WWI

4/1/09 -After learning about the details of the Treaty of Versailles, I think Wilson was out of his mind when he said WWI was the "war to end all wars". There's no way Germany wouldn't be ticked off and not try to retaliate. Clemenceau and Lloyd George were particularly hard on them, with "the Tiger" being the worse of the two. The peace conference, which the Germans were exclued from, took away land (Alsace-Lorraine, Saar Basin, and African colonies) from Germany, gave them all of the blame (Article 231), made them pay for all the damage done during the war, AND made them reduce the size of their armed forces. Of course the Germans would want revenge for that. In Mein Kampf, Hitler talks about "the restoration of the frontiers of 1914" saying that it could "be achieved only by blood" and that "only childish and naive minds can lull themselves in the idea that they can bring about a correction of Versailles by wheedling and begging". In what I think is a really memorable quote, Hitler also says "No nation can remove this hand from its throat except by the sword" (Source 4, Germany's Reaction 3/31). It was because of the German peoples' hatred of the treaty that Hitler was able to come to power like he did. He promised them he would get rid of the treaty, and so they followed him. President Wilson was wrong about "the war to end all wars", but he was right in thinking that forgiving, rather than punishing, Germany for the war was the right course of action. Clemenceau only angered the Germans and gave them something to join together for.