The last known World War I veteran died Tuesday in London, England at the care home where she lived at the age of 110.
It’s a sad day when one of the most pivotal moments in history passes from living memory.
WWI, known at the time as the “Great War” and “The War to End all Wars,” was perhaps neither. Certainly it was not the last war, and it did little but set the stage for the still greater conflagration which was to engulf the world just a generation later.
It, was however, a turning point.
The nation-state, already on the rise, became ascendant, and it was the death-knell of monarchy in Europe as World War II would be the death-knell of empire world wide. It was a conflict which saw the first use of the airplane in combat and the invention of the tank and the rise of modern armored warfare, as well as the horrors of chemical weapons the world community wisely locked away.
World War I was, in many ways, the death of the world’s innocence. We realized, all too well, that everything was becoming interconnected. That what happened in one nation affected others.
The aftermath was the first attempt at a world government as well — the ill-fated League of Nations, which Woodrow Wilson, in about the only decent move of his presidency, wisely kept us out of. One only wishes Harry Truman had realized the dangers when he allowed us to join the League’s more dangerous cousin the United Nations.
WWI is, in many ways, a forgotten war. Swallowed by it’s larger sibling World War II and lost to the seething tensions of the Cold War, Korea and Viet Nam.
Still there are lessons to be learned from that conflict which ring true today.
We must remember, as we try to bring some sort of order to the chaos of Afghanistan that it is not enough to defeat an enemy. If you are not prepared to destroy him utterly, as we were not prepared to do in Germany in 1919, you must leave him his pride. If you do not, you create a more dangerous enemy in the future.
Wilson, in about the only other decent thing he did, argued strongly against the Versailles Treaty, knowing that the humbling of the proud German people would lead to trouble down the road.
And so it did. Adolf Hitler used the humiliation of Versailles to fan the nationalism which swept him to power. Indeed, he made French leaders sign their capitulation in the same rail car in which the Armistice had been signed decades before. And then blew it up.
The ultimate lesson of WWI seems to be “never do an enemy a small injury.”
As I’m reading reports coming out of Afghanistan these days, in particular by Lieutenant Colonel Daniel L. Davis which seem to indicate there is little to no progress in that country I fear that is exactly what we have done.
We may find that, as Viet Nam, we have won all the battles and yet lost the war. And in the process made ourselves a yet more dangerous enemy in a resurgent Taliban, which now knows we are not unbeatable. As this war between the West and radical Islam continues, this clash of civilizations, losing that aura of invincibility could be the most catastrophic loss of all.
Thought-provoking. Thank you.
When we invaded Afghanistan, I believed we were making a very serious mistake. The only way to win that type of war is to adopt quick, but devastating in-and-out surgical strikes or pulverize the enemy into dust. No middle ground. Sadly, that moment of foresight seems to have been all too accurate.
As you say: “We may find that, as [with] Viet Nam, we have won all the battles and yet lost the war.” In the process we’ve alienated potential allies and reinvigorated foes. FUBAR.
Lodge led the fight against it.
Whoa, there, Patrick. Need to correct your assertion about Woodrow Wilson’s position re League of Nations. He was most definitely FOR the League, more completely than any other head of state in his time. In fact, Wilson ruined his health making whistle stop tours across the U.S. speaking in favor of Senate ratification of American membership. It was at the height of public debate over League membership that he suffered a disabling stroke, leaving him unable to argue against Henry Cabot Lodge and other Senate opponents of membership.
I believe that he also supported all the most punitive provisions of the Versailles Treaty as applied to Germany.
Aye, milord Duke.
Wilson was a leading proponent of the LoN and also wanted “world courts” and “global government”. He was and remains one of the original Progressive American politicians and, IMO, one of the main reasons the USoA is where it finds itself now.
As I remember from grade-school history, Wilson didn’t keep us out of the LON. In fact, it was a pet project of his, and the heartbreak of his life that the REPUBLICAN congress refused to ratify the treaty.
boy, I should have read the rest of this before commenting about your LON error: You’re wrong about the Ver. treaty: Wilson was a leading proponent of the treaty punishing Germany. And what do mean “never do an enemy a SMALL hurt”? Germany was devastated by war, one of the reasons that allowed Hitler’s rise. Geez, do some research before you write a column. I count 3 major errors without even getting into your other points.
I’ll take my lumps on the League of Nations, however Wilson strongly opposed the reparations components of the treaty, arguing destroying Germany’s economy was not in the best interests of the world community.
As for “a small injury” we did exactly that. We did not destroy Germany utterly, as we were finally forced to do in WWII, but rather simply humiliated them and ruined their economy — setting the stage for the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Steve’s note below is correct — “but France and Great Britain wanted to carve up the German and the Ottoman Empires’ former possessions and get some payback for their millions of dead. The modern middle east — Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, the lack of a Kurdish state — all sprang from that treaty”
Much of the destruction which wracked the world from 1939 on can be laid directly at the feet of WWI. I repeat, if you are not prepared to destroy an enemy utterly, do not fight him.
If I remember correctly, other comments are correct — Wilson was a big proponent of the League of Nations. For better or worse, the creation of the League was tied to the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended WWI. The terms imposed on Germany were much harsher than those that Wilson officially wanted based on his “Fourteen Points”, but France and Great Britain wanted to carve up the German and the Ottoman Empires’ former possessions and get some payback for their millions of dead. The modern middle east — Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, the lack of a Kurdish state — all sprang from that treaty.
WWI might have been the true beginning of the end for Western civilization. All the accomplishments we prided ourselves on – our superior culture, our science and technology, our industry and economy, our sophisticated politics – were the very things that enabled us to commit an act of mass barbarity. Our inferiors, the “darker races” and our loutish ancestors, never conceived anything as gruesome as “civilized warfare.” The only lesson Europeans learned from WWI was, “Everything we believed about ourselves was wrong.” We’ve been living with the political and intellectual consequences ever since.
Bugs writes, ‘Our inferiors, the “darker races” and our loutish ancestors, never conceived anything as gruesome as “civilized warfare.’
I disagree with that point. Those living in more primitive cultures very often have embraced frequent violence within the group, warfare with outsiders, slavery and various forms of depravity. They just haven’t had the technology to do what Europe did in World Wars I and II. Genocide was frequently committed in the pre-Columbian Americas, and in other non-Western cultures throughout the centuries, from prehistory onwards.
You’re on to something, though, about how World War I might have been the beginning of the end for Western Civilization. The widespread confidence in the greatness of the West started to crumble faster afterwards. But there were certain seeds for the decline planted before the war, such as Darwinism, Marxism and other decadent trends, and they spread virulently after the Armistice.
– of Man, a Federation of the World!