Description
This study, a realist interpretation of the long diplomatic record that produced the coming of World War II in 1939, is a critique of the Paris Peace Conference and reflects the judgment shared by many who left the Conference in 1919 in disgust amid predictions of future war. The critique is a rejection of the idea of collective security, which Woodrow Wilson and many others believed was a panacea, but which was also condemned as early as 1915. This book delivers a powerful lesson in treaty-making and rejects the supposition that treaties, once made, are unchangeable, whatever their faults.
Table of Contents
1. The international order on trial; 2. The road to Paris; 3. Versailles: a study in arrogance; 4. The retreat to utopia; 5. Manchuria and the triumph of non-recognition; 6. The rise of Hitler; 7. Challenge of the dictators; 8. The illusive response; 9. Munich: the continuing escape from reality; 10. The road to Prague; 11. The Soviet quest for collective security; 12. The coming of war.
