A Familiar Great Divide

Royal Irish Rifles in a trench in the Battle of the Somme during World War I. Credit: GoodFreePhotos.com

One hundred years ago the nation and the world were divided after World War I. The same divisions are evident now.

THE YEAR 1919 DAWNED AT a moment of great opportunity for world peace and stability, but it ended with the failure of international leadership in the West and a profound, escalating public disillusionment with the status quo. The parallels to today are increasingly clear.

One hundred years ago, the victors in World War I, which had cost 17 million lives, including 10 million soldiers and 7 million civilians, failed to create a new world order to insure a just and lasting peace.

Instead, the victorious leaders of France, Great Britain, Italy and the United States constructed a vengeful peace treaty in which Germany, the big loser in the war, was severely punished and temporarily brought to its knees economically and militarily. In addition, rather than being what its advocates called “the war to end all wars,” World War I did not lead to disarmament and instead paved the way for World War II in which even more people were killed and even more horrors resulted

View the complete February 1 article by Kenneth T. Walsh on The U.S. News and World Report here.