Daniel Pipes Quotes
Diplomacy in general does not resolve conflicts. Wars end not due to peace processes, but due to one side giving up.
Pipes, Daniel. "Victory: The Only Way to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." Commentary, vol. 103, no. 1, Jan. 1997, p. 55.
Lee was trying to negotiate a peace treaty as a part of his his potential surrender. However, Grant would not be drawn into that, Lee was NOT the government of the Confederacy, and Grant had served with him earlier in the Mexican War and knew he was not a fanatic on teh subject of slavery and race as most of the Southern leaders were. They werenthe ones who would have to be captured or driven to surrender. Grant could have gotten authoirioty as he was in almost real time contact with President Lincoln by telegraph. However, neither wanted to negotiate peace with Lee. Instead, Grant gave Lee and his men incredibly gracious termsof surrender which he and Lincoln hoped would casue the avarage Southern soldiers to feel better about surrender for although Lee's was the largest Confederate Army, there were still others out there that had to be dealt with,
1st Earl of Beaconsfield. Contrast this statement with that of Neville Chamberlain returning from Munich in 1941. Disraeli had threatened war and forced the Russians to accept all the British demands by diplomatically isolating them first and moving armed troops into position just before the peace conference.
Chivington led troops to attack hostile Indians. When they arrived at Sand Creek, the most militant young Indian men had left. The others did not want to fight, displayed white flags and wanted to negotiate. Chivington made his famous statement, attacked the Indians and massacred most of them including the ones who were trying to surrender with white flags. See {597566}.
Originally published as The Cynic’s Word Book
Daniel Pipes is an American historian, writer, and commentator. He is the president of the Middle East Forum, and publisher of its Middle East Quarterly journal. His writing focuses on American foreign policy and the Middle East.
