July 15, 2017
As a former soldier and war correspondent, I abhor demonstrations of flag-waving, militarism and nationalism. That great American, Benjamin Franklin, put it perfectly: ‘no good war, no bad peace.’
But I must admit that my heart does beat faster when I hear the rousing strains of France’s glorious national anthem, ‘La Marseillaise.’ One must be almost dead not to respond to the hymn, first known in 1775 as ‘the war song of the army of the Rhine’ and then the marching song of volunteers from Marseille.
Allons! Enfants de la Patrie! Forward! Sons of France,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé! The Day of Glory has Arrived,
Contre nous de la tyrannie, Against us Tyranny
L’étendard sanglant est levé! Its bloody standard is raised!
A few years ago, I was a guest of France’s government on the reviewing stand of the annual 14 July Bastille Day military parade. Watching the glittering Garde républicaine cavalry, the tough Alpine troops in their huge berets known as “tartes,” and, of course, the grim Foreign Legion march down the Champs Élysées was thrilling.
US President Thomas Jefferson put it best: ‘Every man has two homelands: his own, and France.’
Both Franklin and Jefferson spent time in Paris as ambassadors and helped negotiate France’s decisive military intervention that saved the American Revolution. French troops under the Marquis de Lafayette and a fleet under Admiral Rochambeau and Count de Grasse played the key role in defeating British forces.
Ironically, France was bankrupted by this military effort which also contributed to the French Revolution against King Louis XVI.
One hopes US President Donald Trump reflected on these facts when he was French President Emmanuel Macron’s guest of honor at Bastille Day. He was hopefully reminded by aides of American Gen. ‘Blackjack’ Pershing’s memorable statement upon landing with US troops to join France in World War One, ‘Lafayette, we are here!’
Two hundred US troops led the great parade down the Champs Élysées, headed by a contingent from the venerable 1st US Infantry Division, known as ‘the Big Red One’ and other American units. Their march marked the 100th anniversary of the US landing in France. President Trump, who managed to avoid military service due to a small foot problem, stood and saluted the American troops.
The US and France owe much to one another and should regularly recall their mutual debt.
Particularly so for all those uninformed Republicans who keep calling the French cowards and sissies. France lost more than 1.5 million dead in World War I. Churchill observed, ‘you will never know war until you fight Germans.’
But the key question remains, was US intervention in World War I a catastrophic mistake? By 1917, France, Britain, Russia and their allies were militarily exhausted. So was Germany and its allies Turkey, Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary. The war had become a giant siege in which millions had died for nothing in history’s most barbarous war.
Both the bankrupted Allies and Central Powers were beginning discreet contacts over a possible peace in the stalemated war. At this point, US President Woodrow Wilson, a sort of idealistic imperialist, pushed America into war against Germany, using some German blunders, the sinking of the ‘Lusitania’ and waves of British propaganda as a ‘casus belli.’ This at a time when the largest ethnic group in the United States was of German origin. In spite of this, Wilson secretly aided, armed and financed the British Empire and finally secured a declaration of war against Germany.
By the end of 1917, one million US troops arrived in France. The advent of so many American soldiers tipped the stalemated military balance. Germans were heavily outnumbered, exhausted, and unable to fee their people due to a crushing British blockade.
Generals Ludendorff and Hindenburg, who had led the war, walked away, leaving civilian politicians to surrender and make whatever terms they could get. After the war, these civilians and wealthy German Jews would be blamed by all sides for ‘stabbing Germany in the back.’
At the notorious Versailles Treaty, the victorious Allied powers tore away 14% of Germany’s people, 13% of its lands and imposed crushing monetary sanctions. Austria-Hungary was ravaged. An obscure Austrian politician, Adolf Hitler, called for revenge and vowed to restore Germany’s and Austria’s lost lands and populations.
Had Woodrow Wilson not intervened in the European war, the exhausted opposing sides would have been driven to a fair peace, rather than a draconian peace of the victors, which would have totally altered Europe’s modern history. There would likely have been no Hitler and his National Socialists; tens of millions of lives would have been saved by averting World War II. The 1930’s Depression may have been avoided or mitigated. Communists might not have seized power in Russia and, later, Eastern Europe.
Responsibility for many of these disasters lies with Woodrow Wilson who is wrongly portrayed in the US as a noble idealist; in Europe, he’s seen as a rampant fool or dangerous naïf.
The 200-man US contingent on the Champs Élysées recalled all these bitter memories. Their uniforms looked dowdy compared to the snappy French. President Trump, by contrast, looked seriously presidential; wife Melania was serene and elegant. They did a fine job.
The French are masters of the art of seduction. Let’s hope Trump was charmed by his brief visit to Paris and reminded that France has resumed its role as diplomatic leader of Europe and key American ally. Trump may even reconsider his ill-advised withdrawal from the Paris climate pact.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2017
This post is in: France
We tend to hear very little about this WW1 peace initiative is there any info about it?
Eric, don’t push it too hard! I’m sobbing uncontrollably and my eyes are tearing for the poor Germans… 😀 The parts “torn away” from them after WWI were the ones they stole mostly from Poland in the previous century/-ies, when they divided Poland between themselves and, who else, Mother Russia (and with a little help from the art-loving Habsburgs). They did exactly the same in 1939 and were whipped again. Any doubts they will try again? They will need a lot of “Lebensraum” for the growing population of their migrant workers. Why do you think Polish nationalists have this rather distrusting attitude towards the EU which is run by German industrial moguls and financed by German banks? The borders may not actually move. If anything they may actually slowly fade away in legal importance. But if that happens, what will become evident at that point is that the ownership has switched hands. As you said, Churchil was right: you will never know war, until you fight Germans. But the weapons of war have changed: bring out the balance sheets, gentlemen! It’s Monopoly time!
It should be noted that Poland also went on a territorial land grab during
the interwar years and right up till 1938 when they seized parts of the newly created Czech and Slovak territories.
What was taken away from Germany at the time were long settled and built cities by Germans.
Poland was “created” in 1919.
Not by military gains by Poland,but by the pen and paper like you are accusing Germany of doing right now.
Funny how it suits you when the shoe is on the other foot?
Cities like Danzig,Breslau were about as much Polish as the Sudetenland was German.
Your obvious dislike of Germans is plain to see.
But to claim German expansion is on the rise,is absurd to say the least.
You do know that before Germany was unified it had to formally acknowledge the Oder-Neisse line as the permanent boarder between Germany and Poland and to renounce all territorial claims.
What Mr. Margolis is alluding to is a lot of blood shed could have been avoided 20 years later.
I suggest you read the very informative book “Sleep walkers” to get a better idea of who was responsible for the outbreak of WW1
You will find that all the major powers had a hand in igniting that war.
And to place it squarely on Germany’s shoulders was wrong from the beginning.
You hope Trump remembers the efforts of France? Are you kidding? He thinks America won WWI and WWII single handedly with no help from anyone and in WWII, he thinks France surrendered without firing a shot.
Interesting column, as always. However, I have to take issue with the assertion that the Communists might not have seized power in Russia and eastern Europe if the US had stayed out of World War I. The Russian Revolution got underway in the early part of 1917 and that would have taken place even if the US had stayed out of the war. Now, if Russia had chosen not to go to war against the Austrian-Hungarian empire and Germany, things might well have turned out differently for its monarchy and the Bolsheviks might not have become as popular as they did with so many of their fellow Russians.