oshe&iks. A wall collapsed on them and the palace war stormed. At ,(8. in the morning the $olshe&iks were flying a white flag, ready to surrender. "hey asked to start capitulation talks. While the regular troops were talking, armed $olshe&iks encircled the palace. Suddenly they attacked in consecuti&e human wa&es. ;t was a massacre. %nly a few sur&i&ors managed to escape death and torture. @hristmas night was horrible. Liebknecht and Luxemburg went on a rampage of killing, looking e&erywhere for #erman soldiers. 2ichhorn had become the warlord of north $erlin. "he socialists could no longer address the crowds. "heir @ommunist partners had sei:ed their newspaper, 9orwXrts, and occupied their press and editorial offices. !A 9orwXrts edition had been printed by another printer. ;t was sei:ed by the rioters at gunpont and all the newspapers

thrown in the Spree 3i&er.! <Scheidemann, Collapse, p. 7=.>. !"he re&olutionaries,! wrote $enoist-5Fchin, !are triumphing e&erywhere. "he red flag flies o&er all the ma or buildings in $erlin. 6ecember 7A, +,+D marks the highest phase of their power.! From now on $erlin was totally under the control of the @ommunist terrorists. At e&ery street corner Spartacists had placed machingunners. "he crackling of bullets and the explosion of grenades could be heard constantly. "hen the shots subsided. A group of demonstrators were marching by wa&ing placards and an officer1s coat dripping with blood. Firing resumed after the demonstration had passed. "he socialists were trapped. "hey could not lea&e the chancery for fear of being lynched. "hey could not communicate with any one in the country because the post office, the railways and telegraph stations were now in the hands of the 3ed councils. "hey could not e&en address the $erlin population because their newspapers and printing plants had been taken by storm. <$enoist-5Fchin, 9rm+e allemande, p. +.7.> Liebknecht came to taunt the socialist ministers outside their closed windows( !We could choke them in their den.! "he Rote "ahne newspaper, organ of the Spartacists, published in one of its street reports( "he proletarians were massed elbow to elbow. "heir multitude pushed as far as the "iergarten. "hey had brought their arms, they wa&ed their red flags, they were ready for

anything. "hey waited at Alexanderplat: with guns, hea&y and light machine guns. "he sailors were guarding e&ery passageway in $erlin. 4ublic buildings were full of soldiers, sailors and workers. "he highest authorities were now at the mercy of the re&olutionaries. <Scheidemann, Collapse& p. 7EE >

CHAPTE .2)III Po%u"ist <os#e Ta#es on Communism Lenin had an implacable will and a genius for organi:ation. )e was a man of ideas and a man of action. "hat was the reason he had won in 4etrograd. "he situation in $erlin of 6ecember, +,+D was similar to that in 4etrograd, but the leadership was different. "he #erman $olshe&iks had power within their grasp but they had wallowed too much in rhetoric. When it came time to impose their will, they had procrastinated. "he way was wide open. "heir enemies had been defeated, ust like the troops of )indenburg, in the streets of $erlin. "he crowds were waiting in the streets for more orders. Lenin had in one night, in far more difficult circumstances, swept e&erything before him. $ut Liebknecht did not secure his power. )e talked for hours and hours and then the entire night. "he crowd was ready to die for the re&olution but as Liebknecht droned on people became groggy with words and went home.

Rote "ahne commented on the failed re&olution two weeks later( "he masses were waiting in the cold and fog since nine in the morning. "he leaders were somewhere talking' no one knew where. "he fog was getting thicker and the masses kept waiting. $y noon the masses were cold, hungry and impatient( they wanted an act or at least an explanation to make their waiting more bearable. $ut nothing came because the leaders were still talking. "he fog became thicker and night started to fall. Sadly the men went home. "hey had wanted great things to happen but they had got nowhere because the leaders kept talking ... "hey kept talking through the e&ening, and all night until dawn. %nce more the crowd gathered along the Siegesallee but the leaders deliberated again. "hey talked and talked and talked. ;n politics those who do not act in time are supplanted by swifter competitors. While the $erlin Leninists talked, a strong man emerged. )e was not a haughty military type, nor a rich bourgeois, nor an academic, but a robust proletarian. )e had the will of an elemental being and was moti&ated by a strong social patriotism, which at the time was the basic beha&ior of all honest #ermans. While the frightened socialists did not e&en dare switch on their office lights a former wood-cutter from $randenburg with huge hands and a powerful frame came to tackle and master e&erything. )is name was #usta& Goske. 2bert suddenly remembered Goske as a colossus who had

been a socialist deputy in +,+A, elected by the coal miners of @hemnit:. )e had distinguished himself during the war as a bra&e soldier. )is officers had been impressed by his intuiti&e intelligence and his strength of character. Goske had also been impressed by the #erman officers who led their men into battle, often dying in the process. )e felt a deep admiration for them and stood ready to take up their fallen arms. 2bert had been informed that Goske had shown great courage and ability in ?uelling the /iel mutinies. 4erhaps he could do it again in $erlin, where he would confront many more mutineers, and huge crowds whipped up in a fren:y by Bewish 5arxist agents. %n 6ecember 7A, +,+D, as re&olutionary agents led a mob of 7..,... against the chancery, Goske made up his mind to restore order in his own way. 2bert asked Goske to become war minister in his nominal go&ernment. ;t was the worst portfolio of all and Goske knew it. )e answered( !; agree. ; guess someone has to be a bloodhound.! While Liebknecht was wallowing in 5arxist dialectics, Goske was clear and single-minded in his mission. )e knew &erbiage was the enemy of action and results. BaurLs, the French socialist leader and founder of the @ommunist newspaper 5umanit+, had ustified the massslaughter of the +-D, French 3e&olution thus( When the slightest hesitation or the slightest error can compromise the new order for centuries to come, the leaders of this huge undertaking did not ha&e the time to

rally dissenters and con&ince their opponents. "hey had to fight and act. ;n order to keep their freedom of action they had to call on death to create the immediate unanimity they needed. Liberals, Socialists and @ommunists alike would call such talk !fascist,! but it had been the cardinal rule and modus operandi of all left-wing operations. "he re&olutionaries of France in +-D, ne&er stopped chopping people1s heads off until they had eliminated all real or potential dissenters. "he 4aris @ommune, so admired by Lenin, did exactly the same thing in +D-+( the archbishop of 4aris was killed by a firing s?uad and many other political opponents were rounded up and murdered. "hese two re&olutions ha&e remained, despite the documented reports of their wholesale massacres, the guiding lights of the left for the last hundred years. Goske, too, knew death was the only way to stop cra:ed murderers. 6eliberately and calmly, he would crush the powerful and murderous @ommunist hordes. At the time Goske had no troops with which to fight. )e had to go out and look for them( !;f ; wanted to do something positi&e to restore order in $erlin ; would ha&e to contact the soldiers &ery ?uickly and take them back in hand.! ;t all seemed impossible. "he officers had been fired on 6ecember 7E, +,+D, and the A million soldiers had gone home to their towns and &illages. Furthermore, the @ommunists controlled the streets and main highways and reinforced a E..-mile offensi&e front. A new military approach had to be de&ised to deal with a

situation ne&er encountered in the war manuals( an internal insurrection organi:ed and led by alien agents and agitators. #ermany would be sa&ed by Goske1s determination and also by the military genius of @olonel 5aercker. 5aercker was unknown at the time. )e had led the 7+Ath Artillery 6i&ision according to con&entional tactics. Faced with re&olution 5aercker de&eloped an entirely new form of warfare. !;t was only when ; came home from the front that ; reali:ed the magnitude of the disaster. ; was de&astated,! he said. )e immediately knew it would be hopeless to confront alien-led mobs with a handful of patriotic guards or a few bourgeois elements playing soldier. %nly battle-tested and disciplined &eterans could a&oid annihilation. With Goske and )indenburg1s backing he raced against time to gather se&eral thousand ex-soldiers who had retained their patriotism. 5aercker guaranteed the men half a pound of meat per day and increased their pay fi&efold. )e established a new status of comradeship among officers and men which would become as important as military discipline. "roop formation and arms allocation would be related to specific ob ecti&es rather than impersonal administrati&e structures. "he formations would be small and selfcontained, under the orders of a commander ready and entitled to take whate&er action was necessary. 2ach unit would be responsible for the implementation of its actions. ;t would be a human and organic organi:ation commanded by a hierarchy of merit and &alor. !A specific tactic will be taught to deal with any kind of

situation( occupation of train stations, power plants or factories, protection of military depots, port facilities and public buildings, street cleaning, town sanitation or the dislodging of @ommunist terrorists from any emplacement.! "he breaking down of social castes did not mean lowering discipline. "here was a strict code applying to all-part of which was the death penalty for anyone caught looting. "he men could elect a council of trustees, which would recei&e complaints or suggestions about any aspect of any army administration and amenities. ;t would constitute a link between the men and the officers. 5aercker1s code also specified that punishment in urious to a man1s honor could not be inflicted. %n the other hand the men had the right to nominate any soldiers who had accomplished acts of heroism to the rank of officer. Such a code was unheard of in those days and 5aercker was relie&ed when )indenburg accepted it with interest. ;t would lay the foundation for a new #erman army, made up of &olunteers. 5aercker worked tirelessly under almost impossible conditions. "he @ommunists had ransacked all the depots or sabotaged the materiel. "he undersecretary for internal affairs told 5aercker( !We can1t help you. ;t1s all in your hands. 6o whate&er you ha&e to do, by yourself.! With an iron will and relentless perse&erance, 5aercker combed #ermany for ?ualified &olunteers. )e managed to gatner A,.... "hey were properly trained and moti&ated and were standing by for action near $erlin at the town of

Kossen. 5eanwhile, Goske was not wasting his time either. %n Banuary =, +,+D, the besieged Socialist ministers ga&e him emergency power as ci&il commander of the army. Goske immediately re-established discipline among all those around him. Although he was gi&en dictatorial powers by decree he did not bother to read the official text. )e did not belie&e authority could be gi&en( it had to be taken. A natural-born leader was not chosen( he emerged out of his own strength and imposed his leadership. Goske described $erlin on Banuary =, +,+,( ; kept running into demonstrations, at the $randenburg #ate, the "iergarten, and in front of the 6efense 5inistry. A large number of armed men were marching with the crowd. "rucks filled with machine guns had gathered near the 9ictory @olumn. ; politely asked that ; be let through on the grounds that ; had an urgent matter to attend to. ; was let through only because the crowd was not under determined leadership. "he crowd was hostile but not sufficiently organi:ed, while its leaders kept babbling. A decisi&e leader among them could ha&e easily taken $erlin by noon. ;n front of the chancery and the 6efense 5inistry the crowds were raising their fists, screaming slogans at the !warmongers.! "here was nothing that could be done if they had decided to storm the buildings. <$enoist-5Fchin, 9rm+e allemande, &ol. ;, p. +7,.> Goske selected a boarding school for girls located in the out-of-the-way district of 6ahlem to become his

head?uarters. At three in the afternoon he re?uisitioned the building, known as the Luisenstift. "he girls left right away to make way for the &olunteers. "elephone lines were immediately installed and Goske mo&ed a portable bed and desk into the corner of the classrrom. )e notified the men of his /iel !;ron $rigade! to rush to $erlin, and a small airforce s?uadron to stand by in 4otsdam. )e also learned from 5aercker that the A,... &olunteers were ready to mo&e. "he odds were disproportionate. "he Spartacists disposed of entire regiments formed months ago. "hey had placed more than 7,... machine- gunners on rooftops, behind windows, and on street corners across $erlin, as well as 77 cannons at strategic points. "he na&y mutineers had accumulated a huge arsenal of arms and ammunition in the 5arstall courtyard, which had become a center of distribution for all re&olutionaries. Goske1s only ad&antage was his organi:ational skill. )e had a precise plan and capable aides. Abo&e all he was fearless, he owed fa&ors to no one( his power came from within. ;t was ?uality &ersus ?uantity( a hundred sheep are no match for one lion, and a thousand sparrows are no match for one eagle. 5en of inner strength, regardless of how few they are, will always dominate the herd. Goske was facing cra:ed @ommunist terrorists who did not think for themsel&es. "hey were manipulated and used by alien agitators for the benefit of alien interests. )e knew Lenin had won power only by murdering millions of people who did not submit to his will. Within +E months of Lenin1s rule D1h million 3ussians died through massacres or state-

induced star&ation. Goske knew if he was to sur&i&e the Leninist onslaught he had no alternati&e but to use terror superior to that of the $olshe&iks and to be more ruthless than Lenin. "he Spartacists had asked the 3ed garrisons of Frankfurt on the %der and Spandau to come to the rescue. %n Banuary +., +,+, Goske burst onto the national scene. )is &olunteers stormed the @ommunist-occupied city hall of Spandau and captured all the @ommunists inside. Within minutes all of them were shot by firing s?uads, ust as the $olshe&iks had done e&erywhere they had gone. Gext another group of &olunteers under the command of 5a or &on Stefani approached the newspaper district of $erlin. "he Sparticists had confiscated all the newspapers including the Socialist mouthpiece 9orwXrts. Goske ordered his cannoneers to blast the front of the building. 4art of it collapsed. "he @ommunists rushed out, wa&ing white handkerchiefs. "hey were gi&en no ?uarter and were mowed down under hea&y fire. "hree hundred others were caught at the back. A $olshe&ik counterattack allowed a few to escape' most of them were shot. Goske1s men stormed western $erlin, which fell within hours. "he next day $erlin was a desert. "he few thousand #erman &olunteers ad&anced in column formations to the center of the city. "here was not a sound or a murmur. "he $erliners looked on in ama:ement, as if they had ust awakened from a nightmare. "hey saw a giant marching alone at the head of his troops in streets free of @ommunists. 3eali:ing they had been liberated, they burst forth in cheers for their liberator.

"here was one last $olshe&ik stronghold( police head?uarters. ;t was commanded by 2ichhorn, Lenin1s agent in $erlin. Goske waited for night to fall. "hen he ordered a sudden and massi&e attack. "he building walls were biased away. "here followed two hours of ferocious hand-to-hand combat. 2&erywhere the @ommunists were tracked down. Few sur&i&ed. *esterday1s @ommunist dictators of $erlin were in a panic. /arl Liebknecht and 3osa Luxemburg, who had sub ected $erlin to a reign of terror, were now in hiding. "hey were found on Banuary +E, +,+, and taken to the $erlin #uard1s head?uarters. After a brief interrogation they were executed on the spot. "hus the $olshe&ik dictators of #ermany were shot down like rabid dogs. For two months they had terrori:ed the country. "hey had had control o&er the masses, but their disorderly minds and &erbiage cost them their li&es. Lenin had planned e&ery detail of his +,+- re&olution, ne&er wasting time on talk( he thought and acted ahead. "he socialist leaders expressed no regret at the gruesome end of their coalition partners. Scheidemann, who, the following week, would become president of the 3eich council, summed up what had happened( !"he two &ictims <Liebknecht and Luxemburg> had e&ery day called the people to take up arms to o&ethrow the go&ernment. Gow their own tactics ha&e backfired against them.! "he socialists had thought Goske1s capture of $erlin meant the end of $olshe&ism in #ermany. "hey were mistaken. "he @ommunists had regrouped. "hey sei:ed $remen, followed by the 3uhr and Saxony two months later.

!4eople angered by misery and distress were led to destruction by conscienceless agents(1 <Scheidemann, The Collapse, p. 7=A> "he delegates at the 4aris peace conference had shown indifference to the successi&e explosions of international @ommunism in #ermany. Goske and 5aercker had managed to stem the 3ed tide but few in 4aris showed any concern that 2urope might be engulfed in it. "he 2ntente politicians1 hatred of #ermany took precedence o&er their own security. "hey regarded the 2isners, Liebknechts and Luxemburgs as punishing angels who would keep #ermany in turmoil. !"he 2ntente,! said Scheidemann, !was &ery happy to see the worst extremists in control of #ermany. "he 2ntente e&en wooed them with offers of aid and support, as in the case of the $a&arian extremists.! Goske1s ruthless crushing of the $erlin $olshe&iks had gi&en #ermany breathing space. 2lections were held' the results were surprising. %f A7+ seats the Social 6emocrats won +=8, the @enter and the bourgeois national parties took 77,, and the pro-@ommunist ;ndependent Socialists and @ommunists, 77. "he real winner was Goske, who declared to the new assembly( !;t is now established that #ermany fought only to sa&e its life.! Although he would be later denounced for his ruthlessness, in early +,+, he was acclaimed by all as the sa&ior of #ermany. Goske persuaded the newly elected representati&es that the congress should meet at Weimar rather than $erlin. Sporadic @ommunist &iolence could again flare up in

$erlin, and most deputies did not relish the prospect of being made prisoners by cra:ed Sparticists a second time. %n February =, +,+,, after an initial fracas with local @ommunists, the parliament of #ermany opened at the city theater. 2bert read a lackluster speech in keeping with the general mediocrity of the assemblage. "he deputies were petty-minded bourgeois, cra&en and ser&ile. "hey hated the re&olution-2bert admitted it himselfand they felt embarrassed to ha&e benefited from it to such an extent. Whether Social 6emocrats, @entrists, or democrats, they were all old political hacks from the /aiser1s 3eichstag, interchangeable in their uninspiring drabness. 2bert was elected president and Scheidemann as speaker. "hey would be no match for the @ommunists, and at the first clash with them would fall to pieces. Go sooner had the new republic started its term of office than the @ommunists would pro&oke uprisings from $a&aria to Schleswig. For the next fi&e months a handful of 3eichswehr men would fight for #ermany1s sur&i&al. "hey would stand against Lenin1s forces in #ermany as well as against the a&enging schemers of 9ersailles.

CHAPTE .2I. 1irst /ee#s in Paris While #ermany was wracked by bloody insurrection,

politicians and bureaucrats from all o&er the world were meeting in 4aris. From Banuary +D, +,+,, to Bune 7D, when the 9ersailles "reaty was finally signed, there were +,E.. sessions and 7A commissions. 6espite the glittering social life the delegates still had time to indulge in schemes and intrigues. Lloyd #eorge, flanked by @hurchill and $alfour, busied himself by outwitting @lemenceau, who was busy clearing the deck of French politicians he thought useless or incompetent. Ambassador @ambon and 4resident 4oncarF were shunted aside, lea&ing @lemenceau on center stage. ;mmediately before the procedings opened, a @:ech politician lobbying to become prime minister of a yet-to-becreated @:echoslo&akia was nearly assassinated. $ra:il obtained three seats on the supreme council without anybody knowing why, since the $ra:ilian army had hardly crossed swords with the #ermans. "he Slo&akian delegate, 5ilan Stefanik, was shot down o&er $ratisla&a by @:ech agents whose masters were determined to suppress Slo&akian so&ereignty. "he famed 4olish musician 4aderewski, who had become president of 4oland, was cutting a dashing figure at the 4aris %pera. @olorful delegates from exotic parts of the world had oined the conference either to press their own demands or ust to be part of the ongoing festi&ities. "he #erman delegates were, on the other hand, ostraci:ed. "hey were excluded from the conference deliberations( they were not to be heard or seen. %nly during the &ery last days did they appear, to sign the treaty. %n that occasion they were greeted with a hail of stones. %ne #erman delegate1s secretary was hit in the face and lost her right eye.

4aris was the setting for fi&e months of continuous parties and re&elry. "housands of more or less authentic &ictors were celebrating. Fashionable writers like 4roust, @octeau and #ide were much in demand in French salons. 3e&olutionaries were also highly pri:ed. 5adame de Bou&enel, a leading socialite, ga&e a magnificent reception in honor of the assassin of 3ussian #rand 6uke Serge and the tsarist minister 4leh&e. $edroom diplomacy was also ele&ated to new heights with the influx of thousands of @:ech, 3omanian and Serbian high-class prostitutes brought in by the central 2uropean delegates. "heir mission was to reinforce the claims and demands made at the conference table in the intimacy of the boudoir. @lemenceau commented( !"hese girls are destroying the conscience of the arbiters of peace.! "he Slo&ak Stefanik was outraged but his colleague $enes felt the !ladies were playing an essential part! in con&incing the delegates that it was wise and proper to place the $ohemians and 5ora&ians as well as = million #ermans, 4oles, and )ungarians, under @:ech control. $enes1 star performer was called 6oria. She spoke fi&e languages and de&eloped great influence among all the delegates staying at the )otel @rillon. "he $ritish delegate Gicolson greatly admired another outstanding practitioner, 5adame Alexander( !She knew e&erything, had access e&erywhere, obtained e&erything she asked. She was one figure who made history but was not known to the general public.! ;f some delegates lost their conscience others lost their

health. "he puritan Wilson was ?uick to take to the 4aris nightlife. )is detractors claimed he had contracted a &enereal disease that drained his already precarious health, and his !predicament! became the talk of the conference. @lemenceau saw fit to exploit the situation by passing the word around. )is right-hand man "ardieu told )ouse( !; understand it is a &ery delicate matter but we fear the president is about to suffer a physical breakdown.! Gicolson had remarked that all the delegates were stunned by !his psychophysiological collapse.! All those opposed to his Fourteen 4oints were delighted with Wilson1s predicament. "hey would e&en hold meetings at his bedside with apparent sympathy, while hardly able to hold their glee. Wilson was aware of his illness and was terrified its nature could be re&ealed to his puritanical electorate. At first he made an attempt to stand by his Fourteen 4oints but finally ga&e up. Within weeks there would be nothing left of them. 2&en had Wilson led a life of absolute &irtue in 4aris, his plan to reform the world was doomed from the start. "he $ritish #o&ernment was determined to grab oil-producing countries in the 5iddle 2ast despite all the treaties and agreements they had signed to the contrary. French politicians were determined to occupy Saarland, the 3hineland and points east militarily. A greedy mafia of Serbian, @:ech, 3omanian and 4olish politicians was e?ually determined to trample human rights and gobble up 7. million #ermans, Slo&aks, )ungarians, @roatians, and Austrians without the slightest consultation. "he dismemberment of "urkey and the appropriation of #erman colonies by the $ritish were also on the agenda. "he

indigenous peoples were parcelled off as in the days of sla&ery. Wilson had come to 4aris with the highest political and moral authority. Without him the Allies would ha&e lost the war in +,+-. 2&en in Bune, +,+D "ardieu had declared he no longer belie&ed in &ictory. "he #ermans had contacted him when they decided to surrender. Wilson had negotiated the armistice conditions himself and secured their acceptance by the Allies. Cnder normal circumstances he should ha&e had his way at 9ersailles. As $ullitt wrote( ;n the history of humanity the future has rarely depended on one man to such an extent as during Wilson1s first month in 4aris. When he found himself facing Lloyd #eorge and @lemenceau in )ouse1s office at the )otel @rillon on 5arch +A, +,+, the fate of the world depended on him alone. $ut not one Allied signatory of the armistice had accepted it with sincerity. "heir war aims, the real ones, had been arranged among themsel&es with secret treaties during the course of the hostilities. "hey were diametrically opposed to Wilson1s peace plans, including impartial ustice and e?ual rights for all people. ;n the eyes of @lemenceau the Fourteen 4oints ... were the ramblings of a lunatic. <President Wilson, p. 8=..> Although Wilson reali:ed the Allies were not cooperating, he could do little about it because he had absolutely no knowledge of 2uropean affairs. An obser&er said( !)is ignorance of 2urope bordered on the fantastic. ;t left people stunned with disbelief. )e had no idea of the existence of 8 million Sudeten #ermans, whom @:echoslo&akia wanted to

ensla&e.! !5asaryk had ne&er talked to me about them,! Wilson said. Wilson was also con&inced there were more than +.. million Bews in the world. "eams of foreign affairs experts from )ar&ard, *ale and other ;&y League centers had been set up to inform the president, but Wilson did not seek their ad&ice. 3obert Lansing, his secretary of state, was knowledgeable about 2urope, but Wilson did not let him put his ability to use. 2&en )ouse was losing his influence, because Wilson1s second wife did not like him and warned her husband almost e&eryday that he was a Budas. "he $ritish politicians had not waited to meet with Wilson before helping themsel&es to e&erything they wanted. "heir war aims had been satisfied at the time of #ermany1s surrender, since they had already ac?uired #erman assets and colonies. "heir aim at 9ersailles and 4aris was to sabotage the French, whom they now regarded as their new ri&als. "hey also regarded Wilson1s peace plan as totally irrele&ant. Wilson1s geographical ignorance was matched by that of @lemenceau, who looked upon central 2urope as a confused ungle. France was all he knew and all that interested him. "ardieu, howe&er, had enlisted experts to prepare a lengthy list of claims and reparations. $ureaucrats of all countries were kept busy in ED commissions. "hey made little impact and were only called on to produce demands to back up the &arious ministerial councils. "he !@ouncil of "en,! which was the @ouncil of Fi&e with the addition of the fi&e ma or presidents, held -7

sessions' the !@ouncil of Four,! without the Bapanese minister, held +AE sessions and e&en the !@ouncil of "hree! met when the ;talian prime minister stormed out of the meeting, shouting, !down with Wilson.! )arold Gicolson, the 2nglish delegate, took extensi&e notes of the proceedings and published them in a book called 4eacemakers +,+,. )e recalled( !"he work was discouraging. %ne felt so fallible in these matters0 A map, a pencil, a transparent paper. 5y heart sank at the thought of the indi&iduals our erratic lines would sa&e or re ect.! Gicolson described the proceedings during a meeting at the conference of 4aris( Afternoon, final re&ision of the Austrian borders. ; walk to 3ue Gitot after lunch to brief A.B. $alfour. ;nside a room with hea&y tapestry below the portrait of a smiling 5arie de 5edicis the sound of a fountain could be heard coming from the garden. "he fate of the Austro-)ungarian empire would be decided in this room. )ungary would be cut up by fi&e distinguished gentlemen with indolence and irresponsibility. While the water sprinkles the lilac trees, while those with knowledge anxiously obser&e, while $alfour do:es off, while Lansing doodles, while 4ichon lounges in his large arm-chair, winking like an owl, "ransyl&ania is redrawn. After "ardieu and Lansing trade insults like tennis balls, )ungary is dismembered by noon. "hey go on to @:echoslo&akia. For *ugosla&ia the committee1s report is adopted without modification. "hen afternoon tea-and-macaroons is ser&ed.

%n 5ay +8, +,+, Gicolson and his colleagues were called to enlighten Lloyd #eorge, $alfour and Wilson about Asia 5inor. "hey spread a large map on the dining room table( 2&erybody sits around the map. ;t is like a cake about to be cut and ser&ed. Lloyd #eorge explains his proposal. "he ;talians demand Scala Go&a. !Go,! says Lloyd #eorge, !you can1t ha&e it, it1s full of #reeks0! )e continues to show them there are other #reeks in 5akri and along the coastline. ; whisper to him, !Go, there are &ery few #reeks around there.! )e answers, !*es there are' can1t you see it1s colored green.! ; understand then he was confusing my map with an ethnic map. )e belie&es green means #reek and brown means "urkish, instead of &alleys and mountains. %rlando and Sonnino chatter in ;talian. "hey demand the coal mines of 2regli. Lloyd #eorge says, !$ut it is bad coal and in any case there isn1t much of it.! Sonnino translates the remark to %rlando who answers, !; want them, it1s good for my morale.! Finally, they appear ready to accept a mandate on the Adalia region but we do not know &ery clearly if in exchange they will gi&e up Fiume and 3hodes. We pull out the agreement of the League of Gations concerning the mandates. We notice it stipulates !with the consent and wish of the people concerned.! "hey find this phrase &ery amusing and they all laugh. %rlando1s white owls wobble with mirth and his puffy eyes swell up with tears of oy. ;t is immoral and impractical but ; obey my orders. 4rofessor @li&e 6ay from *ale Cni&ersity confirmed

Gicolson1s obser&ations( 2ach time a territorial ?uestion arose they pored o&er the maps with imperturbable gra&ity. )owe&er, no one knew whether the maps were upside down. ;t really did not matter anyway. <What 5appened in Paris& ,B,)?,B,B, p. 8..> As if this were not enough, many of these maps had been tampered with. Lloyd #eorge himself became aware that the maps and accompanying data had been falsified and ga&e &ent to his outrage publicly at Rueen1s )all( !All the documentation pro&ided by some of our allies during the negotiations was false and cooked up. We ha&e made our decisions on the basis of a fraud.! ;t is in such ignorance, irresponsibility and dishonesty that the 9ersailles treaty, the most important treaty in the history of the world, was organi:ed. Field 5arshall Smuts, prime minister of South Africa, then a $ritish dominion, admitted later( !2&erything we ha&e done here is far worse than the @ongress of 9ienna. "he statesmen of +D+E at least knew what was going on. %ur statesmen ha&e no idea. "o the political imcompetence of the day one must add the general &enality of the press. Got unlike today, it had the power to make or break all incumbent or prospecti&e politicians. Anybody could be a hero one day and a pariah the next. "he press decided what was news and what was not. "he press lords had become fabulously wealthy before the war. 5illions of dollars poured in from 3ussia, Serbia and 3omania to the proprietors of newspapers, who in turn

dictated to the politicians to lend &ast sums to these countries. @orporations also sought the fa&ors of the press by plying them with cash, stocks and e&en a generous share of their profits. French politicians knew who was boss and li&ed in fear of running afoul of the press. "hey yielded to the press barons1 orders e&ery time. "he 3ussian and Serbian millions were well in&ested. "he press blackmailed the French go&ernment to lend billions of gold francs to 3ussia and Serbia. "he press lords, of course, were getting commissions on these loans. "he billions naturally came from the pockets of the hard-pressed French taxpayers. ;t would ha&e been political suicide for any politician to &oice opposition to such loans. 2&en during the war 3ussian money kept coming( one million gold francs went to Le Figaro. "his was at a time when a soldier risking his life in the trenches was paid fi&e cents a day. "he making of the 9ersailles "reaty considerably raised the stakes for the power-and-money-hungry press. ;t was no longer a matter of getting fat commissions on extorted loans but of a share in cutting up the world. All the 9ersailles !&ictors! were there to ac?uire territory. "he @:echs wanted a corridor slicing through )ungary so they could unite with Serbia. "he Serbians wanted to gobble up Albania. "he #reeks wanted Smyrna. "he ;talians wanted all the land between Fiume and Adalia, well inside "urkey. 3ich with French loans, all these &oracious claimants plied the press with a continuing flow of money. "he press conducted an ongoing auction( whoe&er paid the most could be reasonably assured of a fa&orable treatment for e&en the

most absurd claim. French academician AndrF 5aurois noted( !"he agitation of the masses was not only unfortunate but it was the work of a press interwo&en with go&ernments.! Le "emps had the highest rates( from +..,... gold francs to 7..,... per !documented! article. Figaro and Le 5atin fetched E.,..., the Bournal des 6Fbats, 7E,... francs. $$$ "he fa&orseekers continued to outbid each other, often with dire results. Le "emps dropped Serbia after recei&ing 8 million gold francs when it was paid E million to say the opposite. Serbian politicians, well &ersed in corruption for many years, declared themsel&es to be outraged0 6ragomir Stefano&ich, son-in-law and spokesman for Serbian political boss 4ashich, declared( !We are &ery dispelased in $elgrade at *e Temps's attitude. ;t is useless to spend more money to buy its good will.! "here was also a hea&y traffic in business deals and contracts. Le "emps1s owners had been granted a construction contract in 3ussia as well as exploitation rights in Serbia1s richest copper mines at $or and in the Slo&akian forests in the summer of +,+A. Fortunes were made almost o&ernight. $y February, +,+, the 3omanians admitted ha&ing spent !more than +. million gold francs, without counting petty bribes.! Added the chief delegate of $ucharest( !$ut at that price "ransyl&ania and $uko&ina will really cost us nothing.! ;ndeed, at that price it would cost 3omania an a&erage of three francs per )ungarian in the denationali:ation and annexation of the )ungarian population and territory. "he greed of these people at the trough of &ictory e&en shocked @lemenceau, who called

them ! ackals.! "he American secretary of state, Lansing, was appalled and made public his fears of the conse?uences of such practices. ;n ignorance and corruption the fate of the world would be played out. "he League of Gations would be created, the maps of nations would be redrawn, populations would be annexed or exchanged, huge reparations schedules would be set. "here was ne&er any ?uestion of rebuilding peace with #ermany. "he #ermans were meant to be reduced to total impotence fore&er. "o ignorance and corruption could be added blind hatred. #ermany was to be destroyed by any means. Allied politicians saw in $olshe&ism a wonderful ad unct of &engeance. #ermany was to be hammered into obli&ion between Allied &engeance and @ommunist terror. "he 4aris atmosphere was so thick with hatred that all those who did not display genocidal tendencies toward the #ermans were immediately branded enemy lackeys. "he American delegate $owman complained( !At all times one had to gi&e tangible proof of hatred against the enemy lest one be accused of being #ermanophile.! @hurchill howe&er did not ob ect, showing himself a consummate demagogue( !%ne must satisfy an excited crowd.! @lemenceau was blunt( !"he peace conference is a continuation of war.!

CHAPTE 2

A Comed( "he #ermans dutifully implemented the draconian conditions of the Go&ember armistice. "he A million soldiers of the #erman army had gone home and, aside from the few thousand &olunteers who defended $erlin against the $olshe&iks, #ermany was in fact disarmed and defenseless. 2&en the most ardent anti-#erman politician of them all, "ardieu, conceded( !As of Banuary +E, +,+, all the materiel which the Go&ember ++ armistice had ordered #ermany to deli&er was in the hands of the &ictors.! <Peace, p. +A+.> 5arshal Foch, who had mo&ed his head?uarters to the #erman town of "rier, renewed the armistice for another two months but this time under e&en worse conditions. 4eace had become an extension of the war( #ermany had disarmed but was still the ob ect of war. "he &ictors lacked the statemanship to conclude a peace for the benefit of 2urope and the world. "hey li&ed in the past, where the sole ob ecti&e of war was to ac?uire real estate from neighboring countries. Lenin had changed all that. @ommunism fought for mastery of the whole world. "he con?uest of #ermany had started in Go&ember, +,+D as a steppingstone to con?uer 2urope. "he enemy was no longer the fugiti&e /aiser. 4rostrate #ermany had become the bulwark protecting 2urope from the @ommunist onslaught. As much as the Allies hated #ermany, their own sur&i&al demanded they did not destroy this bulwark. Lloyd #eorge, who had promised his electorate that he would pul&eri:e #ermany, showed some belated concern when he asked( !;s

it our interest to throw #ermany into the arms of $olshe&ismH! )owe&er, the Allies were caught in a web of secret treaties which left them little room to meet new situations. "hey had agreed to Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints so long as it ensured American1s participation in the war, but with &ictory they had reasserted their original war aims. "ardieu explained why his go&ernment, until the armistice, had made no mention of its policy of !breaking down #erman unity!( !&ictory came late for the Allies. ;n +,+D it was the defeat of the $ritish army under #eneral #ough, in 5ay it was the 1@hemin des 6ames1 and the bombing of 4aris. "o announce at this time or before what we called the J&i&isection of #ermany1 would ha&e been singularly incautious.! <Peace, p. A.,.> @lemenceau also looked on #ermany1s =. million population, 7. million more than France, as the height of effrontery. )e declared( !;n the old days ; know what would ha&e been done with them.! Short of killing them all at the re&olutionary guillotine @lemenceau was determined to distribute a large part of the #erman population among all of #ermany1s neighbors. "he French, the @:echs, and 4oles, the ;talians, the Serbs, the $elgians, the 6anes were all meant to absorb millions of #ermans. Wilson did not fathom the greed of his allies until after six months of intrigue and doubletalk. )e then returned to Washington, a bitter, disillusioned man who reali:ed he had been fooled.

Wilson1s first capitulation dealt with the establishment of the League of Gations. ;t was one of the Fourteen 4oints that it would be the forum for implementing peace and the cornerstone of the armistice. ;t was the solemn engagement of all belligerents, winners and losers alike, to proceed in creating the league once the armistice had been signed. 6a&id )unter 5iller, Wilson1s legal counsel declared( ;n truth the declaration of the Fourteen 4oints relati&e to the establishment of a League of Gations had formally become, as our go&ernment note of Go&ember E, +,+D pro&es, one of the basic conditions of peace with #ermany. ;t was the right of #ermany to insist for its own protection that the League of Gations be established. <What 5appened in Paris in +,+D-+,+,, p. 8++.> "his right of #ermany had been the &ery basis of its acceptance of the armistice. !#ermany,! said 5iller, !had always &igorously maintained that it interpreted 4resident Wilson1s words, Ja general association of nations,1 not only as an association of nations making the treaty, but as an association of which #ermany would immediately become a member.! "his would not happen. 6ecisi&e years would pass without any #erman participation in the League of Gations. @lemenceau had set the tone for dispensing with a #erman &oice( !%ne must ne&er negotiate with a #erman or make a deal' one must impose a solution on him.! "he most farflung $ritish dominions were made members but for some years #ermany was excluded. "hus the armistice conditions were &iolated before the peace conference e&en began. 4rofessor 4ierre 3ain, a French obser&er, stated( !"he integrity of the doctrine was compromised( the worm was

already in the fruit.! <9ersailles1 2urope, p. A,.> "he $ritish delegate Bohn 5aynard /eynes said( !;t would be stupid to belie&e that there should be in the world much room for tales like the League of Gations or the principle of self-determination. "hese are only ingenious formulas, used to tip the balance of power in one1s own fa&or.! <"he 2conomic @onse?uences of the 4eace, p. 8--8D.> 3ain also noted( !"here was no real acceptance of Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints.! %n Banuary D, +,+D Wilson had already made it known that the !interests of the colonial sub ects must weigh e?ually with those of other territories.! "he basis of his Fourteen 4oints was the self-determination of all peoples. "he $ritish 2mpire, on which the sun ne&er set, had no intention of entertaining such a policy. ;ndia, with a population of 87. million at the time, was resti&e under $ritish colonial rule. 5ass demonstrations were held in fa&or of independence and liberation from colonialism while the "reaty of 9ersailles was being negotiated. %n April +,, +,+, $ritish troops did not hesitate for a moment to fire on the unarmed demonstrators in the city of Amritsar. 8-, were killed and countless wounded. ;n 2gypt crowds demanding independence !in the name of Wilsonian principles! were also brutally put down, as were protesters in 4alestine. ;n accordance with the legendary $ritish policy of !di&ide and rule! the $ritish used Australians to massacre the ;ndians as they had done a few years before when Australians were brought into South Africa to make war on the $oers. ;ndian mercenaries were used to repress the 2gyptians' 2gyptians were used to ?uell the 4alestinians.

As recently as +,D7, Gepalese #urkhas were used in the war against Argentina. "he $ritish empire had been put together by years of piratical operations and political double-crosses. !"he @ity,! as the $ritish financial establishment is known, presided o&er the exploitation of its colonies and dominions with force and ruthlessness. "he moralism per&ading Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints was anathema to the @ity, e&en as a public relations facade. 6uring the first week of the conference $ritish delegate @rowe reprimanded his colleague Gicolson, an honest 2nglishman, because he had detected some scruples in him. Gicolson somehow felt obligated to honor the commitment his go&ernment had gi&en Wilson during the Go&ember armistice agreements. Said @rowe( "his would be an absurdity, my dear Gicolson' your mind is not clear. *ou think you are logical and sincere but you are not. Would you apply the right of self-determination to 2gypt, ;ndia, 5alta, #ibraltarH ;f you are not ready to go as far as that, don1t pretend you are logical. And if you want to go that far you would be well ad&ised to go back to London immediately. "he liberty of people would remain the liberty of dominating people. Within the French colonial empire, the 6estour party in "unisia had asked for some measure of freedom immediately after the armistice. "he tribal chiefs of ;taliancontrolled Libya were pressing for an independent !3epublic of "ripolitania.! ;n Spanish 5orocco the 5oslem leader Abd el- /rim had organi:ed a rebellion for

independence. ;n the 6utch 2ast ;ndies the independence mo&ement Sarekat ;slam, with 71T: million members, was agitating for the rights 4resident Wilson had promised them. Got a single country among the Allies would grant the slightest independence to any of the countries it dominated. "he inhabitants of the former #erman colonial empire had simply passed under $ritish rule' a few had passed under French, $elgian or e&en Bapanese rule. "he $ritish 2stablishment hypocritically called its new colonies !mandates.! Wilson had proclaimed that the !mandates! should be administered by !the states best suited to perform the task.! "he $ritish had grabbed the #erman colonies at gunpoint and somehow felt ordained to run them. !;t was then,! noticed Gicolson, not without indignation, !that a fabric of sophisms and esuitical argument would per&ert with lies the text and the substance of the whole treaty.! "he !sacred mission! assigned to the future League of Gations had been scuttled in a matter of days. "he powerful would remain powerful and the weak <e&en if they numbered hundreds of millions> would see their freedom disappear like a magician1s rabbit. $ecause the Allies still needed American financial aid they paid lip ser&ice to Wilson1s pro ect, the League of Gations. $ut within two weeks the substance of the League had been sucked out of it. 2&en the clause on religious e?uality would not sur&i&e, although Wilson had emphatically demanded it. "he $ritish 2stablishment torpedoed this

particular clause because it did not want to change the practice of excluding @atholics from acceding to the $ritish throne. Wilson let go of his principles, one after the other. ;n Go&ember, +,+D he dropped the freedom of the seas' in Banuary, +,+, he dropped the right of self-determination for colonial peoples, and now he was abandoning religious e?uality. ;ronically, Wilson would finish off the League of Gations with his own nationalist demands. Wilson1s !right of self-determination! was in total conflict with the 5onroe 6octrine, by which the Cnited States claimed the right to inter&ene in the affairs of all the countries of the Americas to the total exclusion of any other country in the world. American public opinion was not about to renounce this monopoly, and @ongress put Wilson on notice not to tamper with the doctrine. "his time Wilson1s principles were subordinated to electoral considerations. With the forked tongue of diplomatic gobbledygook, Wilson transformed the principle of self-determination into a truly %rwellian statement, embodied in the League1s Article S9( !3egional ententes like the 5onroe 6octrine are in no way contradictory to the principle of selfdetermination' on the contrary they are perfectly compatible with it.! With a hypocrisy that would ha&e made the $ritish proud, Wilson was ust playing on words. "he fact remained that only the Cnited States had the right of inter&ention in some 7. American countries, without any reciprocity on their part. 6epri&ed of any rele&ance, the League of Gations would

open its doors in #ene&a as a monument to futility. For 7. long years, billions of dollars would be la&ished on partying bureaucrats and diplomats from all o&er the world. Summer was especially fa&ored as the social season to see and to be seen. $riand, the French minister, was once heard ?uipping to his aides( !Gow look, don1t you know that truth must ne&er be spokenH 3emember that in the future0! 2&ery delegate was li&ing a lie and e&eryone knew it. "he League1s statutes had been drafted in less than three weeks, strictly for appearance1s sake. !Self-determination and human rights are a oke,! said "ardieu. Wilson reali:ed this more than anyone. "he League was as hollow as a drum. Wilson thought he could substitute form for substance. 6uring the reading of the statutes, his aides brought him a $ible, which !he clutched with a trembling hand! throughout the ceremony as if he were about to utter the oath to uphold the @onstitution. 4roducing the $ible at the ratification of ine?uity only compounded its hypocrisy. "he emasculation of the League would mark Wilson1s first defeat. "he failure of disarmament would mark the second.

