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Old January 18th, 2014 #1
Alex Linder
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Join Date: Nov 2003
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Default #1 World War I Thread

World War I

by Taki

January 14, 2014


Joseph Caillaux

By the time August rolls around there will be hundreds of books, thousands of articles, and millions of words spoken by mostly pompous people about who was responsible for starting World War I. The Brits were the first off the mark to blame the Germans. They would, wouldn’t they? Max Hastings, a very good English historian who affects upper-class mannerisms (his father was a tabloid hack) and has the most extraordinary accent in a desperate effort to show he’s a blueblood, was among the first to produce a book and place the blame where it doesn’t belong. Among the few who got it exactly right is Christopher Clark, whose The Sleepwalkers hit the proverbial nail you-know-where. The irony is that the sixteen million dead, the disappearance of the great royal dynasties and of the upper classes, and the birth of communism and Nazism could all have been avoided if a certain Joseph Caillaux had kept his pants on. Let me explain.

Caillaux was French prime minister and a friend of Germany’s. He mistrusted the British who ruled half the world. He decided that Germans should not build a larger navy lest they get any big ideas about having an overseas empire like perfidious Albion. He had stepped down in 1912 and was running against a warmonger in the 1914 elections. In early 1914, Le Figaro, France’s most respected newspaper, published an exposé of the affair of Monsieur Caillaux with a certain Madame Henriette. (Plus ça change, as they say in the land of cheese.)

Madame Caillaux, known for her elegance and noble breeding, had herself driven to the offices of Le Figaro and asked to see the editor. He was out to lunch, so she waited in his office. As soon as he entered, she greeted him politely, announced her name, took out a revolver from her gilded purse, and shot him dead. She was immediately tried and exonerated—the French called it a crime passionnel—but her hubby had to resign. The warmongering Raymond Poincaré remained in power.

Gaston Calmette, the dead editor, was the first man to fall, but you won’t find his name among those who fell on the “Champs d’Honneur,” or field of honor. All but a few of the French aristocracy were wiped out, but even more nobles died on the German side. The British upper classes also lost big time, but not as many as the Germans and the French. The irony is that the much maligned Kaiser Wilhelm—a nut to be sure, but a silly nut—refused to believe a war would break out between his cousin George V and his other first cousin Nicky, who ended up murdered along with all his family by the reds in a cellar. An even bigger irony is that Germany did her utmost until the last second to avoid going to war.

Here it is nice and simple. Serbia is an Austrian dominion, or whatever you want to call it. She is part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand visits Sarajevo and is shot dead along with his wife by a Serb nationalist with close ties to other Serb nationalists in the armed forces. Austria is outraged and makes heavy demands, as well she should. This is stretching it, but let’s have some fun. What would Uncle Sam have done if, say, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton had been cut down by some extremist in Puerto Rico? Well, I for one would vacation in San Juan the next day, and I’d spend lots of money too, but then I am known to say and do rash things. So the Serbs ask the Russians for help and guarantees in case the Austrians march in, and the Russians give it. The trouble is that the Russkis have a treaty with the French and the British that if they go to war, the other two will follow. So the Austrians ask the Germans for a guarantee and the Germans refuse to give it.

This is the big lie historians have perpetrated since World War I. They’ve refused to acknowledge this fact.
According to most British writers, Germany pushed Austria to declare war on Russia and make war on Serbia. Germany in fact declared war on Russia once the silly Tsar had mobilized and sent hundreds of thousands of troops to its western front. (If a man’s about to punch you, you hit him first, which is why Germany declared war on Russia.)

Well, we all know the rest. Yes, the great powers sleepwalked into war, and war was declared while all foreign ministers involved were on holiday, the French one taking the waters in Vichy, the German getting married in Baden-Baden, the Englishman—and among the few desperate to keep Britain out—Sir Edward Grey somewhere up in Scotland, and all three monarchs on their respective yachts working on their gout. European civilization has never recovered. Russia in its drive to dismantle Turkey and have access to the Dardanelles wanted war with Turkey’s ally, Germany. France wanted war to avenge her 1870 drubbing by Germany that saw Prussian troops march down the Champs-Élysées. Britain, ever sneaky, wanted to limit German power and to surround her with hostile alliances. Serbia wanted to split the Austrian Empire. Germany had to stick with her brothers the Austrians and reluctantly went to war.

It is a very sad story, a great tragedy that didn’t fully end until 1945. The intervention of American troops saved the day for the imperialists, and the Treaty of Versailles and that awful man Wilson ensured that Germany would be put to the cross. Hitler was a direct result of the narrow-mindedness of the victorious allies, especially the frog Clemenceau. Oh yes, I almost forgot. Monsieur Caillaux went on to divorce his wife and marry Henriette. He lived until 1944, long enough to see the Germans marching down the Champs-Élysées daily.

http://takimag.com/article/world_war...#ixzz2qjPXapNH
 
 

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