When Diplomacy Was an Art:
SCHAPIRO, J. SALWYN
When Diplomacy Was an Art Paul Cambon, Master Diplomatist. By Keith Eubank. Oklahoma University. 221 pp. $4.00. Reviewed by J. Salwyn Schapiro Professor Emeritus of History, City College of...
...In face-to-face negotiation, he often exercised a positive influence in directing the foreign policy of his country...
...In London, where he served continuously for 22 years, he was renowned as the "grand ambassador," almost a legendary figure in a profession that scorns legends...
...it tells little of Cambon's life...
...Much of his work is devoted to a detailed account of the negotiations between France and Britain from 1870 to 1914 which resulted in the formation of the famous Entente Cordiale, the "understanding" to act together in case of German aggression...
...In his book, Professor Keith Eubank describes the career of this great practitioner of the art of diplomacy in the vanished world of the period before 1914...
...No clear picture of the French diplomatist emerges from its pages...
...He was the master hand in a diplomatic revolution whose mastermind was the French Foreign Minister, Theophile Delcasse, "one of the great peaks of French diplomatic history," according to Professor Eubank...
...Curiously enough, he never learned English— perhaps because he had no real need to do so...
...The book's value consists chiefly in its presentation of a reliable summary of the diplomatic relations between France and Britain which led to their alliance at the outbreak of the First World War...
...During the prewar crisis, the Germans, with their genius for making big mistakes, were convinced that Britain would not join forces with France...
...Such a diplomat was the Frenchman, Paul Cambon...
...Reviewed by J. Salwyn Schapiro Professor Emeritus of History, City College of New York Prior to the First World War an ambassador was an ambassador, not a glorified errand boy as he is today...
...and during the war, they believed that the U.S...
...Cambon's work was greater than his role...
...Cambon was then 55 years old and a seasoned diplomat who previously had represented his country in Madrid and Constantinople...
...Almost every statement in it has the hallmark of documentation...
...During the Fashoda Affair, in 1898, when France and Britain were on the brink of war, he chose Cambon to be ambassador to Britain, with full power to settle "all outstanding questions in dispute" between the two nations...
...Professor Eubank's book is not truly a biography...
...he merely hovers in the background of a mass of details...
...Such egregious misjudgments led to Germany's undoing...
...At the time, French was the language of diplomacy and was spoken by the English diplomats with whom he negotiated...
...The firm, clearheaded, adroit Cambon managed to outwit the hesitant, fumbling Sir Edward Grey, then British Foreign Minister...
...In Cambon, Delcassé possessed a diplomatist ideally fitted to aid him in laying the basis for an enduring friendship between France and Britain, bitter enemies for half a millenium...
...To judge from his photographs, Cambon certainly looked the perfect diplomat: bland expression, cautious smile, neatly trimmed beard and well-tailored figure...
...would not join the Allies—and if it did, the American contribution would be too little and too late...
...Professor Eubank's analysis of the diplomatic origins of the First World War makes it clear that Cambon's efforts to commit Britain were seconded by German blunders of the first magnitude...
...The book is based on original sources, both manuscript and printed, in which the author is at home...
...An exchange of letters between them firmly committed Britain to the side of France in case of German aggression...
...Cambon showed great skill in transforming the Entente, an "understanding" without a treaty, into the virtual military alliance that confronted Germany during the great crisis of July 1914...
Vol. 44 • March 1961 • No. 11
