Journal of International Relations - 1922 - 4 PDF

Liquidating Our War Illusions Author(s): Melvin M. Knight Source: The Journal of International Relations, Vol. 12, No.
4 (Apr., 1922), pp. 485-504 Published by: Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29738514 . Accessed: 04/10/2013 01:26
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LIQUIDATING OURWAR ILLUSIONS

By Melvin M. Knight, Ph. D., Assisstant Professor of History,
Barnard I. The Rise of the College of Public Opinion
Importance in War Morale
Previous to the French Revolution,

play were a very important the rule, and morale concern. the nation The lev?e en masse in arms" r?le in war. in their French as a was
public opinion did not

Professional armies a matter
of civilian covered
hardly leaders dis? Revolutionary instru? formidable military well established in both
ranks was
ment.
of "the France before
By the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, the idea

pretty and Germany, though nearly a century was to elapse was organized into in Europe every nation to the last person down and the last wheel the whole one revolution of nation involved intimate the most made in war, pub? concerns of
practically a war machine, of industry. With lic morale became
governments. The industrial trialized lected into and districts
literacy
an economic
asset,
and illiteracy practically disappeared from the highly indus?

of the world. at work which demanding in towns, conscious mail col? class people Working and more threw them more opportunity, and steamboat integrated and the education building, nations im? and
a voice
groups in affairs. service and
proved
Railway the telegraph the radio
bound the world together with a web of trade.

telephone, paper made the cable, the world's outfit common
Finally
daily
the
news? almost
property happenings In this way the tribal spirit was given a instantaneously. was national The narrowness of local provincialism scope. an to transferred entire country. With the standardization
of news
citizens
identical
in every
or similar stimuli
country. Further, 485
reached millions
rapid communication
of
486 over a world wide
MELVIN M. KNIGHT area
to make served all conscious of any affronts to the citizen of any country real or alleged offered remote region of the world. in the most In 1800, the insult? an un? in of American Timbuctoo would have remained ing
known to the State Department for months and probably forever to the mass of the citizens; in 1900, it would have
inflamed twenty-four American hours. opinion in every class of citizens in
Public opinion helped form the policies of governments

as early as the twenties of the last century, when Lord Byron over the Greek war of indepen? others and inflamed Europe
dence. William Howard Russell

mortalized thirty ministry. famous nifique, the years himself later. Florence remark mais
of the London Times im?

War and the
as the correspondent of the Crimean of blunders government Learning Nightingale's attempt to reorganize
the sufferings of soldiers, the English scandalously inefficient

ce n7est pas
public turned out a provoked the
hospital
General la guerre"
service
of the French
"C'est mag? Bosquet: in Eng? Public opinion
land sided with her?the

exclusive same The
conduct of war had ceased to be

at the outbreak and
of generals. province was in America Russell
during the first year of our Civil War.

one of the best war of his departure no cable battle form
His dispatches form
books ever written. The circumstances a commentary on the tremendous im? for his account twice and reach of the this
portance public opinion had achieved by 1862. There being

in operation, it took a month of Bull Run to cross the ocean Fair illusions as it looks at the
in print. country to the Northern the country. From that at least
now, it did such violence time that the writer was
dubbed "Bull Run Russell" and practically hounded out of

time forward, since declarations of war must in by the public concurred and the nominally actual hostilities carried on by whole governments nations, with the problem of mobilizing and gal? grappled seriously public sides device, For instance, opinion. in the Franco-Prussian which has never been it was war improved carefully of 1870. upon done The except
be
vanizing by both natural
LIQUIDATING in detail of execution, force this version
OUR WAR
ILLUSIONS
487
war, reiterated suggestion, or imprisonment. Added
of the "epic" the entire public by upon practically critics by threats and silence serious is to create complication of this task of pro?
a one-sided
paganda
neutral II.
is lent by the importance of gaining and holding

sympathy. The Generation of the Dualistic Wartime
Epic
The material facts about
in 1914
the outbreak of the war seem to
be:
That both England and Germany tried to prevent a general war at the end of July, 1914, but were checkmated which inevitably by the Russian general mobilization,
great conventions the war known because of secret treaties of none and of to the parliaments which precipitated were known involved and and
produced military
the countries involved.

of the Austro-Russian
This takes us back to the merits

quarrel the war. to and
The South-Slav
activities
from
against the integrity of Austria