CHAPTE 2I The Sabota0e of 'isarmament Along with the Fourteen 4oints Wilson had proclaimed the necessity of establishing world disarmament. %nce more the president of the Cntied States was theoretically right. ;t

was a noble dream of great importance for the peace of the world. ;ts success depended, of course, on the willingness of his 2uropean allies to share it. "he armistice had been concluded on the basis that #ermany would immediately disarm and the other countries would follow suit. AndrF FranVois-4oncet, France1s most senior ambassador, recogni:ed that the 9ersailles diplomats had decided not only upon the disarmament of #ermany but of all other countries as well. !"he treaty expressly stated, and @lemenceau had confirmed it in a letter to the #erman delegation, that the disarmament of #ermany would only be a prelude to general disarmament.! <FranVois-4oncet, From 9ersailles to 4otsdam, p. -E>. "he 4aris @onference had already dealt with #ermany1s disarmament. #ermany was militarily reduced to nil. ;n the course of the debate its forces had been reduced to ,=,... men and A,... officers. "his left #ermany defenseless in the face of @ommunist aggression. <;n +,87 #ermany would count six million &otes for the @ommunist 4arty.> Gumerous clauses ensured that this meager contingent could ne&er be expanded( Art. +-=( Suppression of all military academies. Art. +D.( 6isarmament of all fortifications in the demilitari:ed :one. Art. +,D( 6emobili:ation of all air force personnel. Art. 7.7( 6eli&ery to the Allies of all air force materiel. Arts. A7TA8( @omplete demilitari:ation of the 3hineland. Art. +==( Limitation on munition depots. Art. +-. 4rohibition on importing or exporting military e?uipment.

Art. +-+( 4rohibition on manufacturing tanks and toxic gas. Art. +DD( 4rohibition on manufacturing arms, munitions or military materiel in any other plants but those controlled by the Allies. Suppression of all arsenals. Art. +-7( 6eli&ery to the Allies of manufacturing secrets and patents. Art. +-8( Abolition of Mcompulsory-ed.N military ser&ice. Art. +--( Schools and sports clubs prohibited from in&ol&ement in military teaching or ha&ing any contact with the defense ministry. Art. 7+8( "he right of the League of Gations to control #ermany. @lemenceau relied on Article 7+8 to keep #ermany down fore&er. $$$ ;t was not enough that both sides of the 3hine 3i&er be out of bounds to #erman soldiers. #ermany was prohibited from sending troops to within 8E miles of the 3hine on the #erman side, e&en to defend the country against @ommunist re&olution. "his prohibition ga&e the green light to the @ommunists to rush to the 3hineland, to be ready to take o&er. Within two months of the edict, in 5arch, +,+, @ommunist shock troops were in&ading the 3hineland. A small unit of #erman soldiers was dispatched to contain them and restore order. @lemenceau sei:ed the opportunity pro&ided by this infraction of the edict to occupy two ma or #erman cities beyond the armistice line. #ermany was caught between the implacable enforcement of the 9ersailles "reaty and a wa&e of $olshe&ik

insurrection. "ardieu proudly announced each step of #ermany1s military downfall( @ompleted reduction( Soldiers, ,DY, infantry di&ision, ,=.-Y, army high command, +..Y, chief of staff commands, ,-Y, hea&y artillery, +..Y, light artillery, ,=.=Y. %ur delegation is responsible for the work of breaking down the power of the most military nation on earth . . . We struck at the head when we eliminated the )igh @ommand, the military academies and the mobili:ation apparatus. We deli&ered a body blow when we eliminated conscription, when we fixed to +7 years the term of ser&ice for the +..,... men allowed in uniform. We ha&e eliminated their entire hea&y artillery, their tanks, their air force. We ha&e prohibited the right to manufacture them and their right to keep them. <"ardieu, 4eace>. 6uring that same year "rotsky would raise with unparalleled brutality an army of E million men. "ardieu had little concern for this type of !disarmament.! $olshe&ik mobili:ation, howe&er, did start to concern some of the other Allies. %n 5ay 78, +,+, Lloyd #eorge admitted( !Although ; went along with limiting the #erman army to +..,... men, ; recogni:e today that it is &ery small. ;t may be ad&isable to reassess this whole problem.! %n Bune D, +,+, the Allied @ommittee comprising Field 5arshal )enry Wilson and #enerals $liss, 6estiker, @a&allero and Gara proposed that #ermany should be allowed to ha&e armed forces of a minimum of 8..,... men. "he mo&e was blocked by the French politicians. <"ardieu, 4eace, 4. +E,>

"he obligations imposed on #ermany were accompanied by a di::ying array of controls. Allied missions in uniform would for years crisscross #ermany to check barracks and factories for the slightest infraction. @lemenceau shouted in 4arliament( !;f you go into this treaty with as much oy as our men went into the war, you will bring it ali&e ... When you are done with this magnificent task you will be entitled to congratulate yoursel&es.! "ardieu added( !A modern mobili:ation takes years of preparation and it must be done openly. "hese conditions are no longer in the hands of the #ermans.! "he Allies, who had pledged that they would disarm after #ermany had done so, were now welching on their armistice obligations. 2&en the establishment historian 3enou&in recogni:ed that #ermany1s disarmament could only be enforced as a prelude to general disarmament, as agreed by the Armistice signatories( "here would be no ?uestion that @hurchill would demand that the MArmisticeN commitment would be renewed in the "reaty. $ut it was then suggested, that a codicil be inserted linking this disarmament to the !general perspecti&es of uni&ersal disarmament! before the chapters dealing with #ermany1s disarmament. 4resident Wilson agreed to this renewal of the Armistice agreement. "he #ermans had ne&er gi&en grounds for Allied suspicion. 5arshal Foch himself would state in writing in +,7-( !#erman disarmament has been totally completed.! For the pre&ious eight years the Allied @ommission on disarmament had operated at full capacity and concluded

officially that #ermany had been fully disarmed. 6uring these eight years the Allies failed to comply with their signed agreement in the Armistice and 9ersailles "reaty. "hey did not make the slightest attempt to li&e up to the "reaty despite #ermany1s total compliance. "he #erman go&ernments from +,+, to +,7- were almost totally subser&ient to the Allies and ne&er represented the slightest threat. "here was no reason for the Allies to refuse to abide by the treaty they had signed. After fifteen years of consistent welching it was to be expected that the #ermans would ?uestion the &alidity of complying with a one-sided agreement. Got only did the Allies not disarm as they had agreed, but they ne&er stopped re-arming. $$$ @lemenceau1s war-through-peace policy would, of course, guarantee outright war sooner or later. "he Allies would ustify their non-compliance with the diplomatic doubletalk at the League of Gations. ;f a resolution came up to implement the treaty, @lemenceau and the $ritish could always be counted on to exercise their &eto power. Cp until the beginning of World War ;; the &eto would be used and abused by the Allies for the purpose of side-stepping their treaty obligations. While the Allies kept #ermany in a total state of disarmament, a handful of &olunteers decided to face the @ommunist legions Lenin was hurling against #ermany.

CHAPTE 2II Soviet e%ub"ics in &erman(

"he Spartacists1 electoral failure in Banuary, +,+, followed by Goske1s military &ictory o&er them, was fairly general. "he extreme left had managed to win some 7. seats in the Weimar Assembly, a do:en or so in Saxony, four in Wurttemberg and one in )esse. !"hey were looking east, waiting for the So&iet army to put them into power,! wrote $enoit-5Fchin. Although they lacked the leadership of Liebknecht and Luxemburg, they had grown in strength. #ermany suffered a famine of terrible proportions. 4regnant mothers were losing their babies through sheer lack of food. "he allies had confiscated E,... locomoti&es and +E.,... railway cars with the result that factories could no longer be supplied with coal and raw material. 5illions of returned ser&icemen were out of work' wounded &eterans were left to fend for themsel&es. ;n $erlin there were +D.,... men out of work in Banuary, +,+,' in February there were 7A.,...' in 5arch E=.,... and in April more than one million. ;t was ine&itable that such misery and famine would throw the masses into the hands of the agitators. "he Allied politicians were too consumed with hatred to see the So&iet menace. Allied generals stationed in the occupied 3hineland were, howe&er, sufficiently alarmed to send graphic reports. #eneral 4lumer, commander of the $ritish occupation

forces in #ermany, wired this report to 2ngland on 5arch D, +,+,( !%ur troops cannot stand the sight of children dying from hunger' ; beseech you to send food to #ermany.! Appalling figures were reaching London( !At least 7..;. of all #erman babies are stillborn and A.Y who are born die within a month.! Gicolson1s notes reflected his anguish( ; am &ery tired' ; feel bad and my morale is low. What are we doing about peaceH What type of peace are we afterH "here is a &ery somber telegram from 4lumer. )e begs us to send food to #ermany. )e says our troops cannot stand to see children dying of star&ation any more. "he obser&er from the 4eace @onference reports that people1s complexion is yellow through malnutrition and star&ation. 2&en @hurchill recogni:ed the #erman plight( "his is a &ery sad story. "he armistice conditions prescribed that the blockade of #ermany would continue. )owe&er, at the #ermans1 re?uest a clause was added that stipulated, !"he Allies and the Cnited States! would !consider sending food to #ermany if it was necessary.! "his clause was not implemented until Banuary +=, +,+,. %n the contrary, #ermany1s blockade was extended to the $altic ports, thus causing the famine to increase in #ermany. ; hear some painful stories about the suffering of mothers and children. $$$ "he !painful stories,! that is, the death of A..-o of #ermany1s babies, did not impress the Allies, howe&er. "he $ritish blockade remained as tight as e&er. 6uring the first post-war winter more than one million #erman children

perished. "he Allies were concerned only with forcing #ermany to sign the 9ersailles "reaty. With appalling inhumanity the Allies calculated that the tightened blockade would bring #ermany to its knees at the conference table. "he crowds in $erlin, Saxony and the streets of e&ery city in #ermany did not understand this barbaric blackmail. 4eople were dying of star&ation' there was no work and inflation was melting the #erman mark. "he Sparticists had been trained in 5oscow to exploit this national disaster. "he 2berts and the Scheidemanns, playing the liberal bourgeois, were impotent to change anything. "hey offered no hope, no plan except liberal &erbiage. When people protested they ordered the police to shoot at them. 4eople were ready to hear another &oice. @lemenceau and "ardieu were blinded to the situation by hatred while Lloyd #eorge and @hurchill were bound by the strictures of $ritish politics. 5eanwhile, Lenin1s ambassador in $erlin had been caught redhanded distributing funds to the insurrectionists( !Boffe was distributing money through )aase <a #erman @ommunist deputy> in order to pro&oke the re&olution.! <Scheidemann, The Collapse, p. 7A->. $$$ Lenin1s agent had been expelled from #ermany but continued to organi:e sub&ersion through radio messages. @ommunist insurrectionists were on the offensi&e throughout #ermany. @ommunist communes and local dictatorships were springing up e&erywhere( !2&ery town and &illage was declared an autonomous republic with responsibility for supplying food and e&en conducting foreign affairs,! wrote Scheidemann.

;mmediately an establishment of 3ed commissars and petty bureaucrats put themsel&es on the payroll of the taxpayers. !"hey had,! said Socialist minister $arth, !per&erted the re&olution to a ?uestion of salary.! "hey had become greedy stockholders of the re&olution. !4eople appeared from e&erywhere,! added Scheidemann, !to claim their share of the re&olutionary pie and ockey for position.! "he #erman @ommunists had in fact in&ented the system of Gomenklatura whereby a chosen few sponged on the ma ority of the people. "he system has been in force in the So&iet Cnion e&er since( -E.,... Gomenklatura members li&e in luxury off 7E. million people. $$$ "he Leninist insurrectionists would, after establishing their so&iet republics, proceed to commit horrible massacres in order to purge !undesirable! elements. "he anti-@ommunist &olunteers had the choice of fighting back or being slaughtered. "he Leninists had released &iolent criminals from ail and had enlisted them to perform the more grisly atrocities. #ermany had become a @ommunist ungle. For three months unrelenting &iolence gripped the nation with fear. "he people were now at the mercy of @ommunist killers. #erman patriots who could still think for themsel&es knew they had to roll back the $olshe&iks before the final meeting at 9ersailles. "hey had six months to re&erse the tide. "he regional so&iets would soon find their massacres counterproducti&e. $$$

Go sooner had the $erlin @ommunists been crushed than $remen was put to the sword. "he @ommunists took control of the port in order to intercept any &essel that might contain food. "hese &essels were mostly sent by a charitable institution called the )oo&er @ommission. "he deli&ery of food meant the difference between life and death for countless star&ing children. *et it was official @ommunist policy to exploit and compound star&ation in order to start the class war. $enoit-5Fchin wrote( Since Banuary +., +,+,, a hardly disguised dictatorship was established <in $remen>. "he Socialist treasury, as well as the Socialist newspaper, was sei:ed by the @ommunists. "he banks were held up and emptied of their contents. 3eturning &eterans were greeted with a hail of machine-gun fire. "he sur&i&ors were taken prisoner. Shipyards and docks were sealed off with barbed wire. S?uads of 3ed militia were ordered to shoot anyone attempting to resume work. While the country was dying of star&ation the )oo&er @ommission ships, loaded with food, were in the hands of the @ommunists. <L1ArmFe allemande, pp. +DET+D=>. "he ports of )amburg and @uxha&en were similarly taken o&er by the @ommunists. Se&enty thousand workers were kept from work by the 3ed terror. Goske was o&erwhelmed by numbers. )is na&al !;ron $rigade! numbered +,=.. men, his !#erstenberg 6i&ision! numbered +,,... )e faced more than +..,... @ommunist troops with his 8,E.. men. Worse news was brought to Goske( @ommunist agitators had taken o&er the huge 3uhr coalfields and were !solidari:ing! with $remen and )amburg. "hey would cut off #ermany1s coal supplies.

Goske ad&ised the frightened Socialist go&ernment( !;f order is not immediately restored in $remem the go&ernment can consider itself lost. ;t will ha&e forfeited all respect. ;t is better to risk anything than accept this outrage.! <Goske, 5emoirs, p. A7>. Against all odds Goske led his !#erstenberg 6i&ision! of +,,.. men to $remen on February 8, +,+,. After three days of ferocious fighting Goske managed to recapture $remen and the @ommunist agitators were put to death. "he so&iets of )amburg and $remerha&en rushed reinforcements but were mowed down by Goske1s soldiers. Goske kept the initiati&e and after a lightning attack forced 3ed )amburg to capitulate. "he port was reopened and food finally got through. "hree thousand fi&e hundred patriots had routed +..,... 5oscow-backed @ommunists. Goske had courage and leadership ?ualities, which the 5arxists lacked. "he workers were ama:ed to see their 3ed leaders run away at the first shot, lea&ing them as cannon fodder. $$$ While the fire was being extinguished in the Gorth Sea ports, the 3uhr and Westphalia were exploding in &iolence. "he @ommunists made the tactical error of chosing regional re&olutions instead of aiming at a national insurrection. "his ga&e Goske the chance to put down the insurrections one by one with his outnumbered forces. "he @ommunist-controlled union of the 3uhr demanded the nationali:ation of the coal mines. "he Weimar politicians had, with characteristic cowardice, gi&en in and made concessions ust short of communi:ation. "he 5arxist agitators were still not satisfied and organi:ed strike after

strike( the miners were only allowed to work +- days out of ,.. $y February =, +,+, the @ommunists were enforcing a general strike for the whole region. "hree days later they declared the 3uhr !the independent Gorth-West 3epublic.! All coal shipments to the rest of #ermany, which was enduring one of the most se&ere winters on record, were stopped. %nce again Goske was called to liberate #erman soil from the alien grip of @ommunism. )is little contingent of 7,-E. &olunteers faced +E.,... 3ed militiamen armed to the teeth. At the )er&est-6orte town hall his men outflanked the 3ed cannons and were poised for attack. "he 3eds announced they would flood the coal mines if Goske attacked them. "his would mean the mines would be out of commission for years. Goske kept his head and ceased all hostilities. )e calculated that time was working to his ad&antage. Since the @ommunists had cut off real communications, the 3uhr population could not be supplied with food. "he general strike had cost the workers more than +.. million marks. ;n a few weeks they had lost the capacity to buy food e&en at black market rates. Goske1s right-hand man, #eneral &on Watter, felt the wi&es and children of the miners would help bring sanity back. )e negotiated directly with the men( they would work the mines and resume coal shipments in exchange for food. Goske a&oided a bloodbath by using psychology. $$$ Go sooner had the 3uhr crisis been a&erted than Westphalia fell into the hands of /illian, the Bewish $olshe&ik dictator. %perating from the city of )alle, /illian sei:ed E.,... rifles, a million rounds of ammunition and a number of

machine guns from the old army depot. )is !3e&olutionary @ouncil! enforced a general strike and ailed all railway workers. "he schools, the newspapers, the utilities and medical ser&ices were shut down. 2&en the sanitation workers were ordered not to work, which left the town in a state of filth and s?ualor. Goske asked #eneral 5aercker to beat back this new insurrection with 8,E.. &olunteers. $$$ 5aercker approached the town of #otha, which had ust seceded from #ermany, on 5arch +, +,+,. "he @ommunists derailed one of his trains and sa&agely massacred the wounded. "he officers were mutilated beyond recognition, dragged through the streets and publicly thrown in the 3i&er Saale, where they drowned. 5aercker ust escaped with his life. "he @ommunists had con&erted the town1s theater into an impregnable fortress. 5aercker was trying to a&oid further bloodshed and sent a truce emissary, @olonel &on /luwer, to negotiate with the !3e&olutionary @ouncil.! $efore he could talk the @ommunists sei:ed him, broke his aw and most of his ribs. A screaming @ommunist mob dragged him through the same streets his fellow officers had been dragged the day before. With blood gushing from his multiple wounds, he was thrown into the Saale 3i&er. Still ali&e, he desperately attempted to swim ashore. 2ach time the @ommunists kicked him back into the water. Finally they finished him off with bullets. "he outrage perpetrated on @olonel &on /luwer con&inced 5aercker that negotiations were now out of the ?uestion. )e sent his best soldiers to clear the streets. %ne hundred twenty-three @ommunists were killed' 5aercker lost se&en

men. "he @ommunists panicked and went on a looting rampage. 5aercker took E.. of them prisoners. Within -7 hours the 3ed militias were routed and made illegal. 5aercker restored order by 5arch -. $remen, Westphalia and )alle had been retaken. "he So&iet agents in $erlin were seething o&er this triple blow. "hey decided to launch another insurrection in $erlin itself. "he professional agitators spread the word( !Workers0 4roletarians0 "hese are our orders( absolute discipline0 @old- blooded calm0 ;ron will0 2&erybody prepare to fight0! "he @ommunists declared a general strike through a new front, the !workers1 councils.! "his would be the fourth re&olution in four months. Gow Goske was on his own ground and he would handle the @ommunists himself. )e asked for and recei&ed full power to ?uell the insurrection. %n the first night the communists sei:ed the police stations and looted the stores. %n 5arch A, +,+, Goske stormed the 3ed stronghold in Spandau. For 7. hours the fighting raged in the streets of the Spandau district. Goske won the battle there but still had to face na&y mutineers from $remen and )amburg, who had been in $erlin since the middle of Go&ember, +,+D. "hey had ample ammunition and were operating from the exits of $erlin1s subway. 6islodged from their guns and grenades, they retreated to the 3ed stronghold of 5arstall, which became the target of intensi&e fire. A few hours later, they raised the white flag. "he second and more formidable stronghold was the !9olksmarinehaus.! 5aercker gathered a small air s?uadron to drop na&al tropedoes on the fortress. "he wall were

breached and Goske sent in his men. ;nside they found +7= machine guns, E,... additional guns and rifles and two hea&y artillery pieces. For another E. hours ferocious fighting would take place in practically e&ery street of $erlin. #radually Goske was closing in on the last and main bastion of @ommunism in $erlin( Lichtenberg. $$$ "he @ommunists had terrori:ed the working-class district of Lichtenberg after sei:ing the police building and other public offices along with D. policemen and go&ernment soldiers. "he local newspapers were also sei:ed, which seems to ha&e infuriated the other $erlin newspapers. "here were headlines announcing that all D. policemen and soldiers had been massacred, which was officially confirmed by the interior minister. "he news sent a shock wa&e through an already shock-proof $erlin. Goske declared by means of posters that anyone caught with weapons would be shot immediately. "he #o&ernment #uard went further( !Any indi&idual caught with arms in his house will be shot on the spot.! "he news of the massacre was in that case inaccurate( there had only fi&e policemen assassinated. So many massacres had taken place in the pre&ious weeks that the press headlines had been accepted at face &alue. Within hours hundreds of @ommunists would be killed. "here would also be hea&y go&ernment casualties. $y 5arch ++, +,+, the @ommunist force of +.,... men had dwindled to A,.... At last the @ommunist high command in the Lichtenberg town hall fell' the last insurrectionists were mowed down by machine gun. "he 3ed commissar 6orrenbach managed to

escape, but was killed a month later. "he fourth $olshe&ik uprising had been the most murderous( +.,A.. ci&ilians were killed and wounded. ;t was +.,A.. too many but it would ha&e been +..,... if the $olshe&iks had con?uered $erlin as they did 5oscow. "he following day Goske addressed the 3eichstag in Weimar( !For one week the battle raged in all its horror. ; can tell you that the insurrection has been crushed0! ;f the @ommunists had failed it was not because they lacked fighters. "hey were ne&er short of men. Some of the people they enlisted fought with courage. "hey were torn by hunger and po&erty, con&inced they were fighting the right war. "he dangers for #ermany and 2urope were immense. "he crowds, thirsting for ustice, were badly let down by their 5arxist leaders. From Liebknecht to "halmann in +,88 the failure of 3ed leadership in #ermamy was constant. )ad there been a #erman Lenin or e&en a #erman "rotsky, @lemenceau would ha&e ended his career in Siberia. $$$ "he insurrection may ha&e been crushed in $erlin but @ommunist uprisings continued in other parts of #ermanmy. "hree weeks after $erlin, 5agdeburg and $raunschweig were in the throes of insurrection. %n April 7, +,+, a @ommunist force of 7,... men took o&er 5agdeburg and declared themsel&es and the city a So&iet republic. "hey broke all relations with the #erman go&ernment and announced their alliance with 5oscow. "he Socialists, formerly so friendly with the @ommunists, found themsel&es being beaten up and thrown out of windows. %nce more they bleated for Goske to come and

sa&e them. Socialist politicians and bureaucrats were imprisoned, while con&icted criminals were set free. %nce again food stores were looted and factories closed, including those of the giant industrial cartel /rupp. "he 3eds took a federal minister, a general and a number of officers as hostages, liable to be shot at any time. Goske, exasperated, roared that he would !ne&er tolerate such practices or the dismemberment of #ermany.! %n April +7 he deli&ered an ultimatum to the So&iet 3epublic of 5agdeburg to surrender. $$$ Goske entrusted 5aercker to implement the ultimatum. Far from surrendering the insurrectionists waged a furious battle against the go&ernment forces, killing 8- men. 5aercker counterattacked with great speed and managed to free the hostages. Another Leninist regime was put down and a patriotic go&ernment was put in place. #eneral &on /leist, the freed hostage, re&iewed the troops in 5agdeburg the next day. 5aercker had organi:ed the parade but had to lea&e in a hurry for the $raunschweig region, where a Bewish tailor called 5erges had o&erthrown the go&ernment and had become the $olshe&ik dictator of $raunschweig. )e had enlisted the /iel mutineers, who were li&ing in the ducal palace, as his bodyguards. 5erges had armed the @ommunists troops with large ?uantities of weapons sei:ed in go&ernment arsenals and claimed he was forming !the embryo of a powerful 3ed army.! )e had broken with the central go&ernment, closed down the railways, stopped food supplies and had ust declared that $raunschweig was now part of the @ommunist "hird ;nternational, run by 5oscow.

5aercker probed the surroundings with minor skirmishing ensuing. Some 8. @ommunists were killed and -. taken prisoner. 5aercker encircled the city. )is troops were ordered to gi&e no ?uarter to all who resisted. Suddenly, 5aercker was confronted by an extraordinary spectacle( a huge crowd was running in his direction, with cries of oy and thanks addressed to their liberators. "he people of $raunschweig had o&erun the 3ed militias and had come to greet 5aercker and his men to the hymn of %eutschland >0er 9lles. ;t was 2aster 6ay. "he day of resurrection was symbolic for $raunschweig. 5aercker recalled( !"he crowd was so thick that ; could hardly proceed' my horse was sinking in an a&alanche of flowers.! 5aercker entered $raunschweig with the band leading the way. $$$ "here was the proof. ;n #ermany, as in 3ussia, the re&olution was run by Bewish agitators determined to impose @ommunism by force on the unwilling ma ority. 9iolence, terror and 6ark Age barbarism were their modus operandi, but at the first opportunity people would throw off the 5arxist yoke. $raunschweig1s 3ed commissars fled the popular wrath while the rank and file chose surrender. 5aercker wisely decided on a show of leniency( !; udge it opportune to make their detention as light as possible.! )e was now free to look to $a&aria, which had become a so&iet republic under the dictatorship of three Bews( Le&inF, Le&ien, and Axelrod, sent by Lenin from 5oscow. "here was also the matter of a new so&iet republic that had ust sprung up in )ungary.

CHAPTE 2III The Communists in !uda%est %n 5arch +7, +,+, power in )ungary fell into the hands of another So&iet agent, $ela /un, likewise a @ommunist Bew. Lenin had earmarked )ungary as the east central 2uropean springboard for $olshe&ism. "his time the Allies took notice. ;t mattered little to them when the @ommunists massacred #ermans but it did matter when east central 2urope was being interfered with. "he Allies regarded it as their preser&e and that of their local allies the @:echs, the 3omanians, and the Serbians. @lemenceau, howe&er, saw the opportunity to negotiate with the new 5arxist potentate from the 6anube and his ambassador in 9ienna to in&ite him to 4aris. Wilson, Lloyd #eorge, and @lemenceau decided to send a special delegation to $udapest to deli&er the in&itation officially. "he mission was to be headed by South African 4rime 5inister Smuts who tra&eled by pri&ate train to $udapest. "hus a luxury train would be crossing a de&asted 2urope of 7.. million star&ing people to pay homage to the sallowskinned Bewish tyrant of $olshe&ik )ungary. )arold Gicolson, who was assigned to this mission, ga&e this ama:ing report from the time they arri&ed in 9ienna where the delegation was to wait for a @ommunist delegate to gi&e them permission to enter )ungary(

; go to the $olshe&ik head?uarters. ;t is rather difficult to make them understand who ; am and what ; want. "he place is crowded with people who want to obtain passports. 5ost of them are Bews fighting to get to $udapest... Finally ; am taken upstairs to the commissar, as he is called around here. )e is a #alician Bew raised in the Cnited States. )e telephones $udapest and says( !;t1s %./. $ela /un will be glad to see you.! "he next morning the delegation arri&ed in $udapest as the same time as +,E.. !fanatics! who had left 9ienna to oin $ela1s 3ed guards. $ela /un appeared on the platform( )e is a little man of about thirty, his face is waxy and puffy, his lips are soft and wet, his head is sha&en, his eyes are cunning and distrustful. ;t is the face of a sulking and insecure criminal. )e is accompanied by a greasy little Bew clad in a moth-eaten fur coat and wearing a dirty green tie' it1s his foreign minister. We start talking but his #erman is difficult to follow because it is mixed with #alician and 5agyar. "hey start to propound on what $olshe&ism will mean for @entral 2urope( Work and happiness for all, free education, doctors, #eorge $ernard Shaw, suburban gardens, lots of music and the triumph of the machine. ; asked them what machineH )e gestures &aguely in a collecti&e embrace of all the world1s machines. $$$ $ela /un left and Gicolson started to take photographs. Fortunately, $ela /un is lea&ing before my patience gets

completely exhausted. ; accompany him back to the entrance of the station. "he 3ed #uards do not salute him. )e stands still and looks. "he engine dri&er from a local train gets down and walks toward $ela /un. )e says something ; do not understand. /un answers him in 5agyar, the e?ui&alent of, !@ertainly, comrade,! and gi&es him the cigarette he was smoking. "he engine dri&er then picks up another cigarette, lights it with the one he had recei&ed from /un. )e then returns to his locomoti&e proudly puffing his comradely cigarette. $ela /un turns his beady pink eyes in my direction to obser&e if ; ha&e been impressed with this proletarian scene. Gicolson summari:ed the meeting( !$ela /un suggests we arrange a conference in 9ienna or 4rague between the successor-states. Smuts wants him to come to 4aris.! )ere was the prime minister of a $ritish dominion in&iting the Bewish tyrant of a communi:ed country to come and negotiate in 4aris, while not a single statesman had been called to express the needs of =. million #ermans. $$$ Geither Smuts nor anyone else in the luxury train that brought the delegation to $udapest had the slightest idea of what was going on in )ungary under $ela /un1s dictatorship. Gicolson managed to drag Smuts along on a tour of $udapest for which authori:ation had to be sought( Almost all the shops are closed. "he city is unclean. 3ain is falling on people who are emaciated and in rags. S?uads of red guards mo&e around holding coat-hangers with &arious

gifts. We met three or four of these s?uads of about +E to 7. men armed with bayonets and carrying coat-hangers, stolen in some restaurant. ;f they find an open shop they go in and help themsel&es to the !gifts! they fancy, which they then hang on the coat-hangers( boots, sausages and red linen. All this is soaked with the rain. "he sadness and po&erty is striking. When Gicholson and Smuts returned to the train there was a power failure, which plunged e&erybody into darkness. $ela /un returned to the station( ; managed to make him sign a paper where he promised to release all the 2nglish sub ects he had put in ail. /un appears suspicious and morose as well as fearful. Smuts speaks to him as if he were royalty. "he Swiss and Spanish consuls inform us that $ela /un1s actions were far from moderate. "o pretend otherwise would be absurd. "he prisons are o&erfilled with people. "he 3ed guards are threatening and a massacre is feared. $ela /un returned the next day( he arri&ed at ten o1clock. Smuts hands o&er the draft of an agreement stipulating the occupation by the great powers of a neutral :one between 3omania and )ungary. ;f he agrees the blockade will be lifted. ;t is clear that $ela /un is dying to accept. "he signing of such a document would imply the official recognition of his go&ernment. )e badly wants to agree but he is suspicious and fearful. #rabbing the document he lea&es us, saying he has to consult with his @abinet, which actually means 5oscow. )e promises us an answer by se&en in the e&ening. $$$

;n the afternoon a reception was to be gi&en to the Smuts delegation at the )ungaria )otel( $ela /un wishes us to ha&e afternoon tea there. ;t is embarrassing as ; do not think the general would like us to go into a hotel. $ut they look so upset when we refuse that we accept the in&itation. We reali:e as soon as we get into the hotel that e&erything had been carefully arranged in order to impress us. "he lobby is full of people around little tables drinking coffee and lemonade. A band is playing )ungarian tunes. 2&erything is designed to show us that $udapest remains, despite $olshe&ism, the merriest city in 2urope. )owe&er, two serious mistakes ha&e been made( first, each door is guarded by armed 3ed guards and, secondly, they forgot to tell the people around the little tables they were supposed to talk among themsel&es. ;t is &ery strange. ; do not reali:e immediately what is wrong. ;t is a normal sight to see people ha&ing afternoon tea in a hotel, but there is something fantastic and unreal( no one is talking' e&erybody is sipping their lemonade in total silence. ;f one looks at these people one sees fear and an appeal for help as intense as it is silent. When they lower their eyes, the deadly silence continues except for the playing of &iolins under the watch of armed guards. ;t is ?uite e&ident that this collection of silent beings had been taken out of ail for the afternoon ust to fill the lobby. ; shudder. We lea&e as soon as possible. While we walk to the door, silent glances follow us. $$$ $ela /un was to come back a fourth time to carry on the negotiations. Smuts had finally reached a fomula whereby

/un would be in&ited to 4aris to oin the peace conference. 4aris, howe&er, would not greet $ela /un. "he )ungarians had had more than enough of $olshe&ism and $ela /un and had called in 3omanian troops to help them kick out their oppressors. $ela /un was run out of town, ne&er to reappear. "he Allies1 exceptional display of affection towards $ela /un was not unrelated to his Bewishness. 9ersailles was a kind of confidential Sanhedrin gathering where $ela /un was eagerly awaited. Lenin1s three Bewish dictators of $a&aria <Le&inF, Le&ien, and Axelrod> had similarly been wooed and feted by @lemenceau and the Allies all the while they were massacring defenseless #erman ci&ilians. Surrounded and in&aded by enemies, the hard core of #ermany was determined to resist. Goske was on his way to $a&aria.

CHAPTE 2I) &erman( Crushes Communism From April 7= to 5ay 8, +,+,,! wrote $enoist-5Fchin, !all #ermany held its breath, with all eyes on $a&aria.! Le&inF and Le&ien had ust signed an alliance, with their fellow tyrant $ela /un, all of whom were under the control of Lenin. "he 5unich-$udapest $olshe&ik axis was going to cut 2urope in half. For six months $a&aria had been in the hands of a series of demented Bews like 2isner and cold-blooded terrorists like

Le&inF and Le&ien, sent by Lenin from 5oscow. 6uring the night of April = these aliens had proclaimed $a&aria a so&iet republic to cries of !Los &om 3eich0! <!%ut of the 3eich0!>. "his was intolerable to any #erman. $loodshed seemed ine&itable. For the first time since the end of the war there would be a confrontation of ma or forces, amounting to some =A,... combatants. "he 5arxist- Leninists of $a&aria, in power for six months, had had the time to organi:e a 3ed army of =A,... well-armed men. "he odds did not fa&or Goske1s A,.... $$$ "he @ommunist ;nternational which super&ised So&iet $a&aria was entirely composed of Bews. "his point should ne&er be foregotten when one studies the e&olution of Gational Socialism. Bewish in&ol&ement in directing the $olshe&ik re&olutions in #ermany had been o&erwhelming and constant. "he massacres and the bloodshed that had almost destroyed #ermany in +,+D and +,+, were organi:ed and directed by Bews. ;t was a Frenchman of impeccable democratic credentials, not an !anti- Semitic! #erman, who wrote these remarkable lines( @rowds wa&ing red flags mount an assault against the go&ernment in the name of class war. "hey try to crush the last patriotic instincts. $ut these crowds do not act spontaneously. "hey are led by a legion of militants and agitators. And who are these agitatorsH ;n $erlin, Landsberg and )aase, Liebknecht and 3osa Luxemburg' in 5unich, /urt 2isner, Lipp and Landauer, "oiler, Le&inF and Le&ien' in the 3uhr, 5arkus and Le&inson' in 5agdeburg,

$randeis' in 6resden, Lipinsky, #eyer and Fleissner' in $remerha&en and /iel, #runewald and /ohn' in the 4alatinate, Lilienthal and )eine. All these people were Bews. <$enoist-5Fchin, L1ArmFe allemande, &ol. ;;, p. 7+=> "hat these people were traitors to #ermany and had almost deli&ered it to Lenin at the end of +,+D and the beginning of +,+, were facts of history. "here is nothing !antiSemitic! in recogni:ing this fact( a historical explanation for the anti-Bewish reaction experienced by the near totality of the #erman people. $$$ Lenin spared no expense in bolstering So&iet $a&aria. ;t was his dagger in the heart of 2urope and arms were pouring in. "he 3ed militias had conscripted thousands of former 3ussian prisoners who had been freed by the #erman go&ernment. "he terrified socialist president of $a&aria had fled in panic with his entire cabinet, lea&ing his guards to be massacred by the @ommunists. Le&inF, Le&ien and Axelrod, the 3ed dictators of $a&aria, set up a system of punishment and reward. "he 7.,... 3ed militiamen were paid 7E times more than other troops' they cost a half million marks per day. "he ordinary people in 5unich were star&ing' for them bread had disappeared. 2&erywhere one could hear the firing s?uads( sal&oes crackled in the prison courtyards' the &ictims1 bodies were left to rot in the open. 5eanwhile the @ommunist warlords were li&ing it up at the Wittelsbach 4alace( !"here is an incessant coming and going of people, some all dressed up and others in rags. "he champagne ne&er stops flowing and orgies last until dawn. "he go&ernment picks up the tab for it all.! <$enoist-

5Fchin, L1ArmFe allemande, &ol. ;;, p. 7DE> 5oney was ne&er a problem. "he finance commissar, a 7Eyear-old former bank clerk, ust printed more notes. Whene&er money was needed to pay his pri&ate army of personal bodyguards, he ust went to the city1s banks and emptied out the pri&ate safe deposit boxes of their contents, which he then distributed. $$$ $a&arian 4resident )offmann contemplated the looting, massacres and ade?uate weapons and training. )offmann knew Goske was the only man capable of confronting the $olshe&ik forces, but he was reluctant to ask for thousand indecisi&e men, but these troops were poorly armed and relied on $erlin for their paychecks. )e needed ten times as many troops, with ade?uate weapons and training. )offman knew Goske was the only man capable of confronting the $olshe&ik forces, but he was reluctant to ask for his help, because this would be an admission of his dependence on $erlin. Like 2bert in +,+D, he kept changing his mind. Finally, he decided to take on the 3ed army by himself. %n April +=, +,+, he ad&anced to within 8E miles of 5unich, but near 6achau his troops were promptly routed. After this disaster )offmann let Goske take the initiati&e. As 3eichwehr minister, Goske managed to raise a force of 8.,... men. 5any former officers rushed to oin as pri&ates. )e positioned his troops in "huringia, on the $a&arian border. A =.,...-man So&iet army awaited them. $$$

%n April 7D, Goske began a systematic campaign of encirclement. "he !3ussians,! as Lenin1s three Bewish dictators were known, began to panic. As Goske1s noose tightened, Le&ien and Axelrod fled to Austria, while Le&inF went underground in 5unich. %nly 3ed Army @ommissar 2glhofer remained at his post. )e took more than a hundred of the most prominent citi:ens of 5unich hostage' a number of them, including se&en members of the racialnationalist "hulegesellschaft, were massacred in a gymnasium. "his massacre would trigger se&ere reprisals. Goske reached Starnberg' twenty-one @ommunists were taken prisoner and immediately executed. "he next day the ring had closed to within +E kilometers of 5unich. Goske hurled his forces right into the city, where they linked up with students and &eterans who had risen against the @ommunists. )is troops attacked @ommunist strongholds at the railway station and the 4alace of Bustice. "he last bastion of $olshe&ism, the railway station, finally fell, and with it the So&iet 3epublic of $a&aria. $$$ "he @ommunists paid a &ery high price. "hey were exterminated by the hundreds by their Socialist brothers. Goske was a Socialist minister' so were 2bert and Scheidemann. ;t was they who had o&erthrown the imperial go&ernment on Go&ember ,, +,+D, without any consultation with the #erman people. 2bert and Scheidemann, who had trembled at the sight of their coalition partners in action, now ordered terrible reprisals in $erlin, $remen, 5agdeburg, $raunschweig, and 5unich. ;n $erlin alone more than +.,... people were put to death(

it was Socialist terror &ersus @ommunist terror. $ut it was in 5unich that the reprisals were the most sweeping. 3ed militiamen were executed by the hundreds, as were other @ommunist troops. @ommissar 2glhofer was executed on the spot. "he Bewish dictator Le&inF, who had gone underground, was unearthed, court- martialed, and shot. 6ead was also the old $a&arian system. 5unich would from now on be controlled by $erlin. "here would be no more $a&arian army or flag. $a&arian soldiers would swear allegiance to the #erman @onstitution, Goske1s iron fist had crushed separatism along with @ommunism. $$$ "he last two centers of insurrection were 6resden and Leip:ig. %n Go&ember - the @ommunists had risen in 6resden, Saxony. %n Go&ember +. they ousted /ing Frederick Augustus ;; and formed a coalition go&ernment with the Socialists. Cnlike those elsewhere in #ermany the Banuary, +,+, elections had been fa&orable to the @ommunists, who had obtained +AE,... &otes to the S461s AE,.... "he people of Saxony, howe&er, had refused to go along with strikes ordered by the commissars. "he 3ed guards retaliated ruthlessly, chasing workers away from factories at gunpoint. %n 5arch +., an absolute 5arxist dictatorship was declared and the massacres of !anti-state! people began. "he murder of 3eich 5inister Geuring, who was &isiting 6resden on go&ernment business, was particularly gruesome. %n April +7, a mob of @ommunists burst into the minister1s office to the cries of !"hrow the dog into the

ri&er.! Within seconds he was badly beaten. "he mob then dragged the minister, bleeding profusely, through the streets toward the Augustus $ridge. )e was thrown into the 2lbe 3i&er. "he desperate man tried to swim to the shore. Bust as he reached ground he was shot to death. $$$ Geuring1s murder belied the charge that &iolence was a right-wing monopoly. ;n 6resden the murderers and the murdered were all of the left. "he pink Socialist left of 6resden and Leip:ig were ?uick to call Goske, a Socialist minister, to do away with their 3ed coalition partners. "he $olshe&iks had at their disposal 7E,... 3ed guards, A.. marines from /iel and 7.,... armed workers. "he news of the 5unich debacle and the mass execution of @ommunists was most perturbing to the Saxon insurrectionists. #eneral 5aercker was ordered to march on Leip:ig in 5ay. )e was out-numbered fi&e to one but he was con&inced he could benefit from the fear that by now was gripping the @ommunists. As a competent tactician he used a military leader1s two main assets( secrecy and strategy. "he destination of his troops and materiel con&oys was not e&en communicated to the railway personnel. ;n the middle of the night of 5ay +., 5aercker1s men arri&ed at the Leip:ig central station. "hey fanned out across the city and took o&er. "here was practically no resistance' only two were wounded. "he $olshe&ik commissars and agitators were arrested at the royal palaces and thrown into ail. $$$

2ight days later work had resumed e&erywhere. After six months of @ommunist dictatorship the people organi:ed a huge parade to celebrate their deli&erance. "he pure sound of trumpets and the high-flying flags were proof there were still soldiers in #ermany. "hus, #eneral 5aercker had concluded the national recon?uest of #ermany ust as it was about to perish.

