Although the tragedy of the war is often conveyed through the massive scale of the slaughter, sometimes this is better expressed through individual tales.
1. Australian Private Billy Sing sniped at least 150 Turkish soldiers at Gallipoli
His nickname was ‘Murderer’.
2. US Sergeant Alvin York was one of the most decorated American soldiers
In the Meuse Argonne Offensive (1918) he led an attack on a machine gun nest which killed 28 enemy and captured 132. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor.
3. During a patrol over Italy in March 1918, Lt Alan Jerrard’s Sopwith Camel was hit 163 times – he won the VC
4. The youngest recipient of the Victoria Cross, Boy (First Class) John Cornwell, was 16 years old
He stayed at his post for over an hour despite receiving a fatal wound.
5. 634 Victoria Crosses were awarded during World War One
166 of those were awarded posthumously.
6. The Red Baron of Germany was the war’s greatest flying ace
Baron Manfred von Richthofen was credited with 80 kills.
7. Edith Cavell was a British nurse who helped 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium
The Germans arrested her and she was executed by a German firing squad. Her death helped turn global opinion against Germany.
8. Anibal Milhais, the most decorated Portuguese soldier of the war, successfully and single-handedly withstood two German assaults
His resistance and rate of fire during a German ambush convinced the enemy that they were up against a fortified unit rather than a lone soldier.
9. Renegade Pilot Frank Luke, the ‘balloon buster’, claimed 18 victories in total
On September 29 1918 he downed 3 balloons but was fatally injured in the process.
10. Ernst Udet was Germany’s second greatest flying Ace, claiming 61 victories
Udet would enjoy a playboy lifestyle after the war. However he re-enlisted in World War Two and committed suicide in 1941 during Operation Barbarossa.
]]>The Deer Hunter (1978)
The only film that brings home the domestic fallout from Vietnam, The Deer Hunter has a stellar cast – Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep and Christopher Walken, among many other – and details the various trials and horrors suffered by a group of Russian-American steelworkers and the tight-knit community they belong to.
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 classic is as well-known for the infamous circumstances in which it was produced as for its gripping narrative.
Martin Sheen, who plays the film’s protagonist, had a heart attack on set. Marlon Brando, playing the rogue Green Beret Colonel Kurtz, turned up on set severely overweight – the start of a remarkable decline.
The film’s total cost ballooned to millions of dollars over budget, as hundreds of actors, production staff and extras routinely smoked and swallowed a whole array of narcotics. A typhoon also swept through their set in the Philippines.
However, out of the chaos emerged a dark-hearted, surreal masterpiece that was, if anything, enhanced by the circumstances of its production.
Platoon (1984)
Another director from the highest pantheon – Oliver Stone – brought this opus to cinema screens in 1984. Charlie Sheen plays Chris Taylor, a fresh infantry recruit who finds himself embedded in a platoon that regularly engages in war crimes.
His is a story of moral turmoil as the two platoon sergeants, Elias and Barnes, force him to choose between decency and psychopathy.
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Yet another directorial heavyweight, Stanley Kubrick, uses the platform of Vietnam to explore standard military fare – brutal training and huge set-piece battles.
‘Full Metal Jacket’, Joker’s helmet
Image Credit: Matthew J. Cotter from Wigan, United Kingdom, CC BY-SA 2.0
It kicks off powerfully with R. Lee Ermey, playing the prototypical psychopathic Marine Corp drill sergeant who whips fresh recruits into shape, providing possibly the best line of all 5 films – ‘I didn’t know they stacked shit so high!’
The film graduates to a series of epic battle scenes, including the Battle of Hue, and the recruits are picked off by booby traps and a young female sniper.
Good Morning Vietnam (1987)
A departure from the gritty, dark tone of the four previous films, Good Morning Vietnam is dominated by a defining performance from the late Robin Williams.
Hated by the high command but loved by the troops, Williams’s character’s irreverent approach to authority and the trials of war endears him to the troops.
Hamburger Hill (1987)
This 1987 film is a depiction of the actual assault of the US Army’s 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, part of the ‘Screaming Eagles’, on ‘Hamburger Hill’, an NV stronghold on the Ap Bia Mountain near the Laotian border.
