Unedited text of my letter to the Editors of Newsweek concerning the Manichaean approach to the history of the Origins of World War I

Published in the Newsweek issue of 2-9 July 2007, page 16, just after the excellent letter of Dr. Kearn Schemm and before the equally good letter of Steve Lister.

Re: article by Even Thomas, Ties of Blood, 26 February 2007

The British-American language-ties certainly contributed to our political
and economic hegemony in the 20th century. But let us not oversimplify
things and cast ourselves in the role of the good guys.

The Brits have a less than honourable colonial past -- in Africa, India and
elsewhere. We Americans have an imperialistic past of aggressing Spain in
1898 over Cuba, imposing the "Monroe Doctrine" on Latin America, and expanding into Hawaii and the Philippines at the expense of the self-determination of other peoples. Our policies were not guided by a desire to bring "democracy" to others, but by our need for economic expansion.

As to the first world war, Germany was certainly not the war-monger, for it
had nothing to gain and it did try to contain Austria's justified outrage over
the murder of the heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie by
a Serb nationalist. It is a matter of record that Kaiser Wilhelm I undertook
a lot of diplomatic footwork to avert the disaster. That he did not succeed
does not make him guiltier than those who actually wanted and connived at
the war.

On a scale of "guilt" surely Serbia comes first, followed by Russia whose
pan-slavic western expansion was notorious; then France, that wanted to grab
Alsace Lorraine again, which had been taken from the Holy Roman Empire by
successive French wars of aggression, particularly by Louis XIV, and which
Germany had recovered in 1871; then Great Britain who coveted Germany's
colonies in Africa and wanted to knock her out as a commercial competitor.
At the bottom of the list you find Austria and Germany. It is a travesty of
history that the Versailles treaty attributed all fault to Germany.

92 years after the outbreak of that great calamity, it would be wise for all
of us -- and for Newsweek -- to refrain from chauvinism.

Sincerely yours,

Professor Dr. Alfred de Zayas
J.D. (Harvard), Ph.D. (Göttingen) member New York Bar, Florida Bar
Author of "Nemesis at Potsdam" (Routledge)
A Terrible Revenge (Palgrave/Macmillan)
Professor of International Relations at Schiller International University in
Leysin
Professor of International Law at Geneva School of Diplomacy