German Independent Socialist Party Quotes
We utter afresh the sharpest protest against all efforts and proclamations in favor of annexing foreign territory and of doing violence to the territory of others …. The people desire no annexations. The people desire peace.
There were some anti-war forces in Germany in World War I.
German Independent Socialist Party, Statement, 1915
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
When it came to war and national honor, TR was a super hawk. His usual subtlety of analysis became gross and binary when war was considered. Opposition was greed and cowardice and never considered policy options.
The Hapsburgs were the ruling family of the Austrian Empire who wanted to invade Serbia in retaliation for their complicity in the assassination of the Austrian Archduke. This would likely bring Russia in the war in support of Serbia. The editor thought that there was no obligation to support Austria when they were planning a war of choice. What the editor did not know was that the German leadership very much wanted war at the time and supporting Austria was the perfect excuse to fight without them starting the conflict. However, the evidence became clear later than it was German aggression that turned the dispute into a World War.
German ally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had declared war on Serbia. See {642085}. The Russian Czar was under great pressure because a large Roman Catholic Empire was warring against a small Orthodox co-religionist of Russia and Russians of all classes wanted Russia to defend Serbia. The Czar was making a good faith effort to stave off the war. What he did not realize was that Germany had actually planned for war against Russia and France and was using the alliance with Austria as an excuse.
This was Ford in the middle of his career. As he got older, he changed radically. He was later one of the biggest supporters and admirers of Adolf Hitler and his aggressive militarism.
Chamberlain’s policy was to appease Hitler and Germany to avoid war. Although he did not see Czechoslavkia as a critical British national interest and claimed he had secured peace {585941} , the reality was that he gave Germany room to start its aggression which would engulf all of Europe and much of the world. The British became the only bulwark against Hitler until the Russians stopped the Germans and America entered the war.
with Russia over the independence of Berlin and West Germany
His definition of Russian territory included any area that the Czars claimed which included Poland, the Baltic States, the Ukraine, the Caucuses, but at the time of the speech, Russia was fighting to keep its existing territory.
Vladimir Lenin
Despite the fact that there were no formal political polls at the time, public opinion was very influential in curtailing what might be a tendency to use of the American military. Starting with the Cold War later, Presidents tended to use American military force regardless of public opinion or would exaggerate or lie (Vietnam and Iraq wars for example) to temporally gain some public support.
