THE DANGERS OF VICTORY

...A few sentences illustrate my point: "Of all the bad effects which the recent war with France has brought, the worst is perhaps a widespread, indeed, general mistake: the mistake of public opinion and of all influential people that German culture was also victorious in that struggle, and should, accordingly, be crowned with all the wreaths which such extraordinary events and successes deserve...

...In our own case, defeat or victory will make no such changes in our frontiers and economic life as the outcome of a war makes in the case of a European nation, nor will the loss or gain of a few "possessions," "colonies," "protectorates," or "mandates" affect in any important way the lives of many of our people or the general welfare of the country...

...it will add greatly to our confidence in the things which brought us victory—our material wealth, and our ability to produce material things—and it will add correspondingly to the prestige of those things in the eyes of many people...

...A Challenging Task The position of the United States at the end of the present war may have certain points of similarity with that of Germany after 1871...

...Since military victory is what we are striving for, and the one thing we seem fairly certain of attaining in this war, we ought to give some thought to what effect it is likely to have, and how the fact that "we won the war" may influence our future...

...The Germany of 1800 was weak, and politically disorganized and impotent, but how many men of really great stature lived then, and how seldom in history do we find a period as creative as the period of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries in the German states...

...it is because of those things that most of us are her^, and not in Europe...

...If this tradi-t&l^i and their influence are still strong enough, it will save us...

...If the opium of victory and of power so causes us to forget our traditions that we let our own Prussians—and we have some, let's not fool ourselves—bamboozle us into saddling ourselves with military conscription, then we too may find that our own American spirit has been sacrificed fq" the American Empire—or perhaps it will be called the, "American Century...

...What greater blessing could we bestow on the German people than to rid them of the horrible blight of militarism, but who will help us \p rid ourselves of militarism, and drive out our own kind of Prussians ? These things we shall have to do ourselves...

...In no case does it seem likely that victory will bring us humility, and the very ease and cheapness of victory will greatly increase the confidence of certain groups in the efficacy of military might in attaining any desired ends...

...Shortly after the ending of the war of 1871 and the establishment of the new, shiny German Empire at Versailles, Burckhardt wrote to a German friend: "You cannot hope to be a culturally significant people and politically significant at the same time...

...the change in relative influence of certain ideas and groups which victory or defeat brings about...

...The great Swiss historian, Jacob Burckhardt, saw perhaps even more clearly what disastrous effects the victory of 1871 would have, not only on Germany, but on all of Europe, since victory i» the war meant the elevation to both political power and popular prestige of a group imbued with narrow nationalism and military ideas...

...or it may decide to use its energy for power and conquest, as did the Romans once, and the British more recently...

...There must be some force or generally accepted goal to give direction and purpose to the creative energies of a people, and it will be in this way, in changing goals and directions, that the vast tragedy of this war will have its long-time, and perhaps greatest, effect...

...Basic Moral Decisions While scarcely any writer should be quoted with more eaution than Nietzsche, his remarks in Observations Out Of Season concerning the German victory over France in 1871 are well worth reading and thinking about...

...This delusion is most pernicious, not at all because it is a delusion—for there are wholesome and beneficial delusions-—but because it is capable of turning the German victory into complete defeat: into the defeat, yes extermination, of the German spirit for the benefit of the 'German Reich...

...she must maintain it henceforth...

...No human institutions are permanent: all change either for better or for worse...

...It may use them to build cathedrals, as did the 13th Century...

...Oh, how wide those learned gentry who now acclaim this Prussianism will open their eyes when they see what spiritual sterility will date from the year 1870 in Germany...

...The Dangers Of Victory By HENRY REGNERY IN WARTIME nothing is made to appear more desirable for the nation than victory, and while other war aims may be proposed, victory remains the one war aim which dominates all others...

...These things are the effect of military success in war, and particularly, easy success, on the cultural life of the nation...

...Cultural Values There are, however, other ways in which the victorious or defeated nation may be influenced, and these in the long run may prove to be of much greater importance than the shifting of a boundary here, or the acquisition of a mandate or oil concession there...

...There is such a thing as an American tradition and an American spirit...

...Whatever kind of world we have after the war, it will necessarily be different from the world we knew before, not only because of the war itself, but also because things were changing anyway...

...If we decide to make power politics on a world-wide scale our principle, then the inevitable result will be the spiritual sterility which Burckhardt saw coming to Germany after 1870...

...A nation has only a certain measure of creative energy and ability at its disposal...

...So far as most people will know, it will be a relatively easy victory...

...to create monuments of the spirit, as did the period around 1800 of .which we were speaking...

...We onca t^re able to produce men of truls-iB-esTstature—as Jefferson, WashirtHten.-Sfici others—and they are the men who &\ne WSrid stand for Americanism...

...But as difficult of solution as the problems of demobilization, reconversion, and all the others will be, our manner of meeting the moral decisions which victory will force on us will probably have much greater effect on the future life of all of us...

...In what way, then, will change, or development, if we wish to call it that, be influenced or directed by military victory...

...Germany has now taken politics as her principle...

...If we compare the Germany of 1800—the country of Goethe, Beethoven, Kant, and how many others—to the Germany of Wilhelm II, or for that matter with England at either time, we can easily convince ourselves that political power and cultural achievement do not necessarily go hand in hand...

...and perhaps most important 2f ajj i£ <^anarX*gg wyj prove ^^t't1..^ i.upact on our traditions and values of the fact that our part in the war will make us a great and dominating world power...

...The end of the war, regardless of how it turns out, will bring us face to face with many extremely complex problems, some caused by the war, and others merely postponed by it...

...So far as cultural values are concerned, we' might remember that "Great Powers" are not necessarily the most creative nations in a cultural sense, and further that periods of great political and military influence do not necessarily coincide with periods of genuine cultural and spiritual achievement...

...our traditions and our background will help us, but they may prove toJi» more challenging than any task we have had to^dcein our history...