1908-14, They treaties alliances France
especially Hungary, backed by the Tsar's and England through
government. the secret
conventions, conventions. between
just as the opposing

involved This another set pivotal question
activities
of secret
of the Dual Monarchy

relations
of Austro-Serbian
1908 and 1914 has recently received a good deal of atten? tion; but the candid historian must suspect that there is yet a good deal which the diplomats have not revealed. So great is the hysteria at the outbreak of a war that the
various publics medodramatic involved type. will swallow Recognition of the cheapest myths of the importance of fear
inwar psychology
is seen in the stress laid by both sides upon
is the aggressor and that one's coun? that the enemy proofs of invasion. Each side attacks in imminent is danger try are for on but of these assaults the other's fact, points epic no candid since of and neutral home consumption, weighing the evidence is tolerated in either warring camp.
Let us attempt a brief historical analysis of the allied war

to the American the one best known reader. epic of 1914-18, since the story has fully do no harm now, It can surely
488 served its
MELVIN M. KNIGHT
to of carrying purpose public morale through ver? to this The Central Allied Powers, according victory. an assault upon their sion of the war, had long premeditated in view. dominion with less than world nothing neighbors, Seizing German 1914, loving of an assassinated the the occasion upon archduke, in July, in Potsdam called a secret meeting Kaiser to force a war upon the peace at which it was decided
and Russia and unprepared Entente powers?France, " was or cordial This Entente understanding" England. of central Alliance the Triple whereas defensive, purely war. and France, forged an aggressive deliberately Europe
especially England, tried desperately to settle the dispute peaceably, but Austria, backed and egged on by Germany,
followed impossible demands upon Serbia by an armed in?
vasion.
south
Even
though Russia had begun mobilizing
in the
a general European have been conflict might (only), mobilized off not broken had avoided negotiations, Germany a France her whole army and attacked through Belgium, were under peculiarly all nations whose country neutrality act outraged the not This to violate. sacred obligations for made her uneasy and incidentally of England, into France's safety and for her own, so that she was drawn Ger? to intervene. bound in honor She was the conflict. sensibilit?s many treated her her sacred covenants behaved in as mere such scraps a manner of of paper as to
in entering Belgium,
Moreover, the German place They swept soldiers
since she had signed the 1839 treaty.

nation pale beyond like Huns, the country wantonly the civilization. raping
through
and burning,
prisoners.
cutting off children's hands
and crucifying
the war epic, on the contrary, to the German According defensive been for strictly had always pur? Triple Alliance member fourth its tentative case of In the Rumania, poses. the rulers, the parliaments between personal The even it. ratified however, Triple Entente, having since 1892 was of a very different had slowly grown which since with Serbia had been Russia character. scheming it was merely never 1908 to dissolve the Austro-Hungarian Empire. France
backed Russia
in the hope of getting Alsace and Lorraine,
liquidating which
our
war
illusions from the German
489 states
provinces
she had wrenched
in the 17th century and lost in the 19th.

the coalition German trade because rivalry, railway threatening of jealousy German because of the
England was
menace Southwest and out
in
of
increasing Eas? Africa
cut her of
Cape-to-Cairo Africa wa?
in two, because German her diamond monopoly,
jealousy of the German r?le in the development of Turkey. Thoroughly laid plans of England and France included the
of supposedly with Germany, France her on and her When Archduke use neutral the allies Belgium of collusion even as a military the base against government. Belgian to sap Germany's attempted ready with to be obvious the sprung, connivance
had
defensive
back. Austrian
strength by a secret agreement with Italy behind

the trap was was murdered
and Jaur?s, the part of Serbia, the one Frenchman who to was and threatened foil the likewise expose seriously plot, was Russia assassinated. the first great nation to decree a general mobilization, but kept the fact secret?so that
Germany would be obliged to mobilize

England and France could throw dust
in self-defence, but
in neutral eyes and
This in spite of the pose as coming in on the defensive. fact that the Russian mobilization involved the French and the French the English! Belgium, secretly one of the agres?
sive group, had to be treated sternly because her citizens
put themselves beyond the pale of civilization by sniping, pouring boiling liquids on captured Germans and other
nameless African methods France into Europe black brought thus herself for horrible savages, making responsible of warfare such as had not been tolerated in western Moreover, front by starved the French aerial German attacks, women had begun just as and the the chil? atrocities.
for centuries. Europe war on the western
Russians
mobilization.
had begun it on the eastern by the first general

England
dren by a flagrantly illegal high-seas blockade. Hardest of all to endure, the group of allied nations which had cunningly planned all this ruin were hypocritically attempting to lay the blame for it at the door of the intended victims. Such
was the German version.
490 Both
MELVIN M. KNIGHT of truth and falsehood. Neither
epics were mixtures opinion with
side experienced much

public but
difficulty
in innoculating
In the opening
its own
of
its version. had
months and
the struggle civilians and soldiers thought remarkably alike;

before many months passed a large growing
body of soldiers, men who had been exposed to death on the battlefield until they had gotten used to it, began to separate
from This the the sharp conventional cleavage of body between the in the rear. of public opinion of the front and the psychology rear marked of war the beginning
psychology disillusionment. III. The
Development
and Mechanisms Propaganda
of Wartime
In the meantime ing their all their war
resources
the governments of ingenuity epics. Their
involved to convert propaganda
were
employ? to neutrals own
respective
to their
people was not quite the same as it would have been if it had not been designed to fit neutral opinion as well.
one colossal blunder. made Germany to pay for her war as she went along, It was but sound finance was disastrous it blockade
diplomacy.
the western
If Germany had sold big issues of war bonds in