In a series of gruelling encounters, the US contingent is whittled down to handful of battered soldiers, who eventually capture the Hill, but at a massive cost.
Forrest Gump (1994)
Although this epic doesn’t revolve around Vietnam, is does contain an iconic sequence. Forrest, played by Tom Hanks, obliviously lived an extraordinary life, which involved being sent to Vietnam in the war’s early stages.
Tom Hanks (left) and Gary Sinise (right) on the film set in 1993
Image Credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
His platoon is ambushed and Forrest manages to save 4 men, including platoon leader Lieutenant Dan. He receives the Medal of Honour from President Lyndon Johnson, and is later attacked by Lieutenant Dan, who holds Forrest accountable for the fact he lost his legs in the ambush.
]]>There is a wide canon of literature that spans the war and its aftermath, and below we have listed 15 of some of the best novels and memoirs about the conflict.
First hand memoirs:
1. Robert Graves – Goodbye To All That
Graves’ autobiography covers his World War One experience, in which he served as a lieutenant and then captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, alongside another literary giant, Siegfried Sassoon.
Goodbye to All That provides a detailed description of trench warfare, including the tragic incompetence of the Battle of Loos and the bitter fighting in the first phase of the Somme Offensive.
2. Siegfried Sassoon – The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston
The trilogised ‘fictional autobiography’ draws on Sassoon’s own World War One experiences. The eponymous protagonist, George Sherston, was later claimed by Sassoon to only represent 1/5 of this personality.
The book won high acclaim in its time, taking the Hawthorne Prize for Literature in 1928, and has endured as a classic representation of an individual’s experience of the war.
3. Vera Brittain – Testament of Youth
Testament of Youth has been acclaimed as a classic for its description of the impact of the war on the lives of women and the middle-class civilian population of Great Britain. The book shows how the war’s impact extended into the postwar years.
It is also considered a classic in feminist literature for its depiction of a woman’s pioneer struggle to forge an independent career in a society only grudgingly tolerant of educated women.
North American novels:
4. Timothy Findley – The Wars
The Wars tells the story of Robert Ross, a 19 year old Canadian Officer who interprets the war as an escape from personal tragedy and an oppressive, static society. He calls his decision to join the war “a last desperate act to declare his commitment to life in the midst of death”.
5. Jeff Shaara – To the Last Man
To the Last Man is a novel based on accounts of the arrival of American troops on the Western Front in 1917. It follows the experiences of various doughboys from General to Private, as well as profiling a new British recruit and two aviation aces – one German and one American.
6. Dalton Trumbo – Johnny Got His Gun
This anti-war novel follows the tale of Joe Benham, a young ex-soldier who has to come to terms with having lost his arms, legs, and all of his face (including his eyes, ears, teeth, and tongue). His mind functions perfectly, leaving him a prisoner in his own body.
Trumbo at the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in 1947
Image Credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
7. Ernest Hemingway – A Farewell to Arms
A Farewell to Arms is a first-person account of American Frederic Henry, serving as a Lieutenant in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army.
It tells of a love affair between the expatriate American Henry and Catherine Barkley, set in among the social upheaval of the Great War, ranging from intense characterisations of cynical soldiers to sweeping descriptions of population displacement.
French and German works:
8. Henri Barbusse – Under Fire
This novel is rather a series of journal-like anecdotes with which the anonymous narrator claims to be recording his time in the war. It follows a squad of French volunteer soldiers on the Western front in France after the German invasion.
Under Fire was one of the first novels to be published about the war and contains vivid descriptions of assaults in between broader descriptions of life in wartime France.
9. Ernst Jünger – Storm of Steel
Storm of Steel is a memoir of German Officer Ernst Jünger’s experiences on the Western Front. Jünger served as a Lieutenant in the German Army until 1923, and his recollections have been labelled as glorifying war.
In the preface to the 1929 English edition, Jünger stated that “Time only strengthens my conviction that it was a good and strenuous life, and that the war, for all its destructiveness, was an incomparable schooling of the heart.”.