CHAPTE 2) The A"sace82orraine !oot( "he first territory to be amputated from #ermany at the 9ersailles treaty would be !Alsace-Lorraine! <2lsassLothringen>. ;t had been reco&ered by #ermany in +D-+ but #ermani:ation had not been forced on its inhabitants. "he choice had been left to them to remain French if the idea of oining the #erman empire did not appeal to them. "he results were in fa&or of #ermany( less than one-fifth wanted to remain citi:ens of the French republic. 2&en the anti-#erman "ardieu had to recogni:e( !"hree hundred sixty thousand inhabitants of AlsaceLorraine <against 7 million> declared their wish to remain French.! "he position was the same in +,+A. 5en from AlsaceLorraine had not flooded the recruitment centers of 4oincarF( %nly +A,... had &olunteered to ser&e the French go&ernment-not e&en enough for a di&ision. "he rest of the

population had ser&ed with distinction in the #erman army from +,+A to +,+D. "he most famous of them was @aptain Schumann, who was to become after World War ;; the founder of a unified 2urope, this time as a French citi:en. )e would be backed by a fellow former #erman, from the "yrol, Alcide de #asperi, now an ;talian citi:en, and fellow World War + #erman combatant /onrad Adenauer. $$$ 4oincarF had made Alsace-Lorraine the base of his political career. )e had made of it an emotionally charged issue, de&oid of reason or knowledge. "o !recapture! AlsaceLorraine he had sent ++T7 million young Frenchmen into the hell of the Western Front to be slaughtered. )e was now determined to grab these #erman lands regardless of their history or the people1s wishes. )ow would 4oincarF respect the terms of the armisticeH Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints had ne&er mentioned the !wrongs to be righted! in connection with Alsace-Lorraine. )ere is what was mentioned somewhat ambiguously, as reported by the American delegate, 6r. )omer )askins <What %id 5appen, p. +7>( "he Allies had accepted the Fourteen 4oints as the basis for peace. "he points did stipulate the restitution of AlsaceLorraine as well as the restoration of 4oland but also condemned the exchanges of population and their transfer from one country1s rule to another without their consent. At the same time the points proclaimed the right of people to self-determination. "he !de-annexation! or !re-annexation! of Alsace-Lorraine

should therefore ha&e been preceded by a plebiscite. @lemenceau and 4oincarF entered Strasbourg as &ictors with bands playing and flags flying. 4eople came out to see the &ictors and watch the parade. @lememceau and 4oincarF shouted at the sight of the crowds( !"he plebiscite had been decided.! "he $ritish were concerned, as early as +,+-, about French claims to Alsace-Lorraine for one reason. "he #erman will to continue the war would harden( !;f in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine the Allies persist in their present attitude the war will not end in +,+- or +,+D.! <4hilip Snowden, +,+-> 6uring the same year Lloyd #eorge had refused to attend a pro-Alsatian ban?uet in London for fear of compromising himself( !%n the +Ath of Buly, +,+- Lloyd #eorge did not belie&e the ?uestion was clear enough in the minds of his fellow citi:ens to allow him to attend a ban?uet to which he had been in&ited by Alsace-Lorraine <French> representati&es.! <"ardieu, Peace, p. 7=A> "ardieu also touched on the American position( !For the ma ority of Americans the ?uestion of Alsace-Lorraine remained misunderstood. For them it was a country where people spoke #erman and that was enough. )ow many times ha&e the Americans told me of their hope that France should be satisfied with an independent and neutral AlsaceLorraine.! <"ardieu, Peace& p. 7=E> "ardieu recalled a con&ersation he had had with Walter Lippmann, a member of an official !board of in?uiry for peace! in August, +,+-( !"he idea of a plebiscite was so

deeply rooted in his mind, the notion of a French AlsaceLorraine was so foreign to him, that he had in&ented a system of fragmented &oting, cutting up the pro&inces in a do:en parcels.! "ardieu himself would not hesitate to impose this system of fragmented &oting on Silesia in +,+, in order to satisfy the claims of 4olish politicians who were allied to the French go&ernment. "ardieu had mounted a gigantic campaign in the Cnited States to change public opinion. For more than +E,... meetings, wounded soldiers would be exhibited to attract sympathy for !the capti&e pro&inces.! "he appointed head of this !Alsatian! lobby was a Bewish publicist called 6aniel $lumenthal, who was supposed to mo&e the )ouses and $aruchs to "ardieu1s &iewpoint. "he campaign bore fruit. %n Banuary D, +,+D Wilson, still as confused as e&er, announced( !"he wrong 4russia has done to France in relation to Alsace-Lorraine must be redressed in order that peace can be assured for the benefit of all.! Although the term !redressed! was remarkably &ague, "ardieu welcomed the statement( !%f all the Allies1 positions on this essential matter this has been the clearest and most comprehensi&e.! "ardieu ob&iously did not interpret !for the benefit of all! to include the #ermans. $$$ ;f Wilson and the American people did not grasp the complexities of Alsace-Lorraine it was because none of the French politicians would re&eal the secret agreements they

made with 3ussia in 5arch, +,+-, ust before America oined the war. "hese agreements recogni:ed all French claims to AlsaceLorraine, both sides of the 3hine, and e&en farther into #ermany if 4oincarF so desired. @lemenceau1s shout that !the plebiscite had been decided! without recourse to the ballot box had upset the Allies. "hey insisted the matter be dealt with by a three-member committee. "ardieu had great difficulty selling his thesis of a !plebiscite without a plebiscite.! !; thought our claim to Alsace-Lorraine would not be the sub ect of debate, and that the solution was ob&ious,! he wrote. <"ardieu, Peace& p. 7=,> $ut for the other members the solution was not !ob&ious.! Finally the Allies ga&e up, acknowledging the fact that the French go&ernment had made their claim to AlsaceLorraine a fait accompli. "he Allies1 disagreement with the French go&ernment was co&ered up in the treaty by a &ague declaration stating that the two pro&inces !had been reintegrated under French so&ereignty.! $$$ What about the #erman people of Alsace-LorraineH Would their right to choose be respectedH Would their right to remain on their land be guaranteedH "here would be no ?uestion of it. "he French go&ernment would recogni:e no such rights( ;n all other cases the rule had been the right to choose to the benefit of the relin?uishing state. $ut we ha&e refused and eliminated that procedure. "here is no right to choose in Alsace-Lorraine to the benefit of #ermans. "his right

belongs to the French go&ernment, which can, by &irtue of the treaty and the exercise of its restored so&ereignty, confer French status only on real Alsace-Lorrainers recogni:ed as such by us. <"ardieu, Peace& p. 7-+> French politicians would excel all greed in taking AlsaceLorraine thanks to this exception to the rule. Article 7EA of the treaty established that the &alue of all public assets relin?uished by #ermany in Alsace-Lorraine should be carried to its credit by the reparations commission. French politicians demanded categorically that Article 7EA could not apply to Alsace-Lorraine. !; demanded and obtained,! bragged "ardieu, !that in spite of this formal article, despite such enormous <#erman> go&ernment assets as the railways, the French go&ernment will pay nothing.! "he #erman iron ore mines alone had enormous &alue. "hey represented -E.+. of #ermany1s total production ust before the war. $ut the sei:ure of #erman public assets would also extend to the pri&ate assets of ordinary #erman citi:ens. "hey would lose their businesses and any property they had in the region. !We had our right to sei:e all the assets of #erman citi:ens recogni:ed. We now had the right to prohibit all #erman participation in pri&ate enterprises in the public interest such as mines, utility companies, etc., as well as the right to cancel all #erman interests in the exploitation of potassium.! #erman potassium mining ranked second in the world. Ge&er before in modern history had pri&ate citi:ens been stripped of all their assets and belongings by the &ictors without the slightest compensation. "he rapine outraged

many Allied delegates. $$$ As if this were not enough, "ardieu established a system of customs without reciprocity for #ermany. )e enumerated the other spoils of &ictory( We would be guaranteed to recei&e for +. years and at the same tariffs as the #ermans the electricity produced on the #erman side of the 3hine. We would ha&e total ownership of the hydraulic energy of the 3hine bordering Alsace. We would ha&e the right to annul pri&ate contracts, which is exactly the opposite of the general rules fixed in part +. of the treaty. We would also maintain on #erman territory the rights of Alsace-Lorrainers ranging from industrial property to literary and artistic. "he $ritish delegate 5aynard /eynes described the situation precisely( For more than E. years Alsace-Lorraine was part of the #erman empire-a considerable ma ority of its population speaks #erman. "he country has been the center of some of the most important economic enterprises of #ermany. Ge&ertheless, the property of #ermans who resided in Alsace-Lorraine or who had in&ested in its industry is entirely in the hands of the French go&ernment without any compensation for them. "he French go&ernment is authori:ed to expropriate without indemnity the #erman citi:ens and the #erman companies respecti&ely residing and located in Alsace-Lorraine. "he national, pro&incial, municipal assets-including the

railways and rolling stock-went to France without indemnity. $ut while the properties were sei:ed, commitments taken on their behalf, such as public loans, remained the liability of #ermany. "hus the two pro&inces were freed and discharged, under French rule, of their debts before and during the war. ;n short, all the assets of Alsace-Lorraine, representing E. years of #erman work and in&estment, were sei:ed without indemnity. 2ach #erman of Alsace was dispossessed of e&erything but his debt. And yet there was more. "he French delegates claimed control of the #erman port of /ehl on the #erman side of the 3hine in the state of $aden. "hey feared /ehl would compete with Strasbourg, which they had ust ac?uired. Again the Allies were astonished by such flagrant demands( it took fi&e days before the French delegates could put /ehl in their knapsack. Wrote "ardieu( ;f /ehl, once the peace is signed, were free to administer itself, Strasbourg would definiti&ely be strangled. We asked that for a number of years Strasbourg had the time to organi:e and for that purpose the two ports should be under the same administration. "here were many ob ections( /ehl was a #erman port and should not be admininistered by a French director. <Peace& p. 7-8> Finally, /ehl was submitted to French administration. $$$ "he allies had thought for a moment that the new masters of Alsace- Lorraine would be satisfied and their greed

?uenched. $ut Alsace-Lorraine had only been an appeti:er. 9ictory o&er #ermany meant for the French politicians the opportunity for &engeance and profit. Alsace-Lorraine had been on the politicians1 platforms for E. years. ;t was therefore normal for them that #ermany be made to suffer to the maximum, and that they should profit to the utmost. After Alsace-Lorraine would come the main courses( Saarland and 3hineland. "here would be side-dishes in $elgium, Luxembourg and e&en and attempt to spill o&er into )olland. All these claims had been launcehd melodramatically by 9ictor )ugo in +D-+ at the $ordeaux Assembly, where he lamented the !loss! of Alsace- Lorraine( !*es, the day will come when France will rise up. ;n a powerful thrust she will recon?uer Strasbourg and 5et:. %nly these two citiesH Go, she will take @ologne, 5ain:, @oblen: and "rier.! French politicians had fed on these lines since +D-+ and were waiting for the !di&ine minute,! in the words of 4oincarF. +,+, appeared to be that !di&ine minute.!

CHAPTE 2)I The a%e of Saar"and "he French politicians, heirs to the bloody 3e&olution of +-D,, had ; ne&er forgotten or got o&er the fact that the #erman 3hineland had been occupied by re&olutionary

troops for a few years. ;n +D+A the #erman 3hineland was liberated and returned to #ermany. "he French re&olutionaries and Gapoleon had occupied the 3hineland for +E years out of 7,... years. *et this brief period of history was sufficient for all French socialists from +-D, to +,+, to consider that part of #ermany as irre&ocably theirs. #enerations of political campaigners whipped &oters into a fren:y for the return of the !lost territories.! ;n the winter of +,+, the heirs to 3obespierre and 6anton demanded the !return! of the #erman pro&ince of Saarland to the 3epublic of France, the !sacred heritage! the re&olutionary cut-throats had in&aded. While they were mass-murdering their countrymen in France, the 3e&olutionary apostles of terror had in&aded the southern part of Saarland in +-,7, +-,8, and +-,A with e?ual &iolence. "he in&asion had spread to $elgium and )olland until the entire 3hineland had been con?uered. $$$ "he re&olutionaries who had imposed their despotism on France with unparalleled terror had also imposed their domination of other lands with force and &iolence. "he re&olutionary propaganda was as cunning as it was hypocritical. "hey had local agents or their own bureaucrats pass motions of support for the in&aders e&erywhere. "hese motions ga&e the appearance of a popular &ote in fa&or of re&olutionary occupation. $elgian archi&es showed how socalled plebiscites in fa&or of annexation with the re&olutionary regime were manufactured( %nly + or 7Y &oted against it. "he other ,DY who refused to go along with such a tra&esty were then considered to be in fa&or of

the occupation. $ased on the premise, !"hose who say nothing gi&e consent,! the re&olutionaries ac?uired &ast chunks of 2uropean territory, from )amburg to the Adriatic, with the apparent enthusiastic support of the local populations. "ardieu was merely carrying on the war of !liberation! his re&olutionary predecessors had started in +-D,. "he @ommunistic purpose of these latterday guillotine re&olutionaries was cloaked in lachrymose rhetoric and pseudo-patriotism in order to generate emotions among ordinary French people for the !return of all long-lost Frenchmen.! $$$ When 3obespierre1s fa&orite officer, Gapoleon $onaparte, became emperor of France the benefit of the newly ac?uired lands was felt in his armies. "he ma ority of his generals came from the north and displayed the #ermanic ?ualities that enabled him to perform his epic con?uests and battles. )istorically the #ermanic northerners had shown outstanding military ?ualities. "he Flemish con?uered @euta and "angiers for the king of Spain. $rabant knights sa&ed central 2urope from the "urks in the early +=..1s. "he $rothers of the Sword and the "eutonic /nights protected 2urope from the 5ongol in&asions. ;t was #ermanic blood that pro&ided for the defense of 2urope as well as its leading military chiefs. %ne thousand two hundred out of Gapoleon1s 7,... generals were of #ermanic blood. ;t is doubtful that without them he could ha&e con?uered 2urope.

$$$ While Gapoleon1s #ermanic generals were distinguishing themsel&es on the battlefields, his bureaucracy, the same which had slaughtered so many French people, was ruthlessly suppressing the aspirations of the con?uered peoples. ;n $elgium for instance, AndrF le 4oigne, an autonomist leader, was beheaded and, in proper re&olutionary fashion, his head paraded on top of a spike in the center of $russels. Although $elgium had only 8 million people, the re&olutionary bureaucracy conscripted +,8,... men. Fiftyone thousand $elgians died on the battlefields. ; ha&e read thousands of letters from $elgian soldiers at the LiLge archi&es, but ; couldn1t find one showing any liking for such ser&ice. France1s wars were not theirs and most were at a loss to know what they were fighting for, so far away from home. As many $elgians died in those wars as during four years of combat in World War ;. $$$ Gapoleon1s bureaucracy e&en interfered with the church in $elgium. "he archbishop was part of go&ernment intelligence and all his bishops were French nationals. Gati&e clergymen who ob ected were sent into exile or e&en to forced labor. "he oppression by French bureaucracy must, howe&er, not obscure Gapoleon1s grandiose attempt to unify 2urope while there was still time. A true genius is generally recogni:ed only a generation later. Gapoleon1s enemies would not let him accomplish this mission. )ad he succeeded, 2urope would be the world1s

greatest power. $$$ What was, howe&er, contemptible in +,+, was the attempt of petty backwater politicians to cloak themsel&es with the imperial mantle to sell their mediocre politics. Saarland had ne&er been French, despite being occupied from +-,7 to +D+A by the re&olutionary French regime. ;t certainly would be e&en less likely to become so after four years of war against France. ;t was most misleading to tell Wilson how much the people of Saarland wanted to be annexed by France. Wilson was ?uite confused on the issue, and his lack of historical knowledge did not help to clarify his mind. "ardieu aided and abetted Wilson1s confusion with incessant demands that Saarland be returned to the fatherland( !;t was hard work Mto con&ince WilsonN since France had not officially claimed Saarland during the war.! <"ardieu, Peace& p. 7-D> So it was now that Saarland, occupied by France for fewer than 7. of the 7,... years of its history, had become, in "ardieu1s memorandum, !French land of long standing, torn away from France without consultation with its inhabitants.! "he will of the people of Saarland would manifest itself in +,8E, after +- years of occupation, when o&er ,.Y of them &oted not to be !reunited! with France. $$$ "he other Allies could hardly belie&e their ears. "hey knew that @lemenceau and "ardieu had something else in mind besides embracing long-lost brothers.

Financial interests behind the French go&ernment had their eyes on the modern coal mines, which extracted +- million tons of coal per year, with reser&es estimated at +- billion tons. "ardieu specified his claim on the Saarland industrial complex( !"he working mines, the unmined coal, all the attendant industries such as steelworks, foundries, factories etc.! As for the pri&ately owned mines( !"hey would be bought by the #erman go&ernment, which would pay the mines1 owners, and then would be handed o&er to the French go&ernment.! Wilson found these claims exorbitant( !; am ready to recogni:e that France should ha&e the use of the mines for a limited time.! )e was totally opposed to their transfer to the French go&ernment. !)e agreed,! lamented "ardieu, !that we could take enough coal to compensate us our loss of production during the war, but he refused us ownership of the mines.! %n 5arch 7D, +,+, the difference of opinion became nasty. Wilson( !So if you do not obtain what you want you will refuse to act in concert with us. 6o you want to see me go back to AmericaH! @lemenceau( !Go, ;1m the one who is going to lea&e.! )e thereupon made a theatrical exit from the conference. $$$ Wilson1s position was &ery complex. )is health was failing' the Senate was awaiting his return to attack him. Was he to forfeit his policy o&er a matter of #erman minesH After three days of migraine and painful deliberation Wilson once again relented. %n 5arch 8+ he let @lemenceau ha&e the Saarland mines and industries.

Go sooner had this enormous concession been extracted from Wilson than @lemenceau began to demand the whole Saarland. "ardieu came out with the same old refrain( !"his soil had been incorporated into France, one and indi&isible, gi&en freely and with their consent.! Wilson threw up his arms( !We are creating a new AlsaceLorraine situation0 France has ne&er mentioned in any public document its intention of going back to the +D+A border. "he basis for peace, accepted by the French go&ernment, referred to reparation of wrongs inflicted in +D-+ and not in +D+E. "his basis is what links the Allies.! Wilson concluded( !"he border of +D+A did not correspond to any economic reality. "o gi&e away such a territory without an immediate plebiscite would be inadmissible.! <"ardieu, Peace& p. 7,+> %nce more acrimonious deliberations followed. %n April = the American press reported( !@lemenceau demands more annexations.! %n the -th Wilson ordered the #eorge Washington at $rest be readied to take him home. $$$ @lemenceau and "ardieu were concerned about Wilson1s intended sudden departure. Wrote "ardieu( !We are considering the gra&ity of a negati&e decision. *et we ha&e decided not to yield.! <"ardieu, Peace& 4 8..> ;n theory, howe&er, they would gi&e the appearance of yielding. 2xploiting Wilson1s pet policy of selfdetermination. @lemenceau promised to hold a plebiscite in Saarland-in +E years1 time. Ge&ertheless, Wilson accepted the formula. "ardieu and @lemenceau were elated and sent

this flattering note to Wilson( !"he French go&ernment is ready to complete the proposals as suggested by 4resident Wilson.! "hus ==.,... #ermans would be placed under foreign rule for +E years, without being asked their opinion. "ardieu knew that a plebiscite after the war would ha&e been o&erwhelmingly defeated. )e estimated fifteen years were necessary to transform the ethnic and social structure of Saarland. "here was in fact no concession to Wilson, but a maneu&er to gain time. "ardieu admitted( !Cnder the burden of a century of 4russian oppression an immediate plebiscite would ha&e been per&erted. "he French of Saarland would ha&e been sacrificed fore&er.! "ardieu counted +E.,... French people in Saarland, a totally inflated figure cooked up for Wilson1s benefit. $ut by +,8E many #ermans would ha&e been expelled, many French bureaucrats would ha&e been imported, electoral laws would ha&e been amended. Saarland would now come under the control of a go&ernment commission controlled by French politicians. An international occupation force composed of ;talian, $ritish and French soldiers would keep !order.! 6uring these +E years no #erman politician or minister, e&en the chancellor, would be allowed to set foot in Saarland. "he French ournalist )er&F wrote on 5ay 8+, +,+,( We are taking o&er the Saarland mines and in order not to be hindered in our exploitation, we are forming a small distinct state for the =..,... #ermans li&ing in the mining area. At the end of +E years we will try with a plebiscite to bring them to declare themsel&es French. We know what

that means( for +E years we are going to manipulate them and harass them, until we obtain from them this declaration. We know &ery well it is ust an attempt to annex =..,... #ermans. $$$ Lloyd #eorge told Wilson( !5r. 4resident, ; belie&e this is an excellent plan.! Wilson somewhat sardonically replied( !Why don1t you apply it to ;relandH! "he plan included an administrati&e commission presided o&er by a French bureaucrat and composed of a $elgian, a 6ane, a @anadian and only one #erman. #ermany was forbidden to take part in the political life of Saarland. Saarlanders would be prohibited from ser&ing in the #erman congress and the commission had the right to expel any public ser&ant it felt undesirable. %n April ,, "ardieu asked Wilson, in almost an ultimatum( +> Will #erman so&ereignty be suspendedH 7> Will the commission ha&e full powersH 8> Will the election Mof SaarlandersN to the 3eichstag be abolishedH <"ardieu, Peace& p. 8.A> Wilson agreed on all points. "he next day "ardieu stated, !%ur committee had drafted the A= articles of Section ;9 of the 9ersailles "reaty concerning Saarland.! "he @ommittee of Four would accept them on April +.. Saarland was now to pass under the control of a foreign country without the consent of its population. Within months -.. #erman nationalist leaders in Saarland would be put in ail. Some were sent to hard labor and one

was executed. $$$ A few months later "ardieu would summari:e the takeo&er( !%n the +.th of Banuary, +,7., our engineers took control of the mines. A few days later the Administrati&e @ommission would be officially installed in SaarbrOcken.! Fifteen years later, when the people of Saarland were able to &ote, o&er ,..-o chose reunification with #ermany, despite the fact that #ermany had been forbidden to campaign. As for "ardieu1s +E.,... Frenchmen, on the date of the election, Banuary +8, +,8E, they were nowhere to be seen.

CHAPTE 2)II 1rance in the hine"and = is not the fault of the 3e&olution1s armies if we are no longer in the 3hineland,! @lemenceau had shouted on the Senate floor. After Alsace-Lorraine and Saarland, the 3hineland represented the third demand @lemenceau was determined to push through the 4aris @onference. "he armistice had hardly been signed when 5arshal Foch had made claims undermining the &ery basis of the Armistice agreement( !Go con?uest or annexations! and !the right of self-determination for all people.! %n Go&ember 7,, +,+D @lemenceau had praised Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints while at the same time doing e&erything in

his power to bypass them. ;n the name of liberty, e?uality, and fraternity, @lemenceau would demand that tens of millions of #ermans li&ing in the 3hineland be placed under his control. Foch had submitted a proposal to @lemenceau whereby the 3hineland population could be incorporated in a non#erman system. %n Banuary +., +,+, he would officially declare( +> #ermany will ha&e no military or political claim to the 3hineland. 7> "he Allies will occupy the left bank of the 3hine. 8> "he 3hineland will be linked to the Allies by a common customs treaty. MSub ectN to these conditions and according to accepted principles concerning people1s freedom MsicN, one can concei&e of the creation of autonomous states on the 3hine1s left bank. Foch was only reflecting the intentions of the power behind the French go&ernment. While ordinary French people were whipped up in a fren:y of patriotism and &engeful retribution against #ermany, high finance was 4reparing to clean up. "ardieu e&en appealed to age-old #allic sentiment in claiming that the inhabitants of the 3hineland were longlost @eltic cousins who were longing to free themsel&es from the 4russian yoke. "he French leaders were now going back 7,... years in time. ;n a similar warp of logic 5inister $riand had as early as Banuary +7, +,+- rationali:ed to Ambassador Bules @ambon

about !retaking the 3hine 4ro&inces which were stolen from us a century ago.! ;n other words the #erman lands that had been sei:ed by the cut-throats of the French 3e&olution by force and &iolence had now become !lost pro&inces.! $riand, @lemenceau and all their colleagues were left-wing liberals who considered the exploitation of #ermany perfectly normal. "he heirs of the French 3e&olution were claiming their heritage( !We claim the left bank of the 3hine as our lost heritage, which the French 3e&olution be?ueathed us,! was the political cry. Although the French 3e&olution had chopped off the heads of the king and ?ueen of France, and the $olshe&iks had patterned themsel&es on these cut-throats. $riand had managed to con&ince "sar Gicholas( !%n February +A, +,+- 3ussian 5inister 4okro&ski had acknowledged $riand1s communication <concerning @lemenceau1s claims to the 3hineland, Alsace-Lorraine and Saarland>. )e informed the French go&ernment that his ma esty the tsar totally supported its claims.! <3enou&in, "he @risis in 2urope> "his Franco-3ussian agreement of Banuary, +,+- was so explicit that $riand read it secretly to the French in Bune, +,+-. "he secret agreement had been kept from the knowledge of @lemenceau1s allies, and Lenin thought he would oblige the $ritish by releasing the final agreement of February +A, +,+-. ;n fact, both Lord $alfour and Wilson had known all along but feigned ignorance and indignation. Lloyd #eorge would later use this knowledge to ?uell @lemenceau1s ambitions. "he $ritish were &ery apprehensi&e that France would get

too big for its boots, for they intended to keep both #ermany and France in a state of inferiority. Suddenly, Lloyd #eorge had his man at the 4aris @onference, 4hilip /err, become the champion of selfdetermination( !;s it possible to occupy a land of - million #ermansH ;s it possible to separate from #ermany all these #ermans without consulting themH ;t is possible to fail the &ery principles for which the Allies ha&e foughtH! As for the !lost 3hineland,! which #ermany had in reality lost from +-,8 to +D+E, /err reminded the conference( "his historical argument has been abused. ;n all its official or parliamentary declarations, on 6ecember 8., +,+=, Banuary +. and Bune E and =, French go&ernment had ne&er pressed such claims. #reat $ritain disagrees with military occupation and the use of its troops outside $ritish territory. Furthermore, such an occupation could create nationalist reaction not only on the left bank but throughout #ermany. ;t could create unfa&orable propaganda in the Anglo-Saxon countries. "he Allies1 image could be tarnished, particularly that of France. Since #ermany has been disarmed, is the occupation really necessaryH

CHAPTE 2)III The hine"and Occu%ation

"o /err1s ob ections "ardieu answered( !"here are re&olutionary sentiments in the 3hineland. We will train them. "hey ha&e learned a lot during the war-principally that France is the bastion of democracy.! "he idea of such a bastion of democracy swallowing up western #ermany without the consent of its people was not without irony. "ardieu also tried to put to rest the fears that the occupation of #ermany could lead to a re&olt( !"o this we answer that the 3hinelanders are only concerned with their fear of taxes and $olshe&ism.! <"ardieu, Peace& p. +,8> "here again "ardieu did not fear irony( his go&ernment was ust concluding a treaty with the $olshe&ik dictatorship of 5unich. As for the 3hinelanders1 fear of taxes, "ardieu would exploit it by promising them exemption from war reparations if they went along with his policy. )e enumerated further ad&antages( !Go draft registration, shipments of food, a customs union and banking reforms.! 6espite these tempting offers in a time of famine and misery, the 3hinelanders did not show any inclination to rush to France. $$$ "ardieu did not con&ince the conference and ended his case une?ui&ocally( !"o ask us to renounce occupying M#ermanyN is as if we would ask 2ngland and the Cnited States to sink all their war &essels. We refuse.! <"ardieu, Peace& p. +,8> $ritain certainly could play the role of protector of peoples1 rights to self- determination. "he $ritish had already helped themsel&es to D.Y of the #erman fleet, and more than +1T million s?uare miles of former #erman colonial territories.

;t was the height of $ritish hypocrisy to ob ect sanctimoniously to France1s attempts to do likewise. "ardieu felt his claims were modest, compared to what the $ritish had taken without the slightest discussion or debate. )e presented his plan( +> "he 3hine will mark #erman1s western border. #ermany will renounce so&ereignty o&er all territories west of the 3hine. 7> An Allied occupation force would control /ehl, 5annheim, 5ain:, @oblen:, @ologne, and 6Osseldorf as part of the definiti&e peace treaty. 8> "he territories on the left bank of the 3hine, with the exception of Alsace-Lorraine, will be transformed into one or se&eral independent states. <"ardieu, Peace& p. +A+> $$$ Wilson had ust returned to the conference table after a ?uick &isit to the Cnited States. )e immediately let his concern be known( !)ow can we forget that when we signed an armistice with #ermany we took on certain definite commitments. ;f we accept the @lemenceau"ardieu plan we will trample these commitments into the ground and will be in open conflict with the Fourteen 4oints.! Since "ardieu claimed his plan was only concei&ed to ensure French national security Wilson thought if the Cnited States would gurarantee full protection to France perhaps @lemenceau and his backers would drop their expansionist plan. Wilson and Lloyd #eorge proposed that( "he left bank of the 3hine will remain #erman and will not

be occupied by an Allied force or a French one. #reat $ritain and the Cnited States will gi&e France the solemn undertaking to pro&ide immediate military help in case of peril. <"ardieu, Peace& p. +,=> @lemenceau decided to finesse himself out of this embarrassing offer. )e would pretend to go along with apparent satisfaction( !We greet with the most sincere appreciation the undertaking you ha&e offered us and we wish to accept it.! Wilson was all smiles until @lemenceau added( !$ut our acceptance will be on the condition that most of the guarantees we ha&e asked be met and, to start, the occupation Mof western #ermanyN. $$$ Bust as in the case of the Saarland, where elections would be postponed for +E years, @lemenceau would occupy the 3hineland unofficially. ;t was legalistic legerdemain, which left Lloyd #eorge and Wilson somewhat off balance. "ardieu pressed them to ratify their guarantees, knowing the American Senate would ne&er go along with Wilson1s magnanimous offer. )e was right. Lloyd #eorge used the Senate1s refusal to take French lea&e <or, as "ardieu would say, an 2nglish lea&e-filer a anglaise>. @lemenceau was therefore free to occupy the 3hineland by default. )e appeased Wilson1s conscience by placing a time limit of +E years on the occupation, but there again not without strings( !"he occupation will last +E years but with the option of extending it if #ermany reneges on its commitments or if the $ritish and Americans fail to meet their guarantees. <"ardieu, Peace& p. 77+>

"ardieu insisted this demand be included in the "reaty of 9ersailles. "hus the least #erman infraction would gi&e @lemenceau the excuse to send his forces farther east. "his would happen the &ery next year, and again in +,78, in the 3uhr basin. "he $ritish 2stablishment felt it had been gi&en a dose of its own medicine and looked for a way to defuse a situation it could not control. !As early as 5ay, +,+,,! wrote "ardieu, !Lloyd #eorge regretted acceding to our demands, which he thought would start another war.! "he $ritish asked the French go&ernment to reduce their occupation time from +E years to +D months. Lloyd #eorge admitted( !We should ne&er ha&e accepted this long occupation. "he whole pro ect should be studied again. ; accepted it, it1s true' but since then ; ha&e con&ened the ;mperial @abinet four times and all the members agree ; was wrong.! $y now Lloyd #eorge thought the occupation would be !useless because #ermany had only +..,... soldiers and #reat $ritain and the Cnited States would stand by France in case of aggression. "he occupation is illogical because it will be E. or =. years before #ermany is dangerous again.! <"ardieu, Peace& p. 7+-> $$$ @lemenceau would soon find himself o&ertaken by e&en more demanding elements within his own go&ernment, who wished nothing less than the creation of a 3hineland republic, regardless of the conse?uences.

CHAPTE 2I. The hine"and e%ub"ic Are the 3hinelanders @eltic like usH! asked @lemenceau. !; am not so sure' but there is no harm in saying it. $ut don1t ask me what are the definiti&e characteristics of a @elt.! )e was ignorant of ethnology and of many other branches of knowledge. )e was also a fanatically anti-clerical Freemason, who hated the 3hineland for its strong @atholic tradition. )e had extracted the maximum concessions from Lloyd #eorge and Wilson through dogged perse&erance. )e was going to impose his anti-clericalism on the 3hineland regardless of the conse?uences, but now he knew he had reached the limit. "o demand more would ha&e been the last straw. )e thought there were more subtle and diplomatic ways to control the 3hineland than to create an independent state. )e knew as well that the 3hinelanders were not longing to be under the control of his go&ernment. $$$ 5eanwhile @lemenceau had fallen out with 4oincarF, the titular head of the French republic, as well as 5arshal Foch, the head of the French army. $oth belie&ed @lemenceau either too close to the $ritish point of &iew or simply too soft on the 3hineland issue. 4oincarF and Foch had been brought up on the myth of the lost 3hineland pro&inces. 6uring the 9ersailles @onference they openly sniped at @lemenceau1s policy and decisions.

"here were also the acti&ities of #eneral 5angin, commanding officer of the French troops stationed in the 3hineland. )e conducted his own policy for the creation of an independent state, sponsoring meetings of prominent 3hinelanders in Landau and @ologne. $$$ ;n April, +,+, 5angin had con&inced a former 3hineland magistrate named 6orten to accept financial help in exchange for 3henish separatism. Later on 5ay +- 5angin met with two 3hineland deputies, /astert and /uckhoff, and asked them to oin his separatist efforts. "he pair immediately rushed to $erlin to report the meeting to @hancellor Scheidemann, who was outraged as such !blatant interference in the political affairs of #ermany.! "his inter&ention would assume serious proportions. Wilson had also been informed of separatist machinations not only in the territory occupied by 5angin but also in the American :one. )e sent @lemenceau the official report from the American general in charge( "his morning #eneral 5angin, commander of the French army in 5ain:, sent one of his staff colonels to the head?uarters of #eneral Ligget, @oblen:, to ask what would be our attitude concerning a political re&olution on the left bank of the 3hine for the purpose of establishing a free 3hineland republic, independent from #ermany. )e assured us he had some E. delegates ready to mo&e into the American sector to start the re&olution. Although he did not specify who the delegates were, it appeared they were French. Wilson added to the report( !#eneral Ligget has refused, and rightly so, to take this proposition into consideration. ;

totally endorse his decision. )e had been gi&en instructions to pre&ent political agitators from entering our sector, regardless of who ga&e the orders.! <@lemenceau, p. +D+> @lemenceau was stunned. "hese separatist maneu&ers had been conducted behind his back. )e immediately dispatched his own in&estigators to the 3hineland. "hey ?uickly confirmed that the incredible had happened. 5angin had e&en informed Ligget he had !no right to pre&ent the people of the 3hineland from exercising their will.! Similar notices were con&eyed to #eneral 5ichel of $elgium and #eneral 3obertson of #reat $ritain. Lloyd #eorge confronted @lemenceau in the middle of the peace conference( !3ight now your generals are working at creating a 3hineland republic.! While @lemenceau awaited the full results of his in&estigations he learned that 5angin1s man, former 5agistrate 6orten, had on Bune +, +,+, proclaimed the 3hineland a republic and formed a go&ernment with himself as president. 6orten was backed by not only 5angin and Foch but by 4resident 4oincarF himself( !"he president, ! wrote @lemenceau, !was a discreet but resolute partisan of French annexation of the 3hineland, e&en if it was called something else.! 5angin immediately asked 4oincarF to recei&e 6orten in 4aris so that he could !express the wishes of +7 million 3hinelanders.! <Suddenly the number of 3hinelanders had umped from - to +7 million.> 4oincarF then put pressure on @lemenceau and the Allies( !; suppose the general would not ask me this if the mo&ement were not serious. And if it is serious ; hope the Allies will not force us to suppress it. "his mo&ement should in no way

shock 4resident Wilson.! )e then ad&ised @lemenceau( !;t would be unfortunate that we should find oursel&es against this attempt at independence.! @lemenceau felt his authority was at stake and took swift measures to demote 5angin and neutrali:e 4oincarF. $$$ "he 3hineland republic was thus nipped in the bud, but 4oincarF would keep the issue ali&e in the French @hamber of 6eputies( !;n such places as "rier and the 4alatinate there is a strong call for independence and in other towns the mo&ement is growing. We can expect sooner or later some changes in the political framework of the occupied territories.! <@lemenceau, p. +,+> "he !changes! would come, but not as 4oincarF anticipated. %n February +7, +,7A some A. separatists met in the town of 4irmasens in the 4alatinate. "he gathering took place in a go&ernment building, an act which infuriated the townspeople. A crowd massed outside and demanded the separatists lea&e the premises. When they refused, the crowd doused the walls with gasoline and set the building afire. All the separatists were burnt ali&e. 5assi&e sabotage pre&ented the French troops from coming to their rescue. @ommunications were cut, trains stopped running, roads were blocked. $y the time the French arri&ed all they found were the charred and massacred bodies of the separatists( !Some fifteen thousand people were crowding the streets. "hey had assisted in this massacre and were applauding it.! <*e Temps, February 7A, +,7A> "he &iolence was a portent of the simmering rage #ermans

felt towards their occupiers.

CHAPTE 2. 2u+embour06 !e"0ium and Ho""and "he 9ersailles "reaty had established a French military presence in #ermany at great cost to the #ermans. $ut many French politicians also wanted the Low @ountries to ser&e as an anti-#erman buffer. 5arshal Foch had his head?uarters in Luxembourg, exercising almost as much power as the grand duke. Luxembourg, an integral part of the Low @ountries until +D8,, when it was forced to separate, had by now become used to its independence and sought only neutrality. "he grand duchy had an army of 7E. men and an arsenal of three cannon. "he country was rich in iron and steel mills and depended on a customs union with #ermany for its continued prosperity. "he treaty had put an end to this union and the French go&ernment mo&ed in to replace #ermany as Luxembourg1s new economic partner. As part of the treaty France ac?uired the #erman-owned railways of the grand duchy. <Article =of the 9ersailles "reaty.> Luxembourg had been drawn into a different sphere of influence o&ernight. $$$ "he French go&ernment also wanted to reduce $elgium to a similar status. "he French 3e&olution had plunged the

country into a blood-bath e?ual to the massacres the re&olutionaries had &isited on the French pro&ince of 9endFe, which somehow ga&e the present French politicians a proprietary interest in all things $elgian. 4aris regarded the $elgians as half-French and ne&er took $elgian so&ereignty seriously. 6uring the war $elgium had fought on the Allies1 side but the $elgian king, Albert ;, had attempted in +,+- to enter peace negotiations with both Austria-)ungary and #ermany, which caused considerable friction with the 2ntente. "he king said he was not prepared !to sacrifice what was left! of his army. "he tension continued at the 9ersailles @onference because of $elgium1s insistence on remaining neutral( there was no ad&antage in being the meat in the sandwich between #ermany and France. "he war had cost $elgium E+,... dead, as well as considerable destruction. $elgium recei&ed preferential treatment in the matter of reparations, but it was interested mostly in enlarging its territory. Since the fifteenth century $elgium had been whittled down by a third. Cnited with Flanders and $rabant during the proud days of $urgundy, Keeland, Limburg and Luxembourg had been lost to the Getherlands. $elgian ships were at the mercy of the 6utch go&ernment, which controlled the main branches of the Scheldt, which ga&e Antwerp access to the sea. $$$ "ardieu was an intelligent and astute politician who saw great opportunities in restoring $elgium to its former si:e. "he 6utch pro&ince of Limburg utted out between $elgium and the 3hineland, and "ardieu thought a $elgian Limburg would be preferable in terms of ready

reinforcement of its occupation forces in the 3hineland. "ardieu also saw the ad&antage of liberating the approaches to the great port of Antwerp from 6utch control. ;t was the gateway to western #ermany from the Gorth Sea. )e decided to press $elgian claims to its lost territories. Although few people in France knew that such territories had once been $elgian before the +D8, treaties, the $elgian !cause! suddenly gained national fa&or in France. !"he +D8, treaties, sterile and onerous, must be abolished,! "ardieu told the peace conference on February 7=, +,+,. "he $elgian go&ernment was not as enthusiastic as "ardieu and simply demanded the treaties be re&ised to remo&e 6utch control o&er the waterways to Antwerp and to return Limburg. 5ore $elgian than the $elgians, "ardieu was instrumental in creating yet another commission to study $elgian territorial claims. $$$ "he commission came up with three recommendations( +> "he +D8, treaties would ha&e to be re&ised entirely. 7> )olland would ha&e to participate in this re&ision. 8> "he general aim of this re&ision would be, according to the League of Gations1 ob ecti&e, to free $elgium from the strictures on its so&ereignty imposed by the +D8, treaties. Within days these recommendations were adopted by the 4aris @onference. !%n 5arch D, +,+,,! explained "ardieu, !; presented the Mcommission1sN report to the Supreme @ouncil, which unanimously adopted it. %n 5ay - #ermany was shown the treaty and agreed to abide by its conditions.! <"ardieu,

Peace& p. 7AE> Wilson was at a loss to see why #ermany had to be in&ol&ed in a locali:ed 6utch-$elgium border conflict or how )olland was going to agree to re&oke an D.-year-old set of treaties with the resultant loss of territories. "ardieu suggested a solution whereby )olland would be compensated for the loss of its Keelander and Limburger citi:ens by recei&ing #ermans li&ing in the 2ms region of #ermany( !)olland could be compensated with the people of 2msland or the #uelder region, who are 6utch by race and tradition.! <"ardieu, Peace& p. 7A=> Wilson replied( !*ou are asking that #ermany hand o&er some of its territory to a neutral country. ;t may be right but it is difficult to moti&ate.! ;ndeed, #ermany had ne&er infringed on 6utch neutrality and )olland had not laid a finger on $elgium throughout the war. Apart from the fact that this $elgian-6utch-#erman imbroglio did not take into consideration the wishes of the people, who were to be exchanged like so many goods at a ba:aar, it neglected to recall that the +D8, treaties had been imposed by the $ritish for the main purpose of thwarting French trade. "he $ritish had earlier managed to rally 2urope against Gapoleon on the issue of French control fo the Scheldt ri&er. ;n +D8, the $ritish feared that the ?ueen of $elgium, who was the daughter of the French /ing Louis 4hilippe, would bring back a French presence in the Antwerp region. 2ight years before, $elgian independence had been sa&ed by the French army fighting back 6utch troops who had in&aded $elgium and were about to take $russels. After eight years of negotiations the $ritish finally

imposed 6utch rule o&er Keeland. "he $ritish 2stablishment had once more used )olland, as in pre&ious centuries, to contain France. Gow, after throwing its empire into a murderous war and sa&oring &ictory, the $ritish were not about to grant $elgium its rightful claims, particularly when these were backed by France. $$$ /ing Albert ; was an elo?uent ad&ocate for the return of the 6utch- occupied $elgian pro&inces. )e was, howe&er, surprised at the ob ections the $ritish kept putting in his way through the Admiralty. Lloyd #eorge was suddenly deferring in his foreign policy to the $ritish Admiralty, lea&ing for himself the role of friendly neighbor. )e agreed, after much $elgian pleading, to !modify the status of the Scheldt,! but added that the Admiralty would ne&er consent to any territorial changes. When $elgian 5inister 9ander&elde almost implored( !"hink of our 4eople' do not deny them their aspirations,! Lloyd #eorge curtly replied( *ou had fewer people killed than we had.! "he $ritish rested their case on the counting of tombstones. $$$ "ardieu tried to court the $ritish by proposing that a plebiscite be held within a few years to determine whether the Keelanders and Limburgers wanted to be part of $elgium. "he formula had worked for Saarland, but this time the $ritish made sure Wilson would refuse pointblank. "he $elgians regarded "ardieu as a tireless champion for

their cause. "hey had lost their fight for the restoration of their country, but from now on they would no longer be neutral. "hey were firmly on France1s side. "o offset $elgian disappointment, the Allies decided to throw them a few crumbs, in the form of a strip of #erman territory <2upen and 5almedy> ad oining the $elgian border, west of Aachen. ;n scenes reminiscent of the Saarland operation EE,... #ermans suddenly found themsel&es citi:ens of another country. %nce more Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints were swept aside. "he control of #ermany1s western frontier was, howe&er, only the beginning. 5ore was to come on the eastern frontier of #ermany. "he Allies would trade millions of people from one country to another in order to accommodate petty nationalistic greed and &engeance. 6an:ig and the @orridor, Cpper 2ast Silesia, West 4russia, 4osen, and Sudetenland would see their populations handed o&er for the disposal of the Allies.

