FRANCE AND THE SEEDS OF WORLD WAR II
Hanighen, Frank C.
France And The Seeds Of World War III By FRANK C HANIGHEN Washington, D. C. RIOTING beneath the cedars of Lebanon, a little country rarely noticed on the geography of this vast war, has brought...
...These notes ordered de Gaulle to back down before the demands of the Lebanese 'rebels and virtually to withdraw French power from this area of the Near East...
...Roosevelt, in this as in other matters, followed Churchill...
...We find him saying in his new phase, "Imperialism is the eternal and immutable law of life...
...Hence, at the peace conference, she presented her bill—and more...
...In short, the Big Three of that day treated Italy with scant courtesy as an inferior power...
...Italy suffered more from the war than she had bargained for—650,000 dead, over 1,000,000 wounded and an enormous debt and economic dislocation...
...On top of this came the Anglo-American attitude and policy towards de Gaulle...
...France received a mandate over Lebanon as part of her share of the spoils at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919...
...Mussolini, who as an idealistic Socialist had agitated for Italian entrance into the war on the side of the Western democracies, turned his coat and became the precursor of Hitler...
...Also, must President Roosevelt forever follow in the footsteps of the brilliant Churchill...
...But, when the British emphasize that the United States must be prepared to sacrifice some of our economic sovereignty to found a peaceful world order in the future, it seems legitimate to raise the question...
...Today, de Gaulle—whether we like it or not—stands as a symbol for France...
...Will the Anglo-Saxon powers one day find on their doorstep as a member of the "Atlantic Community" a nation long rankling with an inferiority complex and acting under the influence of Soviet Russia...
...Meanwhile, France had passed through the lire of war, defeat, and nascent resurrection...
...Placing the question on a higher level, one may wonder if the United Nations should not seek a more altruistic, and therefore permanent, ground than that of trading in imperialisms...
...After all, even our enemy Japan found it possible to reach a modus vivendi with Vichy France in another part of the French Empire—Indo-China...
...These terms apparently represent a compromise with the Anglo-American demands...
...But rising nationalisms show impatience...
...De Gaulle is moving over under the protecting wing of another big power...
...Giraud, as against de Gaulle with his strong Communist following...
...On Nov...
...But the real lesson lies in the role of a national humiliation in the building of a new war...
...and Turkey, which could deal a blow to German dominance of the Balkans, remains precariously neutral...
...But it can lose the peace and prepare the seeds for World War III...
...In this connection, it is proper to recall that Britain, to quote Lord Palmer-stpn, has no permanent friendships, only permanent interests...
...To review this Important situation is to prepare ourselves for dangers ahead...
...Charles de Gaulle on the other...
...This will not lose the war...
...Whether Britain and the United States will accept them remains a question...
...London and Washington last week dispatched notes, actually ultimatums, of harshness unparalleled in the history of relations between allies...
...Churchill's attitude— said" to have been expressed by the sentence, "I raised this fellow from nothing"—hardly helped...
...The fatal progression—Fiume, the rise of Mussolini, Fascist Italy, and the final benumbing descent into another war— stands as a warning...
...the Germans are consolidating their hold on the Aegean islands...
...On the surface, a few Levantine rebels clash with the French authorities...
...If France is required to knuckle down completely in the Near East, France as well as de Gaulle suffers a humiliation...
...that they read in Roosevelt's diplomacy of those days promises of American help which never arrived...
...For, the tide of Pan-Arabism is mounting high in this region...
...These experiences inspired bitter sentiments among the French...
...We must not forget that France stood up_first and took the shock of the German steam-roller...
...We must not be unmindful that Frenchmen, even those who chose to fight on, harbor resentments towards Britain and the United States...
...and that the seeds of another war have been inexorably planted...
...He precipitated the birth of forces which helped to start the present war...
...Britain and the United States backed the conservative Gen...
...According to the deal, Italy was to get—among other rewards— control of the Dalmatian coast, including Fiume...
...Italy, on our side last time, started against us in this war...
...Moreover, after the last war, we discovered France at our side as against Britain in the great 1922 oil conference in Genoa...
...They also propose to reinstate the president, but they leave the status of the ministers undetermined...