Ernst Jünger in uniform as depicted in the frontispiece of the 3rd edition of ‘In Stahlgewittern’ (1922)
Image Credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
10. Erich Maria Remarque – All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque’s book describes the German soldiers’ extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front.
In 1930 the book was adapted into an Oscar-winning film under the same name, directed by Lewis Milestone. More recently a German adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front was released in 2022. This modern adaptation of the novel has been widely acclaimed for retaining its faithfulness to the book’s anti-war message.
Post war novels:
11. Ford Madox Ford – Parade’s End
Parade’s End is a tetralogy described as “quite simply, the best fictional treatment of war in the history of the novel.” The novels chronicles the life of “the last Tory”, a wealthy and brilliant government statistician serving in the British Army during World War One.
Rather than depicting the real-time experiences of warfare, this novel instead focuses on its psychological and social aftermath.
12. Richard Aldington – Death of a Hero
Death of a Hero is the story of a young English artist named George Winterbourne who enlists in the army at the outbreak of World War One.
It presents an unfiltered picture of war, including graphic descriptions of sexual experiences alongside those of life in the trenches. It was widely censored in England and subjected to violent public criticism.
13. Michael Morpurgo – War Horse
First published in 1982, this novel tells the intertwined stories of Joey, a horse purchased to serve on the Western Front, and of his young owner Albert, who enlists to fight. It has since been adapted into an award-winning play under the same name, and as a blockbuster film directed by Steven Spielberg.
14. Sebastian Faulks – Birdsong
Birdsong tells of a man called Stephen Wraysford at different stages of his life both before and during World War One. Faulks’ retelling of the events and attitudes surrounding the Battle of the Somme has been singled out for special commendation. The novel came 13th in a 2003 BBC survey searching for Britain’s favourite book.
15. Pat Barker – Regeneration trilogy
This trilogy explores the experience of British army officers being treated for shell shock at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh.
Barker draws extensively on first person narratives from the period, creating characters founded in real-life individuals, including the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, and psychologist W.H.R. Rivers, who pioneered treatments of PTSD.
]]>Standardised uniforms were used to instil discipline and esprit de corps on the battlefield, with new technology enabling advances in mass production, wear, comfort and suitability of the outfits to a variety of climates.
Britain
The British wore khaki uniforms throughout World War One. These uniforms had originally been designed and issued in 1902 to replace the traditional red uniform and remained unchanged by 1914.
A formative shot of men of the original Rhodesian Platoon of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 1914. Image credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Image Credit: Not recorded. Probably British Army photographer. This image also appears in Rhodesia and the War, 1914–1917: A Comprehensive Illustrated Record of Rhodesia's Part in the Great War, published by Art Printing Works in Salisbury in 1918, again without record of its photographer. Judging from the character of this formative shot, the fact that it was taken during wartime just before the unit was deployed to the Western Front, the fact that it was taken at a British Army training base, and the fact that its informal sponsor, the Marquess of Winchester, is present in the centre of the photograph, I consider it likely that the picture was taken in an official capacity., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The change to khaki was in response to new technologies such as aerial reconnaissance and guns that didn’t smoke as much, which made soldiers’ visibility a problem on the battlefield.
The tunic had large breast pockets as well as two side pockets for storage. Rank was indicated by badges on the upper arm.
Variations on the standard uniform were issued depending on the nationality and role of the soldier.
In warmer climates, soldiers wore similar uniforms though in a lighter colour and made from thinner fabric with few pockets.
The Scottish uniform featured a shorter tunic which did not hang below the waist, enabling the wearing of a kilt and sporran.
France
Unlike other armies fighting in World War One, the French initially retained their 19th-century uniforms – something that had been a point of political contention before the war. Consisting of bright blue tunics and striking red trousers, some warned of terrible consequences if French forces were to continue wearing these uniforms on the battlefield.
In 1911 soldier and politician Adolphe Messimy cautioned,
“This stupid blind attachment to the most visible of colours will have cruel consequences.”