hemispheres, the questions of high-seas
and arbitrary allied definitions of contraband would have been dealt with very differently. The Americas would have had a direct incentive to listen to both epics impartially, to insist on both sides staying within international legality.
Surely no tionality and the kinds the properly can doubt reflective informed, that the unrestricted off from the sea were of any na? person warfare submarine of all central Europe of aspects balancing were the Germans
shutting complete of goods from across flagrant na?ve
same
pathetically their aims as event of a German not know conference as Times
situation. Further, with which in the openness they expressed in the and annexations indemnities, regards victory. While the allied countries kept
their secret treaties so well hidden that President Wilson did

of their existence and late that for the peace when he left America news New York the for made good they were as March Germans the easily 5, 1922,
LIQUIDATING
OUR WAR
ILLUSIONS
491
and rapidly convicted of aggressive ambitions "out of their

own mouths."
The question of responsibility for the original aggression may be postponed for the time being, since each side firmly
believed its own version and this issue had little practical effect at the outset on relations comparatively with neutrals.
Each party firmly believed, and not without foundation, that the other had systematic and well-laid plans for the
occupation struggle bination was between of Belgium. central an impending When Europe it became certain and a French-Russian in his senses that doubted a com?
fact, no one
that the initial shock would be on the western front?least of all the military staffs in both camps, who had looked for? ward to just this event for years. The key industries of
France the frontier applies too near the latter?are Germany?especially to risk any other manoeuvre. The same roughly to Belgium. Two of her land frontiers were too near for any risk to be intentionally taken?to sea frontier and England. in the war, the psychological interest centers version of the of conception vs. "the group), was conceived r?les the say on a and
the heart of the industrial districts of France and Germany

respectively nothing Early defined of her
very primitive aspect of the heroic-epics.

modern savage?"the "the enemy." drama, the two people" (his tribal In 1914, the war sides playing
This is a slightly
naked or others" of hero
as a melo? and
the respective
villain. This myth of a fundamental difference between two kinds of people engaged was created and kept alive by a
curious have not substitution seen of abstract for concrete ideas which I in simple and will there? language, as follows: Modern fore explain cross-sections armies, being of the nations are made up of good, bad and they represent, indifferent men. set down
The bad men, stimulated and given op? the some crimes, of circumstances commit portunity by war, such as pillage, This is peculiarly rape and incendiarism. an to applicable army swiftly advancing through foreign but the statement will territory, pass without probably that some of these crimes occurred in every army question
mobilized
between
1914 and 1918.
But
the war epics are
492 in melodramatic action.
MELVIN M. KNIGHT nations
are viewed as persons in is sedulously the cultivated by and is highly effective for propagandist pur? governments not To a Frenchman, is an abstraction, poses. "Germany" a group of individual indifferent. bad and people, good, form?the the This attitude This whom children. rape, rape. crimes then Frenchman he knows If Kurt does to be not think concretely of Fritz Kreisler a good man, or the unknown Hans
Schmidt, a blacksmith
in St. Goar with a wife and three

a drunken Germany well-authenticated commits dragoon, has committed which murders and other
Schwartz, it is the abstract
If a half-dozen
to be a villian good As to have the
can be collected, the abstract is demonstrated enemy A is as of the deepest story dye. probable as a true one. and morale for purposes of propaganda sources new of the fury-generating as nearly ideas, all they seem to
be chiefly:
invent been
(1) Old wars and tradition?there

tales, told over and over about inasmuch of previous current
is little need
the best ones read over
struggles, war,
and over by the people they are expected to affect; (2)Actual

credible tales the industriously
gathered by the "intelligence sections" and fitted into the popular myth with greater or less skill by the organized
agencies in the for propaganda.
Of the first of these, the myth

recent war is a good
of the crucified Canadian

The intelligence sec?
example.
tions tried in vain to verify it, but of course kept still about their failure. It was doubtless suggested by the literature
of previous cutting breasts. wars in which such things actually occurred.
Another example of this hackneyed
type of war myth
is the
or women's soldiers of children's off by enemy hands, arena in the western No such case was established war?by doubt. established Two of these is meant and may The cases a beyond proved came under the as to be instructive a French first was
of the recent reasonable writer's the
observation, personal of the origin possible home had
tales.
child returning refugee was that a soldier story
The of Switzerland. by way some a ten to limb reached him
feet from the ground and left him hanging by his hands until his grip loosened and he fell, breaking his back.
LIQUIDATING Numerous personally The hands. were nade, first other This
OUR WAR
ILLUSIONS
493
the story, but none of them had refugees repeated seen the occurrence. The only evidence was that
the child obviously

case was was
had something wrong with his back.