CHAPTE 2.I 2enin Saved ;n the spring of +,+, few #ermans recalled the spring of +,+D, when #ermany had o&erwhelmed the Leninist regime and had imposed the $rest-Lito&sk "reaty. #ermany was

now licking its wounds after the bloody ci&il war Lenin had unleashed on its soil. #ermany had been &ictorious on the battlefield, but was being torn to shreds at home by the new alien masters of 3ussia. Lenin had sent hordes of Liebknechts, 3osa Luxemburgs, @lara Ketkins, 2isners, Le&inFs, Le&iens, Boffes and other agitators and terrorists to destroy #ermany from within. "he bloodshed organi:ed by the Bewish @ommunists left the Allies unperturbed. "hey were too busy trading populations and bickering about reparations to assess whether the spread of $olshe&ism would ha&e any conse?uences for them. $$$ Lenin had been sa&ed from annihilation by the Allies1 &ictory. 3ussian, Ckrainian and other &ictims of his tyranny had been about to liberate 3ussia, helped by #ermany. "he armistice arri&ed in the nick of time for Lenin and his henchmen. ;n +,+- the #erman go&ernment had released Lenin into 3ussia like a plague &irus."he high command had known enough about Lenin1s destructi&e capabilities to be confident he would o&erthrow imperial 3ussia, thus freeing the #erman army to meet the newly arri&ed American forces in France. ;t was a gamble the #erman go&ernment had to take. "he eastern front collapsed, but Lenin1s @ommunist plague nearly destroyed #ermany as well as 3ussia. A few Allied personalities had shown concern at the time. @hurchill warned( !Lenin is consumed by hatred. Go Asiatic tyrant, e&en #enghis /han or "amerlane, has cost the li&es of so many men and women.!

"he French newspaper Bournal des 6Fbats wrote( !$olshe&ism is a curse. ;f we do not take care of it then #ermany will ha&e to.! ;n the spring of +,+D #ermany had taken care of Lenin. "he #erman army had occupied 3ussia1s richest lands and controlled most of the food supplies, -8.-o of the coal and almost all of the oil needed for the sur&i&al of $olshe&ism. !3ussia,! obser&ed @hurchill, !was at #ermany1s disposal. "he wheat granaries of Ckraine and Siberia, the oil from the @aspian, all the resources of a &ast continent would feed and maintain the #erman armies. #ermany has in fact won all she could win.! "he 3ussian people had been massacred by the millions by alien, bloodthirsty commissars. "hey had greeted the #ermans as liberators. !"he #erman army,! wrote @hurchill .. . . . . was ad&ancing with efficiency and discipline. Small groups of trained soldiers occupied most of the areas necessary to supply #ermany with food. %dessa fell on 5arch +8, +,+D, Gikolaiesk on the +-th, /herson on April D. %n April 7D the #ermans established a military dictatorship in the Ckraine under the direction of #eneral Skoropadski. %n 5ay + Sebastopol was taken as well as a part of the 3ussian fleet stationed in the $lack Sea. %n 5ay D 3osto& on the 6on fell. Fi&e reser&e di&isions had been sufficient to control this rich and fertile region, as &ast as a ma or state. <World Crisis, &ol. ;9, p. +.+> @hurchill himself e&en admitted that the #ermans had been greeted as liberators by the 3ussian people(

"he #ermans presented themsel&es as liberators and were spontaneously recei&ed as such, not only by the whole population, but by the most hostile patriots. A dose of @ommunism made any other form of authority desirable to the 3ussians. With the arri&al of the #erman !steelhelmets! life had become tolerable. With order and calm e&erything had become easy and efficient. "he soldier1s stern discipline was preferable to the relentless persecution of a fanatic ministry of thugs. As the #ermans occupied 3ussia they created semiindependent states, which would form an anti-@ommunist bulwark. @hurchill had drawn a parallel between #ermany1s con?uest of 3ussia and Gapoleon1s con?uest of #ermany in +D.=. $oth con?uests had created states that co-operated with the con?uerors. @hurchill, who would later become an enthusiastic ally of the &ery 3ed thugs he was now decrying, was in +,+- considerably more lucid( Cnder the direction of a &ictorious #ermany, Finland, 2stonia, Lithuania, eastern 4oland, Ckraine, $essarabia and the @aucasus would be separated from a communi:ed 3ussia and constituted into autonomous states. "heir freedom, if not their independence, would be due to #ermany. @hurchill1s perspicacity pro&ed correct. All these #ermansponsored states had been sa&ed from a @ommunist holocaust. Finland was spared further $olshe&ik atrocities only with the inter&ention of #eneral &on Faced with the

disaffection and re&olt of the people he had ensla&ed, Lenin made a second desperate attempt to sue for peace with #ermany. %n August +7, +,+D a treaty was signed between Lenin and #ermany pushing the So&iet regime1s borders east of the $eresina 3i&er. "he @ommunists promised to recogni:e the independence of all the new states, with the addition of #eorgia, Armenia and A:erbai an. "he treaty was a tremendous achie&ement for #ermany. For Lenin it was only a piece of paper to mark time. )e had introduced a new element of warfare( internal sub&ersion in the affairs of other countries. )e was waiting for the results before resuming military control of the independent states. France1s most famous historian, 4ierre 3enou&in, wrote( Ludendorff wanted to implement a policy of expansionism in the 2ast. "he day after the $rest-Lito&sk "reaty, he had ad&anced his troops as far as the 6on and @rimean regions. $y Bune, +,+D he was looking at #eorgia as a potential pro#erman country. With #eorgia1s wealth, men and raw material he percei&ed the possibility of establishing an action base which would lead to $ritish ;ndia. $y Buly, +,+D #ermany was well established in the @rimea. ;t had reached /ars, Ardahan, $atum, and their oil wells. ;t was at the door to 4ersia, Arabia and ;ndia. "he #erman flag was flying from the $altic to the $lack Sea. "his con?uest had been achie&ed almost without combat. 6espite three years of anti-#erman propaganda, the 3ussians and other populations had become friendly to #ermany( 4ax #ermanica meant a stop to the 5arxist massacres.

Lenin had to swallow his rage. Wearing his cap of false proletarianism he would scream to the $olshe&ik congress( !*es, this peace is an unprecedented humiliation for So&iet power, but we are in no position to force history.! @hurchill echoed Lenin1s lament( !3ussia is at #ermany1s disposal.! #ermany1s &ictory o&er Lenin was also 2urope1s &ictory o&er $olshe&ism. "he states that had escaped massacres were now en oying the freedom to de&elop along their own characteristic lines. "heir economic strength would be a buffer against @ommunist imperialism. All these states were as distinct as France or #ermany. "hey had their own customs, their own language, history and culture. "hey were also part of greater 2urope and a &ital component in its sur&i&al. "he So&iet Cnion was reduced to the limits of the old duchy of 5usco&y. @hurchill said 5oscow could ha&e been taken with 7.,... men. Lloyd #eorge commented( !We are witnessing the collapse of $olshe&ism.! Lenin, who ne&er ga&e any ?uarter, expected 2urope to finish him off. )is ob ecti&e was to communi:e 2urope and then the whole world, and there was no ?uestion in his mind that he was at war with all nations and states. "he 2uropeans on the other hand were consumed with age-old and petty ?uarrels o&er pieces of real estate. Lenin1s international @ommunist imperialism was ?uite beyond their comprehension. "hey had no understanding of Lenin1s second front( internal sub&ersion within their own borders. $ecause of this lack of understanding the &arious and fragmented 2uropean nations did not see the need to

destroy 5arxism-Leninism while they had the chance. "he $ritish-led Allies of +,8, would still not understand what @ommunism was about. ;n Go&ember, +,+D the only thing that stood between @ommunism and the rest of 2urope was #erman troops and their eastern allies, the first &ictims of @ommunism. @hurchill, who had not fathomed all of Lenin1s ambitions, had ne&ertheless obser&ed enough of @ommunist methods to declare( !%f all the tyrannies in history, $olshe&ism is the most awful, the most destructi&e, the most degrading. ;t is not a political doctrine' it is a disease. ;t is not a creation, it is an infection.! *et this infection, which the #erman di&isions had neutrali:ed since 5arch, +,+D, was going to be unleashed ?uite deliberately by @hurchill and his allies( they ordered, as part of the armistice, that #erman troops abandon 3ussian territory in its entirety. Scores of millions of people would also be abandoned to the most !awful tyranny.! "he withdrawal of #ermans was not made good by any Allied presence or commitment to protect the local populations. "he 2astern 2uropeans could not belie&e the Western powers would let them be slaughtered by the @ommunists. ;n Go&ember, +,+D the French, the $ritish, the ;talians, the Americans and also the Bapanese still had millions of armed soldiers who could ha&e stopped the So&iet hordes. @hurchill recalled( !All these new countries turned to the Allies with oyful con&iction.! "he lack of Allied resol&e hardened Lenin1s position. )e re ected the Allies1 peace conditons and particularly Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints. )e also declined to accept

@onstantinople, which the $ritish go&ernment had offered in +,+-( he needed nothing from the Allies. !4eace,! declared Lenin, !must not be established by the capitalists but must be imposed on the bourgeois capitalists by the proletarian masses.! <@hurchill, The Great War, p. 87D> "he Allies were in for another shock. Lenin abrogated all treaties, contracts and debts that had been acknowledged by 3ussia before his coup. $illions of dollars had been lent to 3ussia for industrial de&elopment as well as to support its in&ol&ement in the war against #ermany. "he Allies clung to the belief that somehow Lenin would honor these commitments and were ama:ed when they ne&er got a single kopek. Wilson was more indecisi&e than e&er( !What is our position concerning the $olshe&iksH Go one can say. 5y policy is to let them stew in their own uice0 "o send troops to contain them would be like using a broom to contain a high tide.! @lemenceau1s &ision did not extend beyond #ermany and was incapable of concei&ing any other threat than #ermany( !;f #ermany is allowed to exploit and coloni:e 3ussia, the blood which flowed for fi&e years will ha&e been spent in &ain. ;f #ermany takes o&er 3ussia politically and abo&e all economically, #ermany will ha&e won the war.! @lemenceau thought it preferable to see the &ictory of world @ommunism rather than let the #ermans !get away with anything.! @lemenceau1s own go&ernment was at that &ery moment being undermined by Lenin1s agents but @lemenceau was too obsessed with #ermany to notice it.

%nly @hurchill had a clear &ision of this tragic situation, but as an opportunistic politician he was careful not to express his opinion publicly. ;nstead he expressed his &iews in the form of a scenario dreamed by &arious Allied statemen( We do not doubt it is not only physically but morally possible to take o&er 3ussia but the task is too big for the &ictors alone. "o accomplish it we must enlist #ermany1s help. #ermany knows 3ussia better than we do. ;ts troops now occupy the richest and most populous regions and constitute the only guarantee of ci&ili:ation. Let us gi&e #ermany its chance. "his proud and tenacious nation will thus a&oid the humiliation of defeat. Almost consciously #ermany will ha&e slipped from our sworn enemy to our natural collaborator. Gothing is possible in 2urope without #ermany but e&erything is possible with #ermany. <@hurchill, World Crisis, &ol. ;9, p. +,> @hurchill concluded his 2uropean dream( !#ermany would be in&ited to co-operate in the liberation of 3ussia and the reconstruction of 2astern 2urope.! @hurchill1s dream would be dissipated by the reality of the mediocre politicians of the day. )is dream was both intelligent and practical' he was realistic, while his colleagues were di&orced from reality by their ignorance and pettiness.

CHAPTE 2.II

The A""ies and the Soviets "he Allies did, howe&er, make a gesture that might be thought altruistic. ;n Buly, +,+D a few puny contingents were sent to northern 3ussia by the $ritish. "he expedition was, howe&er, not there to contain $olshe&ism but to form an anti-#erman front. $ritish business was concerned the #ermans might yet topple Lenin and then default on 3ussia1s debt. "he $ritish had more faith in Lenin than the #ermans. "hey had sent the troops to lend a hand in case Lenin needed it, but this was primarily a public relations exercise aimed at resuming trade with the new rulers of 3ussia. Another strange Allied foray in 3ussia was Bapan1s occupation of 9ladi&ostok, 3ussia1s far eastern port. "he Bapanese had oined the Allies against #ermany because they saw considerable ad&antage in such a war. ;t ga&e them the opportunity to sei:e the undefended #erman territory of /iaochow and the #erman islands in the 4acific as well as the 5anchurian railroads and central @hinese iron ore mines. $oth 3ussia and #ermany were too busy fighting to protect their possessions. "he war was a godsend for Bapan1s industrial and economic de&elopment. ;ts metallurgical industries increased their production fourfold' its steel output, which was nonexistent before the war, reached EE.,... tons and its industrial output umped from +.8 billion yen in +,+A to =.8 billion in +,+D. "he Bapanese corporations were making so much profit they were paying di&idends of from 7. to E.

per cent. While benefiting from the war, the Bapanese go&ernment refused repeated Allied calls to send troops to 2urope or e&en gi&e na&al assistance. $$$ Bapan1s economic emergence greatly concerned the American go&ernment. "he Cnited States regarded the 4acific as an American lake, and did not look kindly on challengers. "he Bapanese landed -7,... men in 9ladi&ostok, officially to counter a #erman offensi&e0 "he #ermans were thousands of miles away but the absurdity of the Bapanese pretext was emulated by the Cnited States, which sent thousands of men to northern Siberia, with the excuse of fighting the #ermans. %fficially the $ritish, the Americans and the Bapanese were only performing their duty in helping their 3ussian ally fight #ermany. "here was e&en a small contingent of 8,... French and ;talian troops sent to Siberia to reinforce their allies. @hurchill admitted( !"he Allies had gone to oppose the #ermans but they ne&er saw a single one, not e&en with field glasses, since E,... miles separated them.! "he Allied occupations were merely extensions of their imperialist policies but were in no way detrimental to @ommunism. Wilson emphasi:ed at all times that he was not concerned with the So&iets( !3ussia is a problem for which ; do not pretend to know the solution,! he said. <Buly +A, +,+,.> 5eanwhile, the #erman army had been ordered by the armistice treaty to withdraw from all 3ussian territories. "he Allies precluded the troops from coming home rapidly

either through Lemberg, Warsaw, or $ucharest. "hey had to trek, in AE degree below :ero temperatures, some +,E.. miles, often through deep snow drifts, because their only authori:ed point of entry was 2ast 4russia. "rains were numerous, but none were allowed to be used for the repatriation of #erman soldiers. "he winter of +,+D-+, was one of the coldest on record, and many men fro:e to death after sheer exhaustion had o&ercome them. "he agony of this human wa&e tottering in the fro:en wastes through the deliberate strictures of a puniti&e armistice did not mo&e the Allies( it was all part of exacting &engeance against #ermany and getting rid of as many #ermans as possible, either through war, star&ation, re&olution or free:ing to death. Armistice 6ay had been a day of ubilation for the $olshe&iks. "he #erman front had &irtually disappeared' the retreating troops could be attacked without retribution. %ne of the first #erman battalions to retreat was encircled by the @ommunists and captured. All the officers were shot to death, half the men were torn to pieces. "he other half were stripped naked and chased into the snow' they all fro:e to death. For three months the retreating #erman army endured martyrdom. @rimeans and Ckrainians begged the #ermans to stay. %n Banuary +, +,+, E,... #erman soldiers tried to sa&e the capital of Ckraine but it was too late( the $olshe&iks were ust too numerous, too well supplied and too well armed. $etween %ctober, +,+- and Go&ember, +,+,, despite two years of ci&il war, "rotsky had been able to form a powerful 3ed Army. )e had remarkable organi:ing ability, a keen

intelligence, an iron will and a "amerlane-like cruelty. @hurchill called him !a crocodile.! "rotsky had managed in a few months to create a disciplined army rigorously disciplined by ruthless commissars. All infractions were summarily dealt with by an e&er ready firing s?uad. Largely made up of former deserters, former con&icts, street thugs and illiterates, the 3ed Army was trained to gi&e no ?uarter to those against whom it was unleashed. "he Allies1 order to #ermany to withdraw from 3ussia loosed the 3ed army on the defenseless populations of southern 3ussia. When the #ermans left a region, town, or &illage, "rotsky1s troops would go on a rampage of death and destruction. $enoist-5Fchin narrates the #ermans1 forced march from southern 3ussia north to 2ast 4russia( ;t was a long, monotonous trudge through howling bli::ards for the #ermans on their way north. "hey would only reach the 4russian border at the end of winter. ;t was the only point of entry allowed to them. "hey suffered far more than the sur&i&ors of Gapoleon1s army crossing the $eresina. <L1ArmFe allemande, &ol. ;;, p. 7A7> Again @hurchill was one of the few Allied leaders to deplore what he called !these lamentable e&ents!( A clause of the armistice prescribed the immediate e&acuation of the Ckraine by the #ermans. "his seemed &ery reasonable to spirits inflamed by the war with the @entral 4owers as well as to the #ermans themsel&es, who had no other desire but to go home. ;n fact the e&acuation pulled out from southern 3ussia the only sane and &igorous elements, who maintained a normal daily life for some 8.

million people. When the M#ermanN steel helmets e&acuated the towns, 3ed #uards immediately mo&ed in and set the dregs of society against the bourgeoisie and against all those who had shown cordiality to the #ermans or the Allies. "he 3eds celebrated their arri&al by horrible massacres.! <World Crisis& &ol. ;9, p. +=-> "hus was treated and abandoned by the Allies at the beginning of the +,+D-+, winter, the long-suffering and great 3ussian people. From +,+A to +,+- they had stoically offered se&eral million dead to the Allies of the West. "he $ritish Foreign 5inister, Lord $alfour, so preoccupied with pro&iding a home for the Bews in 4alestine, was a lot less concerned with the welfare of the 3ussian people. $led white during three years of war, they had been persecuted and massacred by the @ommunists. $alfour ga&e them short shrift( !We ha&e constantly told the 3ussians that we ha&e no wish to get in&ol&ed in their internal affairs.! ;n fact the Allies, although scorned by Lenin, were falling o&er themsel&es to curry fa&or with the @ommunists. "he "reaty of 9ersailles made a special pro&ision to in&ite Lenin for a round of negotiations on the "urkish 4rinces ;sland. "he offer ga&e legitimacy to Lenin and his @ommunist regime, which was enough for him. )e did not bother to reply, showing his contempt for the cra&en and cowardly Allied leaders. )e was now free to pursue his genocide of the 3ussian people.

CHAPTE 2.III The H(%ocris( of A""ied Intervention Lenin had heaped enough scorn and contempt on his suitors from West- ern 2urope to pro&oke an unusual reaction from Lloyd #eorge, who on April +=, +,+, declared in the )ouse of @ommons( ;f, now that the 3ussian people ha&e ser&ed our destiny by running so many risks, we tell them( !"hank you' we are much obliged to you' you ha&e been &ery useful but now we no longer need you and the $olshe&iks can cut your throats,! we would be nothing but cowards, abominable cowards. Since Lloyd #eorge1s admonition had nudged their collecti&e conscience, the Allies agreed to come, one might ha&e belie&ed at the time, to the help of the unfortunate 3ussian people. "he $ritish sent a di&ision to $aku, 3ussia1s oil capital, where 8D @ommunist commissars were summarily put to death. "he press always promoted the idea that the Ga:is had been the first to initiate the practice of shooting So&iet commissars in $yelorussia during the summer of +,A+. ;n fact it was the $ritish who practiced firing-s?uad politics long before the #ermans. ;t was also the $ritish 2stablishment which in&ented concentration camps in South Africa, where thousands of $oer women and children died of disease and star&ation in atrocious conditions, a

whole half-century before 6achau or Auschwit: were e&er heard of. $ritish interest in $aku and South Africa had the same moti&e( to protect the 3othschilds1 exploitation of oil, gold and diamonds. 6uring the +,th century the 3othschilds had the $ritish go&ernment undertake numerous imperialistic forays to further their own interests. "he $oer wars were a prime example. So was the $ritish occupation between +,+E and +,+D of the 2uphrates-"igris region, 4ersia, the Arabian #ulf and the )e a: of Arabia, which, along with $aku, would monopoli:e the world1s oil industry in 3othschild hands. "o secure the monopoly $ritish troops were sent during the winter of +,+D to sei:e the railroads and 4ipelines linking the $lack and @aspian Seas in southern 3ussia while the $ritish na&y was controlling the coastlines. )owe&er, apart from the execution of 8D commissars, the $ritish did not use their troops to stop the @ommunists from slaughtering the 3ussians. "he $ritish were in $aku strictly to protect 3othschild oil wells, not mere people. "he $ritish 2stablishment had, as usual, in&eigled the French politicians into their 3ussian occupation scheme. @lemenceau was in&ited to sign, in the utmost secrecy, a con&ention whereby the $ritish would cut the French in on some of southern 3ussia1s choicest real estate. %n 6ecember 78, +,+-, 1two months after Lenin1s coup, the secret treaty was signed by @lemenceau1 and the $ritish( French di&isions would be sent to occupy Ckraine, in exchange for which @lemenceau would recei&e concessions

in $essarabia and the @rimea as well as in Ckraine-an area larger than France itself. "he $ritish 2stablishment had concei&ed this munificent scheme in order to di&ert attention from their own monopoli:ation of petroleum in the @aucasus and the 4ersian #ulf. French politicians took the bait and dreamed of a thousand-and-one-nights empire falling into their lap courtesy of their friendly $ritish ally. French di&isions were rushed to %dessa to the strains of the 5arseillaise and soon started on their march to Ckraine. "he $ritish had also talked the #reek leader 9eni:elos into oining the French expedition with two additional di&isions by flatteringly comparing him to Alexander the #reat. From the start the hastily arranged expedition degenerated from the bi:arre to the grotes?ue. "he Ckrainian population stared in disbelief at these unfamiliar soldiers. "hey had accepted the presence of #ermans because #ermans had been an integral part of 3ussian and Ckrainian history for centuries. 5illions of #ermans had settled and prospered among them but they had ne&er seen a Frenchman. "heir ama:ement ?uickly turned to anger when they reali:ed that many of their new !sa&iors! were not only not sa&ing them from the @ommunists but were in fact forging links with the commissars. @ommunist propaganda, so seducti&e to the heirs of the French 3e&olution, had finally infected the French army. Go sooner did the expedition arri&e in /ie& than @ommunist sympathi:ers and agitators among the troops organi:ed enough sub&ersion and sabotage to force a hasty retreat. /ie&, the capital of Ckraine, was abandoned to the So&iets.

"hen came the shocking news that the French na&y in the $lack Sea had mutinied. "he date was April, +,+,. "he French go&ernment was stunned. "he mutineers were ailed, including the ring-leader, 5arty, but, thanks to a leftwing press campaign, were soon released. 5arty capitali:ed on his newly found succAs de scandal. )e became the darling of the 4aris salons and got himself elected to the French Assembly. 5arty1s election was the sole result of France1s expedition in 3ussia, apart from raising false hopes among millions of 3ussian and Ckrainian allies. ;n fact, the $olshe&iks used the French incursion as a pretext to engage in wholesale massacres of alleged collaborationists. Within four months southern 3ussia had fallen to Lenin. "he Allies still had two 3ussian !fronts! left( 5urmansk, occupied by the $ritish, and eastern Siberia, occupied by the Bapanese and Americans. "he $ritish pretext for being in 5urmansk was to !stop the #ermans,! although no #ermans e&er appeared anywhere near there. "he same pretext was used for the Bapanese and American presence. "his last Allied occupation was complicated by the unexpected appearance in Siberia of E.,... @:echs, called $ohemians in those days. "he @:echs were former prisoners of war from Austria-)ungary who had been released after the +,+- $olshe&ik 3e&olution. Lenin had indoctrinated them and organi:ed them into a separatist army destined to take power in $ohemia. ;t was Lenin1s policy to recruit and train @ommunist shock troops, then send them back to their respecti&e countries to impose @ommunism. "he Allies and the @ommunists made an agreement to

repatriate the rearmed @:echs from the Siberian camps and throw them into battle against the #ermans on the Western front. "hey were loaded onto the trans- Siberian railways with arms and supplies. 6uring the long ourney the @:echs became unruly and started fighting and looting. At ;rkutsk the So&iets tried to disarm them, resulting in a full- scale mutiny. "he @:echs had now turned against their So&iet mentors and were acting as something akin to free booters. $y now they were only interested in reaching the 4acific coast and boarding ships to abandon the war, the #ermans, the Allies, the @ommunists and the anti-@ommunists. "heir feelings were shared by the American soldiers who had been sent to the Siberian wastelands on a nebulous expedition to !sa&e the 3ussians and fight the #ermans.! "he two sur&i&ing di&isions had been totally inacti&e and had no idea what they were doing in their fro:en surroundings. "he Bapanese were busy fulfilling their ob ecti&es, which ne&er included rescuing White 3ussians from the clutches of @ommunism. "he anti-@ommunist 3ussians contemplated their !sa&iors! with a sinking heart. ;t was in these desperate straits that there emerged a purely 3ussian phenomenon( Admiral /olchak. $$$ Admiral /olchak was an intelligent and courageous na&al officer who happened to be in Bapan during Lenin1s coup of +,+-. /olchak wasted no time in organi:ing the anti@ommunist 3ussians spread throughout the &ast territory of eastern 3ussia. Within a few months /olchak had managed to recruit more than +..,... 3ussian &olunteers across

Siberia. )is plan was to retake all the territory between himself and 5oscow and link up with the +8,... $ritish troops in 5urmansk and Archangel. "here were also some A.,... 3ussian nationalists who had regrouped in northern 3ussia and had formed the !#o&ernment of Gorthern 3ussia.! ;f /olchak succeeded in oining his compatriots and the $ritish he could relati&ely easily dri&e the $olshe&iks out of 5oscow and put an end to Lenin1s dictatorship once and for all. @hurchill was the only ad&ocate among the Allies of a genuine inter&ention to sa&e the 3ussians from @ommunism. Although the Allies had more than +7 million soldiers at their disposal they would only need to send two or three di&isions more to ensure Lenin1s downfall. @hurchill estimated( !"wenty or thirty thousand resolute men could without great difficulty or casualties push rapidly toward 5oscow, sweeping all resistance before them.! <World Crisis& p. 78=> 5eanwhile /olchak was ad&ancing from the 2ast, his anti@ommunist army growing in numbers e&ery day. )e was sure of Allied backing, which was promised to him in writing. ;n order to obtain Allied support /olchak had to agree to stringent conditions, which were almost laughable at such a time. While 3ussia was being ra&aged-more than D million people had died during the first eighteen months of Lenin1s tyranny-the Allies had demanded that /olchak act from the first day of his campaign of liberation as a Western-style

politician with all the democratic trimmings( !/olchak will be re?uired to con&ene a constituent assembly, democratically elected.! What the Allies had ne&er expected the @ommunists to do they demanded from the nationalists, who were fighting for their li&es. After two years of @ommunist atrocities 3ussia needed peace and order more than liberal politicking. *et articles ; and ;; of the agreement re?uired that /olchak issue the $olshe&iks with ballot papers. Article 9 obliged /olchak to recogni:e the independence of the !@aucasian and "ranscaucasian territories,! which the $ritish had penetrated after the armistice of Go&ember ++, +,+D in order to ac?uire 3ussian oil. Article 9;;; was particularly sordid. ;t compelled /olchak to commit himself to repay tens of billions of dollars borrowed by ;mperial 3ussia, which Lenin had cancelled in +,+-. "he article took no account of 3ussia1s desperate economic plight or the fact that Bewish re&olutionaries had emptied the 3ussian treasury when they took o&er and had spirited its contents to Bewish banks in the West, where it remains to this day. "he Allies wanted oil and money as the price for helping desperate people. /olchak accepted these mercenery conditions because he knew his recon?uest of 3ussia would otherwise be impossible. After months of painful negotiations the agreement was signed by the Allies on Bune +7, +,+,, ust two weeks before the proclamation of the 9ersailles "reaty. @hurchill deplored the lateness of the agreement( !;f this ma or and public decision was wise in Bune, how much more it would ha&e been in Banuary. "he declaration Mof the

agreementN came too late.! <World Crisis& p. +D8> "he Allied declaration was in any case a piece of treachery. "hey had no intention of using their own troops to fight the $olshe&iks. ;f /olchak seemed to be winning he would be supplied with army surplus and second-hand arms, but this would be the limit. "he 3ussian admiral, howe&er, was led to belie&e at all times that the Allies would oin him in battle. "he Allies1 double-dealing was illustrated in a document outlining their plan of action, issued by the Allied Supreme @ouncil on 5ay 7=, +,+,( !"heir only aim will be to assist 3ussian elements seeking to pursue the struggle against #erman autocracy and the liberation of their own country.! !"he struggle against #erman autocracy! was sheer nonsense, considering that the war with #ermany was o&er and that the 5urmansk region had ne&er had, e&en during the war years, to deal with such an !autocracy.! Since +,+- only So&iet troops had been stationed on the shores of the Arctic %cean. And the $ritish appealed to /olchak in Bune, +,+, to attack them. "he $ritish had promised to fight on the side of the 3ussian nationalists as the main incenti&e for /olchak to start combat. "he Allies would send some 8..,... obsolete rifles, lefto&ers from the war for which they had no further use, but were determined to stay out of the fighting. @hurchill understated the position when he wrote( !"he decision to support /olchak was taken half-heartedly.! Allied hypocrisy and &acillation was matched by Lenin1s rage. )e swore( !From now on there will no longer be a world war' there will be a uni&ersal war.!

Lord @ur:on in his memoirs deplored the Allies1s cra&en response( %ur policy is incoherent . . . ;t is in fact nonexistent. "he Allies ha&e dithered between gratitude and courteous indifference to the MnationalistN 3ussians. "his policy has been shifting and uncertain. We can expect serious trouble or worse. %n Buly 7,, +,+, @hurchill reminded the )ouse of @ommons( We are bound by solemn commitments to the 3ussians, who ha&e been our allies as well as the populations we ha&e encouraged Min resisting @ommunismN. "he tradition of our country had always been to pay particular attention to this type of thing. @hurchill, of course, discounted the institutionali:ed hypocrisy of the $ritish 2stablishment with its built-in policy of welching on agreements. /olchak was unaware of the Allies1 de&iousness and was fighting his way to meet the $ritish at 5urmansk. ;n the middle of the campaign /olchak was informed that the $ritish were preparing to lea&e 5urmansk before winter. $ritain was ha&ing an election and politicians who had whipped up war hysteria for four years were now running on a peace platform( casualties had hit home, and the &oters were sick of war. "he news did little for the morale of the 3ussians patriots, but they continued their fight. After retreating to 4erm, /olchak ne&ertheless once again took the offensi&e and breached the So&iet lines to a depth of +E. miles. 4erhaps the Allies would be impressed by 3ussian bra&ery.

CHAPTE 2.I) The A""ies !etra( Ko"cha# Admiral /olchak followed his offensi&e by penetrating hundreds of more miles inside So&iet-held territory. ;t was at this &ery moment that the $ritish go&ernment ordered all its troops out of 5urmansk and Archangel. "he Allied Supreme @ouncil also reneged on its agreement to supply arms and food( all supplies were cut off. A horrible e&ent compounded the Allied betrayal( as /olchak was about to liberate 2katerinburg, "rotsky1s Bewish guard massacred in the most sa&age manner the "sar, his wife and all his children, whom they held capti&e in a cellar. ;t was a ritualistic murder of unparalleled horror. "he news sent shockwa&es throughout 3ussia but only strengethened the resol&e of the anti-@ommunist forces to fight, if only to a&oid a similar fate. Significantly, 2katerinburg was renamed S&erdlo&sk late after "rotsky1s Bewish henchman in the murder, S&erdlo&sk. @hurchill, who was war minister at the time, somehow decided to ignore the Allied Supreme council. Alone among all the Allies, he ordered the $ritish na&y to appear in 4etrograd1s harbor. "he $ritish sank two So&iet cruisers and were waiting for Finland to mo&e in on 4etrograd. /enin knew all was lost( Finland was fully mobili:ed, the $ritish na&y controlled the harbor and 3ussian nationalists under the command of #eneral *udenich were poised to attack. "he destruction of @ommunism seemed ine&itable.

As in the past and so many times in the future, @ommunism was to be sa&ed from certain annihilation by the capitalist powers. All the pressure the capitalists could muster was exerted on Finland to abandon its attack' *udenich1s supplies were sabotaged and @hurchill reined in. "he accumulation of betrayal finally took its toll on the nationalist forces. "he momentum was lost( A ubilant Lenin, sa&ed by his capitalist !enemies,! resumed his genocidal war against the 3ussian people. ;n a desperate counterattack the 3ussian patriots wiped out six @ommunist battalions on August +., +,+,( 7,... 3eds had been killed and +D mortar guns taken. $ut nothing that /olchak was able to do mo&ed the Allies to help. ;n the gilded offices of the capitalist go&ernments the word was out that now was the time to reach a permanent accommodation with the @ommunists. @hurchill wa&ed an accusing finger at his colleagues( From the bottom of your armchairs it seems easy to lea&e 3ussia and cut your losses. $ut how do you face the families who ga&e hospitality to the M$ritishN troops and the 3ussian soldiers who fought on your side and the independent go&ernment created with your backingH )ow difficult and painful it is to cut such links. As if to appease a bad conscience @hurchill authori:ed those 3ussians who wanted to escape the coming genocide to board $ritish ships out of 5urmansk and Archangel. )owe&er, most of the Gorthern 3ussian #o&ernment members and the bulk of the patriotic troops remained on their nati&e soil to face the enemy.

%n %ctober +7 the last $ritish &essel disappeared. $etrayed and without supplies the 3ussians ne&ertheless resisted heroically for a month. Finally they were o&erwhelmed by the sheer number of the @ommunist troops. ;t was a total massacre( the 3ussian officers taken prisoners were shot at the rate of E.. per day. @hurchill recalled the tragedy( ; can still see the pale faces and still eyes of a deputation of Archangel citi:ens ... "hey asked the $ritish protection be maintained but ; could only ha&e gi&en them a miserable answer. A few weeks later all these poor workers and shopkeepers would be facing a firing s?uad. "he responsibility for this falls on the powerful and enlightened nations which after ha&ing won the war did not finish their tasks. While the people of 3ussia were being massacred or ensla&ed by an alien tyranny, the "reaty of 9ersailles was pontificating on the right of self- determination for all people. After the collapse of the Ckrainian, Finnish and Arctic fronts the only remaining Allies the 3ussians had were the E.,... @:echs in eastern Siberia. "he Bapanese, the Americans and their satellites remained cautiously on the sidelines around the 9ladi&ostok region. Admiral /olchak was trying to coordinate the unruly and fractious @:echs with his anti-@ommunist forces, which were themsel&es di&ided between disaffected socialists and old tsarist loyalists. "he Allies who had betrayed /olchak in the west still had the ner&e to pressure him into organi:ing elections.

/olchak reminded these !champions of democracy! that when elections had been held after Lenin1s +,+- coup the @ommunists had only recei&ed 7EY of the &otes, and that the following day Lenin had dissol&ed the congress. 6emocracy had lasted only for +7 hours. Since then, the dictatorship of the proletariat had drowned the &oters in a sea of blood. ;n order to ha&e elections, /olchak explained, the country should be out of range of the @ommunist firing s?uads. For the Allied politicians elections were nothing but a passport to the good life. ;t meant a long paid &acation, nurtured on lies, false promises, corruption, political auctions and &acuous &erbiage. "hey could not concei&e of anyone not wanting such unlimited benefits. "he Allies still flashed the hope of help in /olchak1s eyes-if only he conformed to the democratic rituals. "he $ritish sent a left-wing socialist politician named Bohn Ward to /olchak1s head?uarters. Ward was blunt( !Go elections, no guns0! ;n the middle of a war to the death with the @ommunists, here was /olchak being blackmailed by the hypocrites who ust betrayed him in the west. 5eanwhile the @:ech army had been placed under Allied command. A French general, Banin, was put in charge. "he beha&ior of both the @:echs and Banin was dis?uieting. @hurchill commented( At the beginning of +,+, the @:echs were no longer a help but a danger. "hey had committees like those who had undermined the 3ussian army after the re&olution. 5ilitary discipline and &alor were on the wane. ;t became necessary to withdraw them from the front and put them to guard the

railways. "hus the 3ussians1 last ally had been withdrawn from the Siberian front. "he $ritish 5iddlesex and )ampshire regiments would also be withdrawn from 9ladi&ostok on September D, +,+,, and Go&ember + respecti&ely. !"heir departure,! said @hurchill, !sealed /olchak1s defeat.! "he @:echs protecting the trans-Siberian railways had learned that /olchak1s own train was carrying +,E..,... gold rubles which had been sal&aged from "rotsky1s grasp. "hey saw immediately an opportunity to use both /olchak and the gold to bargain their way out of the coming @ommunist inferno. ;nstead of fulfilling their orders to ensure the safe passage of /olchak to the east they sent a delegation headed by #eneral Banin-appointed by the Allied Supreme @ouncil-to negotiate terms with the @ommunists. "he @:echs had now changed sides fi&e times. %n Banuary +A, +,7. #eneral Banin cynically offered a sordid bargain( /olchak1s train would be abandoned if the 3eds would let the @:echs reach 9ladi&ostok without any trouble. 3ussian officer 5alino&sky recorded the &ile operation( %n Banuary +A, at six in the e&ening, two @:ech officers declared they had ust recei&ed the order from #eneral Banin to hand o&er Admiral /olchak and his general staff to the local authorities. "he Admiral, always &ery calm, showed no sign that he feared death. )is eyes were bright and, looking the @:echs straight in the eyes, he said( !So this is the meaning of the promise Banin had made to ensure our safe passage to the east. "his is an act of international treason.! "he !local authorities! referred to the Socialist go&ernment

of ;rkutsk. /olchak and his general staff were immediately sei:ed and handed o&er to the Socialists. "hey were thrown in ail and the next day the Socialists declared themsel&es won o&er to @ommunism and opened the doors to "rotsky1s 3ed #uards. "hey rushed to the ail and massacred /olchak and his staff. "he Allies, !champions of democracy,! who had so pressured the &alient /olchak to obser&e democratic rituals, were remarkably silent about this flagrant lack of due process. "o those who raised some criticism, Banin had only one answer( !; repeat that for )is 5a esty Gicholas ;; there was a lot less ceremony.! As for the gold, it ended up being shared in strange and by:antine ways between certain @ommunists and certain @:echs. Se&eral months later a deposit of one million gold rubles was made in a San Francisco bank. "hus the fourth patriotic 3ussian front collapsed thanks to Allied betrayal. "he last and only front was still holding in southern 3ussia, under the command of #eneral 6enikin.

CHAPTE 2.) The 'eath of ussia Although the #ermans ne&er reached the regions between the 6on and the 9olga, the 3ussians there had fought the @ommunists with great courage and success as early as

6ecember, +,+-. "heir first leader, #eneral /ornilo&, had been killed in action and was then replaced by #eneral Alexie&. $y September, +,+D the command had fallen on the shoulders of #eneral 6enikin. From the spring to the summer of +,+, 6enikin had recaptured &ast territories from the So&iets. )e had taken 7E.,... prisoners and captured 7,-.. machine guns, -.. cannons and 8E armored trains. $y that fall he was approaching 5oscow-the new So&iet capital-from the southwest and was within a few hours1 train ride from its center. 6uring that time he had liberated more than 8. million people from @ommunist occupation. "he $ritish @abinet reported on September 77, +,+,, !;f these 8. million people were gi&en the chance to &ote there is no doubt whate&er a crushing ma ority would &ote against Lenin1s and "rotsky1s return.! ;f the $ritish go&ernment was aware of the feeling of the 3ussian population one will always wonder why so much pressure was put on Admiral /olchak to hold elections in the middle of combat. 6enikin1s success had impressed the $ritish, who thought for a time he was well on his way to liberating the whole of 3ussia. "he $ritish bankers thought they would get in on the ground floor if 6enikin won. !;t seems highly desirable to de&elop trade and credit in the &ast expanses of the liberated regions,! suggested the report. "he banks1 desire became an order for the $ritish go&ernment to supply 6enikin with substantial ?uantities of arms and munitions. 5ore important, howe&er, had been the dispatching of se&eral hundred $ritish officers to assist 6enikin under the label of !ad&isors,! a formula that has been used e&er since.