A group of French infantrymen are seen in front of the entrance to a shelter in a front line trench. Image credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Image Credit: Paul Castelnau, Ministère de la Culture, Wikimedia Commons
After disastrous losses at the Battle of the Frontiers, a significant factor being the high visibility of French uniforms and the propensity for those visible uniforms to attract heavy artillery fire, the decision was made to replace the conspicuous uniforms.
A uniform in a drab blue known as horizon blue had already been approved in June 1914, but was only issued in 1915.
France was, however, the first nation to introduce helmets and French soldiers were issued with the Adrian helmet from 1915.
Russia
In general, Russia had well over 1,000 variations of uniform, and that was just in the army. Cossacks in particular continued their tradition of having a uniform distinct from the majority of the Russian army, wearing traditional Astrakhan hats and long coats.
Most Russian soldiers typically wore a brownish khaki uniform, though it could vary depending on where the soldiers were from, where they were serving, rank or even on the materials or fabric dyes that were available.
Russian generals in World War One. Sitting (right to left): Yuri Danilov, Alexander Litvinov, Nikolai Ruzsky, Radko Dimitriev and Abram Dragomirov. Standing: Vasily Boldyrev, Ilia Odishelidze, V. V. Belyaev and Evgeny Miller. Image credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Image Credit: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Belts were worn over the brownish-green khaki jackets, with trousers loose around the hips yet tight at the knees and tucked into black leather boots, sapogi. These boots were of good quality (until later shortages) and German soldiers were known to replace their own boots with these when the opportunity arose.
However, helmets remained in short supply for Russian troops, with mostly officers receiving helmets by 1916.
Most soldiers wore a peaked cap with a visor made of khaki-coloured wool, linen or cotton (a furazhka). In Winter, this was changed to a papakha, a fleeced-cap which had flaps that could cover the ears and neck. When temperatures got extremely cold, these were also wrapped in a bashlyk cap that was slightly cone-shaped, and a large, heavy grey/brown overcoat was also worn.
Germany
At the outbreak of war, Germany was undergoing a thorough review of its army uniforms – something that continued throughout the conflict.
Previously, each German state had maintained its own uniform, leading to a confusing array of colours, styles and badges.
In 1910, the problem was rectified somewhat by the introduction of the feldgrau or field grey uniform. That provided some regularity although the traditional regional uniforms were still worn on ceremonial occasions.
Kaiser Wilhelm II inspecting German soldiers in the field during World War I. Image credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Image Credit: Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com
In 1915, a new uniform was introduced which further simplified the 1910 feldgrau kit. Details on the cuffs and other elements were removed, making uniforms easier to mass produce.
The expensive practice of maintaining a range of regional uniforms for special occasions was also dispensed with.
In 1916, the iconic spiked helmets were replaced by the stahlhelm which would also provide the model for German helmets in World War Two.
Austria-Hungary
In 1908, Austria-Hungary replaced its blue uniforms of the 19th century with grey ones similar to those worn in Germany.
The blue uniforms were retained for off-duty and parade wear, however, while those who still had them in 1914 continued to wear them during the war.
Austro-Hungarian soldiers resting in a trench. Image credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Image Credit: Archives State Agency, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Austro-Hungarian army had summer and winter versions of its uniform which differed in material weight and collar style.
The standard headgear, meanwhile, was a cloth cap with a peak, with officers wearing a similar but stiffer hat. Units from Bosnia and Herzegovina wore fezzes instead – grey fezzes when fighting and red ones while off duty.
]]>However, not all debates are especially cagey, and they occasionally throw up remarkable gaffes. Here are 8 of the most significant moments from Presidential, Vice-Presidential and Primary debates.
1. Sweating the big stuff
John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon before their first presidential debate. 26 September 1960.
Image Credit: Associated Press / Public Domain
In the 1960 election presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon embraced the prospect of a first set of televised debates. Both were confident of mastering this new medium. In the event, JFK prospered and Nixon floundered.