...Britain and the United States refused to recognize the French Committee of National Liberation as the French government, although they recognized other governments-in-exile—the Poles, Jugoslavs, etc...
...De Gaulle has said as much about the French Empire...
...Militarily, it's a game with high stakes...
...A Warning For America As a result of this humiliation, Italian nationalism flared...
...He thereby precipitated much more than an issue of self-determination...
...Put on the spot, de Gaulle faced two unhappy alternatives...
...We need not labor the parallel with the France of today...
...The Moscow agreements made it a "Big Three" (Russia, Britain, and the United States) on the European Ad1 visory Council, thus relegating France to the rank of a minor power...
...The net result has been to drive all French—Right and Left—into de Gaulle's camp...
...It Can Lose The Peace' But, on the other hand, if de Gaulle should bow to the ultimatums, he would suffer a humiliation which might undermine his own power over the French...
...This nationalism, plus the bloody disorders of post-war Italy, produced Fascism—the first appearance of the malady which later ravaged all Europe...
...But given Churchill's unbending attitude towards France, the trend seems unlikely to change...
...Woodrow Wilson sought to rescue this Adriatic seaport from the greedy clutches of one of the Big Four nations of that day —Italy...
...Like Britain with her mandates, France for 20 years had much trouble with these patchworks...
...By refusing, he might throw a highly strategic region into disorder...
...France And The Seeds Of World War III By FRANK C HANIGHEN Washington, D. C. RIOTING beneath the cedars of Lebanon, a little country rarely noticed on the geography of this vast war, has brought to the fore a conflict of the utmost seriousness...
...Yet, this apparently trivial incident conceals a crucial phase in the prolonged diplomatic feud between three men—Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt on one side, and Gen...
...Rut it is up to the diplomats, not the generals, to devise a conciliating formula...
...Meanwhile, we must take account of another prospect...
...21, they proposed the release of the arrested president and ministers and action for freeing both Lebanon and Syria within the framework of their League mandate...
...But, for the present, the United Nations must seek a practical solution for the present crisis...
...This would require sacrifices of sovereignty on the part of Britain...
...This half-forgotten name evokes memories of the acrimonious fight during the peace conference after the last war...
...Britain, too, told her Indian subjects to wait until after the war...
...If Britain and the United States force de Gaulle to relinquish an important part of the French Empire, what may be the consequences...
...Lebanon and adjoining Syria (also under French mandate) are patchworks of numerous races and religions, and budding nationalism...
...Lloyd George and Clemenceau not only backed him in this, but gave Italy the short end of the division of spoils in colonial territories, while reserving generous mandates in Africa and the Near East for themselves...
...History reveals an ominous pattern for this situation.For Lebanon, read Fiume...
...An Ominous Pattern After France finally promised independence to Lebanon, the war intervened to cause her to postpone her promise...
...Would Churchill modify his stand to the extent of yielding in India, while de Gaulle bowed in Lebanon...
...Churchill, with his engaging candor, has said he will "not preside over the liquidation of the British Empire...
...Lebanon, of course, should be given its independence...
...Hence, the present Lebanese imbroglio...
...The French Committee of Liberation, at this date of writing, appears to have made a move for the settlement of the Lebanese crisis...
...But we would be foolish to ignore the implications of Lebanon...
...Lebanon affects this whole situation...
...Today, de Gaulle as nearly represents France's national and imperial interests as possible under present peculiar conditions...
...Probably not...
...The French Committee finds in Moscow a more sympathetic ear for its complaints than in London and Washington...
...that they blame Britain for iiot giving adequate military support on the western front...
...Yet this—the fall of an individual leader—is not the underlying issue...
...Wilson took a righteous stand against the award of Fiume to Italy, and won...
...After all, our ties with France date back to the founding of our republic...
...Walter Lipp-mann has shown that the story of Lebanon has two sides, only one of which, the British, has received a thorough airing here...
...Or we may hope that it is not too late for a fresh start on a truly American policy...
...We may reluctantly feel that we have again been drawn into a world cock-pit of power politics...
...Italy entered the last war late (in 1915), after making a secret deal with Britain and France...
Vol. 7 • December 1943 • No. 49