"he !ad&isors! policy was always a half-measure, sending the wrong message to the people it was supposed to help. "he 3ussians had paid the ultimate price for belie&ing Allied troop shuffling and promises would be substantiated with real help. "hey learned, like all the other allies of the western !democracies! e&er since, that they were totally manipulable and expendable. "he mediocrities of the democracies ne&er had a clear plan to sa&e the 3ussians' their &ision was limited to feeding grubbily from the public trough or sweating out sordid deals. )eroism, &alor, honor and &ision <so courageously displayed by the 3ussian people against @ommunism> were for the Allied politicians so many meaningless words to be used in political rhetoric. "heir 4etty, putrid minds could ne&er concei&e that the 3ussians had sacrificed their li&es for the sake of an ideal. "he capitalists felt great affinity for the materialistic 5arxists and were always hostile to people who refused the dictatorship of 5arxism. Whene&er the anti-@ommunist forces seemed on the &erge of &ictory, the capitalists put e&erything into play to sabotage them. "he 4oles, the Finns and the 3omanians also experienced betrayals similar to that which /olchak suffered. @hurchill noted( With some coordination &ictory would ha&e been assured. "wice this year M+,+,N, Finland had been ready to occupy 4etrograd in concert with #eneral *udenich <and so were the 2stonians>, but was discouraged from doing so. 4oland wanted to maintain a strong pressure on the $olshe&ik front, but again we pressured her to desist. As for the small states, we told them to make their own peace Mwith the

@ommunistsN because we certainly would not help them. <@hurchill, World Crisis& p. 7E=> For the Allies the anti-@ommunists who depended on their support were like so many cards, to be held until a compromise with Lenin could be worked out, at which time they could be ruthlessly discarded. Apart from the &acillation, mediocrity and double-dealing of the Allies there was a &ery important factor that explained Allied preoccupation in curbing or sabotaging anti-@ommunist offensi&es. ;t concerned the re&erses Bews were experiencing in the areas recaptured from the @ommunists. "he &iolence that was committed against them was regrettable but not unexpected. "he 3ussians had seen with their own eyes that the @ommunist genocide against them was run by Bews and that the $olshe&ik 3e&olution was chiefly the creation of Bews. "he first So&iet councils were more than -.Y Bewish, the @ommunist leadership was essentially Bewish and the supreme commissar of the 3ed Army was Leon $ronstein !"rotsky,! a Bew whose cruelty made "amerlane and Attila look like angels of mercy. "he genocide of 3ussians and Ckrainians by the Bewish-led $olshe&ik re&olutionaries had created strong reactions on the &ictims1 side. "he 3ussians had seen millions upon millions being star&ed, tortured and massacred by hatefilled Bewish commissars. "heir reaction, once they were liberated, did not follow legal due process but was a spontaneous rage for ustice( they had not started the genocide' it was &isited on them by non- 3ussian aliens' they were defending themsel&es against the worst plague

and calamity in their history. ;n +,+D and +,+, Bewish participation in the @ommunist re&olution attacking #ermany was also o&erwhelming and its &ictims felt a rage akin to that of the 3ussians. 3ussia1s popular reaction against Bewish @ommunists e&oked strong feelings at the 9ersailles conference, where many Allied delegates were Bews( $aruch for the Cnited States, /lot: and 3othschild for France and Sonnino for ;taly, among others. @aught up in the thick Bewish atmosphere of the conference, @hurchill felt obliged to take #eneral 6enikin to task for allowing Bews to be roughed up by the people in the liberated areas. %n September +8, +,+, @hurchill sent an urgent telegram to his $ritish agents and !ad&isors! in 3ussia( !;t is most essential that #eneral 6enikin not only do his utmost to pre&ent the massacre of Bews in the liberated regions but also issue a proclamation against anti-Semitism.! Another telegram on %ctober ,, +,+,( !Spare no effort to curb antiSemitic feelings.! Apparently the $ritish agents were unsuccessful in manipulating the feelings of the &ictims of @ommunism, which pro&oked further rage among the 4aris @onference delegates. "he decision to cut off all aid to 6enikin was then made. "he delegates had ne&er shown the slightest concern for the millions of people murdered by the @ommunists. @hurchill, ne&ertheless, became alarmed by the sudden aid cutoff( "he news of our retreat and our abandoment of 6enikin

will lead to his annihilation. "he $olshe&iks ha&e triumphed on the other fronts and 6enikin1s defeat would gi&e control of the @aspian Sea to the So&iets. "he resulting pressure on 4ersia and Afghanistan will represent a direct and permanent danger. *et relentless Bewish pressure and Allied cowardice worked for the defeat of the anti-@ommunist 3ussians and Ckrainians. For a whole year they would &aliantly fight the @ommunists on their own, betrayed by the Allies and sabotaged by the Bews. 6uring the two years the $ritish were officially supposed to be helping 6enikin, their entire casualty list amounted to one wounded !ad&iser!0 !;t was an illusion,! concluded @hurchill, !to belie&e that we had fought for the anti$olshe&ik 3ussians. "hey, on the contrary, fought for us.! As war minister, @hurchill witnessed the fate of those 3ussians who had fought for the $ritish against the #ermans and against the @ommunists( $y Buly, refugees escaping the 3ed in&asion of @rimea were stampeding in the direction of @onstantinople. "he boats could carry only half of the panicked multitudes. With sa&age glee the enemy massacred the last defenders. Smallpox and typhus compounded war and famine. "hese miserable shipments of sick, dying or dead people kept coming to the "urkish capital, already o&ercrowded and destitute. A cloud hung o&er this final phase. After all MthisN, death is a relief. And this was how the &ictors of the #reat War had managed to sol&e 3ussian affairs. <World Crisis, &ol. ;9, p. 7=.-7=+>

"his was really the end. Sordid interests, electoral politicking, cowardice and betrayal had finally o&ercome the most important people in 2urope. Lenin had won. ;n 3ussia, Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints remained as rhetorical as they had e&erywhere else.

CHAPTE 2.)I 7#rainians and Je5s "he Allies, after rendering #ermany impotent, mo&ed on to dismember the old Austro-)ungarian empire' the bulwark of Western @i&ili:ation for more than a thousand years. "he dismemberment started as early as Banuary, +,+,, in 4oland. An indi&idualistic country, 4oland had a strong history of war, in&asion and internal ri&alries. ;t had lost its independence on se&eral occasions due to a combination of factors, which included geography, a &olatile temperment and the presence of large numbers of aliens among the 4olish people. $ut it was mostly this last factor, disunity, which spurred &iolent reactions among the 4oles. "hese conflicts, which had contributed so much to 4oland1s misfortune, should ha&e been known to those who wished to restore 4oland in +,+,. Wisdom dictated they should not be re&i&ed, let alone magnified. "here would be no sense in establishing a 4olish state in which nearly half of the population would be non-4olish. Wilson had gone out of his way to signal that there should

be no annexations or trading of populations, especially in the ethnic patchwork of 2astern 2urope( !"he peoples of central 2urope-and that had been appro&ed in writing by the Allies-will themsel&es decide on their fate after due consideration.! Wilson was in fa&or of restoring 4oland, and he established the geographic and ethnic limits of this new country( !An independent 4olish state should be created. ;t should include territories inhabited by people who are irrefutably 4olish. "hese territories should be ensured of a free and guaranteed access to the sea.! "he two basic points, !irrefutably 4olish! and !free and guranteed access to the sea,! were &ery precise. *et more than +. million non-4oles were annexed into the new 4oland without being asked, and !access to the sea! would be interpreted as authori:ation to sei:e the land of another country. "he issue of access to the sea might ha&e been resol&ed in numerous ways, either in the form of a free port, transit rights or, as 5arshal Bosef 4ilsudski had proposed with great wisdom, an internationali:ation of access routes in a manner beneficial to both 4oland and #ermany. ;f 4ilsudski1s formula had been adopted it is possible that the world would ha&e been spared World War ;;. Access to the sea did not mean sei:ing foreign territory or cutting a corridor through the territory of a neighboring country, thereby effecti&ely cutting this country in half and denationali:ing large cities against the will of their citi:ens. "o do so was to create the certitude of future conflict. 5any countries, in any case, li&e &ery well without seaports

or coastlines. Swit:erland, a land of freedom and prosperity, possesses neither a seaport nor access to one. )ungary, Austria, @:echoslo&akia, some 7. Asian and African countries, and Latin American countries like 4araguay and $oli&ia ha&e no access to the sea. ;n the case of 4oland the solution depended on a formula of fairness, ob ecti&ity and &ision. Cnfortunately, the "reaty of 9ersailles was not about wisdom and reconciliation, but was moti&ated by hatred and imperialism. French politicians were playing politics, with a program of &engeance against #ermany, expansion into the western part of #ermany and a central 2uropean policy of interference. "his policy created new states such as @:echoslo&akia, which absorbed millions of unwilling people, and *ugosla&ia, which was a construct enabling Serbia to rule o&er non-Serbians three times its own population. 4oland and 3omania would also be considerably enlarged with non-citi:ens who did not belong to them and who did not wish to belong to them. @lemenceau saw these new states as a kind of second front( states deputi:ed by him to contain #ermany. For once, despite his Fourteen 4oints, Wilson agreed with @lemenceau. Wilson and @lemenceau had had bitter exchanges, but the president went along with @lemenceau1s plan to create a re&i&ed and newly bloated 4oland. Wilson sought to curry fa&or with 4olish-American &oters whom he thought of as &ital to future 6emocratic electoral hopes. "he 4olish plan triggered &iolent reactions among the 4oles themsel&es. As early as Banuary +, +,+,, no fewer than 8.

different 4olish delegates, all claiming to represent the 4olish go&ernment, angrily stormed the peace conference at 4aris( !For four days now,! wrote American delegate 5a or $onsai on Banuary E, +,+,, !we ha&e been suffering a flood of 4oles.! Since each country could only be represented by two delegates it was necessary to lock up the 8. ri&als in the conference room of the hotel occupied by the Americans. !;t was a terrible scandal,! $onsai reported. !"hey screamed for two ear-splitting hours until in the third hour they all had lost their &oices. ;t was only then that two delegates were chosen.! "he delegates were the pianist ;gnace 4aderewski and a politician, 3oman 6mowski. Wilson was anxious to promote 4aderewski, who had li&ed in the Cnited States pre&iously, in order to neutrali:e 4ilsudski, who had already assumed power in Warsaw. "he saying, !#et four 4oles together and you ha&e fi&e disputes,! pro&ed correct in this newly impro&ised 4oland. Warsaw would soon become a boxing ring for guarrelling politicians. "here would be coups and countercoups. "he 4oles would, howe&er, be united on the sub ect of enlarging their country to the maximum. !5ost of them,! wrote a Wilson ad&isor, !only aimed at the biggest territorial expansion possible without the slightest regard to neighboring countries( eastern 4russia, 6an:ig, eastern #alicia <which was mostly inhabited by 3uthenians>, all would be absorbed.! <;. $owman, The Cew World, p. 7-D> After ha&ing swallowed more than +. million non-4oles, who were &iolently anti-4olish, the 4oland created by the 9ersailles "reaty would pro&e an impossible pu::le,

e&entually to be blown away within four weeks in +,8,. "he American delegate 4rofessor )oward Lord had warned the Allied signatories( !"he defense of such a state would probably constitute a burden for the treaty signatories. @onse?uently the more disputed territories gi&en to 4oland, the more trouble there will be.! <What 5appened in Paris, p. =D> 2&en more numerous than the #ermans, hereditary enemies of 4oland, were totally different peoples-the Ckrainians, the #alicians, the White 3ussians, the Lithuanians and a &ast number of Bews-who would be thrown into the 4olish potpourri. "he 4olish politicians were so &oracious that for a few months 4oland stretched from the $altic to the $lack Sea, gobbling up some 8. million non-4oles in the process. $$$ $efore the armistice was signed 4oland, not yet reborn, had found its master in the person of Bosef 4ilsudski. $orn in 9ilna in Lithuania, 4ilsudski was a radical socialist agitator who had been deported to Siberia and then returned to oin #ermany against the tsar. After the fall of imperial 3ussia he turned against the #ermans and de&oted his energy to the expansion of 4oland. $ecoming &irtual dictator of 4oland, he did not tolerate opposition gladly. )e ac?uired neighboring territory by a mixture of force and cunning. "he French ambassador in Warsaw described the sei:ure of 9ilna, the ancient capital of Lithuania, with its 7..,... citi:ens( 4ilsudski called one of his military friends, #eneral Keligowski, and told him( !With your troops, go and march on 9ilna and take it. Stay there. "he Allies will protest and ; will blame you. ; will discharge you but we will keep

9ilna.! <Leon Goel, German 9ggression 9gainst Poland& p. E+> Without further ado 4ilsudski had thus put hundreds of thousands of Lithuanians under his rule. "hey had not the slightest wish to become 4olish sub ects and protested &ehemently. $ut it was in &ain' somehow the Allies did not hear these particular cries for self-determination. 4ilsudski then rushed on to /ie&, annexing the whole of north-western Ckraine, although these regions had no 4olish population. "he ad&enture turned sour when the So&iets attacked the in&aders and pushed them right back to Warsaw. )ad it not been for the power struggle between Stalin and the So&iet generals commanding the anti-4olish offensi&e, and the help the French #eneral Weygand brought 4ilsudski, 4oland would ha&e been So&ieti:ed right then and there, a full 7E years before 4otsdam. $$$ 4ilsudski had been sa&ed by the skin of his teeth but his appetite for territory had not been diminished. "he "reaty of 4aris recogni:ed 4ilsudski1s occupation of eastern #alicia, although the Gational @ommittee of #alicians had sent a delegation protesting the in&asion of their country( "he representati&es of the Ckrainian people protest the annexation of a part of the Ckraine by 4oland including the Ckrainian lands of @holm, 4odolia, and 9olhynia. We consider it an attack against the Ckrainian people, a &iolation of its historic rights and a mockery of the principle of self- determination for all peoples. "he 4olish @ommission at 9ersailles told the Ckrainians

that guarantees would be gi&en for the protection of !the national rights of 8 million Ckrainians within an autonomous pro&ince recogni:ed by 4oland.! ;n fact, there were E million Ckrainians in #alicia. "o soften the blow, the @ommission palmed off on the Ckrainians the old trick of the !delayed plebiscite!( they could &ote on whether they wanted to be part of 4oland-in 7E years0 "he Ckrainians of #alicia would ne&er be allowed to &ote on their fate or unite with the other Ckrainians. Ckraine, a nation as large as France, with A. million people, was cut in half in +,+,. "he democracies chose to ignore their rights then-and ha&e continued to do so, down to this &ery day. Another factor sealing the fate of the E million Ckrainians of #alicia was the recently disco&ered oil fields of the @arpathians. "he $ritish 2stablishment had in&ested hea&ily in the exploitation of this oil and felt more comfortable with 4olish control of the region. "he $ritish and the French go&ernments were suddenly &ying for the pri&ilege of being !4oland1s protector.! Wilson had asked 5a or $onsal to see the Ckrainian delegation. %n 5ay 8, +,+,, a month before the ratification of the 9ersailles "reaty, 2dward 5andell )ouse ordered $onsal to burn the +. &olumes of the dossier he had been presented by the delegation. $onsal threw them in the large o&en of the @rillon )otel. Somehow, the bulky documents did not burn. !Ama:ingly,! recalled $onsal, !they shrank and got brownish, a little. When ; told )ouse he said, J; hope it1s not an omen.1 ; replied, JSo do ; but ; ha&e my doubts.1 ! "hus the legitimate re?uests of the Ckrainians not to be

occupied by a foreign power ended up in the o&en of the @rillon )otel. Bews were yet another group included in the new 4oland of the 9ersailles "reaty. 5illions of them had come from 3ussia. "he French ambassador in Warsaw, Leon Goel, reported( !"he "sar1s go&ernment fa&ored the departure of Bews from western 3ussia. "hey landed in the Jland of the 9istula,1 as the 3ussian bureaucracy called 4oland. "he Bews of 3ussian origin were &ery foreign to the 4oles.! Goel described the state of the Bewish population in 4oland( Who has not tra&eled across the 4olish countryside between the two wars without seeing Bews crawling in e&ery &illage, e&ery town, e&ery cityH Li&ing off the @hristian population. "hese inumerable Bews, dirty, hairy and sallow, could be seen either rushing to make money or standing in front of their shops or ho&els lost in some messianic or money scheme. Go one who hasn1t seen this well e&er understand what the Bewish problem in 2urope was. ;n 4oland the Bews had monopoli:ed the fur, leather and clothing trade. ;n Warsaw they were in finance, usury, anti?ue shops, department stores' they were bankers, lawyers and doctors. "hey controlled agriculture as middlemen ... 4oles were dri&en out of business by Bewish practices and anti-Semitism was growing rapidly. ;n many cases Bews were responsible for the conflict. "hey were arrogant and showed open contempt for the @hristians. "hey went out of their way to pro&oke the 4oles. "he Bewish problem seemed insoluble. "he Bews were too numerous to be assimilated. ;n any case they did not want

assimilation' they were tied to their own practices and to their ghettos. ;n the town of #dynia they would not sociali:e with the 4oles' they stood apart from 4olish life. "hey spoke *iddish, which they wrote in )ebraic characters. ;t was an alien world in the midst of 4oland. 4oland could ha&e been spared such a problem if its politicians had not absorbed neighboring lands and with them millions of unassimilable Bews. At the beginning of +,+, the 4resident of the 4olish 5inisterial @ouncil, 3oman 6mowski, also a delegate to the peace conference at 4aris, would make startling statements to the world assembly( !"hese %riental Bews form a &ery particular group. "heir acti&ities are causing much distress with those who ha&e to li&e near them on a daily basis.! "he 4olish delegate added( !;f we do not impose certain restrictions &ery ?uickly, all our lawyers, doctors and businessmen will be Bews.! "he 4oles had not waited for the Guremberg laws to demand protection from Bewish practices' they demanded it at the 4aris 4eace @onference in +,+,. "he American delegate ;saiah $owman illustrated 4olish laws go&erning 4olish-Bewish relations( ;n #alicia, for example, Bews were forbidden by law to engage in trading grain, alcohol and salt. @hristians were not allowed to employ Bews. %ne must also say that the Bews represented +AY of the 3ussian-4olish population, yet they were DAY of the businessmen, 7.Y of the writers, E+Y of the teachers, 7AY of the doctors while only 7Y were farmers, workers and miners.

$$$ 4ilsudski, by doubling the number of Bews under his control, had only doubled 4oland1s problems. "he Bews of 4oland had ne&er assimilated and the influx of some 7 additional millions made any solution impossible. "he C.S. delegates, headed by 5andell )ouse, were instructed to con&ince the 4oles of the benefits of Bewish immigration. "hey mentioned that Gew *ork alone had more Bews than the whole of the new 4oland and went on to list all the Bewish go&ernors, mayors, congressmen, senators, writers, bankers, et al. "hat was precisely what the 4oles were determined to a&oid by way of legislation. )ouse was shocked to hear 4resident 6mowski1s demands and complaints, particulary since he had worked so hard to gi&e birth to the new 4olish go&ernment. ;n Banuary, +,+, )ouse formally declared, against 4olish wishes, that the 8 million Bews of 4oland must be officially and strongly protected( !$efore gi&ing the 4oles their independence they must undertake &ery seriously to guarantee a ust and e?ual treatment of religious and racial minorities.! 6espite )ouse1s pressure to 4oles would go ahead and enact whate&er laws they thought necessary to protect themsel&es. "he Bews of 4oland would remain outside the law until +,8,. "he 4olish go&ernment was so desperate to get rid of its Bewish population that it proposed, long before anyone else, that 5adagascar should be the recipient of 4olish Bews. 5any Bews left 4oland and settled in France. )owe&er, the bulk of 4olish Bews remained in 4oland as a hostile group against the go&ernment.

4oland1s problems were compounded by the - million Ckrainians and #ermans who had been annexed against their will. Lloyd #eorge had warned @lemenceau( !$ecause of 6an:ig we will ha&e a new war.!

CHAPTE 2.)II 'an-i06 the Corridor and Si"esia 6espite Lloyd #eorge1s ob ections 4russia would be cut in half by a corridor said to be 4olish' the regions and the city of 6an:ig would be separated from #ermany' and eastern Cpper Silesia, one of #ermany1s richest regions <producing 7.Y of its coal, E-Y of its lead, -7Y of its :inc> would be gi&en to 4oland. "he Allies had also ordered #ermany to hand o&er 4osen, another rich #erman pro&ince and the birthplace of 5arshal &on )indenburg, to 4oland. Leon Goel, who was no #ermanophile, stressed that 6an:ig was #erman( !2&erybody knew and no one challenged that this great city was in fact totally #erman.! <German 9ggression 9gainst Poland, p. AA> @hurchill himself wrote( !#erman science and capital had created a &igorous industry in this territory. #erman culture, imposed by the power of an energetic empire, had left its mark e&erywhere.! For many centuries there had been only a handful of 4oles in 6an:ig. *et the Allies ga&e 4oland control of the city1s

customs, taxes, port facilities and e&en the city1s diplomatic representation. "his meant that any #erman 6an:iger tra&eling abroad had to deal with 4olish embassies and consulates. )e was at the mercy of hateful and arrogant alien bureaucrats whene&er he re?uired a passport or &isa. @hurchill re&ealed later that 6an:igers had barely escaped total absorption( !"he commission first proposed to place 6an:ig entirely under 4olish so&ereignty, which would sub ect 6an:igers to 4olish laws and mandatory conscription in the 4olish army.! <World Crisis& &ol. ;9, p. 7A.> !;t is e&ident,! said Goel, !that #ermany could ne&er accept such a solution.! Goel was correct in all his obser&ations concerning 6an:ig. When the 6an:igers finally had the chance to &ote, on the e&e of the Second World War, they would choose #ermany by a margin of ,,Y. Wilson had guaranteed 4oland !free and secure access to the sea,! not !access to the sea,! as hundreds of biased historians and ournalists ha&e written. "his deliberate misinterpretation of diplomatic texts initiated the creation of the corridor. A stretch of land 7. to -. miles wide was cut across #ermany. ;t was ust as if #ermany <after winning the war, theoretically speaking> had cut a E.-milewide territory across $rugundy, Lyon and 4ro&ence in the direction of 5arseilles in order to secure for itself !a free and sure access to the 5editerranean Sea.! Such a thing would ha&e been unthinkable for France, but it was imposed on #ermany. For 7. years #ermans would ha&e to cross from one #ermany to another locked in sealed trains, sub ected to the

humiliating control of two separate 4olish borders and customs, both entering and lea&ing the corridor. Ambassador Goel recogni:ed the danger such a situation could bring about( "he existence of this corridor cutting off 2ast 4russia from the rest of #ermany forced Mthe #ermansN to cross two borders when they wanted to go from $erlin to /onigsberg. ;t seemed un ustifiable and dangerous. )ow could we not predict that the 3eich would exploit this paradoxical situation as long as it would lastH <German 9ggression 9gainst Poland& p. AE> Goel added( !"he Jfree city1 of 6an:ig and the Jcorridor1 were created and the "reaty of 9ersailles would be affected by this most glaring of all its weaknesses.! "he confiscation of 6an:ig and the corridor from #ermany was, howe&er, not enough to satisfy the expansionist 4olish politicians. 2gged on by @lemenceau and "ardieu they now demanded chunks of 2ast 4russia and wanted to declare what was left of it a republic similar to $a&aria. "he claims were so preposterous that e&en the $ritish balked, cautioning "ardieu and the 4oles of the inherent dangers such a con?uest would ha&e. "he $ritish managed to put the issue to a &ote in the regions earmarked for immediate 4olish annexation, much to the fury of the 4oles and their champion "ardieu. "he plebiscite would be held in the Allenstein and 5arienwerder districts. 6espite massi&e propaganda and intimidation, despite the promise that those 4russians who

would &ote for 4oland would be exempted from the huge reparation bill the Allies were about to slap on #ermany, the 4russian &oters cast their ballot almost unanimously in fa&or of remaining #erman( Allenstein district( for #ermany, 8=.,...' against, D,.... 5arienwerder district( for #ermany, D,=,...' against, D,.... "his represented a total of ,D.-8Y in fa&or of #ermany and +.7-Y in fa&or of 4oland. "hese were ama:ing figures that are seldom seen in Allied history books. "ardieu call the plebiscite an !inadmissible concession to #ermany.! ;t had been a stinging defeat, which the Allies and particularly "ardieu would take care not to duplicate when they would press for their next annexation( Cpper Silesia. @lemenceau had decided that the loss of Silesia, a rich and highly industriali:ed pro&ince, would permanently reduce the power of #ermany. polish politicians did not hide their greed for this free gift from @lemenceau. ;n fact they had not waited for formalities and had sent in armed bands as early as February, +,+, to establish their claim. #ermany, disarmed by the Go&ember, +,+D armistice, had to cope with the $olshe&ik onslaught, yet it managed to send a few units to repel the in&aders at Frankfurt on the %der and at $reslau. %n February +=, +,+, @lemenceau inter&ened militarily and forced the #erman units to pull back behind a specific demarcation line. French historian $enoist-5Fchin wrote(

"his line would ser&e as a pro&isional border between 4oland and #ermany pending a decision from the Allied Supreme @ouncil. "his arrangement clearly fa&ored Warsaw. All that was re?uired for 4oland to annex Silesia was a simple declaration transforming the pro&isional demarcatior line into a permanent border. "his is what the ministers at the peace conference would stri&e for. *'9rm+e 9llemande, &ol. ;;, p. +=E> %n 5ay -, +,+, @lemenceau presented the #erman delegation with a pro ected treaty calling for the transfer of Silesia to 4oland <Section 9;;;, Articles D- and DD>. "hus, because a band of irregulars without the slightest Allied mandate had in&aded southeast #ermany MSilesiaN, #ermany was to lose 7 million people, nearly all ethnic #ermans, and its richest pro&ince to the in&aders. @lemenceau had legali:ed the aggression by pre&enting the #ermans from defending themsel&es and forcing them back behind the %der 3i&er. Wilson, whom one might ha&e expected to react &ehemently to such an outrageous and total contradiction of his Fourteen 4oints, not only remained silent on the sub ect but supported @lemenceau. @hurchill explained Wilson1s betrayal of his own principles( !4olish &oters constituted a real factor in American politics. 3egardless of any other consideration, Wilson had decided that Cpper Silesia would be gi&en to 4oland and that all opposition on this point would be regarded by him as a personal offense.! <World Crisis, &ol. ;9, p. 7+8> #erman indignation ran high but their protest fell on deaf ears. @lemenceau and Wilson were firmly on the 4olish

side. "he $ritish 2stablishment had become most concerned at seeing France and the Cnited States draw together. ;t was totally against its centuries-old policy of keeping potentially strong states in a weak position. Lloyd #eorge saw the Silesia operation as a boost to French power and on these grounds was ?uick to declare himself against the annexation. %fficially, of course, his reasons for opposing the French and the Americans were based purely on altruism, morality and a $ritish sense of !fair play.! )e would intone a magnificent speech at the Supreme @ouncil( ; do not know who seeks here to impose his hegemony but for my part ; will not tolerate that we should take away from #ermany more #ermans than is strictly necessary. "he 4olish proposition, tending to sub ect 7,+..,... #ermans to the rule of a people with a different religion, a people whose history has ne&er pro&ided proof that it is able to go&ern itself, this proposition runs the risk of triggering a new 2uropean war sooner or later. <$enoist5Fchin, &ol. ;;, p. +=-> London used all its power to pressure Wilson to change his mind. "orn between the pressure of political necessities at home and multi-le&el $ritish pressure, Wilson distanced himself from @lemenceau by raising doubts on French moti&ation( !France is interested in gi&ing 4oland territories which did not belong to her.! <$ullitt, President Wilson, p. 8DD> )ypocritically he fell back on the position of gi&ing e?ual consideration to the aggressor and the &ictim( !Since

#ermany and 4oland both claim these people Mthe Silesian #ermansN, wouldn1t it be wise to let them decide for themsel&esH! Although Wilson appeared to go back to his Fourteen 4oints, he was still recogni:ing 4oland1s claim in a situation where they had none in the first place. Silesia was #erman and the word !claim! was so much legal doubletalk to obscure that fact. "he $ritish 2stablishment also maneu&ered the ;talians against the French. Gow @lemenceau found himself alone with his 4olish allies. )e fought tooth and nail to ha&e his way but finally had to back down when the $ritish threatened not to sign the treaty. For @lemenceau the threat was awesome. Without the treaty all his plans for re&enge and reparations would come to naught. For the $ritish it did not really matter since they had already helped themsel&es to the #erman colonial empire, #erman assets and the #erman na&y. @lemenceau was enraged but reali:ed they had the whip hand. )e was forced to compromise. "he new formula would no longer recogni:e the de facto annexation of Silesia by 4oland but would prescribe a plebiscite( A plebiscite will be instituted in Cpper Silesia whereby the inhabitants will be called to indicate at the ballot box whether they want to be reunited with #ermany or 4oland. #ermany must now declare it renounces, in fa&or of 4oland, all claims to Cpper Silesia beyond the border line fixed as a conse?uence of this plebiscite. <Article DD of the "reaty.>

@lemenceau, howe&er, was fighting back and somehow managed to dilute the resolution with some additions of his own( +> Within +E days of the present treaty1s implemenation, all #erman authorities and troops will e&acuate the :one sub ect to the plebiscite. All military and para-military groups formed in that :one by the local population will be immediately dissol&ed. 5ilitary personnel who are nonresident will be e&acuated. 7> "he plebiscite :one will immediately be placed under the authority of an inter-Allied commission of four members designated by the Cnited States, France, the $ritish 2mpire and ;taly. "he :one will be occupied by the troops of the Allied powers and their associates. @lemenceau also succeeded in adding a few words at the end of his paragraph, which would ensure, in case the plebiscite went wrong, many different interpretations and e&en partial annexations( !"he result of the plebiscite will be determined by the communes.! "hus the &oters could not get #erman campaign material and information except with the greatest difficulty. "he presence of foreign troops and the authority they exercised would, in the context of the time, intimidate and frighten many &oters' at least that was @lemenceau1s intent. Cnder such pressure it was possible that some communes could cast their &otes in fa&or of 4olish annexation. Silesia would then become a patchwork of conflicting allegiances. 4olish politicians had been appeased( the plebiscite was not necessarily lost' it could e&en be turned to their ad&antage

now that the #erman authorities had been thrown out. Wrote $enoist-5Fchin( "he 4oles reali:ed the plebiscite would take place under conditions fa&orable to them. "he #erman authorities and troops were obliged to lea&e the plebiscite :one, which would be administered by an inter-Allied commission presided o&er by a French general and disposing of a strong contingent of French troops. Since France was far too closely linked to 4oland1s position, the 4oles reasoned, the French would regard a #erman &ictory as a personal defeat and cons?uently would do the impossible to ensure the triumph of the 4olish cause. <*'9rm+e 9llemande, &ol. ;;, p. +=,> "he treaty stipulated, at @lemenceau1s insistence, that the Silesian resolution be implemented !within +E days.! *et it would take six months before the troops of the inter-Allied commission showed up, their official function being to ensure the correct and orderly implementation of the plebiscite. ;t was during this strange delay that hordes of 4olish agents would roam the Silesian countryside sowing sabotage and terror. "he #ermans, who had been disarmed, were suddenly at the mercy of armed gangs operating with total immunity. %n Buly +., +,+, they blew up the three main bridges o&er the %der 3i&er' they occupied the railway stations, and con&oys of trucks full of arms and ammunition could be seen e&erywhere. ;t appeared that the 4olish politicians in Warsaw were not about to take any chances and had decided to take control

of Silesia before the plebiscite. "he con&enient absence of #erman or Allied troops ga&e them a free hand to shape Silesia as they saw fit.

CHAPTE 2.)III The Oder P"ebiscite Gews of the 4olish in&asion and &iolation of the plebiscite terms pro&oked an unforeseen reaction in #ermany. "housands of &eterans and young patriots impro&ised military units and rushed to the rescue of their beleaguered Silesian compatriots. "hey managed to put the in&aders to flight. 4aris and Warsaw were stunned by this !#erman audacity.! "he 4olish politicians decided to bide their time until February ++, +,7., when the Allied troops would finally reach Silesia. "heoretically the troops were under the authority of an international commission, but in reality it was more in the nature of a French expedition. Wilson had declined to send a single American soldier because he could not afford to lose the 4olish &ote at home. "he $ritish sent four battalions with instructions to a&oid confrontations, and the ;talians sent a token force of 7,... men. @lemenceau, howe&er, sent ++,... soldiers. Furthermore the Allied forces would be under the command of French #eneral Le $on, who would be to Silesia what 5angin had been to the 3hineland, except that in this case Le $on

would ha&e @lemenceau1s full backing. $$$ Le $on had been instructed to close his eyes to 4olish infractions and pro&ocations. "he treaty stipulated that the plebiscite take place within weeks of Bune, +,+,, when it had been enacted. *et months and months dragged on without the slightest action. "he ;talians were thoroughly bored' they understood neither French nor #erman and e&en less about the issues in&ol&ed' they kept wondering what on earth they were doing under gray skies D.. miles from sunny ;taly. 4olish agitators had a free run of the :one. "hey were paid by Warsaw politicians with French taxpayers1 money. After 78 months of deliberate delay the plebiscite was finally held on 5arch 7+, +,7+. While the #ermans had not been allowed to campaign for their cause, the 4oles had been gi&en e&ery assistance to woo or intimidate <as the case might be> the local &oters. "he Silesians were promised escape from the hardship of war reparations if they opted to oin 4oland. 6espite all threats and entreaties the Silesians &oted by a margin of =.Y to remain #erman. "he people had spoken but the go&ernments of 4aris and Warsaw were not about to gi&e up. "hanks to @lemenceau1s addendum to the treaty, !"he results of the &ote will be determined by the communes.! Le $on ordered that 4olish workers who worked in #erman factories be gi&en the industrial :one of Silesia. "hese were guest-workers who had been gi&en the &ote to offset #erman numbers. ;t was unlikely that Le $on would ha&e acted without precise instructions from @lemenceau in this flagrant bid to

negate the &ote of the ma ority of Silesians as well as ignoring the terms of the treaty. *et Le $on went on to plan the !sharing of Silesia! ust as if there had not been any referendum. For their part the 4oles ominously threatened to back the partition plan with force of arms if necessary. %n 5ay +, +,7. the inter-Allied commission declared that partition, !according to the &oting results,! was imminent. For the third time armed 4olish units in&aded Silesia to enforce Warsaw1s claim to the #erman pro&ince regardless of &oting results. While the commission was waffling with words, Le $on allowed the in&ading 4oles to do as they pleased( !;t was repugnant for him MLe $onN to take coerci&e measures against the 4olish allies of France, for whom most of his officers felt a marked sympathy,! said $enoist-5Fchin. @lemenceau would go e&en further( he would inter&ene on the side of the 4olish in&aders. %n 5ay ,, +,7. he instructed his ambassador in $erlin to present an ama:ing note to the #erman go&ernment( !Any dispatch of #erman troops to Cpper Silesia will be considered a &iolation of the "reaty of 9ersailles and France will respond to it by occupying the 3uhr.! <$enoist-5Fchin, *'9rm+e 9llemande, &ol. ;;, p. +DE> @lemenceau1s ultimatum shocked #ermany( if action were not taken to protect a #erman pro&ince which had ust &oted to remain #erman in an Allied-super&ised plebiscite, then #ermany would see the last of its industrial regions fall into the hands of the French army0 "he 4olish go&ernment, strengthened by @lemenceau1s

inter&ention, organi:ed a full-scale in&asion of Silesia. "here was an abundance of arms in Warsaw, accumulated by #eneral Weygand during the 9istula campaign. "he 4olish troops had at their disposal large ?uantities of hea&y artillery, hand grenades, flame throwers, mines, cannons and an unlimited number of rifles. "he in&asion turned to terror( !#ermans were tortured, mutilated and killed. 9illages and castles were looted and set afire.! <!astern "rontier of Germany, p. -,> "hese lines were printed not in #ermany but in 2ngland. "he leader of this wa&e of terror was a former miner turned ournalist called Adalbert /orfanty. %fficially the 4olish go&ernment claimed to ha&e no control o&er the !spontaneous explosion of popular will! in Silesia, but the *ondon Times filed a report from on-the-spot correspondents, dated 5ay +., +,7+, which contradicted the 4olish claim( "he head?uarters for the organi:ation of supplies and assistance from 4oland is maintained at Sosnowice. "here is a fact which is difficult to ignore( the border between 4oland and Cpper Silesia is as open as the London $ridge. /orfanty, who had initially been named !plebiscite commissar,! had become on the e&e of the in&asion !insurgent leader.! With full logistic back-up, 4olish troops poured into Silesia and took most of the undefended large industrial centers. "hey then proceeded to occupy both sides of the %der 3i&er. "he #erman go&ernment &ainly appealed to !all the powers of ci&ili:ation, of reason and uni&ersal conscience! to

defend its in&aded territory. "he conscience of politicians and go&ernments is highly selecti&e and pro&ed to be so on this occasion( the international force headed by Le $on and the inter-Allied commission had heard and seen no e&il, like the pro&erbial monkeys. Lord 3obert @ecil remarked( !Since the start of the insurrection the inter-Allied commission has lost all control o&er Cpper Silesia.! <The :uestion of 4pper ilesia& p. => Ama:ingly only the ;talians would li&e up to their obligations and with great courage would fight those who &iolated the treaty and the plebiscite they had been entrusted to protect. "hey alone would honor the mandate their $ritish and French colleagues were ignoring. Wrote $enoist-5Fchin( "he inter-Allied commission began to declare a state of siege in the ma or cities of Silesia, proclaiming it would stop at nothing to restore order. $ut that is as far as it went. While the ;talians were trying to stop the insurgents by force of arms at the cost of A. dead and some 7.. wounded, the French troops, which represented the bulk of the occupation forces, did not lift a rifle. ;nstead they let through columns of trucks and artillery units. <*'9rm+e 9llemande, $enoist-5Fchin, &ol. ;;, p. +D.> $$$ "he #erman )igh @ommand, faced with an imminent 3uhr in&asion from France, did not react to the Silesian outrage. %nce more help came from &olunteers across #ermany. Without go&ernment support they came by the thousands with whate&er weapons they could lay their hands on and once more managed to recon?uer two-thirds of Silesia.

;n the words of 2rnst &on Salomon, #ermans had answered the call of patriotism( We did not care about figures, statistics, notes, ultimatums, hereditary claims and election results. "heir Mthe Silesians1N appeal had hit us in the heart' it had o&ercome all hesitation and reflection. "his land was #erman' it was threatened and we went there ready to shed our blood to sa&e it. Le $on, a fat little bureaucrat, was no match for the selfless and moti&ated #erman &olunteers. "hey pushed back the in&aders on three fronts. "heir most heroic feat would be the recapture of the Annaberg( $a&arian &olunteers fought +E hours in hand-to-hand combat after hoisting cannons A,... feet high on rugged mountain terrain. "he exploit was reported by an unknown soldier in a brochure called %berland in %berschlesien( !"he bra&est of men felt anguish and oy when they saw the black, white and red flag appear at the summit. ;t was the first &ictory since the ignominious days of Go&ember, +,+D. "he 4olish formations had been dislodged.! "he &olunteers recaptured 7D #erman &illages. "he Allies, who had closed their eyes on 4olish atrocities, were now outraged that the #ermans were defending themsel&es. "hey demanded that the #erman go&ernmemt enact a decree disbanding the &olunteer units. 2bert signed the decree, fearful and broken-hearted. "he 4oles had been sa&ed from total disaster but the sacrifice of the #erman &olunteers had not been in &ain( no one would attempt to steal western Cpper Silesia, which

#ermany was allowed to keep according to the plebiscite. "he scandal of the 4olish in&asion had strained relations among the Allies. "he ;talians, who had lost soldiers fighting alone, were infuriated at the $ritish, who had done nothing, and at the French, who had sided with the 4oles. 2&en an 2nglish delegate to the inter-Allied commission declared at /reu:burg on 5ay +8, +,7+( Like most of the 2nglish officers in Cpper Silesia ; feel ashamed and humiliated because ; am well aware that the inter-Allied commission has failed in its obligation to ensure respect for the law and maintain order in this pro&ince. Lloyd #eorge, who was responsible for this failure, went on record to deplore the Silesian tragedy with a copious amount of crocodile tears in what was really an attack against his French ri&als( 2ither the Allied forces restore order or the #erman troops must be authori:ed to do it. "o pre&ent #erman participation in restoring order is not fair. Fair play has always been the principle which has inspired #reat $ritain and ; propose that we adhere to it until the end. Whate&er the outcome we will not bow to a fait accompli. <)ouse of @ommons speech made on 5ay +8, +,7+> "he Silesian tragedy had at least ser&ed a worthwhile purpose( it had brought to the world proof of the &enality and hypocrisy of the 4aris 4eace @onference and the 9ersailles "reaty. $ehind the pompous oratory were the

base intrigues of greedy and mediocre men. $ehind the lofty principles of the Fourteen 4oints were men in&ol&ed in sordid little electoral manipulations and conscienceless political deals, the stuff of democracies in e&ery latitude. When 2urope was crying out for magnanimity, generosity and &ision, the petty gnomes of 9ersailles answered with stupidity, hatred and hypocrisy. ;t was therefore fitting that the Allies would dump the fiasco they had created in Silesia into the lap of the League of Gations. "he League members had no wish to spend their time on such an unglamorous issue, so the Silesian case was passed on to a sub-commission composed of one Spaniard, one $ra:ilian, one @hinese and one $elgian. Gone of these men was &ery knowledgeable in Silesian affairs but somehow they came up with a compromise which pleased neither #ermans nor 4oles( #ermany would retain two-thirds of Cpper Silesia while the 4oles would be gi&en one-third. After Silesia, the Allies decided thay had had enough with plebiscites. 6espite intrigues and manipulations they almost in&ariably went against them. "he Silesian mess had furthermore brought uni&ersal discredit to the process. "he last plebiscite on the agenda was in Schlewig-)olstein, on the #erman-6anish border. "here the referendum took place without incident because the Allies kept well away. 2&en the 4olish politicians had become sufficiently wary of unpredictable plebiscites to let the @:echs ha&e three?uarters of disputed territories as well as part of the city of "eschen, which was thereby cut in half. %nly in September, +,8D would 4oland regain the other half, taking ad&antage

of the confusion caused by post-5unich de&elopments. "hus a new 4oland had been created. 5ore than +. million foreigners had been included for reasons of greed, &engeance and stupidity. "he #alicians, Ckrainians, 3ussians, Lithuanians, @:echs and #ermans would ne&er be assimilated' they had been forced into a nation they hated, against their will. ;n September, +,8, they showed what they thought of their 4olish status( they re oiced at 4oland1s collapse. Gext on the Allied agenda was the forced herding of millions of Sudeten #ermans, Slo&aks, 3uthenians and )ungarians into another Allied concoction( @:echoslo&akia.

