A Century of War
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A CENTURY OF WAR A CENTURY OF WAR LINCOLN, WILSON, AND ROOSEVELT JOHN V. D ENSON Ludwig von Mises Institute AUBURN, ALABAMA JOHN V. D ENSON practiced law as a defense trial attorney for many years and in 1988 was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers. In 2005, he was elected Circuit Judge. He is the editor of and a contrib- utor to two prior books, The Costs of War: America’s Pyrrhic Victories and Reassessing the Presidency: The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom. All proceeds from the sale of this book go to the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama. “A Century of War” was delivered as a lecture in 1997 at the fifteenth anniversary of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. “Abraham Lincoln and the First Shot” and “Franklin D. Roosevelt and the First Shot” are from Reassessing the Presidency: The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2001). “The Calamity of World War I,” and “Another Century of War?” first appeared in the Free- man, and “The Will to Peace” was originally published on LewRock- well.com and Mises.org. Front cover: Photo by Frank Hurley. Permission granted by the Aus- tralian War Memorial, negative number E01220. Copyright © 2006 Ludwig von Mises Institute All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any man- ner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews. For information write the Ludwig von Mises Institute, 518 West Magnolia Avenue, Auburn, Alabama 36832; www.mises.org. ISBN: 10 digit: 1-933550-06-6 ISBN: 13 digit: 978-1-933550-06-0 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO the courageous individuals who will struggle against the odds, certain vested interests, and the power of the State to create a will to peace in the twenty-first century. ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to thank, Donna Moreman, for all the extra hours she has worked, in addition to her regular duties as my legal secretary, in order to type speeches, books, and lectures. I also want to thank Judy Thommesen, with the Ludwig von Mises Institute, who served as editor for this book and for her wise counsel and helpful suggestions. Thanks also to Chad Parish, with the Mises Institute, for the cover design that so vividly shows the horrors of war. Finally, I want to thank Lew Rock- well, not only for his friendship since we met in 1982, but for his com- mitment to Mrs. Ludwig von Mises to create the Mises Institute and to devote his life to promoting the ideas of her brilliant husband. The Mises Institute has been a fantastic success and I am very proud to have been associated with it since the beginning. CONTENTS PREFACE ....................................................................................9 1. A CENTURY OF WAR ..........................................................17 2. ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE FIRST SHOT .........................33 3. THE CALAMITY OF WORLD WAR I .....................................97 4. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT AND THE FIRST SHOT ..............101 5. LINCOLN AND ROOSEVELT: AMERICAN CAESARS...............173 6. ANOTHER CENTURY OF WAR? ..........................................181 7. THE WILL TO PEACE ........................................................187 APPENDIX: ROOSEVELT, PEARL HARBOR, AND THE RED CROSS ............................................................195 RECOMMENDED READINGS ....................................................197 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................201 INDEX....................................................................................209 7 PREFACE THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY MUST take the path less traveled and reverse the direction taken in the war-torn twentieth century, the bloodiest in history. When the First World War, where ten million soldiers were killed, evolved into the Second World War, where fifty million people were killed, we experienced the concept of total war. A large percentage of the fifty million were civilians (women and children) killed by British and American aircraft which dropped bombs on nonmilitary targets in order to demoral- ize the enemy. In other words, the end justified the means. The Second World War ended with the first atomic bombs being dropped on Japan, despite the fact that for months Japan had been offering to surrender if they could keep their Emperor. This offer was refused because of Roosevelt’s unconditional sur- render policy which Truman also adopted. After America dropped the bombs, and after Russia had been in the war for six days, we accepted their surrender and let the Japanese keep their Emperor. The war was followed by the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials which established, for the future, that the political and military leaders who lose a war will be tried by the victors and then exe- cuted. This established the pattern that no military or political leader will be willing to lose a war, therefore ensuring it will esca- late into a total war to avoid losing and being executed. The twenty-first century, I believe, will be the nuclear century since this amazing source of energy, i.e., uranium, holds the prom- ise of future prosperity for the rapidly growing industrialized world. However, if nuclear power is used in a total war, we literally face 9 A CENTURY OF WAR: LINCOLN, WILSON, AND ROOSEVELT the possible extinction of the human race, or at least the destruc- tion of Western Civilization. We must learn to avoid war and develop a general will to peace. I believe the key to this development is to learn the truth about the real causes and effects of wars so that we can see through the false propaganda which is used by political leaders to convince us to go to war. I am advocating the careful study of history for the purpose of developing this will to peace. One of my favorite history professors is Ralph Raico who tells the story of asking his college students, “What is history?” and one of the students replied, “It’s just one damn thing after another.” Henry Ford said, “History is bunk,” meaning that it is usually false and misleading rather than unim- portant when correctly written. In Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dic- tionary, he defined history as “an account, mostly false of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.” However, when history is writ- ten truthfully I believe that Bolingbroke gave the best definition, “History is philosophy teaching by example.” If we can read his- tory by looking at past events to determine what ideas were being followed, we can see how those ideas worked out in practice and learn lessons from the experience of others and avoid the same mistakes. The extreme importance of history and its study was cogently stated by Patrick Henry, “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no other way of judging the future but by the past.” The big question about history is usually “What are the true facts?” You cannot always rely on eyewitnesses since they may have a bias. Sometimes diaries and writings made contemporane- ously are true but are not found for many years, decades, or cen- turies. It is almost impossible for history to be written without the writer’s judgment or bias being expressed in the form of an inter- pretation. Therefore, history is always evolving and it is always subject to revision by better and more reliable evidence. This brings us to the controversial question of “What is revi- sionism?” Usually when some establishment position is ques- tioned as to its authenticity and a new version is proposed, it is 10 PREFACE condemned as “revisionism” or an effort to distort the truth, when in fact, the revisionism may state the correct facts. The best defi- nition of revisionism was stated by one of America’s foremost revi- sionist historians, Harry Elmer Barnes, “Revisionism is bringing history into accord with the facts.” In George Orwell’s famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four he depicts “revisionism” as a word of opprobrium and demonstrates it with the governmental depart- ment entitled “The Ministry of Truth” where history is intention- ally falsified to obscure the past because people who do not know the truth about the past, and cannot learn lessons from history, are more easily controlled by the government, not only in the present, but for the future. Therefore, when the word revisionism is used, it must be determined in what context it is being used, i.e., whether the definition stated by Barnes, or in the sense of George Orwell’s novel. One of the most dramatic examples of true revisionism con- cerns the “Donation of Constantine.” This was a document widely circulated for centuries throughout Western Civilization which was alleged to be a document composed by the Emperor Constantine (272–337) which made a gift of Rome and the west- ern part of the Roman Empire to Pope Sylvester while the eastern part of the empire was established at the capital of Constantino- ple. This alleged donation constituted the cornerstone of the papal claim for both religious and secular power in Rome, which is one of the reasons, for instance, that Charlemagne traveled to Rome to be crowned as emperor by the Pope on Christmas day in 800. It was not until the fifteenth century that Lorenzo Valla (1407–57) exposed this document as a complete forgery, thereby causing tremendous repercussions in Western Civilization from that time forward relating to both the secular and papal sover- eignty and power of Rome. It is in regard to war, however, that most revisionism becomes necessary because truth is almost always the first casualty of war. In most wars throughout history, the political leaders first need to gain the support of the citizens who must fight, pay taxes, and sacrifice their lives.