America: The Last Best Hope Volumes I and II Box Set: The Last Best Hope Volumes I & II Box Set by William J. Bennett

Author:William J. Bennett [Bennett, William J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2007-10-13T16:00:00+00:00

Readers recognized the satire on William Blake’s line “Tyger, Tyger, burning bright.”When the clash in the Balkans finally came in 1914,Wilhelm relied on his English family connection to avert war with Britain. He sent his brother, Prince Heinrich, to speak to King George V, their first cousin through their grandmother, Queen Victoria. The king said that he hoped Britain would stay out of any continental war. The kaiser mistakenly took that to mean the king would determine British policy. “I have the word of a king,” he boasted.5 Wilhelm apparently learned nothing from his mother or grandmother about the British system of governance. Britain was (and is) a constitutional monarchy. Foreign policy is made by the cabinet, not the Crown.

In July 1914, only days after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the world breathed a sigh of relief as the kaiser went on his annual three-week cruise in the fjords of Norway. It seemed he was disengaging from the mounting crisis between Austria-Hungary, Serbia, and their allies. His magnificent 380-foot, 4,280-ton yacht Hohenzollern looked like a giant white swan gliding silently over Norway’s dark, cold waters that summer.* But this peaceful image was deceptive. While the kaiser cruised these placid waters, the air was electric with radio traffic to and from the vessel. The tinder was now aflame.

Given the nature of Europe’s web of alliances, the kaiser virtually guaranteed a world war in 1905 when he approved the military plan of General Alfred von Schlieffen, chief of the Imperial General Staff. According to the Schlieffen Plan, German soldiers would have to smash into Belgium and drive deep into France, knocking France out of any future war before France’s Russian allies could be mobilized in the East. “Let the last man on the right brush the [English] Channel with his sleeve,” it was said of the Schlieffen Plan.

Wilhelm carelessly exposed Germany to the dreaded two-front war through his own unskillful diplomacy and his regular threats to his neighbors. Further,Wilhelm seemed oblivious to the fact that the Schlieffen Plan involved violating Belgian neutrality, which Germany as well as Britain had guaranteed for a century. Britain had not clearly warned Kaiser Wilhelm that violating Belgium’s neutrality would mean war. In fact, none of the Powers knew exactly what Britain’s response would be if Germany marched across Belgium en route to France.6

Twenty years later, Wilhelm would tell British historian Sir John Wheeler-Bennett that he never would have invaded Belgium if he had known that such a move would incite Britain to war. Subtle hints and diplomatic nuances were wasted on Wilhelm. If ever there was a case for Big Stick diplomacy, it was here.

Why did Britain fail to put the kaiser on notice with an unambiguous warning? To have announced well in advance that any violation of Belgian neutrality meant war with Britain might have deterred the impetuous Wilhelm. American Chesterton scholar Dale Ahlquist points to the answer in the autobiography of the noted British writer, G. K. Chesterton. Britain’s ruling Liberal Party was very dependent on a small group of Manchester millionaires to finance its political campaigns.

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