CHAPTE 2.I. C-ech a%acit( "here had ne&er been a country called @:echoslo&akia. 2urope had known for a thousand years a land called $ohemia, which was steeped in #erman culture and which had been a pro&ince of the )oly 3oman 2mpire. ;ts #othic art ri&aled the 3hineland cathedrals. "he )absburgs were kings of $ohemia and in +,+A $ohemia <along with its neighbors Sudetenland, Slo&akia and 3uthenia> was part of the Austro-)ungarian empire. "hose who then dreamed of an independent $ohemia or

Slo&akia could be counted on one hand. %ne of them was a lackluster professor who appeared most respectful of the imperial order. )is name was "homas 5asaryk. $ut he was more than ust a professor at the Cni&ersity of 9ienna. Well before the Sara e&o assassination he was the head of a secret pan-Sla&ic organi:ation controlled from St. 4etersburg. )e was, in secret, what 4ashich was in Serbia. )e had been warned in time that war was approaching and left for the safety of 4aris. 5asaryk li&ed in France for three years on money paid by the 3ussian 2mbassy in 4aris, while his counterpart 2dward $enes was supported by the $ritish. After the $olshe&ik 3e&olution of +,+- the Cnited States would pick up the cost of maintaining the two pan-Sla&ic agents. 5asaryk was also a high-ranking Freemason and was in&ol&ed with the #rand %rient Lodge, which had controlled France since its 3e&olution of +-D,. Likewise $enes was &ery much in&ol&ed in the secrets of $ritish 5asonry. As a pan-Sla& agent working for 3ussian expansionists 5asaryk was thinking in +,+A of establishing se&eral 3ussiani:ed grand duchies, which would supplant the Austrian and #erman regimes in central 2urope. )e would present this plan to the capitals of western 2urope. %n April +E, +,+E he made it public in the form of a memorandum to the $ritish Foreign %ffice( !$ohemia and 5ora&ia will form a kingdom placed under the so&ereignty of a 3ussian grand duke.! "he tsar apparently agreed with the plan since he had already made known to the 4oles his intention of establishing their national unity, as 4resident 4oincarF

pointed out in his book ;n&asion. 5asaryk did not reali:e that his admiring disciple and fellow grand master, $enes, was plotting against him in the best 5asonic tradition( secretly. 6uring the summer of +,+D $enes engineered 5asaryk1s being named president of a yet-to-be-created @:echoslo&akian republic. "he mo&e was supposed to honor a great man, but was really meant to neutrali:e 5asaryk. From that time on $enes pulled the strings, hiding behind 5asaryk1s ceremonial title. "he 4aris #rand %rient, which had total control of the French go&ernment, backed $enes as the best of the two 5asons to implement its policy. 5asaryk was directed to culti&ate a close relationship with 4resident Wilson. )e used his excellent memory to learn entire chapters of some mediocre books Wilson had written. )e then recited them to an ama:ed Wilson, claiming he had ne&er read anything so profound in all his life. Go one had yet appreciated his genius to such an extent, and Wilson reciprocated by regarding 5asaryk as a genius. Wilson became all ears to the shameless flatteries of 5asaryk and it was not long before he was in fa&or of the creation of a @:echoslo&akian republic. 5asaryk easily con&inced Wilson that it was his duty to bring freedom to the @:echs and the Slo&aks because America was the torchbearer of liberty. )e also waxed hea&ily rhetorical on the @al&inistic &alues that united the @:echs and the Americans. Wilson lo&ed all he heard and decided to back 5asaryk1s noble crusade for freedom, e&en though he confused the Slo&akians with the Slo&enians. $enes and 5asaryk kept talking about the Slo&aks and it

became accepted they were one and the same people as the @:echs. Gothing could ha&e been further from the truth. Slo&akia was a proud and distinct country ha&ing nothing in common with the likes of 5asaryk and $enes. At no time did the Slo&aks deputi:e the @:echs 5asaryk or $enes to represent them in any capacity. 5asaryk1s call to Wilson to !liberate! the Slo&aks was nothing but the first step in coloni:ing 8+T7 million Slo&aks against their will. ;n order to decei&e the gullible Wilson still more, 5asaryk organi:ed on 5ay 7-, +,+E a !treaty of cohabitation! between @:echs and Slo&aks. "he !treaty! was signed in @le&eland by a few men of Slo&ak origin who were now naturali:ed Americans. ;t was meant to impress Wilson with the Slo&aks1 aspirations to oin themsel&es to the @:echs1 freedom mo&ement. 5asaryk himself related how this particular operation was set up( "he !treaty! was really a pri&ate agreement among a few emigrants. ;n fact all were emigrants, except two, who had been naturali:ed for some time. "his was only a piece of paper without &alue or much practical importance. ;t was e&en signed on a holiday, which, according to American law, made it null and &oid. <5asaryk, The /a.ing of a tate> *et this bit of !null and &oid! paper would trigger the absorption of 8.+ million Slo&aks into a regime they ne&er wanted to be part of. $enes organi:ed phony committees of @:echs and Slo&aks along the @le&eland lines in London, Amsterdam, #ene&a and 4aris. "hese committees would in

Bune, +,+D name 5asaryk as president of the !3epublic of @:echoslo&akia,! which of course did not exist geographically or legally at that time. All these acti&ities were based on the @le&eland !treaty.! $y Buly 8., +,+D 5asaryk was again using the @le&eland !treaty!( %n Buly +,th <+,+D>, ; countersigned the @le&eland agreement of 5ay 7-, +,+E between the delegates of Slo&ak and @:ech emigrant societies of America. "he accord had been set up in order to satisfy the aspirations of a small group of Slo&aks who dreamed of #od knows what childishness( an autonomous Slo&akia with its own administration, its own parliament, its own courts, its own schools. Without hesitation ; appro&ed in the name of the @:ech nation the engagements taken in the name of the Slo&aks. <5asaryk, The /a.ing of a tate> "hus 5asaryk had appro&ed without hesitation the arrangements he himself called !childish.! "hus a few misguided Slo&ak dreamers had been duped into signing a worthless piece of paper, thinking they were striking a blow for their freedom. An ignorant and nai&e Wilson had endorsed the farcical treaty officially recogni:ing the state of @:echoslo&akia, concocted in @le&eland and 4ittsburgh. "he men who had assumed the right to shape the destiny of the @:echs and the Slo&aks had left their homelands a long time ago and had lost touch with the realities facing their former compatriots. With an exception or two they were no

longer @:echs or Slo&aks but naturali:ed emigrants. "heir bi:arre scheme had been sold to Wilson and the Allies with deceit and without any pro&isions for the people they claimed to represent to express their opinion. Go one would ask any of the 8.E million Slo&aks of Slo&akia what they thought, or e&en less, whether they wanted to be sub ugated to a nebulous entity called @:echoslo&akia. Without consultation they would be thrown in the @:ech bag like so many pounds of potatoes. Wilson had been so enchanted with the wily 5asaryk that he had totally forgotten the self- determination clauses of his Fourteen 4oints. Got only were the Slo&aks not asked their opinions, but they were systematically pre&ented from saying a single word on their own behalf. "he 5asonic go&ernment of France hated them with a passion because they were traditional @atholics. "he French politicians of 5asonic discipline had a &igorous anti-@atholic policy at home and abroad, and the Austro- )ungarian empire was high on their list for destruction. ;n this endea&or they had the full backing of the $ritish 2stablishment. When the Slo&aks attempted to let their &iews be known in 4aris the French police ruthlessly suppressed them. "he shocking treatment meted out to these unfortunate people was recorded by the American delegate to the peace conference, @olonel $onsai, in his book Suitors and Suppliants. "he hero, or rather the &ictim, was the Slo&ak nationalist leader 5onsignor )linka. ;t was traditional for a priest to lead this deeply @atholic country. "he last Slo&ak leader

would be 5onsignor "iso, who was summarily hanged by the @:ech @ommunists in +,AE, while he prayed and clasped his rosary. 5onsignor )linka reali:ed at the end of +,+D that his people were being railroaded into ser&itude. )e decided to enlighten the 4aris conference as to the real aspirations of his fellow Slo&aks. First he was refused an exit &isa by the @:ech police under orders from $enes. )e left clandestinely for Warsaw, where the French 2mbassy did e&erything to stop him from reaching 4aris. Finally the papal nuncio in 4oland, the future 4ope 4ius S;, helped )linka and his companions escape the hostile en&ironment created by the powerful French 2mbassy. "hey had to make their way like fugiti&es through @roatia, ;taly, and Swit:erland in appalling conditions before entering France, again clandestinely. "hey had had no shelter, food or sleep for days. ;n 4aris they found refuge in a monastery so that )linka was at last able to notify the American delegation of his presence. @olonel $onsal went to meet with )linka( !; keep,! wrote $onsal, !excellent memories of my relations with this Slo&akian priest. ; often think he was the most sympathetic man among the numerous delegates ; had to deal with. )e had the dark and luminous eyes of great beauty, which in truth were the windows of his soul and an ob&ious sincerity.! Father )linka recei&ed $onsai in his little cell. )e produced a letter from #eneral Stefanik, who had fought in the French army before being assassinated by $enes1 agents as he was returning to Slo&akia. )e had entrusted Father )linka with a letter to the American delegation( !; hope to

oin Father )linka and his friends soon. 4lease try to facilitate an inter&iew with the president or @olonel )ouse. ; can guarantee the absolute &eracity of what they will ha&e to say.! ;t had taken almost three months for Father )linka and his friends to reach 4aris and $onsai intimated they had arri&ed almost too late. !; feared that,! answered the priest, !but our delay is only due to the extraordinary measures taken by the @:echs to stop us from reaching 4aris.! Father )linka explained the Slo&aks were fearful of the @ommunists. "he @:echs had told them that only unity between @:echs and Slo&aks would pro&ide sal&ation from the @ommunists( !Why not try to oin forcesH ;n any case it would only be a temporary measure, like a trial marriage. ;f the union pro&ed inade?uate we both would go our own way.! $ut within three weeks the mask dropped. !We suffered more in this short period of time at the hands of the @:echs than in a thousand years of our history. 3emember my words. "ime will show they are true.! $onsai reminded Father )linka that the !4ittsburgh declaration! had guaranteed Slo&ak autonomy, to which he replied that the same declaration had also guaranteed Slo&ak representation at the 4eace @onference. !We ha&e endured e&erything,! continued the priest, !from the @:ech soldiery and the 4rague politicians. "he @:echs consider Slo&akia as a colony and treat us as if we were sa&ages from Africa. "o the foreigners they claim we belong to the same race but as soon as they get the chance they treat us like serfs.

$onsal reported what he learned to Wilson, who was ama:ed to hear that there was a difference of opinion between @:echs and Slo&aks. 3eali:ing he had been duped, he angrily interrupted $enes1s annexationist speech at the conference on 5ay E, +,+,( !Cnder no circumstances, ; declare this formally, ha&e ; e&er stated that ; deemed a popular consultation in Slo&akia as superfluous.! <@onference "ranscript Folio ;S, series SS;, dossier #TL> $enes knew what to expect if a referendum were e&er to be held in Slo&akia and proceeded to remo&e the originator of such dangerous ideas. )e asked "ardieu to take immediate action. "ardieu was glad to oblige his co-conspirator. "he next night the French police broke into the monastery and dragged out Father )linka and his associates. "hey were spirited out of France the same night. When $onsai returned to consult with the Slo&akian delegation all he found were empty cells. "he abbot of the monastery tearfully explained to $onsal( !$enes and "ardieu, "ardieu and $enes, they are the guilty ones.! "he American delegation officially protested to "ardieu, who replied that the Slo&aks were !strange 3ussians of the @arpathians who were difficult to understand as well as to assimilate. ;t would be absurd to con&ert this 4art of 2urope into a whirlwind of go&ernments, a headache of little nations.! "he American delegation was stupefied at such insolence and "ardieu was warned that he was not taking the !right path for the establishment of a solid @:echoslo&akian state.! After his man-handling at the hands of the French police, Father )linka made his way back to Slo&akia, where he

continued his fight in defense of his people. "hey wanted to elect him to the parliament the @:echs had imposed on them. !)linka,! wrote $onsai .. . ... decided to accept his election in order to fight for the freedom of his people. A few weeks before the election, @:ech police burst into )linka1s house in the middle of the night and took him to ail far away from the peasants who honored him. For months he was treated with such cruelty that his health was permanently impaired. 4oor Father )linka deser&ed better than this crown of thorns. < uitors and uppliants, p. 7-+> ;n fact Father )linka had been sa&agely and repeatedly beaten in ail, where he was held without the slightest due process of law. "hus ended the Slo&ak attempt to exercise their right of self-determination. "he Slo&aks were not the only people to be the ob ect of @:ech greed. "here were also =,+,,78 )ungarians and =A.,... 3uthenians who, like the Slo&aks, had been immediately mu::led. Abo&e all there were 8,78+,=DD #ermans, li&ing in the Sudetenland. Altogether these di&erse peoples would be railroaded into ser&itude through the good offices of the 9ersailles "reaty. "he @:echs represented half of the !@:echoslo&akian! population according to statistics pro&ided by $enes. According to other statistics they were well in the minority. "he creation of this sausage-shaped state -.. miles long was due to the relentless schemes of 2uropean Freemasons. For a long time they had attempted to destroy the Austro-

)ungarian 2mpire, the last @atholic bastion in 2urope. "he 5asons had, a little more than a century before, unleashed a bloody re&olution in France, which had gi&en them control of that country e&er since. "hey were now ready to take control of Austria-)ungary. "he Sudeten #ermans were a &ery dynamic element of the @atholic empire, and it was &ery important for the 5asons to separate them fore&er from Austria. "he public is often misled by the innocuous aspects of 5asonry, whether sartorial or ceremonial. "hat middle-aged men like to feel important by reciting secret oaths and bedecking their chests with triangles, compasses, s?uares or mini-aprons is not &ery disturbing' it is ust their way of playing at &oodoo or o&ercoming their lack of indi&iduality in a kind of group therapy. )owe&er, in +,+A the rituals of Freemasonry meant something more. ;t was consumed by an insatiable greed for power. From +,+A to +,+D Freemasons occupied most positions of power in the &arious 2uropean states, including the armed forces. ;n France from #eneral Sarrail to 4oincarF and "ardieu, almost all the ministers were fanatical 5asons. 5asons were e?ually prominent in #reat $ritain and the Cnited States at all le&els of go&ernmemt, business and the media. Against this formidable array of power @atholic Austria stood alone. "he first Austrians would soon fall under the blows of concerted 5asonic attack. With the destruction of the Austro-)ungarian empire in Go&ember, +,+D the Sudeten #ermans made known their intention to declare their independence and create their own state, which they did almost immediately. )ow these decisions were of any concern to the @:echs is hard to

fathom' the Sudeten #ermans were of a different ethnicity, different language, customs and religion. "hey had been separated from Austria but no one had mandated the @:echs to replace Austria. Ge&ertheless @:ech soldiers poured into the Sudetenland to o&erthrow the Sudeten go&ernment. Sudeten ministers were thrown in ail and beaten up, ust like the Slo&akian patriots, and many &illagers were shot to death. Again the protests of the persecuted Sudeten #ermans were silenced by the 5asonic conspiracy of $enes, "ardieu, 4oincarF and their allies. Gow there was nothing to stop $enes from spreading 5asonic rule o&er more @atholic populations, including 8.E million Slo&aks, +.E million )ungarians and -E,... 4oles. $enes had a plan for a greater @:echoslo&akia to stretch from the 6anube to the 3i&er Spree, that is, from the outer $erlin suburbs to the center of $udapest. "he plan had been drafted in +,+= in the secrecy of #rand %rient 5asonic lodges. Flushed with the success of his aggression, $enes was now un&eiling it for all to see. Cnder the heading !6estroy Austria-)ungary,! a detailed map had been drawn by a cartographer called /uuffner at $enes1s direction( the new @:echoslo&akia would swallow the Austrian 2mpire and more. "he borders stretched from $udapest to 6resden and southeast $erlin' Silesia was also to be annexed. "he plan and map was later published by the 6elagra&e 4ublishing @ompany in 4aris. @aught between @ommunism and Freemasonry the people of @entral 2urope did not ha&e a chance. "he #rand %rient shared the same anti- clericalism as the @ommunists' they

had always worked together against @hristians and regarded the destruction of the Austro-)ungarian empire as a mutual achie&ement. "he power of international 5asonry was such that Wilson did not dare go beyond mild &erbal protestations at the flagrant ensla&ement of +. million people by the @:ech 5asonic establishment. "here was ne&er any ?uestion of in&oking his Fourteen 4oints on their behalf. For appearance1s sake $enes had promised in +,+, that the peoples who had been deli&ered to his rule would en oy a large degree of autonomy. "his was pure hypocrisy from a tyrant wearing the mask of a liberal statesman. ;n the 7. years that followed, the 4rague 5asons stripped their con?uered populations of all freedom, dignity and national character. "he @:ech language was imposed e&erywhere' the schools, the courts, all the army were @:ech and controlled by @:ech 5asons. "hose who resisted were tortured, ailed or killed. For 7. years these peoples would be forced to endure their 5asonic masters1 oppression. 6eli&erance would come in +,8D and the 5asonic bane o&er central 2urope would be broken. "he 5asonic defeat in +,8D and +,8, would precipitate World War ;; ;nternational 5asonry declared war on the country which had freed the oppressed. Secretary of State Lansing had correctly predicted( !"he M9ersaillesN peace treaties will be the source of a new war' it is as sure as the return of day after night.! "he Second World War would therefore not be a sudden and spontaneous e&ent but a direct and ine&itable conse?uence of the ill- inspired treaties of 9ersailles. "he war had been declared at 9ersailles itself on Bune 7D, +,+,.

;t can be argued tha the @ommunists beha&ed much worse in +,AE than the Allies in +,+D. $ut the results in terms of suffering were not &ery different. Furthermore, the +,+, peacemakers, unlike Stalin, had cloaked themsel&es with liberal and humanitarian respectability. @ommunist barbarism was unspeakable, but it corresponded to a predictable pattern established in +,+-. "he @ommunists had killed and killed' they had promised nothing except more terror. "he Allies, on the other hand, were all respectable, ci&ili:ed men, all champions of liberalism and democracy, who had consistently betrayed all the principles they so loudly proclaimed. "hey had gone back on their word, betrayed their friends, not once but ten times. "hey had committed a crime against the spirit. "hey had brought &enality, treason, greed, stupidity and hypocrisy to new heights. "hey had fatally undermined the foundations of Western @i&ili:ation. ;n 4rague, howe&er, we were only halfway to #olgotha( +. more countries awaited crucifixion.

CHAPTE 2.. The 'ismemberment of Austria8Hun0ar( "he sub ugation of o&er 8 million Sudeten #ermans was the first mo&e in sub ugation of Austria. After the armistice of

+,+D, enormous mutilations would completely dismember the &ast empire which had contributed so much to Western @i&ili:ation. %&er the centuries it had brought to most of 2urope a political order without excessi&e rigor, a measured style of life, an amiability with gentle humor, and a remarkable culture. "he arts and music flourished, and the tran?uility of the Austrian order had created genuine peace and harmony throughout the empire. "he 5asonic guillotine would decapitate Austria. ;ts limbs and body would be thrown to its ra&enous neighbors. From almost a half million s?uare miles, Austria would be reduced to =.,... s?uare miles. %nly its head remained' the empire had shrunk to 9ienna, surrounded by a little bit of land. From E. million citi:ens it was now = million. With its loss of territory and people Austria was depri&ed of ,.Y of its coal, =.Y of its iron ore, D.Y of its hops, -EY of its fruit, E.Y of its textile fibers, 8,Y of its wheat, 87Y of its potatoes, 7=Y of its cattle and D-Y of its corn. While northern Austria was being parceled out to $enes, the Allies deli&ered its southern part to ;taly. After &ictory was achie&ed, the Allies tried to renege on the promises they had made to lure ;taly into the war, but the ;talians managed to ac?uire South "yrol and its 7E.,... #erman inhabitants. "here was not the slightest reason for ;taly to claim this #erman land and its people except in the words of the 3ome go&ernment(, !%ur strategic border lies at the $renner. ;n order to secure it these 7E.,... #ermans, whether they like it or not, will ha&e to come under our power.! %nce more Wilson1s self-determination clause, which the

Allies and the ;talians agreed to respect at the armistice, was not worth the paper it was written on. ;f the $ritish and the French politicians were well aware that 7E.,... #ermans would be traded off to ;taly, Wilson remained blissfully ignorant that there were #ermans in the South "yrol. )is biographer, Ambassador $ullitt, wrote( !)e ga&e southern "yrol to ;taly because he did not know there were Austrians of #erman blood south of the $renner.! <4resident Wilson, p. 7A7>. %n this matter his Allies took great care not to enlighten him. "he destruction of the Austro-)ungarian empire came at a time when its emperor, @harles, had already started the process of granting autonomy to the &arious nationalities which comprised it. Archduke Ferdinand, who had been assassinated at Sara e&o on Bune 7D, +,+A, was preparing to gi&e the Serbs an autonomy similar to that of )ungary. @harles had negotiated with the @:ech politician "uscar, who happened to be a socialist, the creation of a $ohemian nation in exchange for @:ech loyalty. %ther nationalities were already en oying their own culture and customs. "he empire was a loose federation of &ery di&erse peoples united by a common Western heritage and ci&ili:ation. "he emperor ruled with bene&olence and enlightenment, without the &iolence and massacres employed by the So&iet, $ritish or French empires. "he Austrian empire1s ma or fault in the eyes of world Freemasonry was its @atholicism. ;t was a 5asonic article of faith that @atholic power had to be destroyed where e&er it existed, particularly in the hands of @atholic kings or emperors( @atholic 2urope had to be replaced by 5asonic

2urope. Lenin was keen to oblige the Freemasons in aiding in the destruction of Austria. )e welcomed the creation of little countries ruled by corrupt and ruthless 5asons. )e would no longer be faced with the eastern bulwark Austria had represented o&er the centuries. Austria1s fall would breach that wall and throw 2urope open to con?uest. $$$ "he newly created @:echoslo&akia of +,+, would soon become a forward bastion of the @ommunists. "he @:ech 5asons in power had immediately warmed to Lenin, and sent a delegation of 4rague Bews to coordinate policy with the So&iet dictator1s man in $udapest, $erl @ohen, also known as $ela /un. When the So&iets in&aded 4oland in +,7. the @:echs worked with them. Lenin had ordered the training, in 3ussia, of se&eral @:ech units, which were to become the core of the @:ech army, and the 3ed Army1s &anguard. "he $ritish intelligence officer 5a or "hompson predicted( !"he So&iets will reco&er Mfrom their recent defeat at the hands of the #ermansN sooner than we think. ;n the meantime it is this busy little $enes who will represent them in Sla&ism.! $enes, a high-ranking 5ason, was the principal coordinator of Freemasonry and @ommunism. )e remained 5oscow1s man until +,8E, when he made a grie&ous mistake. "he #estapo had allowed $enes1 spies to !steal! highly classified documents dealing with a !3ed Army plot! to o&erthrow Stalin. "he So&iet dictator had so much faith in $enes1s reliability that he immediately ordered the execution of 5arshal "ukache&sky as well as tens of

thousands of officers of the 3ed Army. "he 5asonic hatred against Austria had spread among all the Allies. 4ublic opinion had been conditioned by largely 5asonic-controlled media to wallow in blind, irrational hatred. ;t was all-per&asi&e and had become part of the political and cultural life of France, $ritain and America. Anti- #ermanism, a 5asonic code word for anti@atholicism, was being whipped up at e&ery occasion, and particularly at election time. 4oliticians of the left or the right were trapped into beating the anti-#erman drum whether they were inclined to do so or not. @hurchill recogni:ed that politicians were riding a !public opinion! tiger( !"he leaders, ele&ated on the giddy summits of power and &ictory, were balancing precariously on the &olatile platform of public opinion.! "here had been so much hatred whipped up against #ermany that not e&en @lemenceau could satisfy his electorate1s thirst for &engeance. Go politician could e&er be sufficiently anti-#erman. After years of relentless propaganda the public had been conditoned to scream for more blood and more &engeance. )owe&er, @lemenceau, Lloyd #eorge and Wilson would all be thrown out of office because they had satisfied !public opinion.! A $elgian socialist politician called Spaak told his electorate( !; will follow you e&erywhere, e&en in your madness.! Spaak was realistic politically but totally lacking in integrity and courage. ;t was this lack of &ision which would dismember 2urope.

)ungary, the most @atholic and conser&ati&e part of the age-old empire, suffered the most sa&age mutilation. 9ienna had A.Y of Austria1s workers and had been successfully infiltrated by 5arxist agitators. ;n +,+D the Socialists took power. )ungary, on the other hand, had not been infected with the @ommunist disease. "he )ungarians were selfsufficient farmers and artisans, intensely patriotic, @hristian and traditional. 5ore @atholic than Austria, it would be more mutilated. "he 9ersailles "reaty would grab three?uarters of its territory( 787,E-D s?uare kilometers out of 87E,A++. )ungary would be left with ,7,D88 s?uare kilometers. 5ore than +8 million )ungarians, +8,7-,,E+= to be exact, were deli&ered like sla&es to )ungary1s neighbors. From a population of 7.,DD=,A8- people the )ungarians would be reduced to -,=.7,D-+. ;n one year, )ungary lost two-thirds of its population. Gorthern )ungary was fed to the &oracious @:ech 5asons. ;n the southeast, 8 million more )ungarians had fallen into 3omanian hands. "here "ardieu had emulated $alfour( he had promised the "ransyl&anian )ungarians to the 3omanian go&ernment in exchange for 3omania1s participation in the war on the side of the Allies. "he 3omanian politicians always considered corruption a &irtue and saw in the war a tremendous opportunity for $y:antine profiteering. From +,+A to +,+D they had had their hands out to e&erybody. "hey recei&ed money from the 3ussians, then from the #ermans and again from 3ussia. "hey had been se&erely trounced by the #ermans after declaring war on them. "hey sued for peace in exchange for gi&ing the #ermans a ,,-year lease on 3omanian oil fields. When #ermany started to lose ground,

the whole contingent of $ucharest politicians rushed to 4aris, accompanied by their usual flock of prostitutes. Although their corruption and intrigues irritated @lemenceau in the extreme, 8 million )ungarians were ne&ertheless passed on to 3omania. Since the plebiscites had consistently turned against the Allies, the )ungarians, like the Austrians, #ermans and Slo&aks, would not be gi&en the benefit of a referendum. @ount Albert Apponyi, a leading )ungarian patriot, went to 4aris, despite his ad&anced years, to plead his people1s case at the peace conference( 6o not dispose of these people as if they were a herd of cattle. "oday will be tested the sincerity of those who ha&e so often proclaimed the great principle of international ustice and liberty. We are asking a plebiscite in all the regions and we will accept its results. ;f our ad&ersaries refuse to accept this test, their cause will be udged before the tribunal of human conscience. "hey would ha&e resol&ed to sub ect to their yoke millions of unwilling souls. "he &enerable )ungarian patriot was treated like a criminal. $enes, the 5asonic hatchet man, answered @ount Apponyi( !As far as the future borders of )ungary are concerned, they ha&e been definiti&ely set at the peace conference and there will not be the slightest modification.! <*e Temps, 6ecember 7, +,+,> With rage and hatred $enes1s 5asonic co-schemer "ardieu added( !"here will not by any pity for )ungary.! "his 5asonic hatred was shared by all the Allies. American

delegate $owman said of the per&asi&e Allied hatred( !At e&ery instant one had to gi&e tangible proof of hatred against the enemy.! )ungary was thus crucified at the 9ersailles "reaty not for its sins but for its faith, a &ictim of rabid 5asonic hatred and rapaciousness.

CHAPTE 2..I <ine ,i""ion <e5 Serbs Serbia, which had been a center of intrigues before the war and had precipitated the war with the Sara e&o assassination, was now coming forward to claim its due. "he $enes of Serbia was that old intriguer, Gicholas 4ashich. %&er the years he had been condemned to death or imprisonment but had always been pardoned by sympathetic Serbian officials. 4ashich had duplicated the @:echs1 fraudulent @le&eland and 4ittsburgh declarations on the #reek island of @orfu. "here he had assembled a handful of $alkan indi&iduals for the purpose of pressing Serbian claims to some , million non-Serbians. Serbia1s population would then increase from 8 to +7 million people. 4ashich1s main targets were Slo&enia, 6almatia and @roatia. A lone @roatian politician called "rumbich, who represented only himself, was presented as e&idence of @roatia1s desire to be absorbed by Serbia.

4ashich1s claim was patently absurd. "he ma ority of @roatians were totally opposed to Serbian domination. For the last 7,... years they had been part of the Western world, first 3ome, then 9enice and Austria- )ungary. "hey were totally different in culture and religion from the Serbs and always refused to ha&e anything to do with them. Serbian expansionists had long co&eted the @roatian Adriatic coastline with the dual aim of dominating Slo&enia and 6almatia and pre&enting Austria from access to the sea. "he Allies had considerable financial stakes in the $alkans, from copper to oil, and there was a consensus that 4ashich would be a reliable o&erlord. "he $ritish agent SetonWatson produced the lone @roatian "rumbich and took him to meet 4ashich in @orfu. 4ashich promised special rights and pri&ileges, autonomy, religious freedom and countless other benefits. "hese were exactly the same promises 5asaryk had gi&en to the Slo&aks in +,+E and +,+D, which resulted in the sub ugation of the Slo&ak nation. 4ashich had promised "rumbich a @abinet post as well as one million gold francs for himself. "he bribe came from the &ast loans made by corrupt French politicians to the corrupt politicians of Serbia. 4ashich, who was an experienced liar, denied money had changed hands but "rumbich, who felt his fellow @roatians would regard him as a traitor, admitted that the money had been offered, but claimed that he had declined it. "he episode was $y:antine and full of side intrigues, with the end result that "rumbich1s signature on 4ashich1s greater Serbia plan was accepted by the Allies as proof that the @roatians wanted to be part of Serbia. 4ashich also enlisted the ser&ices of an ;talian !negotiator! named "orre, an

obscure politician from 3ome. "orre accompanied "rumbich to London, somehow gi&ing the impression he represented ;taly. "orre and "rumbich did not in any way represent their countries but the $ritish agreed to 4ashich1s plan, which became known as the !London pact.! "he pair then proceeded to 3ome, where 4ashich had sent two do:en Serbian front men mas?uerading as Slo&enians, @roatians and 6almatians. "he group called themsel&es !*ugosla& delegates! and issued a declaration of union with Serbia( !"he delegates of the Sla&ic peoples who are still ensla&ed proclaim their unanimous will to unite with the future #reater Serbia of all *ugo-Slays MSouthern SlaysN.! "he statement from this fraudulent meeting was known as the !3ome declaration.! Go one had appointed the !delegates! except a cabal of conni&ing Serbian politicians. Furthermore the fake !@roatians! and !Slo&enians! had oined their Serbian !brethren! in declaring as traitors !all those who were trying to make @roatia and Slo&enia and the Adriatic pro&inces independent states.! "he chief of the Serbian go&ernment press, a man called 5agat, would publicly laugh at the e&ent two months later( !;t was a farce but it was a &ery well rehearsed farce. "he oppressed nations were represented in 3ome by a few do:en Serbian emigrants who had been bapti:ed J@roats,1 JSlo&enes1 or J6almatians1 for the occasion.! "hus the spurious !4act of @orfu,! !"reaty of London! and !3ome declaration! had been arranged for the Allies e&en before the day of the armistice. With such o&erwhelming !e&idence! the Allies were not disposed to hear the protests of the , million people about to be sub ected to Serbian

tyranny. "he lone @roatian who had sold out for + million francs was made a @abinet minister-but for a short time only. )e soon had outli&ed his usefulness and was thrown in ail and tortured. $efore dying he belatedly appealed to his compatriots( !Let us ne&er accept being JSerbiani:ed,1 to be beaten on the head like the 5acedonians or whipped on the back like our own women.! Gext the @roatian leader 3adich was assassinated on the floor of the *ugosla&ian 4arliament on Buly 7., +,7D. %ne million and a half @roatians would be forced to flee their country in order to sa&e their li&es. E..,... 5acedonians had to flee as well. 4ashich became president of #reater Serbia <the so-called *ugosla&ia> and explained with truly contorted logic( !;f there had been a plebiscite in @roatia and Slo&enia we would not ha&e had a ?uarter of the &otes.! 4ashich1s obser&ation became reality +E years later, when the @roats were finally able to cast a &ote in fa&or of their independence( --.-o &oted for independence despite an influx of Serbians into @roatia. "he 2nglish reporters who witnessed the embarrassing election of 5ay +E, +,8E, and reported it thoroughly in the $ritish press were expelled by the *ugosla&ian secret police. "he *ugosla&ian army and police then went on a rampage of terror against all those who had &oted so !insultingly! against !*ugosla&ia.! "he terror would pro&oke &iolent reactions among the refugees abroad. ;n +,8A @roatian freedom fighters would assassinate the king of *ugosla&ia, Alexander, in 5arseilles, France. ;t would be the same Serbian terror that in +,A+ would induce @roatians to form three entire

di&isions, all of them &olunteers, to oin other 2uropeans on the 2astern Front. "here they would fight the So&iet masters of the @ommunist !*ugosla&ian! imperialist, "ito. Like their @:ech 5asonic allies the Serbian 5asons were under the constant protection of French 5asonic #rand 5aster AndrF "ardieu. Wilson1s principles had been circum&ented at e&ery turn by the #rand %rient 5asonic cabal. "he American president reali:ed there was nothing he could do except sa&e appearances( !)e was ready,! commented an obser&er at the peace conference, !to take seriously the most extra&agant documents as long as they were written in impeccable legal terminology.! "ardieu had managed to chair most of the peace commissions and had placed fellow 5asons in all of them. "he Serbian delegate, 6r. ;&an Kolger, admired "ardieu1s pro-Serbian bias( !5. "ardieu has occasionally changed the sense of decisions of the Supreme @ouncil in our fa&or. )e would do this ?uite arbitrarily, which often embroiled him in &ery bitter conflicts with the delegates of other nations.! < lo$ens.i Carod, Bune 7, +,7+> ;t has been often asked how tens of millions of unwilling people could ha&e been sub ected to the will of their traditional enemies without the plebiscites which the &ictorious Allies had solemnly pledged to implement and respect as a condition of the armistice. "he answer was to be found in the relentless 5asonic efforts to impose

5asonic regimes all o&er 2urope by any means. "he American delegate $owman recorded some of these means( 2ach central 2uropean delegation brought a pile of cookedup statistics and maps. ;f the statistics failed to con&ince, colored maps were produced. A thick &olume would not be enough to analy:e all the different types of these made- up maps. A good-looking map would sa&e many a poor argument from sinking into obli&ion. ;t is mainly in the $alkans that this practice reached its peak. <What 5appened in #ersailles, p. +7=> Although $owman was a noted geographer, Wilson chose to ignore his ad&ice. ;t would take an additional two years for Lloyd #eorge to make his displeasure at ha&ing been tricked by an a&alanche of false maps publicly known( !All the documentation pro&ided to us by certain of our Allies during the peace negotiations was lies and deceptions. We ha&e decided Mthe peace treatyN on a fraud.! <Lloyd #eorge at Rueen1s )all, +,7+> Lloyd #eorge1s correct and belated reali:ation did not, howe&er, free the millions who had been sub ected against their will. Among the hundreds of fraudulent practices the case of the )ungarian town of /assa </osice> is ?uite illustrati&e. $enes had on February E, +,+, claimed /assa as a @:ech city. "he $ritish demanded &erification, and two in&estigators, 2dward /armesin and 3obert /ramer, were sent to check $enes1s claim. $oth were American citi:ens

of @:ech origins who had shortly before been naturali:ed. "hey were officially recei&ed by a /assa @:ech. For a week the two @:ech-Americans were wined and dined and entertained at the )otel Salk in /assa. "he trio ne&er left the hotel and, without the slightest in&estigation, wrote a report concluding that /assa was, as $enes claimed, a totally @:ech city. Apparently the report must ha&e impressed the $ritish because the people of /assa were refused a plebiscite and one hundred thousand )ungarians were immediately declared @:echs. Like Lloyd #eorge, the famous French statesman Aristide $riand belatedly deplored the flagrant in ustice( !%ne only need to glance at a map to reali:e that the borders of )ungary were un ustly drawn.! <French Assembly, Bune -, +,7+> 2&en @lemenceau, who had ignored the self-determination of so many peoples, felt the dismemberment of )ungary was excessi&e. %n April 7E, +,7. he declared on the sub ect of )ungary( !We ha&e done so many stupid things maybe we can right one of them.! Gothing would be righted( all the Slo&aks, three-?uarters of the @roatians, 6almatians, Slo&enians, two-thirds of the )ungarians, all the #ermans of 4osen, 6an:ig, Sudetenland and the "yrol had lost their rights, their nationality and their freedom. $enes, who had wanted in +,+= to stretch @:echoslo&akia all the way to the outskirts of $erlin, demanded in +,+, that a corridor cut in half what was left of little )ungary in order to link up with his Serbian allies( "he @:ech state must comprise $ohemia, 5ora&ia, Silesia, and northern )ungary. A direct link must be established

between the @:echs and the Serbs in order to fulfill their national aspirations and fraternal affinities. A corridor cutting )ungary in half will connect the two people. ;t will be constituted by the )ungarian districts of 4os:ony, Sopron, 5oson and 9as, which will facilitate trade between industrial $ohemia and agricultural Serbia. ;ts military importance will be considerable. ;n case )ungary ob ected, $enes proposed to the Serbians !a military action against )ungary to create the corridor by force.! $ut )ungary had already lost ++ million of its people, of an original total of +D million, when the Bewish @ommunist dictator $ela /un took control and ?uickly shackled what was left of the country. Austria-)ungary was no more. 9ienna was like a head without a body. "he 9ersailles "reaty had sanctioned the dismemberment of the highly ci&ili:ed empire into two little states under alien control.

CHAPTE 2..II Centra" Euro%e ;n the disaster of defeat it was not surprising that the Austrians should identify with their #erman compatriots. Austria and #ermany shared a common language, culture and history, and now a common agony. Austrians felt that in union with #ermany, a re&i&al could still be possible. "he Anschluss was born in +,+D out of tragedy and

persecution long before the Allies had e&er heard the name !)itler.! As early as Go&ember +7, +,+D, the day after the armistice, the Austrian parliament, with a Socialist ma ority, &oted for the unification of Austria with #ermany. ;t was a rare issue, one all the political parties agreed on. %n Banuary ,, +,+, Austrian @hancellor /arl 3enner repeated for the benefit of the 4aris peace conference( !"he 3epublic of Austria is part of the #reater #erman 3eich.! Anschluss had become the main platform of the Austrian Socialist 4arty, and on this issue alone it was swept to power in +,+,. @hancellor 3enner ne&er changed this policy e&en when his political opponent, Adolf )itler, made his entry in 9ienna in +,8D. )e still called on all Austrians to support unification regardless of political affiliation. Socialists and @atholics alike &oted ,,Y in fa&or of Anschluss in +,8D, as they had in +,+,. "hey were all #ermans, who wanted to li&e, or rather sur&i&e, within #ermany. Forty percent of the workers of the Austrian empire were in +,+, concentrated in 9ienna and its en&irons, out of work after Austria had been stripped of its industries and mines. "his explosi&e situation would lead to ci&il war under 2ngelbert 6ollfuss and to Anschluss in +,8D. "he concept of Austro-#erman unity was looked upon with fa&or by a number of sensible 2uropeans. "he union could not pro&ide any kind of military threat to the Allies( the combined armed forces allowed for both countries by the 9ersailles "reaty amounted to +8E,... men, less than half the 4olish army. ;n +,+, the French go&ernment commanded armed forces of A million soldiers, 8. times

more than Austria and #ermany. "he $ritish empire had absolute control of the seas, while #ermany was depri&ed of its entire na&y, without so much as a single submarine or minesweeper. Austria had been truncated' #ermany was surrounded by hostile neighbors. "he American go&ernment had no ob ections to the Austrians exercising their right to self-determination. After all, it would be a rare application of Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints. )ere again, howe&er, the @:echs, Serbians, 3omanians, ;talians and French were determined to thwart the popular will of Austrians and #ermans alike. "ardieu feared that the addition of = million Austrian @atholics to #ermany would weaken the 5asonic forces in that country, while $enes and 4ashich were not about to let the Austrians influence a #erman re&i&al. All had much to fear for their ill-gotten gains. Article D. of the 9ersailles "reaty and Article DD of the "reaty of St. #ermain three months later officially negated the right of Austrians to decide their own future and their own affairs. Although Anschluss with #ermany was their o&erwhelming desire, the treaties in&oked !Austrian independence! to deny independence to the Austrians( !"he independence of Austria is inalienable without the consent of the League of Gations' in conse?uence Austria undertakes to abstain from any action likely to compromise its independence.! Since France had &eto power at the League of Gations, it thus had a &eto to pre&ent #erman-Austrian unification. French historian 3ain did not miss the hypocrisy of the articles( !;t came down to saying that Austria was independent in spite of itself.! <The !urope of #ersailles, p.

++E> "here was one glaring exception in the routine destruction of 2uropean countries perpetrated by the 9ersailles "reaty makers( the Bews. "hey benefited from the protection of the Bewish delegates, who were represented in most of the national delegations attending the peace conference. 5anley )udson, the American delegate, explained( !"he Bews are both a race and a religious sect. "heir problems are different from those of other minorities.! <What 5appened in Paris, p. +-E> While the Ckrainians, #ermans, Austrians, Slo&aks, @roats, 6almatians and )ungarians had been traded off with a rope around their necks to their enemies, the Bews had benefited from a multitude of protecti&e measures. When the 9ersailles "reaty makers deli&ered millions of )ungarians to 3omania, it was only on the condition that Bews in 3omania would be gi&en preferential treatment. 5anley )udson noted( !"his disposition was essential to pre&ent a return to the abuse from which Bews in 3omania had suffered.! <What 5appened in Paris, p. +=,-+-8> 4re&iously Bews in 3omania had been excluded from public office and the professions, and restricted in dealing in land and conducting certain business in the cities. "he 3omanians had to promise to re&erse all !discrimination against Bews! despite the fact they insisted these measures were necessary to protect themsel&es against !predatory Bewish practices.! ;n the context of the time, the 3omanian attitude was shared throughout central 2urope. "he great powers1 hea&y-handed demands on their allies were accepted as a matter of

expedience only for the purpose of partaking of the 9ersailles largesse. ;n fact they would only aggra&ate ill feelings between Bews and their host countries. "he promises made to the Allies would soon be forgotten, and people would be free to &ent their anger after Bune, +,+,. Finally the Allies did not e&en succeed in pleasing the Bews of central 2urope, who found themsel&es trapped like e&erybody else in an artificial 2urope based on ini?uity and lies. ;t would only be a matter of time before it exploded in the faces of its perpetrators. 4eople as different as 3amsay 5ac6onald and "rotsky predicted the demise of the 2urope of 9ersailles. "he $ritish prime minister declared( !"he new war will not break out on the 3hine but in the 6anube 9alley, where exasperated and &iolent minorities &ainly demand ustice.! "rotsky would write in ;:&estia( !;t is in central 2urope that the +,+D &ictors ha&e started with their own hands the fire that will destroy the new world they ha&e pretended to build.!

CHAPTE 2..III The 'ardane""es and )eni-e"os After tearing the #erman and Austrian empires apart, the Allies turned their attention to the %ttoman empire. "he empire extended from the $alkans to ;ra? and the Sinai' it was the third and last bulwark against the spread of

@ommunism. $ut the Allies ga&e little thought to @ommunism in those days, since they were principally bent on ac?uiring the %ttoman empire for themsel&es. #ermany en oyed a position of great influence in "urkey before the war. ;ts exports had, within fi&e years, increased 8E..1o and constituted 7+Y of "urkey1s total imports. $ritish business as a result had seen its share of the "urkish market fall from =.Y to EY. Whose fault was itH "he #ermans were selling superior products and ser&ices at a cheaper price than the $ritish. "here was no magic, ust a preference for what was better and cheaper. Furthermore, the #ermans had come to the marketplace without armed &iolence, unlike the Allies in other parts of the world( imperialist gun-boats were always behind the latter1s traders. #ermany1s trading success in "urkey was being duplicated in more than E. other countries around the globe. 4eople were increasingly buying #erman goods because their ?uality was better. 2&en today #erman goods are highly appreciated in the world marketplace, despite the blows of two de&astating lost wars. "here #ermans ha&e always acknowledged that a nation1s strength relies on its work force. ;n +,+A they were &ictims of their own success. "he &aunted $ritish !fair play,! which could ha&e been expected to result in the congratulation of a competitor, was not a factor in +,+A. ;nstead #ermany was earmarked for destruction for the sin of producing better goods than its competitors. "he Allies did not look within their own ranks to e&aluate whether a failing work ethic or discipline had contributed to their failures' they blamed the #erman ?ualities of hard work and perfectionism.