two Rumanian realistic minus children, to convince enough that their war
quite
hypnotized people, but an inquiry at the hospital where they

treated picked the information yielded where up on an old battlefield a hand-gre? they were play?
ing, had exploded and somaimed

to be amputated. The second class dangerous viously because suggested, of war-myth on founded where an
the members that they had

is still more fact. It case realistic case of actual and pre? crime
is the
isolated
is accepted as typical of the conduct of millions of people. This is the well-known logical fallacy of mistaking part for the whole. For example, it would not be fair to judge all
the fact Such adopted conduct that was of the whole American army in the war the very first German stabbed to death are made near taken prisoner after he had in the rear and by the by American surrendered. are readily and far
soldiers
abstractions by civilians,
the propaganda
factories
from any individual enemies. Very likely this is the key to the relative humanity and reasonableness of the fighting
soldier as compared to the ferocious psychology of the safe
rear. The fighter, in daily contact with the enemy, is obliged to see a group of individuals much like himself, and has dif? ficulty in conjuring up the abstraction. He finds the enemy
soldier brave and resourceful. he sees human prisoners, beings, and danger he can enter into completely. with Talking whose reactions He or watching to hardship can hardly
remain blind to the fact that their discipline, like his, forces them to kill or be killed. Indeed, he often feelsmore kinship
with home thing, them whose than blind with his own hate, costing or holds resents fury-saturated them nothing in contempt. problem and so frenzy. civilians and him Prevention at every? of
he often
has been fraternizing so much soldiers have them except barbed
a very hard in common wire and
in discipline, the little to separate
civilian
494 IV. The
MELVIN M. KNIGHT Disintegration Illusion of the War
Gradual
The first shock of war tends to crystallize public opinion, but sustained hostilities gradually disintegrate it again,
from the front rearwards. War to college: it offers a tangible an is in a vague way analogous aim in time and space as a of re? attitude
substitute
This makes and sources of mind. down adventure. perennial and the Barbusse
for the intangible goals of life and civilization.

possible At attention, the outbreak and concentration extraordinary for an artificial but makes
of class
caste?all will motives a common
Victory illusions. ordinary voiced with
of war, there is a certain breaking rush to take part in the heroic come quickly?this is one of the attitude reassert and belief habits soon passes themselves. soldiers when
This melodramatic
of common
he affirmed tragedy, reasons
that war
into an overdone very soon degenerates for and peasants each other workers killing
fathom. The caste lines are gradually they cannot the bulk of the dirty work. classes lower the getting redrawn, crack jokes or edit funny draw cartoons, The soldiers may
papers to take their minds off the hardships, boredom and apprehension, but that is not what is at the bottom of their
as Siegfried minds, In 1915 and 1916, veteran home hate was had Sassoon the war become has was set down a personal in immortal matter out verse. there,
though in the rear is still remained abstract.

largely perfunctory
With
or
the
entirely
absent?the
Hate
thing which nerved him to drive his bayonet
that the thrust brought the hope peace nearer. in the shadow of and living by the month is drunken, is? There inward sobriety. to a certain death is conducive mob the about to put it mildly?a certain irresponsibility a certain lack of human of the safe civilian, madness dignity which if he at such might make could get a correct the earlier period. an individual blush of his reproduction It is does. he rarely Of course, man that he of illusions universal the well-known to be true. what he has later discovered believed ten years after, own emotions
among always
liquidating was
our about to ceased soldier
war
illusions to call rear. it a stalemate?
495
By was so
1917, Europe killed had that
ready the
the universal desire of the soldier to see it ended before he

common penetrated it had The Bereavement a social was to be starts distinction.
Paul Geraldy has done a fine bit of literary analysis

Guerre, Madame. on his
in La
leave meaning
to tell those complacent people back there what a horrible, intolerable mistake it all is from his point of view. Paris
friends the part conventionalize he is supposed him into a hero?thrust In a stinking to play. upon him box-car with
thirty-nine of his fellows, bound for the front, he suddenly realizes that his leave is ended and that he has not said a
word of what we "Two was on his mind. said So he a French perhaps, one?" the order "Tomorrow in 1917. from here attack," miles gained, goes soldier and out ten and dies. to the writer thousand
men shot to pieces.How

to Germany, old my to advance mutinied?failed when
far do you think it is

Sometimes came. they
When the disillusionment was just creeping back from front to rear, with the psychology of peace in the offing, America entered the war. So the French soldier had to do
another win year and a half, now after all. But American to be cluttering that aid the rear came saw a chance to and most of slowly, The Frenchman had
it seemed
up the rear.
to spend another awful winter in the slimy ditches before he saw Americans in the fighting lines in such numbers as to
promise real support. Russia had collapsed. The Capo
retto disaster in Italy dispensed gloom. French soldiers fumed at the thought of the hordes of young Americans
not only They were jealous?jealous because of their women, but likewise of the better rations and quarters, of the comparative of from immunity danger those foreigners back there. towns. back in their
In the spring of 1918, hopelessness

to the rear. again penetrated the street in front of a house It was with many
and bitterness
all over people France.
had
In
in hearing
distance, I heard a woman tell bitterly of the death of the third and last son of her neighbor. It was just after the
disaster of the Chemin des Dames?the second since winter?
THE JOURNALOP INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS,VOL. 12, NO. 4, 1922
496 and men the Germans are dead?"
MELVIN M. KNIGHT were still she
advancing.
"My
God,"
shouted, "are they going to keep it up until all the French?

