In this excellent piece, Pat Buchanan makes some excellent points which conflict with the conventional wisdom about some of the most important events of the Twentieth Century. Many readers will disagree and perhaps even be offended by Buchanan's analysis. However, the author rigorously annotates his points, not just in footnotes but quotes of primary sources in the text of the book. Most readers have doubtless made up their minds about the causes of World Wars I and II. This book will, at the very least, challenge most readers to re-examine many of their opinions. While I do not accept all of Mr. Buchanan's arguments, they are worthy of respect, and can shake up one's settled beliefs.
The first theme that Mr. Buchanan challenges is the notion that the First World War was essentially the product of German and Austrian aggression against the reluctant Allied Powers. While Austria is seen as the unwise bully that it was, Mr. Buchanan points out that in his 25 years as the German Kaiser, neither Kaiser Wilhelm or his nation had been involved in a single war. Britain, by contrast, had fought ten wars during this period including the bloody and recent Boer War. France had been involved in numerous bloody colonial wars as well. Buchanan provides copious evidence that the Kaiser was trying to avert war even at the eleventh hour, and that Britain could, and should, have averted war by simply refusing to commit to a war in continental Europe.
Regarding this first theme, Winston Churchill comes in for savage criticism by Buchanan. Buchanan's theme is that Churchill's appetite and ardent desire for war was pivotal in causing England to guaranty Belgium's defense, which guaranty very likely made war inevitable.
Buchanan documents in depressing detail the utter fecklessness of European diplomacy both before and after the First World War. Those who feel it necessary to take heed of the opinion of the elites of these countries would do well to study this component of the book. Buchanan documents, as have others before him, that both the First and Second World Wars are primarily the product of wretchedly incompetent management of international relations on the part of Britain, France, Germany, and others.
Buchanan's main themes continue unto the Second World War. His main thesis is that it was Britain's guaranty to go to war if Germany attacked Poland that triggered the global war. He makes a strong case that this guaranty put the question of global war into the hands of a Polish government which immediately became intransigent once it received this guaranty. Buchanan believes that Hitler would have accepted terms over the question of Danzig and the Polish Corridor that Poland otherwise could, (and, he says, should) have found acceptable. Danzig was, after all, formerly a part of Germany until the Versailles Treaty, and its inhabitants almost to a person desired to be part of Germany. Given the facts that at the time Britain had only two battle-ready divisions, a minuscule air force, and that its Navy could not influence any German-Polish conflict in a meaningful way, Buchanan argues that the guaranty was essentially inexplicable.
Once again, Buchanan savages Winston Churchill, who was again instrumental in causing Britain to make the guaranty that Buchanan believes triggered "the unnecessary war."
Most readers, myself included, will not buy all of Buchanan's arguments. Regarding the fecklessness of European diplomacy, and the causes of the First World War, I think that Buchanan is on solid ground. Other researchers before Buchanan have found the First World War to have been an avoidable tragedy that the European states should have been able to avoid. Buchanan's Second World War arguments are somewhat more problematic. There is little evidence that any country anytime ever had much luck negotiating with Hitler, and it is far from clear that Britain's guaranty caused the German-Polish conflict or that its absence would have prevented it. Hitler seemed willing to invade neighboring countries on almost any pretext and with a complete disregard to ordinary Western standards of decency. Notwithstanding that fact, Buchanan makes a pretty good case that Hitler was an opportunist, and that he was not without justification in seeking return of the Sudetenland and of Bohemia. Had he stopped there, and negotiated return of Danzig without war (which Buchanan says would have happened absent the British guaranty) we might be living in a very different world. Who can say?
Personally, I still think that Hitler was determined to fight a bloody war against Russia and persecute the Jews and other nationalities and ethnicities that he hated. Ultimately, it seems that Hitler was bound to fight such a war, but Buchanan makes some case that the world might have been better had Germany and Russia fought their war without the Western Allies being involved. Each reader must decide for him or her self. I don't accept this thesis.
Mr. Buchanan's most insightful analysis is at the very end of this piece. He argues, as discussed above, that inept European diplomacy in which Great Powers went to war for non-vital reasons, was the cause of the World Wars. He then contrasts this with US diplomacy from World War I to the end of the Cold War. During this time American leaders refused to be easily drawn into conflicts and joined the World Wars only in their latter stages (particularly the First) thereby avoiding in significant degree, the horrendous casualties that many others suffered. Even more significantly, once America became the leading world power, American diplomacy repeatedly avoided war-starting confrontations by refusing, not without anguish, to fight wars for non-vital interests to America. Hence America's refusal to fight wars over Soviet interventions in Czechoslovakia and Hungary, or even the Cuban Missile Crisis. The contrast between the success of America in winning the Cold War without a World War (albeit with some sizable errors such as Vietnam) and European fecklessness in managing to start two world wars in 25 years, is stark. This is a truly fascinating insight which in my opinion is the major contribution of this book.
This book is interesting, readable, and provocative. It will cause most readers to at the very least re-examine what they think about the causes of the two great wars of the Twentieth Century. For that, this one merits five stars. Highly recommended. RJB.
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Book not in new condition
Haven’t read the book yet so this review isn’t about the book itself but the condition thebook is in. It just showed up and has marks all over the cover and is bent. I paid new book prices for a book that’s not in “new condition”.
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