"he $ritish financiers were determined to stop #erman trade from expanding as if it were encroaching on some di&ine right monopoly to $ritish world trade. #ermany1s expansion in "urkey was the result of a thousand $ritish mo&es to thwart #erman trade by sea. ;f #ermany could not expand by sea it would do so by land. "he relationship between "urkey and #ermany in +,+A was excellent. "urkish leader 2n&er 4asha had in&ited #eneral Liman &on Sanders to reorgani:e the "urkish army, which had incurred se&ere defeats against 4an-Sla&ic forces. "he mo&e had infuriated the $ritish and the French go&ernments although they saw nothing wrong in enlisting hundreds of thousands of con?uered people in their own armies. ;n +,+A ;ndians, Arabs, Africans, Asians and others were thrown into a 2uropean war by the Allies against #ermany. %n Buly 7D, +,+A Winston @hurchill committed an act of rare impudence, which only brought the #ermans nearer to the "urks. For many years "urkey had felt menaced by the Serbs, who were 3ussia1s $alkan agents. Lately they had been informed that an imminent attack was about to be launched against @onstantinople. %n Buly 7-, +,+A the "urks sent emissaries to $erlin asking for help to fend off the danger. @hurchill knew nothing of the proposals at this stage' he admitted so himself, but proceeded to swindle "urkey out of se&eral million pounds sterling. ;n +,+7 the "urkish go&ernment had appealed to its citi:ens to subscribe enough money to buy two warships from $ritain. "he price was enormous for the impo&erished "urks, but it was felt imperati&e to counter the 3ussian na&y. "urkish sailors were in London on Buly, +,+A to take deli&ery of the

pre-paid warships. Without any explanation @hurchill sei:ed the &essels. ;n his own words( !%n Buly 7D, +,+A ; re?uisitioned the two dreadnoughts built for the "urkish Ga&y.! Without further ado the piratical $ritish pocketed the blood money of millions of poor "urks. "urkey had committed no acts that could remotely be interpreted as hostile to London. *et @hurchill decided $ritain needed ships e&en if they did not belong to the $ritish as well as the money that had gone to pay for them. @hurchill bragged of this high-sea robbery with arrogance( Fi&e hundred %ttoman sailors had arri&ed in London to man the first ship. "he captain asked for deli&ery of the ship. )e threatened to fly the "urkish flag and board his men. At this terrible moment ; ga&e on my own responsibility the order to stop by force of arms, if necessary, any attempt of this kind. "his decision was only moti&ated by the interests of our na&y, to which the two dreadnoughts would bring essential support. "he dates must be carefully noted( on Buly 7D, +,+A @hurchill re?uisitioned the two warships' on Buly 8+ he was ready to stop by force the "urkish sailors from taking deli&ery of their fully paid-for ships on the grounds they were needed by the 3oyal Ga&y. ;t was only fi&e days later that the $ritish go&ernment declared war on #ermany, on August A, +,+A. "hus, ust as officially backed $ritish pirates had sei:ed so many ships on the high seas, @hurchill had sei:ed in peacetime two ships from a friendly foreign country.

"his flagrant act of piracy pro&oked in the "urks a &iolent rage, which @hurchill flippantly acknowledged( !;t has been said that the rage thus pro&oked in "urkey contributed in throwing this empire into the war against us,! <World Crisis, p. 8EE>. )ow could it be otherwiseH "he "urks had experienced, before the whole world, the humiliation of being publicly robbed by haughty London corsairs. %n August ++, "urkey would buy from #ermany two cruisers which had successfully crossed the 6ardanelles, the #Iben and the $reslau. 4ositioned strategically in the $lack Sea they would from now on pre&ent any suppplies from reaching $ritain1s 3ussian allies. "he "urks had good reason to protect @onstantinople( in the first week of hostilities, the $ritish king had told his first cousin "sar Gicholas ;; of 3ussia, !@onstantinople is yours.! Although the old metropolis had lost some of its commercial importance to Salonika, Smyrna and the Sue: @anal, the "urks regarded it as the religious and historical center of the %ttoman empire. "he 3ussians also regarded @onstantinople as part of their heritage' the religious and cultural inspiration of 3ussia. "hey were also determined to remo&e the "urkish stranglehold on their trade. "he Allies had encouraged the tsar in pressing his claims and had signed in February, +,+- an agreement recogni:ing 3ussia1s ownership of the $osphorus, Armenia, Anatolia and e&en Berusalem, which, like @onstantinople, was another holy place for the 3ussians. "urkey was hesitant, despite its wounded national pride, about becoming in&ol&ed in the war, but as the $ritish and 3ussian go&ernments tightened the noose around its

borders, its leaders felt it had no other alternati&e. %n %ctober 7,, +,+A "urkey finally oined the war on the side of #ermany. 6uring February, +,+E the "urks tried to reach the Sue: @anal, without much success. #ermany dispatched #eneral &on Falkenhayn on a second offensi&e and the $ritish were dealt a se&ere blow that brought the "urks almost to the eastern bank of the canal and almost cut the $ritish empire in two. @hurchill later counterattacked in the 6ardanelles. %n 5arch +D, +,+E he sent the Allied fleet to blockade the $osphorus although Admiral Sir !Backy! Fisher and #eneral Lord /itchener had been opposed to the idea. "he most powerful French and $ritsh ships blew up one after the other in the hea&ily mined waters. ;t was a terrible defeat, with a third of the entire Allied fleet and thousands of young sailors sent to the bottom of the Aegean Sea. @hurchill1s &enture pro&oked widespread indignation and he was forced to resign from the @abinet. Got for long, howe&er. @hurchill donned a uniform, and accompanied by his dog, went on to strut on the Flemish front playing soldier and posing dramatically. "he 2nglish commander ?uickly returned @hurchill to the )ouse of @ommons, demanding that he not wear the uniform again. London, smarting from its na&al disaster in the 6ardanelles, decided to organi:e a face-sa&ing expedition on "urkish soil. "roops from all parts of the empire were gathered along with se&eral French regiments to storm the shores of the #allipoli region. "he campaign ended in a frightful massacre. "hen London decided to launch what was left of the

#allipoli corps on a new campaign in nearby Salonika. "his pro&ince was part of #reece, a neutral country, and #reece1s /ing @onstantine protested &ehemently the $ritish in&asion of his country. $ritish go&ernment, which had howled so much when the /aiser had taken the $elgian short-cut to France, saw nothing wrong in &iolating #reek neutrality. "hey ustified their action with the help of one of their local agents, 2leutherios 9eni:elos, a lawyer and politician from @rete. 9eni:elos patterned himself on the bombastic @hurchill, and belie&ed the $ritish were in&incible( !$ritain has always won the last battle of all the wars it has waged,! he was fond of saying. 9eni:elos was financed by London to plot against his king and to open the gates for Allied troops to land in Athens, where they fired on the population and expelled the king. @hurchill himself acknowledged that( !French troops occupied Athens and expelled @onstantine with full $ritish backing.! <World Crisis, &ol. ;9, p. 8-D> @hurchill saw #reece as a $ritish satellite, which would ensure the maritime link with ;ndia, Australia and the Far 2ast. A new king, Alexander, ready to do $ritish bidding, was installed. After the war Alexander, /ing of the )ellenes, was bitten by one of his monkeys, dying three weeks later. "he $ritish pushed 9eni:elos to take o&er. ;n order to gi&e himself the legitimacy he lacked, 9eni:elos organi:ed a plebiscite which would confirm him as ruler of #reece. #reek &oters ob&iously did not share his enthusiasm for his $ritish patrons( he was soundly defeated and fled into retirement on the French 3i&iera. "he #reeks

had instead &oted o&erwhelmingly for /ing @onstantine ;, who returned in triumph to Athens. ;n +,+=, howe&er, the $ritish had offered extraordinary inducements to 9eni:elos as a reward for o&erthrowing /ing @onstantine( "hrace, the $lack Sea, Smyrna and Anatolia <the present-day "urkey>. Bust as they had promised 4alestine to the Bews and "yrol to the ;talians, the $ritish had long recogni:ed that promises were the cheapest currency to pay for immediate fa&ors. "here would be no doubt that if 9eni:elos had expressed the desire to claim "ibet or )awaii the $ritish would ha&e promptly promised these lands. All these territories so generously dispensed in the darkness of secret treaties had, howe&er, been promised twice or three times to other countries in order to bring them o&er to the Allied side in the war. Go country knew at the time that there were other beneficiaries. "he re&elation of $ritish double-dealing would come in +,+,, when all those who had been lured into the war would come to claim their due at the 4eace @onference. "he $ritish had promised &arious Arab chieftains territory and influence as a way to offset the "urkish leadership. %ne sheik who took the bait was the 2mir of )e a:, a desperately poor tribal chief whose territory happened to include 5ecca, the holy city for all 5uslims.

CHAPTE 2..I) The <ear East !"indfo"ded "he $ritish 2stablishment had promised )ussein, the 2mir of )e a:, independence, land and wealth if he would turn against the %ttomans. London sent one of its agents mas?uerading as an archeologist to infiltrate the nomadic Arabs. /nown as Lawrence, he had adapted himself to the local customs, had dressed like an Arab and become known as a promiscuous homosexual. For three years he would tirelessly play the $ritish card in Arabia. "he "urks would make him pay dearly when they e&entually captured him( he would be tortured and brutally sodomi:ed. After the war the $ritish would not treat him much better( he died in a mysterious motorcycle !accident! in 2ngland. Lawrence had managed to subordinate the Arabs to London1s policy. )ussein was gi&en 7.,... pounds sterling, an enormous bribe in those days of sand, camels, dates and clear oasis water. At the same time, and e?ually in secret, another 7.,... pounds were slipped into the pocket of ;bn Saud, the Wahabi chieftain and main ri&al of )ussein. "his policy of di&ide and con?uer with which the $ritish had pitted all the 2uropean countries against one another for centuries was now being applied in Arabia. After using the Arabs against the "urks the $ritish intended to reap the benefits of the discord they had sown among ri&al Arabs( namely, assuming control of all the oil fields in the 5iddle 2ast. 2&ery sheik and emir was bribed or manipulated into bitter feuds from +,+E to +,+D. With the "urks out of the picture

in +,+,, Arab daggers would turn against each other while the $ritish would be free to exploit the newly disco&ered oil. "he wars and conflicts that ha&e wracked the 5iddle 2ast e&er since, and could well pro&oke World War ;;;, are a direct result of $ritish policy in that region, including one of the few promises kept( the creation of ;srael out of the ancient land of 4alestine. ;n +,+E the Arabs had full confidence in the $ritish. "hey were impressed by plumed-hatted emissaries bearing gifts and promises as well as the excellent $ritish public relations which preceded each encounter. "ales of ama:ing &ictories would be told to wide-eyed sheiks, who would then pass them on with e&en more embellishment. "he $ritish imported ;ndian regiments to fight alongside the Arabs against the "urks. )ussein was delighted to see the anti-"urkish troops ad&ancing towards 5osul and 6amascus. 4oetically he would say( !; am a fish swimming in the sea' the larger the sea the larger the fish.! )e dreamed of a unified Arabia under his rule. %ther Arab sheiks who had participated in the $ritish campaign thought likewise. "he "urks were finally defeated and capitulated at 5ondros on %ctober 8., +,+D. "he $ritish recei&ed the terms of surrender but they did not bother to inform their allies of it. "he French, the ;talians, the #reeks and the Arabs were kept in the dark until the first weeks of the 4aris peace conference. 2&erybody who had been railroaded into the war by London was coming to claim his reward. For the Arabs it was independence' for the #reeks, ;talians, French and Bews it was land. First 9eni:elos rushed to 4aris, accompanied by a shady oil

financier called $asil Kaharoff, who was later knighted by the $ritish monarch, #eorge 9. %n 5ay =, +,+, 9eni:elos was authori:ed by the conference to send a di&ision to Smyrna. %n 5ay += the #reeks landed and occupied Smyrna with a party of 7.,... men and proceeded to massacre the "urkish population. William Linn Westermann recalled( !"he most moderate e&aluation allows us to state that more than 7,... "urks-men, women and children-were uselessly put to death.! <What 5appened in Paris, p. +E,> After this brilliant beginning for the democracies, #reek troops massacred more "urks in Adin as they ad&anced into the heartland of Asia 5inor. @hurchill explained the campaign( !#reeks wish to destroy the "urkish army and occupy Ankara.! <World Crisis& &ol. ;9, p. 8,A> ;t was at this desperate time in "urkish history that an unknown man appeared. "he #reeks had taken the railway lines around Ankara and only had -. miles to go before entering the city. "he pro&idential sa&ior of "urkey was called 5ustafa /emal. A no-nonsense military man who had fought the $ritish and 3ussians with great &alor, he took it upon himself to organi:e "urkish resistance against the foreigners after the collapse of the %ttoman empire. Like 5arshal Boffre at the 5arne in +,+A, 5ustafa /emal had decided to stand fast at any cost. "he #reek army continued to pound "urkish positions, and managed to ad&ance some +E miles more at a tremendous cost in li&es. "hirty thousand men fell within a week of combat. $oth sides were exhausted but /emal managed to rally his troops for a counterattack. After three days of furious fighting the #reeks were forced to retreat. "hey held on to the east of

Smyrna and Adin with dwindling supplies, and appealed for help to their $ritish sponsors. "he $ritish @abinet was in no mood to help the #reeks, whom it had railroaded into this frightful mess and to whom it had promised "urkish territory. "he #reeks had ser&ed their purpose and they were going to be left on their own. @hurchill said( !"he #reeks are approaching bankruptcy. ;n fact it is none of our business.! )e added that he had heard that this was the &iew of his allies( !We ha&e had enough of this. %n one side one hears the screams of someone drowning and on the other there is the good ad&ice of a spectator who has not the slightest intention of getting wet.! "he #reek !drowning! was horrible. Acting on the momentum of their counterattack the "urks recon?uered Smyrna in an orgy of blood, like the 5ongolian hordes of old. Few people escaped the massacres. 2ars and breast nipples were chopped off and displayed by the hundreds on lengths of wire. Atrocities of gruesome barbarity were committed e&erywhere. "he #reeks suffered one of the worst massacres and defeats in their history because they had set out to get what had been promised to them by the !in&incible $ritish.! $elatedly @hurchill pronounced what amounted to a tragic mea culpa: "he return to 2urope of the triumphant "urks thirsting after @hristian blood constituted, after all the e&ents of the #reat War, the worst humiliation for the Allies. Gowhere had &ictory been so complete as in "urkey' nowhere had the

power of the &ictors been so arrogantly defied. "he achie&ements, the laurels for which so many thousands of men had died on the rocks of #allipoli, in the sands of 5esopotamia and 4alestine, in the swamps of Salonika, on the ships that supplied these &ast expeditions, all the sacrifices made by the Allies in men, arms, and money, all that was marred with shame. "he lofty pretensions of 2urope and the Cnited States, all the elo?uence of their statesmen, the humming of their committees and commissions had led the masters of the world to this ignominious end. <World Crisis, &ol. ;9, p. +D8> ;onia, the #reece of Asia, was no more. +,7E.,... #reek refugees fled to #reece. Among them was a young boy of ++ named Aristotle %nassis, who would later gi&e #reek shipping great prominence. ;f this could be considered a benefit to #reece it was the only one that came out of the ill- fated campaign. "he ;talians had watched the #reek debacle with interest. "he lesson was not lost on them. @onse?uently they lowered their sights, focussing on what they could take, not what had been promised to them by London. "hey were neither ready nor willing to sacrifice half a million men for far-off lands in Asia 5inor and would wisely occupy only a few 6odecanese ;slands. Gow that the #reeks and the ;talians had lost their appetite for the feast the ?uestion became( Who was going to dineH Article S;; of Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints en&isaged( !"he "urks of the %ttoman 2mpire should constitute a so&ereign and independent nation and the non-"urks should en oy the

right of autonomy.! "he non-"urkish territories had been promised to the Arab Sheik )ussein by the $ritish in +,+E. #eneral Allenby, the $ritish commander in Asia 5inor, made an official declaration confirming this commitment as soon as the "urks had capitulated( !"he French and $ritish go&ernments promise to help and encourage the establishment of indigenous go&ernments in Syria and 5esopotamia. "hese go&ernments would be the expression of the free will and initiati&e of the people concerned,! <What 5appened in Paris, p. +=+>. "he American delegate William Westermann states( !"his solemn promise was not honored.! And for good reasons. While the $ritish were promising a kingdom worthy of )arun al-3ashid to the Arab sheiks, they were secretly signing an agreement with the French go&ernment to share the entire 5iddle 2ast. /nown as the Sykes-4icot protocols, the agreement would gi&e Syria, a non-oil country, to the French and the whole of 5esopotamia, a land rich in oil, to the $ritish. "he Arabs, who had waged a costly holy war of liberation for three years, found themsel&es well behind the eight ball. Wilson seemed surprised that the $ritish could engage in such double dealing and made known his displeasure( "he Cnited States of America do not support the claims of #reat $ritain and France on people who do not wish their protection. %ne of the fundamental principles consistently followed by the Cnited States is the respect of popular will. ;n conse?uence the Cnited States want to know whether the Syrians agree Mto be under French ruleN and whether the

5esopotamians agree Mto be under $ritish ruleN. "his may not be the Cnited States1s business but since this matter is submitted to the peace conference the only way to deal with it is to find out what the people in these regions want. <World Crisis, p. 8E,> Wilson proposed that a commission be created to study the sub ect. "he Allies gladly accepted, knowing full well it would ha&e no bearing on the final outcome. @hurchill, who called such a commission !an old woman1s remedy,! was not concerned that after a long tour in the 5iddle 2ast the commission reported that none of the countries concerned wished to see a foreign presence and that they all wanted nothing less than full independence. "he $ritish interpreted the commission1s findings as meaning that the people of the 5iddle 2ast wanted to a&ail themsel&es of $ritish rule. After some acrimonious haggling with the French, who felt themsel&es cheated of oil, the $ritish would gi&e the French the 7EY of the stock which the #ermans had in&ested in companies exploring for petroleum during their construction of the $erlin$agdad railway before the war. A pipeline would carry 7EY of the oil obtained by $ritish drilling from 5osul to the French in Syria. "he French still felt cheated but accepted the $ritish offer as better than nothing. "he go&ernment sent troops to occupy Syria and expel the king and his family. %pposition was suppressed by force of arms. "he $ritish got the lion1s share of the 5iddle 2ast and successfully managed to keep the French ?uiet with

#erman stocks and Arab land. "he Arabs were not e&en a factor in the $ritish partition of the Gear 2ast. ;f the ;talians, #reeks and Arabs had been used and shortchanged, the Armenians suffered a hundred times more. $efore the war they had suffered frightful persecution at the hands of the "urks, who would not tolerate a non-"urkish people li&ing near their @aucasus borders. )undreds of thousands were massacred by bloodthirsty "urkish hordes, while e?ual numbers were hunted out of their homes and &illages and dri&en into trackless deserts, and left to die from thirst and hunger. @hurchill noted that( !;t is estimated that +.7 million were thus eliminated, more than half the entire Armenian population. ;t was an organi:ed crime executed for political reasons. ;t was an opportunity for the "urks to rid M"urkishN territory of a @hristian race.! <World Crisis& &ol. ;9, p. A..> ;n +,+- the "reaty of San Stefano had promised Armenia !the end of its long ser&itude.! Wilson had demanded that the 9ersailles "reaty include the consititution for an independent Armenia while the $ritish prime minister declared( !#reat $ritain has decided to liberate the Armenians from the "urkish yoke, to gi&e them back the religious and political freedom Mof whichN they ha&e been depri&ed for so long.! 2&erybody at the peace conference was in agreement that Armenia should be restored. Speech after speech stressed the necessity of helping Armenia. $ut it was all empty &erbiage( !"he independence and protection of Armenia,! said the American delegate, Westermann, !was one of those

problems which were talked about without the intention of e&er sol&ing it.! <What 5appened in Paris, p. +A-> ;t was another case of the hypocritical Allies pro ecting themsel&es as paragons of &irtue and democracy but following a base mercantile path. Armenia was simply a prop to make them feel good in the pompous halls of go&ernment and diplomacy' it offered no other interest-not manganese, as in #eorgia, no oil as in 5osul, no lobby like the Bews. "he $ritish were ?uick to sidestep the issue by asking Wilson to assume responsibility for the protection and sur&i&al of Armenia. Westermann said( !$ritish and French liberal opinion insisted that our delegation be shown the urgent necessity of establishing an American mandate in Armenia.! <What 5appened in Paris, p. +E8> Suddenly the Cnited States was saddled with a problem not of its own making. the "reaty of SL&res proclaimed Armenia !a free and independent state.! "he president of the Cnited States was !entrusted to determine the border between "urkey and Armenia.! Wilson, howe&er, did not see this dubious honor for what it was, and, elated, rushed to his typewriter to type his acceptance( !We consider it a @hristian duty and a pri&ilege for our go&ernment to assume the tutelage of Armenia.! <$onsai, uitors and uppliants, p. 8+,> "he Armenians1 oy in finding at last a willing champion was short-li&ed. As soon as Wilson returned to Washington he was totally absorbed by local politicking and ?uickly forgot his noble words. "here was simply not any political mileage in the Armenian issue. ;n fact, in the context of Allied and American politics, it was strictly a non-issue.

"he genocide of Armenians went on unabated. @hurchill acknowledged the tragedy( !"he Armenian race disappeared from Asia 5inor as completely as it is possible for a race to disappear from a territory.! <The !uropean Crisis, &ol. ;9, p. 8,,> "he American delegate in charge of !Armenian affairs! recalled( We can say right now that the Cnited States are directly responsible for the tragic fate of Armenia. ;t was a total sellout. We could ha&e sa&ed the Armenians if we had accepted a mandate o&er the whole of northern Anatolia. "he Armenian mandate had been offered to us and we dodged its obligations. Armenia has been betrayed by the ci&ili:ed world. <The Cew World, pp. +A--+AD, +E,> @hurchill lamented( !)istory will search in &ain for the name of Armenia.! $ut his go&ernment was ust as responsible as, if not more than, the well-meaning but weak-minded Wilson. "he Americans had not stirred the 5iddle 2astern pot and had not promised help to one and all. "he Armenian sur&i&ors were absorbed by the So&iet Cnion in the arid mountains of the southern @aucasus. 5any died of cold and hunger while those who sur&i&ed eked out a grim existence. "he American delegate concluded( !"he Western World has betrayed the Armenians. Who among us can e&er look an Armenian in the eye againH! "he Armenian genocide marked the final episode of the Allied intrusion in 5iddle 2astern affairs. 2&ery people had been used, betrayed and exposed to massacre. From this

mountain of death and tragedy only the $ritish 2stablishment and the Bews would benefit( %nly they got what they wanted. ;n @entral 2urope, the other center of death and ine?uity, #ermany stood alone. Wounded, menaced, at the end of its resources, it awaited the final &erdict. As the drama of 9ersailles came to an end #ermany waited at the foot of the gallows.

CHAPTE 2..) The 2iberation of !avaria While its fate was being dictated in 4aris by &engeful enemies, #ermany had to cope with the massi&e insurrection Lenin had unleashed on its soil. 6espite the ad&ersity of defeat and hunger, and perhaps because of it, a new patriotic spirit had arisen. #ermany had been completely disarmed' helplessly watching @ommunist terror spreading destruction throughout the land. While the peace conference was imposing a !6iktat! of punishment and mutilation, #erman &olunteers from all o&er the 3eich took on the @ommunists. "hey resisted 5arxist terror by practicing greater terror, the only thing the @ommunists understand. From $erlin to the northern cities and the 3uhr the #ermans had to fight in ferocious combat against the $olshe&iks. ;nch by inch they regained their country. "he center of @ommunist terror was So&iet-occupied $a&aria.

"he @ommunists deployed a 3ed army, =.,... strong and armed to the teeth' they had occupied $a&aria for six months and were backed, not only by Lenin, but by powerful Freemasons in the West. All the @ommunist leaders in $a&aria were Bews, ust as -E8TA of the So&iet bosses in 5oscow were Bews. "he ob ecti&e study of the e&olution of Gational Socialism must at all times consider how constant was the in&ol&ement of Bews in creating, leading and implementing the @ommunist re&olutions which plunged #ermany into a reign of bloody terror in +,+D and +,+,. Already in +,+- when #ermany was in a position to win the war, Bewish agents had sabotaged the war effort. ;t was the militant left-wing Bew, @ohen, who organi:ed and directed the massi&e strike throughout #ermany1s munitions factories in April +,+-. %ne hundred twenty-fi&e thousand strategic workers were led by @ohen out of factories on which the sur&i&al of the #erman army depended. %n Buly =, +,+- Bewish deputy 6a&id had demanded from the #erman go&ernment !a precise declaration, analogous to that of the @ouncil of So&iet Workers and Soldiers on 3ussia.! %n Bune 7-, +,+- he initialled similar demands( !"he 3ussian 3e&olution offers us an opportunity we must not miss. 3ussia will remain in the hands of the 2ntente as long as the #erman go&ernment does not abide by the peace formula of 4etrograd.! <Scheidemann, The Collapse, p. +D=> Go one in #ermany would e&er forget after the war that Bewish @ommunist leaders and operati&es had almost taken o&er the #erman nation."o state these facts is not a !antiSemitic! declaration, but simply a historical explanation as

to why the nearly all #ermans harbored anti- Bewish resentment. ;n the spring of +,+, Lenin1s main preoccupation was to strengthen his $a&arian satellite,which he regarded as the stepping stone for the in&asion of 2urope. "housands of ex3ussian prisoners of war were once more conscripted and sent to swell the ranks of the $a&arian 3ed army. "he Allies and particularly the French go&ernment were ready to exempt @ommunist $a&aria from puniti&e reparations if it seceded from #ermany. Lenin had installed three Bewish @ommunist tyrants <Axelrod, Le&ien and Le&inF> to enforce terror in $a&aria. "he 3ed army was well paid and well fed while the general population was star&ed. "he cycle of @ommunist terror was finally broken when Goske1s &olunteers, after days of heroic fighting, ousted the tyrants. "he @ommunist toll was hea&y, ust as in $erlin, where more than +.,... @ommunists fell under Goske1s blows. ;t is rele&ant at this uncture to note that it was a Socialist go&ernment, coalition partner of the @ommunists, which ga&e the order to li?uidate the $olshe&iks. "he so-called !moderate left! had not taken long to surpass the @ommunists in terror when it felt threatened by its partners. "he Socialists had tapped the patriotic feelings of the #ermans for their sal&ation, and indirectly, that of #ermany. "he delegates to the peace conference watched the life-anddeath struggle in #ermany impassi&ely. #ermany had emerged after four years of war and two years of re&olution

exhausted but ali&e. "he Allies, who desired the destruction of #ermany abo&e all else, were still determined to bring #ermany down, if not by $olshe&ik re&olution at least through massi&e reparations. ;t was no doubt a dilemma that must ha&e confronted many a re&enge seeker( )ow could a ruined #ermany be expected to pay the enormous reparations laid out by the 9ersailles "reatyH "he time had come for Lloyd #eorge and his bombastic colleague @hurchill to s?uee:e the pro&erbial lemon brandished in front of the electorate.

CHAPTE 2..)I !i0 ,one( 6espite the formal proscription of any type of annexation by Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints the Allies had done e&erything to re&erse this policy. %n the issue of !reparations! the American delegate Bohn Foster 6ulles had declared that the peace conference would be .. . ... in the presence of a contract limiting the right of the Allies Mthe armisticeN. "his is not a blank page, but a page black with text, signed by Wilson, @lemenceau, %rlando and Lloyd #eorge. "he Cnited States1 proposal is, in conse?uence that reparations should be demanded from #ermany but only those that were stipulated during the contract undertaken with #ermany concerning the

conditions for peace. <"ardieu, Peace& p. 8+-> 6ulles1s demand that the contract be adhered to met with immediate opposition. "he Serbian delegate 4rotich, who had so swiftly thrust his claws on , million non-Serbians, insisted that only #ermany was obligated to abide by the contract( !"he Fourteen 4oints,! he declared, were !only &alid for #ermany and not for the Allies.! <"ardieu, p. +D> "hus, #ermany would be bound by the agreement, but not the Allies. "he fact that such blatant ine?uity could be promoted seriously at the peace conference was indicati&e of the Allies1 frame of mind. "he Bewish finance minister /lot:, representing France, insisted for his part that the #erman- Allied agreement was only &alid for the day it had been signed. 6ulles reminded the conference( "he diplomatic correspondence of %ctober, +,+D had for its ob ecti&e not a basis for the armistice but a basis for peace. "he conference had been entrusted to deal with peace and nothing could change what had been accepted as the basis for peace. <"ardieu, p. 8+,> "he $ritish, who had already helped themsel&es to #erman assets, colonies and ships, demanded that !reparations be paid by #ermany for all the damages caused to ci&ilian populations.! )ere again the interpretation of the amount of reparations was left to the Allies. @lemenceau was une?ui&ocal( !;t is important to state that our right to compensation is not limited.!

"he Allies proceeded to draw up a huge reparations bill. ;n an unusual burst of candor the $ritish economist Bohn 5aynard /eynes calculated that the French reparations bill of 7E. billion was almost as large as France1s gross national product. )e asked rhetorically( !;f you had to spend the money you want for the reconstruction of France1s de&astated northern regions ; can state you would not be able to use it.! <"ardieu, p. 8D=> $elgian politicians were demanding reparations larger than the total prewar wealth of the country, despite the fact that $russels, Antwerp and %stend had been spared the ra&ages of war. /eynes calculated( !"he real price of replacing industrial plants and e?uipment! was !not &ery high and a few scores of millions would well co&er the total &alue of all the machines $elgium could e&er ha&e owned,! </eynes, "he 2conomic @onse?uences of the Peace& p. +.A>. "he politicians had e&en gone so far as to demand !the benefits and profits $elgians might ha&e reali:ed without the war.! 6uring the war the $elgian merchant classes had accumulated more than = billion #erman marks while trading with the allegedly barbaric !)uns.! @orrupt go&ernments and banks went on a fren:y of currency trafficking, made legal for parties of means and influence. At taxpayers1 expense the $elgian go&ernment bought postwar #erman currency at prearmistice prices, despite the sharp decline in the mark1s &alue by the year +,+,. As usual the people paid the price for this banking scam. Another &ociferous claimant was the prime minister of

Australia, !$ill! )ughes. Australian politicians were &ying with one another to do their $ritish master1s bidding. "heoretically an independent nation, Australia had declared war on #ermany, although it had no dispute with #ermany. 6uring the war it sei:ed the #erman 4acific territories, persecuted its own large #erman population <which had contributed so much to the country1s de&elopment>, as well as its ;rish population <who were in fa&or of remaining neutral>. As in pre&ious $ritish wars, Australian troops had been transported some ,,... miles away from their homeland to fight for the !mother country.! ;t is astounding that )ughes should ha&e the audacity to ask #ermany for reparations. ;f the Australian go&ernment had been so eager to fight $ritain1s wars it should ha&e been $ritain which paid the bill. *et here was the wily Welshman of Australia demanding( !;f an Australian sheep farmer had to mortgage his house because of the crisis caused by the war and if he ended up losing his house, this loss would constitute a war expense to be reimbursed by #ermany.! <What 5appened in Paris, p. 7+.> %ne thing these outrageous claims had in common was material greed of the &ilest kind. All clamored for billions against the loss of property, but nothing was said about the loss of human life on the battle fields. "he go&ernments and the super-rich bankers would fill their pockets, but not a dime would go for the millions who had lost their kin except for miserable pensions. "he bureaucrats, howe&er, fared a lot better' hefty claims were made on their behalf( !war! pensions were awarded to legions of office-holders who had ne&er seen a battlefield, and who had spent the war in the comfort and faceless anonymity of go&ernment

sinecures. While the Allies were counting their reparation billions, they had failed to find out whether #ermany was in any position to pay. #ermany had been bled white during four years of war on two fronts. "he armistice had ust depri&ed her of E,... locomoti&es, +E.,... railway cars and E,... trucks, which, in those days, was a considerable number. Within months #ermany had lost the coal, iron ore and other minerals of Alsace-Lorraine and Saarland, the agricultural produce of West 4russia as well as the mines of Silesia, all of which had been re?uisitioned by the Allies. 5ore than 7 million soldiers had died at the front, while 8 million others were too disabled to work in industry. 6uring the winter of +,+D-+, hundreds of thousands of children died of cold or star&ation because the Allies kept #ermany blockaded, despite the armistice, for six long months. "he @ommunists sent by Lenin had further undermined the country1s economy through strikes and organi:ed sabotage. #ermany was exhausted' her means to reco&er had been taken away by the Allies. $linded by hatred and stupidity the Allies wanted to extract billions from #ermany and at the same time destroy the country1s &iability. 4oliticians were prisoners of the blind hatred they had promoted for years. "he real crime of war, e&en more than killing, is to poison the masses with hatred, making it impossible for generations to return to reason and ob ecti&ity, thus laying the groundwork for the next war. Bust as they had fanned hatred to get their people to fight for the economic interests of the few, the politicians were now fanning hatred for

electoral ad&antages. ;n +,+, @lemenceau had had the power to lead public opinion to a constructi&e policy of realism and reconciliation, but he opted for &engeance. Lloyd #eorge, likewise, whether he belie&ed in destroying #ermany or not, was caught up in the hatred he had generated for four years, and oined the chorus for reparations. Wilson may ha&e disappro&ed but he seemed powerless to do anything about it. %n the Allied side a few men made known their misgi&ings about imposing such a burden on #ermany. "he 2nglish delegate, )arold Gicolson, showed remarkable ob ecti&ity throughout the proceedings.2&en @hurchill and )ouse, at the end, could see that the treaty would be counterproducti&e. Strangely, it was the economist Bohn 5aynard /eynes, then a uni&ersity professor, who appealed for a modicum of reflection and moderation among the delegates. )e produced facts and figures which showed conclusi&ely that if #ermany were crushed it would not be in a position to pay any reparations. ;t would appear that such an elementary proposition could be understood by anyone, but it was lost on the Allies. /eynes pointed out( !"he only consideration now is to establish whether #ermany is in position to pay what to whom.! )e estimated that $elgium had incurred losses of E.. million pounds sterling' France1s losses amounted to ,.. million pounds and $ritain1s EA. million. Another 7E. million pounds were calculated for the Allies1 client states. "he total came up to a little more than 7 billion pounds

sterling, or +. billion dollars. "his figure was, incidentally, +. times more than what #ermany had demanded from France after its +D-+ &ictory. /eynes concluded( We are conscious that these figures are correct. We can say that according to the commitments undertaken by the Allied powers before the armistice, #ermany1s liability is somewhere between +.= and 8 billion pounds sterling. "his is the amount we are entitled to demand from the enemy. </eynes, !conomic Conse3uences of the Peace& p. ++A> Later /eynes added( ;t would ha&e been wise ust to ask the #erman go&ernment during the peace negotiations to agree to pay 7 billion pounds sterling as a final settlement without sticking further to details. "his would ha&e pro&ided a firm and immediate solution. We would ha&e asked #ermany to pay an amount within its reach in exchange for certain concessions. "his sum would ha&e then been shared by the Allies according to their needs and according to e?uity. "he American delegation demanded that #ermany should pay E billion dollars before 5ay +, +,7+, two years after the 9ersailles "reaty. "he American report stated( After this day, it would not appear unreasonable to reco&er another 7E billion dollars. ;t was necessary, in order to obtain this result, that the other clauses of the treaty did not

drain #ermany1s economic resources. Furthermore the treaty should not obstruct by way of tariffs or otherwise the rede&elopment of #erman industry. Finally #ermany should be allowed to settle a reasonable part of its debt in #erman marks. <What 5appened in Paris, p. 7+E> 6espite this proposal, drastic clauses, which ga&e the &ictors ad&antageous tariffs and precluded #ermany from paying any reparations in marks, were imposed. Lloyd #eorge had promised the $ritish &oters !to s?uee:e the #erman lemon until the pips s?ueaked,! a slogan coined by Sir 2ric #eddes, and @lemenceau kept the crowds in a fren:y of &engeful expectation. 4eople were encouraged to present astronomical claims( e&ery woman had suddenly lost her weight in gold and diamonds' e&ery man had lost mansions and business empires. ;n the official claims list one could read( reparation for mistreatment, +.D- billion gold francs' loss of salary, 778 million gold francs' hardship to ci&ilians, +.7billion gold francs. Altogether the reparations bill reached into the trillions. "ardieu himself described these fantastic figures( We reached a total of a thousand billion, to be paid within E. years. With interest it would be 8,... billion, an enormous sum, almost unreal. *et if we were to abide to the end, the principle of reparation in full, we would also claim, in accordance with ustice, indirect damages, business losses, earning losses, etc. We would get to a fabulous total of D&EEE& )&EEE& ,E&EEE billion. <"ardieu, Peace& p. 87.>

With such figures exceeding the amount calculated by experts more than 7,... times, and championed excitedly by millions of people, there was little chance that reason would pre&ail. "ardieu took note that members of the $ritish @abinet had been unanimous in thinking that #ermany was asked to pay more than it could. "hey demanded that !the unlimited and indefinite character! of the debt imposed on #ermany !conse?uently be fundamentally re&ised.! Lloyd #eorge may ha&e agreed but he replied( !; take the pulse of public opinion and ; must take it into account.! !4ublic opinion! created by the press and politicians was taking precedence o&er sanity. "ardieu and @lemenceau did not budge from their position that France would !refuse to gi&e up its right to be fully compensated.! "hus the Allies would embark on a policy of s?uee:ing trillions from #ermany( a recipe for social uphea&al and e&entual war.

CHAPTE 2..)II !"ind e%arations ;t was an irony of history that the Allied intransigence in !s?uee:ing the #erman lemon until the pips s?ueaked! brought some unexpected benefits to #ermany. Saddled with astronomical reparations, the #ermans were forced to

work night and day. 2&entually the axiom that a nation1s wealth is in its work force would pro&e correct( #ermany would sur&i&e. %n the other hand the Allies, particularly the French, practically downed their tools at the prospect of endless billions coming their way. So much had been clamored about the billion-dollar bonan:as that the general attitude became lax' industry and producti&ity sank to dangerously low le&els. Why work when untold billions would befall them like manna from hea&enH ;t is likely that if France had not been granted #erman billions by the 9ersailles "reaty it would ha&e been a hundred times more dynamic at the beginning of +,A. when it was o&erwhelmed by the Wehrmacht in a matter of weeks. "he French had the misfortune to be led by billionchasing demagogues in the +,7.s and the Bewish-5arxist Leon $lum in the 18.s, all peddlers of illusion and defeat. "he decline of France during those twenty years of mismanagement was ama:ing. Although the #ermans had a mediocre go&ernment in the +,7.s, that did not stop them from working. $eset on e&ery side, the #ermans relied only on themsel&es to escape from an intolerable situation. "he Allies relied on illusions' the #ermans, on work. ;n order to reali:e their illusions the Allies descended on #ermany like &ultures, fighting o&er mines, patents and factories. Article D, @lause 8 of the treaty ga&e the Allies #ermany1s merchant na&y <the $ritish had already pocketed all the #erman warships>( !#ermany ga&e to the Allies all the ships of its merchant na&y o&er +,=.. tons and one-

fourth of its fishing fleet.! "he order not only included ships flying the #erman flag but also any &essel belonging to #erman citi:ens, e&en if it were flying an other country1s flag, either on the high seas or under construction. #ermany was also ordered to build 7..,... tons a year in its shipyards for the Allies1 benefit. "his was more than half of #ermany1s pre-war production. "hus #ermany would not ha&e enough ships to transport its necessary imports. "his was a deliberate mo&e to force #ermany to rely on foreign ships for its trade and supplies. 5erchant fleet operators sei:ed the opportunity to charge exorbitant rates, which the #ermans had to pay in hard currency. "here was no limit, and in /eynes1 words, they charged !as much as they could extort.! <The !conomic Conse3uences of the Peace& p. =7> After confiscating the #erman merchant na&y, the Allies proceeded to confiscate pri&ate property all o&er the world. 6uring past wars, foreign property had been se?uestered until the ratification of peace treaties, when it would re&ert to its legitimate owners. "his time, howe&er, #erman property was being permanently confiscated( "he Allied powers reser&e the right to keep or dispose of assets belonging to #erman citi:ens, including companies they control. <Article 7=- $>. "his wholesale expropriation would take place without any compensation to the owners. <Articles +7+ and 7,- $> As if this were not enough, the #ermans remained responsible for the liabilities and loans on the assets that were taken from them. 4rofits, howe&er, remained in the hands of the Allies. "hus pri&ate #erman property and

assets were consficated in @hina <Articles +7, and +87>, "hailand <Article +8E-+8->, 2gypt <Article +AD>, Liberia <Article +8E-+A.>, and in many other countries. #ermany was also precluded from in&esting capital in any neighboring country, and had to forfeit all rights !to whate&er title it may possess in these countries.! "he Allies were gi&en free access to the #erman marketplace without the slightest tariff while products made in #ermany faced high foreign tariff barriers. Articles 7=A to 7=- established that #ermany !undertakes to gi&e the Allies and their associates the status of most fa&ored nations for fi&e years.! #ermany of course had no such status. Altogether there were 7- nations, the bulk of the world1s trading nations, entitled to export whate&er they wanted to #ermany without paying a dime. #erman goods were sub ect to endless customs roadblocks. Wilson could not help but warn his colleagues( !#entlemen, my experts and ; consider this measure to be wrong. We belie&e you will be the first to suffer from it.! "he Allies were unconcerned. "hey went on to take control of the #erman customs in the 3hineland as well as on #ermany1s ri&ers. "he 3hine, the 6anube, the 2lbe and the %der would be placed under the control of Allied commissions. ;n all these commissions the #ermans would ha&e only minority participation. Foreigners who had not the slightest experience with the #erman economy would preside with dictatorial powers. /eynes elaborated on this great ri&er robbery(

;n each case the representation was arranged to place #ermany in a minority position. "he 2lbe commission ga&e #ermany four &otes out of +., the %der three &otes out of nine, the 3hine four out +,. "hus many of the local and internal affairs of )amburg, 5agdeburg, 6resden, Stettin, Frankfurt and $reslau would be submitted to a foreign urisdiction. "he situation would be the same if the powers of continental 2urope were controlling the "hames @ommission or the 4ort of London. Article 88, of the treaty ordered that 7. -. of the ri&er freighters would be chosen from among !the most recently built,! and confiscated by the Allies. 2&en water rights were monopoli:ed by the Allies, under Aritcle 8ED. Bust as significant was the ransacking of #ermany1s coal and iron mines, the mainstay of its economy' the $ritish sei:ure of the #erman na&y e&en before the peace conference' and the fraudulent transfer of eastern Cpper Silesia to 4oland. #ermany was suddenly depri&ed of nearly =+ million tons of its coal production( 8.D million from Alsace-Lorraine, +8.7 million from Saarland, and A8.D million from Cpper Silesia. #ermany1s coal production before the war was +,+.E million tons( it was now left with ++D million after the balance had been confiscated. ;n addition, the French go&ernment was guaranteed D.,... tons of ammonium sulfate, 8E,... tons of ben:ene and E.,... tons of tar by the treaty.