Americans who had not yet been Young a for carnage, but thirst under fire sometimes expressed came back shouting with "Down of Frenchmen trainloads officers and "End American Clemenceau" the War." Many
about headquarters have doubtless forgotten by this time what they thought and said then. The French had a way of
"We appreciate you came too late." your help?but saying: and not a that last spring, The war was still a gamble
few high allied officers thought

Germans. Then, The through situation Foch's skill was and
the odds were with

out of mistakes
the
thoroughly our luck, German
control.
and ill luck, the tide of victory suddenly turned in our di? rection. Both sides had been gambling with their very
existence. manders Armistice German suffered Ludendorff can well afford admits to park com? the allied this, but their reputations securely
behind a fait accompli.

The of a thrill than a surprise. day was more and the enemy had had given way, in France Let us not and men. losses in material irreparable line
forget, however, that the allied armies had sustained terrific

our lines of communica? losses too, that in the rapid pursuit and many in many confusion tion were in hopeless places, rest and reforming. units Operations required absolutely a halt more continued could not have many days without and a a reorganization. the enemy that meant But giving new In the of defense. line to his finish chance organizing and in the trenches another winter fall this might well mean in which the Germans seemed All Europe neither and collapse, the final result not a ghost of of eco? the verge side felt like risking could not be in doubt. had on
a spring campaign a show of victory. and moral nomic universal The new to ruin when
political
revolution
made government an armistice sign
of the and the attitude in Germany allies the for it morally compulsory on the basis Wilson's of President
To repu? of reconciliation. for a peace program published to sacrifice neutral opinion and sow diate that program meant at home. the moderates disaffection among
LIQUIDATING
OUR WAR
ILLUSIONS
497
is victory," the French captain who lunched "Victory?it with me on the great day kept saying. "Who would have
it a few months thought for so much?" In a few moments, illusions permanent presently am glad," self, "that "There we were we ago?who had would have dared of one hope of the and in?
a demonstration It was two or
of peoples. joined by
a hospital town, three Americans,
cluding a lady doctor in Red Cross uniform.

said our are the Frenchman, troops did not
"At least I
to him?
as though speaking get into Germany." to be
"Why?" asked the lady doctor.

some things always an army invades country. enemy's do not have to answer Frenchmen said. Then :"It was over so even an when regretted We should be glad that for them this time," he 'y in your Civil War, was it not?
It developed
controversy and
that he was very
familiar with
the acrid
one of Sherman's the accusations against a the of South certain Carolina divisions, burning city. the writer's that admission such had been Upon charges made, not and that of course it was shouted."I possible that there was will some
truth back of them, the lady doctor fairly gasped.

true," she almost
"It is
not sit
here and hear my

Frenchman Except adroitly possibly
country.belied!"
troops who
The
had
the subject. changed some American and other
not been long engaged, the war illusions of the fighting armies were pretty well liquidated at the end of 1918. Some
had never vanished years earlier, and there were French on his way plenty of soldiers in the universal-compulsory-service had any. One of them was army who had to the trenches
just in front of Esne, Verdun sector, in July 1917, without

then an ambulance any gun, so the writer, gave him driver, a lift. In his pockets the soldier carried a number of small them Pascal's Pens?es. about books?among Questioned his gun, he said: "I have he no gun. "But I shall pick up a discarded to shoot wish with to. one it. I am at I a
Esne."
rust, have
Upon
smiled: never
the protest
anybody,
that it might
want and do not
be stopped with
I do not
killed
498
MELVIN M. KNIGHT force at his us dis?
philosophie all to make
Another, tasteful task nevertheless, remarked with are good, All the What peoples enemy? are scoundrels." real hate ments The to be emptied?is the civilian
but these silly governments anarchist; at least a pretense of murder." a sergeant, the best he could doing
a shrug : "Enemy? but all the govern? reservoir?the last
population.
It will occur to the reader that the public was not quite innoculations with war myths did uniformly illusioned?the
not all "take" with equal virulence. At first to the melodramatic is tolerated. Immunity active to put one under The symptoms slightest suspicion. has to ward off which the "dope" of reason, of the "disease" or There is likely to bring ostracism been concocted, prison. a who are many turn of calmer of however, mind, people are sane enough it at once. not to get the general frenzy but at the no opposition epic is enough
same time practical enough to realize the futility of trying

to stem may appear They to be drifting, are inconspicuous for a time and are really taking sound? but many
ings and testing the current. The disillusioned fighter is not as completely without sympathy in the hypnotized mob
to his This which more tends human rear as he takes we thinks. to the larger over aspects in order of the war to glance learns to write rear. epic at the off by Normal us back
passed
personal to relax
temporarily the soldier items which as time even
himself, by virtue of his situation.