Several factors militated against Nixon. Whereas JFK had spent the afternoon before his debate resting in his hotel, Nixon had been out all day shaking hands and delivering stump speeches. When getting prepped for the debate, JFK opted to wear powder to prevent him sweating under the hot studio lights. Nixon didn’t. Kennedy also wore a crisp black suit, while Nixon wore grey.
All these worked against Nixon. Pre-debate he had commanded the authority of a seasoned Vice-President, and his young opponent had struggled to establish his credentials. However, on TV Kennedy appeared much more composed and less nervous than Nixon, whose grey suit also blended into the studio background.
The visual edge that Kennedy had was ilustrated by two polls – in one, radio listeners thought Nixon had edged the debate. In another, TV viewers had Kennedy ahead.
The first debate edged Kennedy ahead of Nixon in overall terms, and the Massachussetts Senator retained his lead up to poll day, where he recorded the narrowest victory in election history. In such a narrow victory, small wins, such as the first TV debate, prove crucial.
2. Sigh!
Al Gore didn’t even need to speak to gaffe during the 2000 presidential debate. His body language did all the talking.
His constant sighing was mocked endlessly in the aftermath of the debate. And in one peculiar moment, Gore stood up and swaggered toward his opponent (George W. Bush), standing inches away from him.
After losing the election, Gore enhanced his global standing by deploying this abrasive approach against climate change. However, he has yet to make a return to US politics.
3. Who is James Stockdale?
While Ross Perot was making a name for himself as a cheeky, anti-establishment performer in the Presidential debates, his running mate James Stockdale was delivering a less stellar performance in the Vice-Presidential race.
Stockdale was a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War who was awarded 26 personal combat decorations, including the Medal of Honor. However, he did not translate this remarkable record into political success. Famously, he opened the 1992 vice-Presidential debate with the line ‘Who am I? Why am I here?’
Although meant to be a self-deprecating stab at his own political inexperience, Stockdale instead left viewer’s thinking if he really knows the answers to those questions.
4. Quayle’s Kennedy fail
I have as much experience in Congress as Jack Kennedy did when he ran for President.
Comparing himself to the slain, iconic President was always likely to leave Republican Dan Quayle exposed. His opponent, Lloyd Bentsen, saw a chink in the armour and struck with unerring precision.
I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.
Quayle could only tamely retort that Bentsen’s comment was ‘uncalled for’.
5. Cold-hearted Dukakis
Vice President Bush debates with Michael Dukakis, Los Angeles, CA 13 October 1988.
During the 1988 election, Democrat nominee Michael Dukakis was targeted for his opposition to the death penalty. This led to a startling question from CNN’s Bernard Shaw during a presidential debate, who asked whether he would support the death penalty should Dukakis’ wife Kitty be raped and murdered.
No, I don’t, Bernard, and I think you know that I’ve opposed the death penalty during all of my life. I don’t see any evidence that it’s a deterrent and I think there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime.
Although it was certainly an unfair question, Dukakis’ response was widely considered dispassionate and dismissive. He lost the election.
6. Reagan’s age quip
As the oldest US President in history, Ronald Reagan knew his age would be a major factor in the 1984 Presidential Election.
The 73-year-old, when asked if he was too old to be President, answered:
I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.
He drew a large laugh from the audience, and even a smirk from his opponent, Democrat Walter Mondale. Reagan had provided a perfect and memorable answer to the age critics, and he ended up winning by a landslide.
7. ‘There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe’
President Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter meet at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia to debate domestic policy. 23 September 1976.
The year is 1976. The debaters are Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter and incumbent President Gerald Ford. This happened:
In response to a question from the New York Times’ Max Frankel, Ford declared that ‘there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.’
An incredulous Frankel asked Ford to re-state his answer, but Ford did not back down, listing a number of countries that he didn’t consider ‘dominated’.
Just to make things absolutely clear – Eastern Europe was thoroughly dominated by the Soviet Union at this time. Ford’s answer came off as glib and wilfully ignorant.
The statement stuck to Ford and arguably cost him the election.
8. ‘A noun, a verb and 9/11’
The 2007 Democratic primaries pitched several well-matched candidates against one another.