#ermany1s consumption of coal before the war had been +8, million tons. Article D of the treaty re?uired that #ermany export A. million tons of coal to the Allies each year. "his was almost half of what #ermany re?uired for its own needs. /eynes said( !#ermany cannot and will not grant a yearly contribution of A. million tons of coal. "he Allied ministers who said that #ermany could ha&e certainly lied to their own people.! "he Allies meant to subordinate #ermany industry to their exclusi&e use. ;t was totally aberrant( #ermany could not part with the coal needed for its industrial sur&i&al. /eynes was ?uite clear( !#ermany, if she is to subsist as an industral nation, ust cannot export coal in the coming years ... 2ach million tons going out from #ermany does it at the price of closing a factory.! <"he 2conomic @onse?uences of the Peace& p. D+> #ermany was experiencing near-famine conditions. ;t was at this moment the Allies decided to confiscate a substantial part of what was left of #ermany1s li&estock. "he American representati&e "homas Lamont recorded the e&ent with some indignation( "he #ermans were made to deli&er cattle, horses, sheep, goats etc ... A strong protest came from #ermany when dairy cows were taken to France and $elgium, thus depri&ing #erman children of milk. <What 5appened in Paris, p. 77.> Food shortages were such that =.,... 3uhr miners refused to work o&ertime unless they were paid, e&en in the form of butter. When it became ob&ious that #ermany would not be able to deli&er the coal ordered by the treaty, the Allies lowered the

amount from A8 million tons to 7. million tons. ;n +,+D #ermany deri&ed -E.-o of its iron ore from Alsace-Lorraine( 7+.+ million tons, out of a national total of 7D.= million. ;n order to keep its factories running, #ermany should ha&e been allowed to exchange its premium Westphalian coke for some of the iron ore from its former Alsace- Lorraine pro&ince. Without such an exchange, #erman metallurgy would come to a halt. "he French go&ernment was adamantly opposed to any arrangement posing a threat to its newly ac?uired steel mills. "he cooperation which would ha&e helped both countries ga&e way to cut-throat competition with counterproducti&e duplication. ;n the long run the French go&ernment came out the loser, but there again hatred was more important than common sense. /eynes commented philosophically( !4eople ha&e in&ented methods to impo&erish themsel&es and harm each other. "hey prefer hatred to indi&idual happiness.! <!conomic Conse3uences of the Peace& p. D-> "ardieu saw #ermany1s loss of steel production as a &ictory for his policy of re&enge. "he Allied sei:ure of the #erman fleet was effected in the same spirit. "ardieu explained( !We did not want money as a consideration for sunken &essels' we wanted ships, to make money.! <Peace& p. AE.> "he $ritish sei:ed a total of 7 million tons of shipping capacity while the French had to make do with A+.,... tons. Gow, if the #ermans wanted to bring food to a star&ing population they had to pay freight in gold marks

for the use of their confiscated &essels. %n the other hand, when #ermany had to export its coal under the pro&isions of the treaty, it was only credited with a third of its market &alue. "he remaining two thirds went to reduce-e&er so slightly-the billions #ermany was ordered to pay for reparations. ;t was totally arbitrary, and in the light of the suffering of the #erman population <children were actually dying of cold for lack of fuel>, it was utterly immoral. "ardieu, the 5asonic grand master, ga&e brotherly lo&e and charity short shrift when he read the Allied ledger( #erman capital has suffered in other ways, starting with the confiscation of its foreign assets. Approximately E billion MmarksN was reali:ed from its real estate. Assets se?uestered by the Allies and their associates represent from ++ to +8 billion and foreign loans come to 7 billion' altogether a total of 7. billion. "he loans which had been made by #ermany to the Allies, amounting to +7 billion, cannot be deducted from this loss since Article 7=+ of the treaty had transferred them to the Allies. #erman capital loss therefore comes to 7. billion at the foreign le&el. "o these 7. billion one can add other losses easily calculated( destruction of stocks, 7. billion' damages caused by the 3ussian in&asion of 2ast 4russia, 7 billion. According to Article 78E #ermany must deli&er to the Allies before 5ay +, +,7+, 7. billion marks in gold or its e?ui&alent in ships, cattle, manufactured goods, etc. . . . Altogether this means a =7billion capital loss for #ermany. <Peace& p. 8ED> ;f "ardieu and the Allies were pleased with #ermany1s loss

of +.E billion marks as well as with the additional burden of +E+ billion marks in war loans <it was a terrible and !fitting! punishment>, they also wanted #ermany to abide by all the terms of the treaty. ;t was an absurdity that only blind hatred could produce. "he Allies were in the position of a sla&emaster consumed by hatred and torn between wanting his sla&e dead and highly producti&e at the same time. #ermany, depri&ed of its assets, its coal, its iron, its li&estock and its ships, was still expected to produce billions to compensate the &ictors. When the ob&ious became apparent e&en to the Allies, "ardieu de&ised a formula !reducing #erman consumption.! According to "ardieu the near- star&ing #ermans were eating too much and consuming too much of e&erything. #ermany was ordered to tighten its belt by a third, from 88 billion to 77.D billion. $ut what would these paltry +..7 billion marks represent in the o&erall debt of thousands of billionsH A drop in the ocean, which would, howe&er, cause cruel pri&ations among the general #erman population. 5eanwhile the French and $ritish electorates were clamoring for the !)uns1 billions.! "heir politicians had whipped them up into a fren:y of greedy expectations, to the chant of !the )uns will pay.! ;f they did not, the politicians promised, !We1ll go to #ermany and help oursel&es.! UUU "ardieu declared to the &oters(

%ur iron production has umped from 7+ million tons before the war to A8 million, cast iron from E to +..E millions tons, steel from A.E to , million tons. Wool increased by 7E.+. and cotton by 8.+.. "he reco&ery of Alsace-Lorraine puts us on a par with #ermany for the production of cast iron, of which it produced three times more than we, and #reat $ritain, which produced twice as much. We are first in iron ore, second in cast iron and steel. We can export up to 7. million tons of iron ore. %ur cotton exports ha&e doubled o&ernight. "oday1s wealth, but abo&e all tommorrow1s wealth, will be the conse?uence of the 9ersailles "reaty. "hanks to the spoils of 9ersailles the French go&ernment had rebuilt most of the war-damaged areas of France, yet it demanded more and more billions. Although the war was not fought on their side the $ritish politicians were no less demanding than the French. Lloyd #eorge had promised the $ritish electorate to demand and get Z+7. billion from #ermany. Wilson had timidly admonished Lloyd #eorge that such a demand would !contra&ene what we had led the enemy to expect and that now we could not change our minds simply because we had force on our side.! <What 5appened in Paris, p. 7++> Fortunately, relati&ely speaking, for #ermany, Lloyd #eorge was a true politician, adept in twisting and breaking electoral promises. 3eality forced him to lower his demands to +. billion, which was the amount that Bohn 5aynard /eynes had calculated in the first place. French politicians, for their own part, had no intention of

compromising( hatred was their only reality. "hey demanded that #ermany pay Z8E. billion. "he press still found the amount scandalously low. @ertain French delegates expressed their doubts pri&ately( how could a ton of meat be produced from a chickenH $ut they would ha&e been torn to shreds if they had expressed their &iews publicly. "he American delegation tried to moderate these fantastic amounts, to no a&ail. Wilson was finally resigned( !"he French go&ernment is sailing a perilous sea, always relying on popular feeling. ;t has to go&ern according to the wind.!

CHAPTE 2..)III &erman( A"one Is &ui"t( "he Allies could not agree on a figure co&ering all reparations. "he American delegation had become skeptical of the astronomical amounts claimed by "ardieu and his associates, but it did nothing to lower them. ;nstead it decided not to specify a figure and left this task to a commission called the !4ermanent @onference for 3eparations.! "his commission was a garbage can for failed agreements and negotiations. ;ts official and high-sounding name was meant to gi&e the impression that problems were being sol&ed. ;n fact it was a way for cowardly politicians to place the implementation of the 9ersailles "reaty into the hands of faceless bureaucrats.

"he conference was gi&en a blank check on which to write whate&er figure it deemed appropriate. "he treaty stated( "he treaty determines the damages #ermany must pay without saying how much or how she will pay .. . "he determination of the total amount owed by #ermany is left to the discretion of the 4ermanent @onference for 3eparations .. . "he @onference will fix the amount, whate&er its total may be, without considering #ermany1s ability to pay. "hus the conference1s decision would be final and binding. Would #ermany be in a position to payH "his was ne&er on the conference1s agenda. )owe&er, pro&ision had been made in the e&ent #ermany failed to pay on time( #ermany would be in&aded. "he !)uns,! as the #ermans were called by the $ritish and American press, had ne&er been consulted during the entire duration of the 4aris peace conference, despite Wilson1s solemn undertaking that they would be. "he #erman )igh @ommand was ne&er recei&ed by its Allied counterpart. "he decisions of the peace conference were communicated to #ermany only after they had been agreed upon by the Allies, ust like a udge reading a death sentance-except that generally speaking a udicial decision would ha&e been reached by due process of law, with attorneys representing the accused and with the appearance of witnesses. ;n the case of the peace conference the accused was ne&er allowed to show his face, nor was anyone allowed to offer any form of defence. All accusations made were accepted as facts. 2&en at an ;n?uisition trial the alleged heretic, with a hood

o&er his head, was allowed to be present during all public proceedings. ;n 4aris there was neither hood nor debate( a condemnatory text was handed o&er to the !guilty! #ermans. @ount $rockdorff, the #erman representati&e, was shocked when the Allied commission would not specify the amount #ermany would ha&e to pay in reparations. "he Allies had a blank check, and e&en a #erman offer to double what /eynes had proposed was recei&ed negati&ely. "his represented +.. billion gold marks, which was 7E times more than the #ermans had imposed on France after the +D-.--+ Franco-4russian War. ;n that instance #ermany had in&aded France and une?ui&ocally won the war. ;n +,+D, at the time of the armistice, the Allies had not succeeded in setting a toe on #erman soil. %n the contrary, 5arshal &on )indenburg and the #erman troops were in control of $elgian and French soil. "he #ermans had laid down their arms because they belie&ed the terms formulated by Wilson. "he Allies had broken Wilson1s word. Gow, after numerous frauds and betrayals, #ermany was reduced to begging the Allies to name the price of its punishment. "he Allies had not only not decided on an amount but also did not know how this multi-billion-dollar reparation was going to be di&ided. Lloyd #eorge proposed, after much debate( !; suggest France recei&e E. -. of whate&er #ermany will pay, #reat $ritain recei&e 8. -. and the other countries 7. -.. "his proportion will gi&e France a marked preference. $ut ; could not, before $ritish opinion, go below the proportion

that ; reser&e for #reat $ritain.! "his proposal triggered furious haggling. "he $ritish, who had helped themsel&es so generously before the treaty, could afford to be generous with an intangible percentage of chimerical billions. "ardieu, blinded with hatred and greed, balked at Lloyd #eorge1s suggestion. )e dispatched his finance minister, Loucheur, to the attack( Loucheur declared this proposal unacceptable. )e reminded them that France had already consented to a compromise by no longer talking about priorities. )is final acceptance would be E=To for France and 7E -. for #reat $ritain. <Peace& p. 8DD> "his sort of haggling, more worthy of an oriental ba:aar than of the leaders of ci&ili:ed Western nations, would continue for months. "he Allies and their clients were all clamoring to increase their percentage of #ermany1s hide. "he go&ernment of Australia was wailing it had lost !more men than the Cnited States! and was therefore entitled to more money. )ad Australia asserted its alleged so&ereignty and declined to fight $ritain1s war, the ?uestion would not ha&e arisen. Gew Kealand was likewise demanding money for lost men. Lloyd #eorge put in a good word for them( !; am asking you to think of these bra&e little nations.! Finally "ardieu settled for EEY and Lloyd #eorge for 7EY, after hundreds of hours of acrimonious dickering, all for a few percentage points0 "ardieu had compromised little, since the treaty did not

e&en include his claim for damages in the percentages( !"his percentage does not include our loss of li&estock, e?uipment and property.! "ardieu and @lemenceau re ected out of hand #ermany1s offer of Z7E billion because they wanted !reparations! that would keep #ermany in a permanent state of inferiority, ust as they had led their electorate to belie&e. Allyn Abbott *oung, an American delegate at 9ersailles, explained( "he discussions were essentially political and their effects rather distant. What mattered in these talks on the economic state of #ermany was the immediate effect they had on the press, the MFrenchN Assembly, and the French electorate. <What 5appened in Paris, p. 787> @lemenceau had two considerations( being elected president of France and keeping #ermany down by any means. )is intransigence led to the resignation of both @ount $rockdorff and Bohn 5aynard /eynes. /lot:, the Bewish cabinet member, regarded the sum of Z7E billion as merely a deposit, the first of many( !"his figure is only a deposit on the total debt to be paid in yearly installments until +,DD.! Although how much was to be paid yearly was not mentioned, /lot: warned it would not be less than Z7.. billion in gold. "hus, for -. years successi&e generations of #ermans were expected to sla&e away to satisfy /lot: and his banker patrons. "he 4ermanent @onference on 3eparations established a repayment plan whereby #ermany would !issue +.. billion

gold marks1 worth of bonds! as initial payment. "he conference was empowered to change the amount any time it wanted, and would be free to enforce collection in any way it chose( "he conference will make decisions without being bound by any regulations, code, rule or legislation. ;ts authority is recogni:ed by #ermany under the treaty. ;ts essential obligation will be to control #ermany1s economy, its financial operations, its assets, its production capacity, now and in the future. "he conference1s decision will be executed forthwith, without any other formality. ;t will be empowered to change any #erman laws it sees fit and impose any financial, economic or military sanction in case of #ermany1s non-compliance with its rules. #ermany undertakes in ad&ance not to consider such sanctions, whate&er they may be, as acts of hostility. <"ardieu, Peace& p. 8E.-8E+> "hus the conference, backed by powerful banking interests, had absolute power of life and death o&er #ermany, not unlike the way the same banking interests exert power o&er the world1s nations today. "hey decide when austerity, de&aluation, recessions, depressions or change of policy will take place, as well as sanctions for recalcitrants. /eynes summed up the powers of the conference( ;t is the arbiter of #ermany1s economic life, deciding its imports of food and raw material, its taxes, etc. #ermany is no longer a people or state. ;t has become a commercial establishment placed under the control of a re&enue agent by its creditors. "he conference, which will be head?uartered outside #ermany, will ha&e far more power than the /aiser e&er had. Cnder such a regime the #erman

people will be stripped for years of all rights and pri&ate property far more completely than any nation in the days of absolutism. "hey will be stripped of freedom of action, or all indi&idual progress whether economic or e&en moral. %f this de facto go&ernment of #ermany located in 4aris, @lemenceau said( !"he situation brought about by the treaty is going to de&elop and we are going to benefit from it.! $esides controlling #ermany1s economy and politics, @lemenceau wanted to control #ermany militarily for many years to come. )is Allied colleagues disagreed strongly on this point. "hey saw no point in occupying #ermany as long as reparations were being made. Furthermore people in most of the Allied countries had tired of war, and it had become politically unwise for the politicians to maintain troops away from home once the peace treaty had been signed. @lemenceau had more in mind than securing reparations when he re ected #ermany1s offer of Z7E billion. )e wanted the e&entual detachment of the 3hineland from #ermany, which he en&isaged as occuring after a prolonged military occupation. "he intrigues of #eneral 5angin to this end almost destroyed @lemenceau1s long-range plans. )owe&er, @lemenceau wore e&erybody down at the conference and it was reluctantly agreed to let the 3hineland occupation stand. Shrewdly, he had appeared to compromise by letting the commission decide the fate of #ermany and the collection of reparations, but he had extracted in exchange the appointment of one of his men as president of the conference. Since all decisions had to be unanimous

@lemenceau was indirectly gi&en &eto power o&er the conference1s decisions. "he nai&e may ha&e belie&ed that Wilson1s Fourteen 4oints, which the #ermans and the Allies had agreed on as the basis of the peace treaty, would ser&e as the basis of a new age, one without annexations or exactions. "hat was an illusion. "he Allies1 agreement was worth nothing. ;t was merely a subterfuge to disarm #ermany in order to pursue a policy of gain, greed and &engeance. "he Allies had won a war by trickery, one which they had started by an institutionali:ed policy of mercantile &oracity. "here was not the slightest thread of principles or idealism in any of their actions. $ankers, financiers, 5asons, @ommunists, and Bews were the benefactors in this massi&e bloodletting. 5illions upon millions went to their deaths whipped up by a patriotism cynically manufactured by the financial leadership and its henchmen.

CHAPTE 2..I. 4Ever(thin0 /as Horrib"e4 %ne of the last actions of the 9ersailles "reaty was to brand #ermany !#uilty! with a red-hot iron. #ermany had to be exhibited to the world as so bestial a menace that no punishment would e&er be enough to atone for its crimes. "his was the only way to ustify the Allied mutilation and pillage of #ermany, which were unprecedented in 2uropean

history. %nly if #ermany bore the entire guilt for the war, like the blot of original sin, only if it was #ermany which had committed the worst atrocities, could the Allies ustify their treatment of the !monster.! So reasoned the a&engers. $ritish master propagandists had in&ented a long list of !#erman atrocities,! which had been used and recycled throughout the war, either to keep their unfortunate cannon fodder at a fe&er pitch of indignation or to outrage nai&e third parties into oining the war on their side. "here is not a serious historian today who would dare attribute the sole guilt for World War ;to #ermany. "he /aiser, there is no doubt, en oyed saber rattling, and would ha&e been better ad&ised to watch de&elopments in Austria at the beginning of +,+A instead of &acationing on his yacht )ohen:ollern in far-away Gorway for three whole weeks. )owe&er, $ritish greed, French thirst for &engeance and 4an-Sla&ic intrigues and pro&ocations were far more responsible for the war than all the blustering of /aiser $ill. 4oincarF, a bitter and mediocre little man, did e&erything in his power as president of France to precipitate the war. 2&en de #aulle later admitted that the war fulfilled 4oincarF1s !secret hope.! Although the weight of historical e&idence points the finger at the Allies, there is still ambi&alence on the sub ect among g the successors of the +,+, Allies. "hey are trapped in the lies that led to World War ;;, once more trapped in ustifying their responsibility in that mass killing. ;f today1s historians recogni:e the truth about the origins of World War ;, at least in the relati&e sanctuary of academe, the mood in +,+, was ?uite different. #erman guilt and

atrocities were articles of faith. "o ?uestion them was unthinkable if one wished to a&oid being branded a traitor, or worse. $ritish propaganda mills had de&ised horror stories to suit each country1s population. "hey were to be the cannon fodder, and they had to be con&inced. For four years the concoctions of the London propagandists would ceaselessly fill the ears of millions of gullible people. ;n big headlines the press kept pouring out enormous lies about $elgian 3ed @ross nurses being shot by )un firing s?uads' it depicted little girls praying to the 9irgin 5ary to replace hands that had been sa&agely chopped off by barbaric "eutons. "hen there were the )un submarines constantly seeking to send American women and children to the bottom of the sea. ;f these lies are laughable today, they certainly swayed people into a permanent anti- #erman hysteria in +,+,. "he cynical $ritish 2stablishment had used the stories to ustify sacrificing the li&es of 2nglishmen and Scotsmen, and after the war the same stories ustified the sub ection and dismemberment of #ermany. %ne of the biggest lies emerged as Article 78+ of the peace treaty( "he Allied go&ernments and their associates declare, and #ermany recogni:es, that #ermany and its allies are responsible for ha&ing caused all the losses and all damages incurred by the Allied go&ernments, their associates and nationals as a conse?uence of the war that was imposed upon them by the aggression of #ermany and its allies. "hus #ermany was responsible for e&erything, and was

forced to acknowledge that it recogni:ed it was responsible for e&erything. Gext came Article 787( "he Allied go&ernments and their associates demand, and #ermany undertakes to comply, that reparation be gi&en to the ci&ilian population of each Allied power and associate who was caused damages during the period this power was in a state of belligerence with #ermany by the said aggression either on land, sea or in the air. When the wording and implications of the treaty became publicly known in #ermany, shock swept the nation. "he president of the 3eichstag addressed that body( !"he incredible has happened. %ur enemies present us with a treaty surpassing in harshness e&erything the most pessimistic among us could ha&e imagined.! "hese words were uttered by a Socialist who, along with other Socialists, had proclaimed #ermany a republic on Go&ember ,, +,+D. "hey were no friends of the imperial regime they had replaced, but they were stunned by the se&erity of the treaty. "hey could not understand how the self-appointed champions of democracy could burden fellow democrats with such hatred and greed. "he /aiser had run away from #ermany to the comfort of his 6utch estate and they were left to assume his alleged guilt. )adn1t their fellow democrats in $ritain and France taken into account that they had o&erthrown the /aiser ust six months agoH "he &ictors took no account of it whatsoe&er, and for good measure the treaty made the whole #erman people

responsible for the war. "his was a hard blow to the Socialists, who claimed to represent the people. "he treaty1s doctrine of collecti&e guilt was an unprecedented absurdity. "he #erman people were no more responsible than the French, the 2nglish or the 3ussian people for the beginning, conduct and conclusion of the war. Gone of them had any say in the plots and counterplots of their respecti&e ruling classes' none of them were e&er pri&y to the secret talks and treaties that precipitated the war. "he people were all cannon fodder for the benefit of international bankers and their catspaws, the politicians. Filled with lying propaganda, they had rushed to their deaths by the millions. "he ordinary people of all sides were the ones who had suffered most. "he maggots of high finance had grown fat on these mountains of corpses. "he ordinary folk of #ermany, as if they had not suffered enough, were to bear the brunt of Allied punishment. "hey had obeyed the laws, therefore they were to pay for being loyal citi:ens. %f the leaders of #ermany in +,+A, not one remained in go&ernment in +,+,. "he Socialists who had opposed them were now ordered to pay up. Got one in a thousand #ermans or French could ha&e explained why they were fighting each other. "hey might ha&e repeated slogans that had been drummed into them, but basically they had fought for their fatherlands without analy:ing the reasons. ;f their leaders were dishonorable scoundrels they, the people, had no cause to reproach themsel&es. "he "reaty of 9ersailles struck at what was honorable in the #erman people' it was un ust, outrageous, humiliating and intolerable. Scheidemann asked on Bune =, +,+,, the day after #ermany

was handed the treaty( !Who is the honest man, ; do not say who is the #erman, who, loyally respectful of this contract, could accept such conditionsH What hand would not wither after ha&ing accepted for itself and for the others such chainsH! Scheidemann, in any case, would not sign the treaty( !; will ne&er put my name,! he declared at the 3eichstag !at the bottom of a treaty in which we would agree that the enemy can do with us whate&er it will. ; will not put my name to a treaty branding the #erman people with shame.! <Scheidemann, The Collapse, p. 7-A> Scheidemann made a proposal to his ministers( !We must declare openly and loyally to the 2ntente( JWhat you ask is impossible for us to perform. ;f you cannot understand it, you only ha&e to come and settle in $erlin. 6o not ask us to do your work for you' do not ask us to be the executioner of our own people.1 ! <ibid., p. 7-E> "he Allies re ected Scheidemann1s proposal with contempt. ;n $erlin, the go&ernment crisis continued. Go one wanted the !shameful work! of signing the treaty. Finally, 4resident 2bert called on an obscure politician to form a new go&ernment. 5atthias 2r:berger was named &icechancellor, and emerged as the real power in this impro&ised go&ernment. )e settled on a half-way measure( !We must sign the treaty and at the same time protest that we are doing so under duress.! "he )ouse was almost unanimous in replying that !it would be dishonest to sign commitments we knew we could not fulfil.! 2r:berger maintained( !; do not see what is dishonest about it. ;f you are bound hand and foot and you are threatened at gun point to sign a commitment that you will fly to the moon within

AD hours, what man, in order to sa&e his life, would refuse to signH "his situation is identical to the 4eace "reaty.! <$enoist-5Fchin, &ol. ;, p. 8A.> 2r:berger also led the )ouse to belie&e he could palliate the treaty1s harshest terms( !"he Allies1 demands are purely formal. %nce we appease them on these they will make concessions.! "he &ice-chancellor certainly knew better after the treatment the Allies had gi&en him at 3ethondes when he had to sign the Armistice. "he #erman 3eichstag was not con&inced and 2r:berger spread the rumors that Allied in&asion was imminent. 5any delegates panicked and took flight. And in these conditions of fear and confusion 2r:berger finally obtained the &otes for his motion of &ague acceptance of the treaty. Gaumann, the leader of the nationalists, warned 2r:berger( !We need you today but tomorrow we will throw you out.! %n August =, +,7+ a young student, )einrich "illensen, would kill 2r:berger in the $lack Forest. While the #erman delegates were getting ready to lea&e for 9ersailles, 5arshal &on )indenburg, who did not intend to submit to foreign orders, sent his resignation as chief of the armed forces to the 3eich president( !; prefer an honorable death to a shameful peace.! . . .!Whate&er sorrow,! he recommended to the #erman people, !you may feel, your personal opinions must be secondary. ;t is only at the price of constant work, carried on in a spirit of unity, that we will succeed in sa&ing our poor #ermany from its misery. ; salute you0 ; will ne&er forget you.! <$enoist-5Fchin, &ol. ;, p. 8=A>

"he two 2r:berger delegates arri&ed at 9ersailles. "heir hotel was immediately surrounded by barbed wire. %n Bune 7D, +,+,, they were led to the )all of 5irrors at the 3oyal 4alace of 9ersailles. Ashen, eyes downcast, the #erman delegates were gi&en a pen and told where to sign. Fearfully they put their names to the Allied !6iktat,! as the treaty was to become known in #ermany. "hus the fate of #ermany was sealed by a band of unscrupulous and mediocre little men. ;t was somewhat ironic that they chose 9ersailles, symbol of the French greatness their re&olutionary mentors has almost destroyed, to conclude their petty and miserable &engeance.

CHAPTE 2... )ersai""es &ave !irth to Hit"er Wilson had grown bitter and ailing as he reali:ed his Fourteen 4oints had been permanently discarded. )e had been unable to change anything in the final outcome of the "reaty. )e returned home a broken man. Lloyd #eorge, who a few months before was talking about s?uee:ing #ermany dry, was now uncomfortable with the results. )e felt France was getting too much and could become a threat to $ritish trade. $ritish policy was to k eep all 2uropean countries weak and not to make any of the

stronger. 2nglish delegate )arold Gicolson, who had pre&iously displayed an unusual degree of conscience, recorded his &iews of the "reaty( 3eading this treaty makes me sicker and sicker. "he reparation clauses are the greatest crime. "hey were written in for the sole purpose of pleasing the )ouse of @ommons and are impossible to implement. ;f ; were a #erman ; would not sign. "his treaty does not gi&e them hope for the present or the future. ;t is sheer madness and the worst of it is that these )uns would ha&e accepted anything that was reasonable. <When We /ade Peace& p. 7.8T7.A> Gicolson noted in his diary( "uesday Bune +-, +,+,( "he @ouncil of "en allows a "urkish delegation to present their case. ;t is scandalous that the "urks ha&e the right to argue their case while the #ermans are guarded in cages at 9ersailles. Wednesday, Bune +D. ;t is uncertain whether the #ermans will sign. "he less optimistic belie&e they are going to refuse to sign, that we will ad&ance on the 3hine and they will sign under pressure. "he pessimists belie&e they will hand o&er power to the $olshe&iks as /arolyi has done and we will ha&e a 3ed central 2urope. ;f they do it will be our fault. "uesday Bune 7A. 4eople here are relie&ed that the Weimar Assembly has authori:ed the treaty to be signed <by their emissaries> but rather embarrassed by the sinking of the #erman na&y. ;t gi&es us the appearance of being worse than we are, and absurd ... <When We /ade Peace& p. 777-77E>

2&en such enemies of #ermany as 5arshal Smuts of South Africa and Lenin were acknowledging for their own reasons the ine?uity of the "reaty. Said Gicolson, after seeing Smuts( !; had dinner with Smuts. )e has finally consented to sign the "reaty but only after protesting and against his conscience.! Lenin declared( !A peace of usurers and executioners has been imposed on #ermany. "his country has been plundered and dismembered ... All its means of sur&i&al were taken away. "his is an incredible bandits1 peace.! Lenin should certainly know. Bune 7D, +,+, was the Allies1 big day. "he 3oyal 4alace of 9ersailles had been refurbished for the occasion. @lemenceau was there sitting beneath an old inscription( !"he /ing go&erns by himself.! !)e was,! recalled Gicolson, !a shrunken indi&idual with sallow complection.! @lemenceau ordered( !$ring in the #ermans.! "he #ermans assigned to this humiliating task were 6r. $ell and 6r. 5ueller, two obscure political figures. @lemenceau said drily( !#entlemen, the session is opened. We are here to sign the peace treaty.! Go other word was uttered. ;n deathly silence the #erman en&oys signed, then the Allies. !"he session is closed,! said @lemenceau. "he guards who had brought the #ermens in escorted them out. Go one had the ci&ility of talking to them or e&en shaking their hands. @ontrary to all precedents in the annals of diplomacy, the #erman emissaries were treated like criminals or lepers. Gicolson recalled( !2&erything was horrible. We were later

ser&ed champagne courtesy of the taxpayers.! A few years later @hurchill would absol&e the #ermans and their leaders of deliberate wrongdoing( "he execution of this &ast plan for war was deemed necessary by the #erman leaders not only for the &ictory of #ermany but for its &ery security and sur&i&al. "hey felt no other option when the 3ussians mobili:ed. "he conditions of the Franco-3ussian alliance placed them in the possibility of a war on two fronts against superior forces. "heir sincerity cannot be doubted. <World Crisis& &ol. ;9, p. A8A> 4oliticians1 actions seldom reflect their words. @hurchill, like Lloyd #eorge and Lansing, had stated before the treaty was signed that its contents would ensure new hatred and conflict, a new war more de&astating than the last. *et, with full knowledge of the likely conse?uences, they all signed. "he peace treaty was in fact the &engeance treaty. ;t was therefore logical it would create a strong reaction in #ermany. "he clause on collecti&e guilt had the effect of uniting the whole #erman people, from extreme left to extreme right. "he socialist president of the #erman 3eichstag, )err Fehrenbach, had forseen its results( !"he sufferings engendered by this treaty will create in #ermany a generation whose sole aim from birth will be to break the chains of a sla&ery that was imposed on them,! <$enoist5Fchin, &ol. ;, p. 88A>. "he ?uestion was now( Who was going to break the chainsH #ermany looked for an a&enger to smash the "reaty of 9engeance. "he a&enger could belong to the con&entional

right and left wings of #erman politics or any other 2stablishment entities, whether financial, military, or religious. "he Socialists were numerous but had pro&ed themsel&es indecisi&e and cowardly. "hey had been sa&ed from @ommunist annihilation only by Goske1s iron will and fist. Gow that the danger had passed, they execrated and re ected their sa&ior, and had fallen back into their drab and mediocre ways. For +A years they would play musical chairs with one another with petty expediency. Always uninspiring, they would fail to moti&ate and they would fail to lead. "he Socialist fear of ideals and greatness pre&ented anyone to emerge to any position of real leadership. 2&erybody was le&eled down to a common denominator of mediocrity, the &ery essence of 5arxism. "he middle classes, bourgeois and industrial groups were ust as cra&en as the Socialists. "he fear of losing whate&er material possessions they had was all-per&asi&e and paraly:ed the right. $oth the left and right had fear and mediocrity in common. "hey had no faith in anything except the basest of material considerations. "he #erman people were looking for inspired leadership and found frightened sheep instead. Abo&e all there was a total absence of anyone with guts. Along with the politics of mediocrity came the usual corruption, confusion, and demorali:ation, the mainstays of democratic regimes. "he Weimar mediocrities would misgo&ern and mismanage their way until +,88, when #ermany had &irtually ground to a halt. "he #erman people withdrew its support from the grubby

democratic dealers, who were now the ob ect of loathing and contempt. A transcending unity was being forged, despite the combined opposition of the left and the right. ;nstincti&ely people knew that the press and the con&entional political parties did not represent them( they were instead an integral part of the cancer that was destroying their country. "he right wore the mantle of patriotism but ne&er went beyond words to exercise their patriotism while the left was capti&e of nebulous and incoherant 5arxist mouthings. "he sa&iour ol #ermany would sweep aside all these contradictory and outdated factors. )e would unite the workers in partnership with the industrialists on the premise that work is the real wealth and capital of a nation. @lass war only benefited professional trade unionists li&ing off the workers and the capitalist monopolies, both committed to the status ?uo, against progress. "he Weimar !mediocrities! had failed to free #ermany from the shackles of the peace treaty, which was the one issue uniting all #ermans. "hey had failed to gauge #ermany1s mood. 4eople were willing to sacrifice themsel&es for the high purpose of sa&ing #ermany but no one was willing to fight and die for the sake of a pork chop or a pair of socks. "he Weimar politicians were engrossed in materialism and ust could not concei&e of principles and ideals as a moti&ating factor. ;n fact they feared the popular will. "he mass of non-issues which were being presented at election times or filling the newspapers were designed to diffuse popular resol&e and energy. 4eople1s aspirations were side-tracked into dead-end roads. 4eople1s attempts to raise themsel&es abo&e mediocre

conditions were thwarted by the apostles of mediocrity. ;n human affairs people yearn for an ideal to belie&e in. 3eligious or political figures who fail to fulfill people1s aspirations are destined for obli&ion. ;t was when #ermany had sunk to its lowest le&el of political mismanagement, when corruption and depra&ity were foisted on the nation from the top, when all seemed hopeless, that the people experienced their greatest need for regeneracy. Whoe&er had the ?ualities to answer the popular call would find the power to restore #ermany1s freedom and honor. @ollecti&e impotence would be swept away by the man who would truly embody popular dynamism. )e would fight for national honor, social ustice, and class cooperation. Workers and industrialists all belonged to the same nation, to the same economic entity. @lass war was an error against nature, a cynical exploitation of the producti&e elements of the nation. ;t had to be replaced by a genuine collaboration, with all parties sharing in the social profits. All work and all workers would ha&e to be respected. "he sa&ior of #ermany would be not only a nationalist but also a socialist( a patriot and a defender of social ustice. )e would not be trapped in a web of 5arxist dialectics pitting members of the same nation against one another. )e would gather all the energy of all the people for the benefit of social and national unity and for the benefit of all the people. "his man who both would be a nationalist and socialist idealist' did he exist in #ermany of +,+,H )e was nowhere to be seen. "here were mediocre politicians, cogs in unrepresentati&e party machines of nationalists without leadership or re&olutionaries controlled

by aliens and railroaded into murderous uprisings for the benefit of alien interests. *et this man existed, and his time had come.

CHAPTE 2...I Hit"er6 !orn at )ersai""es Who in #ermany of +,+, would ha&e thought of )itlerH %ut of =. million #ermans there could not ha&e been a thousand who knew his name. Got e&en 7. Frenchmen, not +. Americans or 2nglishmen. $orn in Austria, he was not a #erman citi:en. )e had fought with &alor at the front. )e was awarded the ;ron @ross, First and Second @lass, for his courage. $ut who among the military officers commanding him would ha&e seen something other than a bra&e soldierH ;n Go&ember +,+D the doctors at the 4asewalk hospital feared he would be permanently handicapped( he had been se&erely blinded by $ritish poison gas in Flanders a month before. All he owned was a worn uniform and an old pair of shoes. )e was the unknown soldier. Ge&er in&ol&ed in politics, he had been an extremely indi&idualistic young man. An orphan in 9ienna, he had often had to find shelter in city refuges. )e was an artist and his drawings were ?uite good. After the war he was alleged to ha&e been a house painter or a cheap artist of postcards and match-boxes. As a literally star&ing artist he

may ha&e taken up such work to keep body and soul together but more than -.. drawings and paintings dating from his early life ha&e since been found, which means he must ha&e created thousands of pieces of art. 5uch of his work is remarkable' the drawn lines are firm and graceful. A number of his most important paintings are somewhat academic, in the style of +,th-century landscape artists. Some of his other works ha&e been concei&ed with great daring in inspiration with the contrast and combined harmony of the colors. )is portraits are sometimes striking, particularly his Gapoleon, which is as firm and inspired as a 6a&id. "here is also a light-hearted sketch of himself as a soldier with a short moustache. )is sketches were swift and to the point' in seconds he captured the essense of a situation. )is architectural plans were extraordinary in their power and clarity. "he whole history of )itler the artist has to be rewritten if only for the sake of art. "he same goes for )itler the poet. )is first poems, his hundreds of drawings and paintings, were not in&ol&ed with politics. ;n all his works there was not a single political caricature, not e&en of Fran: Bosef, whom he did not like and could ha&e easily drawn. 2&en after the War )itler ignored such ob&ious candidates for caricature as 2bert and Scheidemann. )is work was full of portraits, sketches and humorous caricatures, but they were of friends, fellow soldiers at the front or himself. ;n 9ienna he had intently followed parliamentary debates on occasion but was far more likely to be found watching performances of Wagner1s operas. 5usic was, e&en more than art, his passion. )e li&ed for music and drew strength from it.

Although he ne&er ga&e any indication of wanting to get in&ol&ed in politics while ser&ing at the front it was known later that politics were secretly on his mind. "he tragedy of the post-war era would pro ect him into the political arena. "he ine?uity of the 9ersailles 4eace "reaty created the exceptional circumstances that pa&ed )itler1s road to power. All the obstacles that would ha&e stood in his way were swept away by the treaty. )itler as a political man was born at 9ersailles. )e disco&ered politics by trial and error. First he lectured, on the order of his military superiors, to groups of returned ser&icemen. "hen he addressed little political gatherings with a handful of participants. Within a few months he reali:ed, as did others, that he possessed an extraordinary gift of persuasion. )is raucous &oice mo&ed people to the deepest depth of their subconscious. )e emanated the power which distinguished a leader of men from all others. "hroughout #ermany1s distress he had made contact with people1s true feelings. )e had concentrated the great national and social issues within himself. Alone and against all odds )itler1s extraordinary inner force and will-power would lead #ermany out of bondage and misery. Within months his audiences were con&inced that patriotism could not exist without socialism nor socialism without patriotism. "he con&entional politicians kept mouthing the same old tired meaningless party lines and slogans. "hey were trapped in them. 4eople felt also trapped in the endless and doleful platitudes. )itler1s ideas and elo?uence was striking by comparison' they had the gal&ani:ing effect of breathing life and hope to the &ictims, to the helpless. 2&ery word reached home. #one were the

political lies and disinformation' he spoke of real concerns and matters of substance in words that e&erybody understood and felt deeply. )e spoke with flawless logic and biting irony and released all the legitimate anger, all the energy that Weimar politicians had made it their business to suppress. "he public responded generously to this unknown orator who spoke to them so personally. Whether bourgeois or proletarian, his audiences felt )itler was addressing them indi&idually as full persons, not in the contemptible way politicians treat people as a mindless flock of sheep. )itler used no props or political tricks to impress the gallery as he went on addressing meetings wearing the same old raincoat. ;n a country not indifferent to pomp and circumstance )itler held his audiences spellbound by the sole power of his word. 5any of his enemies ha&e said his oratory swayed and con?uered the masses as if he had dispensed bombastic rhetoric but they did not reali:e that people found themsel&es in what )itler was saying( the uni?ue disco&ery that they mattered, that someone of charismatic power was speaking what they always felt and thought. ;t had ne&er happened and it was an exhilarating experience. 4eople responded to )itler1s inner strength. )e was not anybody1s man' he owed fa&ors to no one' the speeches he uttered were his, he took responsibility for his words and his actions. ;n an era of interchangeable, faceless politicians, frightened front men and alien agents, )itler1s mere presence shone out like a beacon. $y the year +,78 )itler was still feeling his way but at increasingly well- attended meetings. "his was the year of

the putsch. From Scheidemann to /app and LOttwit:, the notion of forcing e&ents was widely accepted. )itler, like others, made the political mistake of risking e&erything in a premature uprising. )e learned his lesson. When he got out of Landsberg prison, he no longer was in a hurry to start another confrontation. )e understood there could be no fruitful action without an impeccable organi:ation. )e also reali:ed that stable power could only be ac?uired through legality, resting fundamentally on the will of the ma ority. ;t would only be at the end of ten years of almost superhuman work and 7E,... meetings and gatherings that he would reach, as he had planned, the chancery, after con?uering the 3eichstag in the most democratic way. )e had been sub ected to e&ery opposition and obstruction by the 2stablishment forces( the press, the bureaucrats, the special-interest politicians, the go&ernment, the churches, the conser&ati&es, the monarchists, the banks, Bewish financiers and @ommunists, Freemasons, Social 6emocrats, liberals, reactionaries, and the army officer corps. )e and his party members were under constant physical attack from the &ery well organi:ed @ommunist 4arty of #ermany. At the beginning all his meetings were &iolently disrupted and many of his supporters were killed or wounded. ;t was not until he was able to organi:e a security system of self- defense that people could feel free to listen to him without fear of being murdered or maimed. 6espite the relentless attempts in curtailing his freedom of speech )itler perser&ered unafraid against all perpetrators of &iolence. "he order was out( shut )itler up at any cost. )e sur&i&ed and triumphed. ;t was unprecedented in history. "hose who aspire to leadership do so with the

backing and complicity from patrons or some other existing power structure. )itler was opposed by e&ery &ested interest in the land' his only backing came from the people. While all the rich and powerful failed )itler succeeded. "he answer lay in )itler1s ama:ing gift of organi:ation and his unshakeable belief that popular will must pre&ail. ;t took a remarkable man to bear with e?uanimity the odium and &iolence thrown at him by e&ery section of the establishment. )e kept his eyes to the goal he had set out to reach, forged ahead and left his detractors and tormentors behind fuming with rage and frustration( the lot of destructi&e and unproducti&e people. When the elections took place )itler had assembled the most powerful popular party 2urope had e&er known. %n Banuary 8., +,88 he would reach the 3eich1s @hancery in a strictly loyal way. $y Bune, +,88 )itler was democratically gi&en full executi&e power. ;n +,8E the Saarland, which was under Allied control where )itler had been pre&ented from campaigning e&en though he had been chancellor for two years, &oted o&erwhelmingly and democratically for )itler. ;n Austria )itler1s old political foes reali:ed the public had spoken. Former Socialist @hancellor 3enner and 9ienna1s @ardinal ;nnit:er had urged the &oters to back Anschluss, the reunion with #ermany, ust as )itler had asked. @ardinal ;nnit:er had e&en signed his appeal with a large !)eil )itler.! ;n the secrecy of the &oting booth people felt safe to gi&e )itler their &otes. ; ha&e ne&er seen such fer&or and enthusiasm generated with such spontaneity. @ountless flowers were deposited around busts of )itler by thousands of people, who ust wanted to show their appreciation. ;t

has been an enduring and galling truth for )itler1s detractors to swallow( #ermany had become )itlerian by the wish of the people, as expressed at the ballot box. ;n +,+, Scheidemann had correctly predicted( !;t is my firm con&iction that the political future can only belong to those who will ha&e opposed such demands <of the 9ersailles "reaty> by a categoric refusal.! ;t was )itler1s destiny to re ect and smash the ini?uitous treaty. "wenty- one years after the crushing of #ermany, )itler would arri&e in 4aris &ictorious( he had torn asunder the chains of bondage. %n the first morning, he went to meditate at the tomb of 2mperor Gapoleon, whom he had painted on can&as in his youth. Gapoleon had said( !4olitics is destiny.! As )itler had swept away the 9ersaille "reaty, $onaparte had on the +Dth of $rumaire swept away the bloody French 3e&olution. ; was in 4aris at the time and was sharing a meal with my friend %tto Abet:, #ermany1s new ambassador to France. We were both scarcely more than 8. and pondered the e&entual fate of the treaty. ;t had been found abandoned in a train during the panic flight of French politicians. "he grand signatures of the &ictors of +,+,, enhanced by scarlet wax, which were supposed to destroy #ermany fore&er, were now without meaning. "his famous treaty, which represented so much &engeance, greed and humiliation, had been left behind in the throes of a shameful debacle. ;t was there on my table, a historical curiosity. "he treaty was well and truly dead. A page of human history had been turned. Whate&er happend in the future, this &olume would now be obsolete, ne&er to be re&i&ed.

Lon Degrelle