goes by, to reassert
High emotional tension

in the
The psychol? themselves. motives begins A back. of appears seeps tendency ogy slowly bargaining to find the places where pres? and privileged for the astute are to be had for the most economical tige and remuneration even heroes and risk. of effort proven 1917, By outlay to the temptation were succumbing of three years' standing of safer or more comfortable knew well the stern and against with his conscience wrestling a devout Catho? of his father-confessor, admonitions though and decorated. wounded lic. The man had been repeatedly wanted live, and he saw sauve of qui peut. to the others practicing the one French back. further posts after this did who sergeant
easier, The writer a terrific
He
philosophy
LIQUIDATING
OUR WAR
ILLUSIONS
499
The full effect of the Russian

was not felt at once. Late
collapse upon the war epic

the new Russian govern?
in 1917,
ment
released to the world startling evidence from the trials
and generals of the old r?gime, hopelessly under? a war a in of hatched the Potsdam conference mining theory and thrust upon a Russia for peace. The German striving
of ministers
ultimatum
not
to Russia, which expired on August
1, 1914, did
precede the Russian general mobilization order, but fol? lowed it after nearly two days. western What European
peoples had been told was a partial mobilization

in the south government general, only, was the inital aggressor which among made the
by Russia,
the Tsarist powers.
great
Many of these facts were immediately put into English by H. N. Brailsford in the appendix to his League ofNations.
This minded and other papers that presented was to the western made European
public by the end of 1917 made

people and Russia, and that Hungary had simply drawn in the other the war
it fairly evident
to fair
surmise that by Germany's Russian alliance the Russian mobilization followed by the French was correct.
by Austria of alliances system combatants. As we shall see, the terms of the secret Franco really the vicious must Professor be inevitably articles Fay's
in the American Historical Review have supplied many added details, but the broad outlines of the 1914 situation were fairly apparent at the end of 1917. What did not appear until later was the further certainty that the French partici? pation in the war thus precipitated by Austria and Russia
inevitably sternation of the What England. into European diplomatic involved threw circles was con? genuine the spread?
ing by the Russians
before the world of the secret archives
Office. Secret and Foreign agreements treaties, one alliances after another, and no allied appeared power was the United States the humiliation of except spared
seeing its real motives given up to the light of day. The full sordidness of the 1915 Rome agreement, republished
from Russian sources by the Manchester Guardian of corruption got and
beneath
the skins of some thoughtful people who had pre?

to the tissue thought is European diplomacy.
no viously given a morality which
500 the nature statement epic
MELVIN
M. KNIGHT
Eventually, and history out. allied and This war
sources of the from unfriendly exposures of the Franco-Russian alliance became out of their even own mouths without the leaves the
so alarmingly full that a French "yellow book" was brought

spurlos governments. exonerated versenkt, The from volumes
of official correspondence being poured out by the Russian

German sense by old German blame?a is in no excused government scoundrel is not
that there are others. the proof about fact is that there was nothing The patent passive and Russian that the the longing of the Serbian governments
Dual Monarchy might founder.

a deliberate The war. office were their this
That they had lon,g played

stake is no could that longer in doubt. not occur without the French foreign
for just game of Austria-Hungary dissolution is there any question No more knew left about this game The and
its probable
consequences.
It is impossible to believe
in darkness.
that English
demonstrated
diplomatic
circles
to land soldiers plans long-standing a them of any such acquits specific enemy, Germany, against even well-informed In their sudden war-hysteria, idiocy.
of completeness on the continent
people forgot the known fact that French and Russian

officiers had over the two fronts and
staff
for? gone repeatedly a in few minutes. could be set in motion mulated plans which Sea the Mediterranean-North one that who supposes Any
division
English as to what
of naval
was arrived
responsibility
at without were
between
the French
and
any general understanding inno? is involved singularly responsibilities coinci? it been mere Had cent of how such things are done. that the a miraculously coincidence fortunate what dence, Sea in the North concentrated review ships great English
in the summer of 1914! The similar tactics of the Central

Powers The have been peoples 1914?one deliberately in the governments. few trusted gone of Europe in the war literature. in a powder magazine inner circles for accumulated years by a These including groups, diplomatic was due chiefs, knew that the explosion over ad nauseam stood over
military the catastrophe that each but planned soon, cunningly tend to would which circumstances take place under should to outward appearances. leave the other morally responsible
LIQUIDATING V. The Allied
OUR WAR Epic and
ILLUSIONS the Peace
501
At least the foreign offices might have had a decent respect for the memory of the millions slain in the belief that It they were making a repetition of this thing impossible.
was not so. until The peace war fictions must longer, The esis. ion their groups could be made a little while be imposed on the hero-villian hypoth? for controlling public opin? Nations and had turned fair play over to into "intel? organized
necessary to that end was consciences and
machinery already sense of
created. truth
of old cynics and young zealots sections." Their of these departments of ligence custody on the basis of the legal technicality our souls was continued that the war was not yet over. There was nothing of the frank and above-board about the methods of these people.
Scientific dissimulation was a cult with them, and bull? dozing the swift resort if that failed. At the end of November, 1918, the writer was quizzed for
a half The hour by a beardless member and of this wild "third assertions section." in the game?leading direction general questions of the war epic whence of wandering, all under the guise
pected tion?was
the quarry is sus? of candid conversa?
overdone. After fruitless attempts extravagantly to gain assent to his fantastic the schoolboy statements, lieutenant answered the repeated as counter question finally the interview had was France in western statement really where about. A the writer Frenchman was settling to exception to a German who
to what somewhere war
contracts
resented
the man's again, buy
a perfectly amiable that he would never speak by one, was or speak
any goods made value emotional of goods
to anybody
did.
the run furor
It had seemed to the bored listener to his tirade that