Joe Biden, when asked to define the differences between himself and Hillary Clinton, instead responded with an attack on Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani:
There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb and 9/11.
The Giuliani camp rapidly issued a response:
]]>The good Senator is quite correct that there are many differences between Rudy and him. For starters, Rudy rarely reads prepared speeches and when he does he isn’t prone to ripping off the text from others.
Rather, a delicate but toxic balance of structural forces created a dry tinder that was lit by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. That event precipitated the July Crisis, which saw the major European powers hurtle toward open conflict.
M-A-I-N
The M-A-I-N acronym – militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism – is often used to analyse the war, and each of these reasons are cited to be the 4 main causes of World War One. It’s simplistic but provides a useful framework.
Militarism
The late nineteenth century was an era of military competition, particularly between the major European powers. The policy of building a stronger military was judged relative to neighbours, creating a culture of paranoia that heightened the search for alliances. It was fed by the cultural belief that war is good for nations.
Germany in particular looked to expand its navy. However, the ‘naval race’ was never a real contest – the British always s maintained naval superiority. But the British obsession with naval dominance was strong. Government rhetoric exaggerated military expansionism. A simple naivety in the potential scale and bloodshed of a European war prevented several governments from checking their aggression.
Alliances
A web of alliances developed in Europe between 1870 and 1914, effectively creating two camps bound by commitments to maintain sovereignty or intervene militarily – the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance.
- The Triple Alliance of 1882 linked Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.
- The Triple Entente of 1907 linked France, Britain and Russia.
A historic point of conflict between Austria Hungary and Russia was over their incompatible Balkan interests, and France had a deep suspicion of Germany rooted in their defeat in the 1870 war.
The alliance system primarily came about because after 1870 Germany, under Bismarck, set a precedent by playing its neighbours’ imperial endeavours off one another, in order to maintain a balance of power within Europe
‘Hark! hark! the dogs do bark!’, satirical map of Europe. 1914
Image Credit: Paul K, CC BY 2.0
Imperialism
Imperial competition also pushed the countries towards adopting alliances. Colonies were units of exchange that could be bargained without significantly affecting the metro-pole. They also brought nations who would otherwise not interact into conflict and agreement. For example, the Russo-Japanese War (1905) over aspirations in China, helped bring the Triple Entente into being.
It has been suggested that Germany was motivated by imperial ambitions to invade Belgium and France. Certainly the expansion of the British and French empires, fired by the rise of industrialism and the pursuit of new markets, caused some resentment in Germany, and the pursuit of a short, aborted imperial policy in the late nineteenth century.
However the suggestion that Germany wanted to create a European empire in 1914 is not supported by the pre-war rhetoric and strategy.
Nationalism
Nationalism was also a new and powerful source of tension in Europe. It was tied to militarism, and clashed with the interests of the imperial powers in Europe. Nationalism created new areas of interest over which nations could compete.
For example, The Habsburg empire was tottering agglomeration of 11 different nationalities, with large slavic populations in Galicia and the Balkans whose nationalist aspirations ran counter to imperial cohesion. Nationalism in the Balkan’s also piqued Russia’s historic interest in the region.
Indeed, Serbian nationalism created the trigger cause of the conflict – the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
The spark: the assassination
Ferdinand and his wife were murdered in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Bosnian Serbian nationalist terrorist organization the ‘Black Hand Gang.’ Ferdinand’s death, which was interpreted as a product of official Serbian policy, created the July Crisis – a month of diplomatic and governmental miscalculations that saw a domino effect of war declarations initiated.
The historical dialogue on this issue is vast and distorted by substantial biases. Vague and undefined schemes of reckless expansion were imputed to the German leadership in the immediate aftermath of the war with the ‘war-guilt’ clause. The notion that Germany was bursting with newfound strength, proud of her abilities and eager to showcase them, was overplayed.
The first page of the edition of the ‘Domenica del Corriere’, an Italian paper, with a drawing by Achille Beltrame depicting Gavrilo Princip killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo
Image Credit: Achille Beltrame, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The almost laughable rationalization of British imperial power as ‘necessary’ or ‘civilizing’ didn’t translate to German imperialism, which was ‘aggressive’ and ‘expansionist.’ There is an on-going historical discussion on who if anyone was most culpable.
