Yet Another WWI Book

This is a further note to our discussion last summer of WWI related books.
Yesterday I picked up a most shocking book: Gen. Friedrich von Bernhardi,
"Germany and the Next War" (english translation - NY: Longmans, 1914).
Originally published in Germany in 1912, this book advocates deliberate
preparations to commence war against France, Russia and England. At the time he
wrote he was the commanding general of the Seventh Army Corps. The message is
pure real-politik and the ends justify the means.

The following comes from his chapter entitled, "The Duty to Make War" (p. 45):

"The lessons of history thus confirm the view that wars which have been
deliberately provoked by far-seeing statesmen have had the happiest
results. War, nevertheless, must always be a violent form of political
agent, which not only contains in itself the danger of defeat, but in
every case calls for great sacrifices, and entails incalculable misery.
He who determines upon war accepts a great responsibility.

"It is therefore obvious that no one can come to such a decision except
from the most weighty reasons, more especially under the existing
conditions which have created national armies. Absolute clearness of
vision is needed to decide how and when such a resolution can be taken,
and what political aims justify the use of armed force.

"This question therefore needs careful consideration, and a satisfactory
answer can only be derived from an examination of the essential duty of
the State.

"If this duty consists in giving scope to the highest intellectual and
moral development of the citizens, and in co-operating in the moral
education of the human race, then the State's own acts must necessarily
conform to the moral laws. But the acts of the State cannot be judged by
the standard of individual morality. If the State wished to conform to
this standard it would often find itself at variance with its own
particular duties. The morality of the State must be developed out of
its own peculiar essence, just as individual morality is rooted in the
personality of the man and his duties towards society. The morality of
the State must be judged by the nature and _raison d'être_ of the State,
and not of the individual citizen. But the end-all and be-all of a State
is power, and "he who is not man enough to look this truth in the face
should not meddle in politics." "

Such is the attitude that led two two world wars and an acceptance of National
Socialism in Germany.


Francis A. Miniter