actual than after a stronger force in the long a should this create Why and our troops in victorious
prejudice. the guns were silent of the enemy's could occupation territory? People simply not get used to unstandardized nor were their opinions, it. Being if asked finally governments yet ready to allow there was any other question at issue than what the all powerful military wanted said, the lieutenant answered, in
502 a sudden what burst
MELVIN M. KNIGHT : "That's we don't we want. it exactly. We know want said, and we've of It's not a question
of confidence said and what
we want
to do with It's it. got nothing a question of force, and we've the force." Whereupon got we both that satisfaction expressed laughed, conventionally so have two people who understood well should each other met, down Our what the and parted. just as tight upon home letters went sections wanted. clothe in charge his were the was the commissions via the State to eastern Europe. and the who knew to feed One of
to get what got the power true or not?that's what's
The next year (1919) the information and opinion lid was
Department, over by people there the heal
information
presided we were Ostensibly ragged had a way and
starving, the colonels colonel and
solely sick.
of saying
that he considered
"fighting Bolshevism"
shevism"?by Keynes immediate mind time came and hold definition.
his chief function.

section did not
Whatever
like was
the
"Bol?
information
took of disillusionment the major prophets on the parts of Europe suffering. already of the world hit was them. anathema about Our with the turn the
Looking back upon it now, it looks as though that state of

became that in various parts general dislocation economic general The Paris Conference small nations
in 1920.
unrepresented practically were more Neutrals up. the abstract.
caustically
it broke long before facetious if less bitterly
about it than the small allies it spoke of so solicitously, A glance at the personnel of allied ministries
war suggests that foreign alliances affairs and in Europe public
in
since the
man?
are being
aged largely by the victorious half of the same crew which

worked before opinion on such There the war. and during trying to graft can? sense in the old as If that. roots diplomacy poisonous broad in affairs transacted and not be abolished day? public a decent place to live cannot be made light, then the world seems to That as well give up and sink. in, and we would and who can of thoughtful be the present verdict Americans, was never more than half Paris The it? criticize attempt at secret doped is no use
liquidating
our
war
illusions
503
hearted,
and it failed. Will

come to a like end?
the Washington
and Genoa
well our one
attempts our illusions are pretty As to European diplomacy, a to of Outside vague romance, tendency liquidated. war seem pretty well out excepting cleared illusions alone. as two It is the oldest one one, of and them perhaps is ours. Sassoon's
it is permanent. Barbusse may
Our fighting forces were different.

peas, unless
Armies may be as like
write all the books he likes about French army life in its less
bewitching write aspects. Siegfried disenchanting
verses we may regard with enthusiasm.

pean little novel officers
Let Sir Philip Gibbs
a library on things that can now be told?about Euro? But let John Dos Passos write an imaginative armies. about three soldiers and what under the star-spangled We ban?
ner who were bored by the life and occasionally

discourteous, to the mentality happens?
found the
in? swing a of clothed stantly Patagonian aborigine, in his narrow It may be string and conscious superiority. for "the others," but we insist on open-season occasionally to some robust illusions about "the people."1 clinging
1 Bibliographical of what Note.?This its author article is primarily to be facts a psychological generally such facts. inter?
pretation
rather than for historians, proofs as Barbusse's to cite such works Le Feu necessary or Geraldy's verses The War, available Madame,
presumes a r?sum? of the
accepted by It is hardly
Gibbs' Now It Can be Told and More thai Must

for the for his which North libraries, Economic attitude own held and of the soldier. he may at the 1863) If the consult time. can civilian's the attitude, his attention South and
Sassoon's (Under Fire), in any good library.
be Told are thoroughly good

