Dear Mrs Sandy Sinclair
Your defence of my freedom of speech is stirring and I do thank you for
that. I respect your ideas but you have however performed the bowdlerisation
of my statements neatly.
I had written "We, as victors, imposed a humiliation of the vanquished that
allowed the rise of Hitler" How that statement can be related to your
statement, "Ex. The deeds of Hitler were caused by the humiliation of the
Treaty of WW I. (No truth to this statement. It was his personal decision to
put forth a Super Race to conquer the world as well as to annihilate 9
million Jews.)" leave me wondering?
There was no such statement made.
The atrocious deeds of Hitler were not mentioned. Today 12 November 1923
Adolf Hitler was arrested for attempting to seize power on 8 November. The
rise of Hitler in Germany was caused for the most part by the German
economic havoc and the super inflation that unprecedented scale of the war
payments demanded by European Powers allowed the ground to be fertile for
the Nazi party rise. The Dawes plan of 1924 said that reparation payment
should begin at 1 billion marks for the first year and should rise over a
period of four years to 2.5 billion marks per year, that the German
Reichsbank be reorganized under Allied supervision, and that the sources for
the reparation money should include transportation, excise, and custom
taxes. The plan had been in effect until 1929 and contributed to the
improvement of Germany's economy and her remilitarisation. In 1929, in the
conditions of the Great Depression, it became obvious that Germany could no
longer continue those annual payments, especially over an indefinite period
of time. Therefore a new version of the plan was worked out, known as the
Young plan. It set the total reparations at $26,350,000,000 to be paid over
a period of 58 years and was adopted by the Allies in 1930. The annuities
were to be raised through a transportation tax and from the budget. No
sooner had the plan gone into effect, than Germany felt the full impact of
economic depression, and a moratorium was called for the fiscal year
1931-1932. After Adolf Hitler took over Germany, he repudiated the unpaid
reparations debt, and no further payments were ever made. The Americans did
not share the views the British and European governments. The killing of 9
million Gypsy and Jews were after the criminal Hitler had come to power.
The American President Woodrow Wilson, was a voice of reason as Europeans
called for a pound of flesh. Wilson presented 14 points in a speech to the
American Congress. The speach ended
"For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to fight and to continue
to fight until they are achieved; but only because we wish the right to
prevail and desire a just and stable peace such as can be secured only by
removing the chief provocations to war, which this programme does remove. We
have no jealousy of German greatness, and there is nothing in this programme
that impairs it. We grudge her no achievement or distinction of learning or
of pacific enterprise such as have made her record very bright and very
enviable. We do not wish to injure her or to block in any way her legitimate
influence or power. We do not wish to fight her either with arms or with
hostile arrangements of trade if she is willing to associate herself with us
and the other peace- loving nations of the world in covenants of justice and
law and fair dealing. We wish her only to accept a place of equality among
the peoples of the world, -- the new world in which we now live, -- instead
of a place of mastery. "
Europe did not listen to him. America also did not. He was too much not of
an idealist. He was to much of a realist. Wilson knew we lived in an
interconnected world.
Both of President Wilson's post-Armistice visits to Europe were overseen by
the Committee on Public Information headed by George Cree with the result
that Wilson was greeted with open adulation wherever he went. Creel's
efforts also ensured a high degree of popularity in Europe for Wilson's
Fourteen Points.
In 1934 Creel stood for the Democratic Party's nomination for governor of
California. He lost the nomination to Upton Sinclair.
You wrote Ex. The body bags and burnt youth streaming home to Australia from
Bali were caused by someone bucking for a high popularity rating. (That
attack in Bali clearly was caused by some personal decisions made by
terrorists to kill and injure people.) I had written "Body bags and burnt
youth streaming home to Australia from Bali, American Marines attacked in
Kuwait a French oil tanker assaulted off the coast of Yemen are too high a
price to pay for popularity ratings." There is no implication in my
statement of any responsibility of the attacks being laid to any politician
who is capitalising on tragic events. I do not think that the attacks listed
were caused by personal decisions the attack appear to be part of the evil
of Al Qaeda and the attempt to build an Islamic super state.
You wrote "Ex. The "War on Terror" has been so far a failure. (Not true!
....)" The stated objective of the 'War on Terror' was to eliminate bin
Laden and his organisation. Bin Laden is unaccounted for. The Taliban leader
is at large. The American CIA and Pentagon state that Al Qaeda is
reconstituting itself with fresh recruits and better organisation. Is this
success?
The letter you quoted is spot on to the conditions in Afghanistan. America
is not alone there are other troops in Afghanistan British, Canadian,
French, Greek and others are there. The attempt to forge a sovereign nation
in Afghanistan is commendable. Terrorising the Iraqis people as Saddam and
his cabal of 100,000 live comfortable lives is not..
Your citation from "Striving" is excellent but to follow it we must find
what is positive.
Sinclair
ref: Mayer, Arno J. Politics and Diplomacy of Peacemaking: Containment and
Counterrevolution at Versailles, 1918-1919. New York: Harcourt, 1967
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