cannot be trusted memory of books and articles Russell's My Diary, or university city written. Keynes' of the public mind
plethora William Howard be found
best war sanest, the turning Consequences of the Peace marked from the mythical to the realistic For general of war, phase. arraignments the author merely three of the best: Palmer's suggests Folly of Nations, Irwin's The Next and AngelFs The Fruits Gibbs' books War, of Victory. as the one mentioned this r?le as well above. play The writer has not been to insert any of his own slight tempted experi? ences with or his feelings shells about but has relied bursting them, upon common with interviews soldiers had who faced war's realities for years. were diligently These as soon as possible with interviews compared gathered rear. in the and treasured Notebooks, from carefully kept, clippings sources are the real innumerable of this paper. bibliography on the origins As to the later writings of the war, it is only fair to sug? so that the reader may know gest what some, the writer to be considers
(Boston, is one of the
in good ever books
504
evidence. War bruch Came described Pevet's are worth the long title. Les
MELVIN M. KNIGHT
the de la Guerre and Loreburn's How Responsables The Myth is National Nock's of the Guilty zum Kriegsaus? Russlands Hoeniger's Vorbereitung
perusal.
Brailsford's
for the ordinary to and tedious The reader. appendix is astonishingly and satisfactory, A League of Nations explicit that in 1917, in the heat of the conflict. it appeared He does considering come the Russian from a Swiss not say so, but I fancy material have may in Bern, 1917, which printed Wyss uSuchomlinow,,, by Ferdinand pamphlet is somewhat fuller. 1917. The Professor Manchester some of it in Guardian published on the Origins of "New Light series, Fay's sum? Historical for 1920-21 Review admirably that the dramatic the war including myth
by is too
December, the World marizes
one Ambassador Mor floated which sprouted issues for 1919, furnishes International to easy fame. Conciliation, ganthau and the replies of the German of the peace translations treaty delegation. of r?le in the outbreak with Germany's of the part dealing A good summary "Is 1919 White-Booh entitled in the German in 1914 is gathered the war Germany The Volkskrieg report u. Rohrbach's Massenverhetzung through to the well-known 1916) as an offset Bryce (Berlin, as on Belgium. such questions work deals The German ably with from of clippings and is strewn with reproductions photographic in Belgien and and on the World letters the from French (Knickerbocker the Russian 1918 Yellow Guilty" reader will (Eng. do well trans.). to scan
in American War," the whole question, conference from a Potsdam
sniping, and dated. marked newspapers, Belgian Entente & Schreiner's Siebert Diplomacy of documents 760 pp. 1921) gives Press, Embassy on Booh in London which throw alliance much the Russo-French
light and military
convention.
Franco Yellow-Booh This French (Documents Diplomatiques?L'Alliance of the secret seems to have been made necessary by the publication Russe) in of the Tsarist and correspondence documents government, beginning are in the book documents Some of the French 1917, by the Soviets. extremely guessing secret" interesting, in the dark as even about the the best historians It was had been kept literally alliance. certainty urigoreusement la mise n?cessiteront
en o? les circonstances "au moment 82), (Doc. a war break should convention" de la pr?sente actually (i.e., until can be from even the French secret it was How parliament literally out). of the parliamentary debates, following only by a tedious appreciated nation of the French of the representatives wherein repeated questions votes of confidence. with and throttled were met subterfuges by bland ex?cution In to and can this the connection, to attention "rien is called to the reference in Document 84 necessity to exercise insisted divulguer indispensable/7 qui ne soit absolument du trait?" that the "caract?re pacifique
such precautions le r?le de l'Europe le but de bien ?tablir "dans vis-?-vis upon au moment tr?s essentiel et la la France auraient Russie, point qu} d'attaqu?es1 " to the con? that the parties essential This de r ex?cution point" "very before the eyes attacked the r?le of the party shall be able to play vention an now made with in the vast is repeated of Europe public correspondence in is this seems to for itself. which article, based, Nothing speak insistency now to the released of secret the mass correspondence diplomatic upon be by public not been the newer governments of Russia and been contradicted, successfully to have documents unquestionable much and Germany, if it fits out this though too nicely of whole has into
manufactured
cloth.

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Liquidating Our War Illusions Author(s): Melvin M. Knight Source: The Journal of International Relations, Vol. 12, No.

LIQUIDATING OURWAR ILLUSIONS

Importance in War Morale

Previous to the French Revolution,

public opinion did not

By the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, the idea

practically a war machine, of industry. With lic morale became

governments. The industrial trialized lected into and districts

and illiteracy practically disappeared from the highly indus?

groups in affairs. service and

Railway the telegraph the radio

bound the world together with a web of trade.

486 over a world wide

MELVIN M. KNIGHT area

Public opinion helped form the policies of governments

dence. William Howard Russell

of the London Times im?

the sufferings of soldiers, the English scandalously inefficient

public turned out a provoked the

"C'est mag? Bosquet: in Eng? Public opinion

land sided with her?the

conduct of war had ceased to be

of generals. province was in America Russell

during the first year of our Civil War.

His dispatches form

portance public opinion had achieved by 1862. There being

in print. country to the Northern the country. From that at least

now, it did such violence time that the writer was

dubbed "Bull Run Russell" and practically hounded out of

vanizing by both natural

LIQUIDATING in detail of execution, force this version

war, reiterated suggestion, or imprisonment. Added

is lent by the importance of gaining and holding

the countries involved.

This takes us back to the merits

against the integrity of Austria

especially Hungary, backed by the Tsar's and England through

government. the secret

conventions, conventions. between

just as the opposing

of the Dual Monarchy

is seen in the stress laid by both sides upon

Let us attempt a brief historical analysis of the allied war

488 served its

though Russia had begun mobilizing

since she had signed the 1839 treaty.

cutting off children's hands

in the hope of getting Alsace and Lorraine,

illusions from the German

she had wrenched

in the 17th century and lost in the 19th.

increasing Eas? Africa

Cape-to-Cairo Africa wa?

in two, because German her diamond monopoly,

strength by a secret agreement with Italy behind

Germany would be obliged to mobilize

for centuries. Europe war on the western

had begun it on the eastern by the first general

MELVIN M. KNIGHT of truth and falsehood. Neither

epics were mixtures opinion with

side experienced much

its version. had

the struggle civilians and soldiers thought remarkably alike;