Blame has been directed at every single combatant at one point or another, and some have said that all the major governments considered a golden opportunity for increasing popularity at home.
The Schlieffen plan could be blamed for bringing Britain into the war, the scale of the war could be blamed on Russia as the first big country to mobilise, inherent rivalries between imperialism and capitalism could be blamed for polarising the combatants. AJP Taylor’s ‘timetable theory’ emphasises the delicate, highly complex plans involved in mobilization which prompted ostensibly aggressive military preparations.
Every point has some merit, but in the end what proved most devastating was the combination of an alliance network with the widespread, misguided belief that war is good for nations, and that the best way to fight a modern war was to attack. That the war was inevitable is questionable, but certainly the notion of glorious war, of war as a good for nation-building, was strong pre-1914. By the end of the war, it was dead.
]]>Here are 9 of the most famous songs that were either made or popular during the Vietnam War.
House of the Rising Sun, The Animals
Although it’s origin is uncertain, The House of the Rising Sun was most memorably performed by the Animals, an English rock group for whom it was a trans-Atlantic smash hit.
They transposed their own narrative onto the lyrics – it became about a man whose father was a drunken gambler. However, the song struck a chord with the troops in Vietnam and formed an indelible association with that conflict.
All Along the Watchtower, Bob Dylan / Jimi Hendrix
Originally written, recorded and released by Bob Dylan – to a positive reception – All Along the Watchtower is now best identified with Jimi Hendrix. Although it has enjoyed reincarnations under The Dave Mathews Band, The Grateful Dead and U2, Hendrix gave it his stamp with an iconic performance in London on 21 January 1968.
Dylan has described his reaction to hearing Hendrix’s version:
It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn’t think of finding in there.
Gimme Shelter, The Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards drew their inspiration for Gimme Shelter directly from the Vietnam War. In a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Jagger said:
The Rolling Stones arrives at Fornebu airport in Oslo, June 1965
Image Credit: Øderud, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
Well, it’s a very rough, very violent era. The Vietnam War. Violence on the screens, pillage and burning. And Vietnam was not war as we knew it in the conventional sense. The thing about Vietnam was that it wasn’t like World War Two, and it wasn’t like Korea, and it wasn’t like the Gulf War. It was a real nasty war, and people didn’t like it. People objected, and people didn’t want to fight it…(Gimme Shelter is) a kind of end-of-the-world song, really. It’s apocalypse; the whole record’s like that.
The nugget of a point within that statement is that Vietnam was a war that was vigorously opposed, and the opposition to it formed part of a wider counter-culture movement.
Musically, the song was particularly noted for the inclusion of Merry Clayton, who sings the line ‘Rape, murder. It’s just a shot away. It’s just a shot away’ – became the signature line in the song.
Fortunate Son, Creedence Clearwater Revival
An anthem of the anti-war, counter-culture movement which skewers elites who support the war but refuse to pay the costs themselves, delivered from the perspective of someone who isn’t a ‘fortunate son’ (read: born of a wealthy family) themselves.
The song was inspired by the wedding of David Eisenhower’s grandson and then-President Richard Nixon’s daughter in 1968. The song’s author and singer, John Fogerty, told Rolling Stone:
Julie Nixon was hanging around with David Eisenhower, and you just had the feeling that none of these people were going to be involved with the war. In 1968, the majority of the country thought morale was great among the troops, and 80% of them were in favour of the war. But to some of us who were watching closely, we just knew we were headed for trouble.
The song has retained its counter-culture message, being used in a number of protest movements. But perhaps most iconically, it was the soundtrack to the Vietnam segment from Forrest Gump.
Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1968. From left to right: Tom Fogerty, Doug Clifford, Stu Cook and John Fogerty
Image Credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
For What It’s Worth, Buffalo Springfield
Although its true origins lie in the Sunset Strip Riots of the late 1960s in Hollywood, a series of ‘hippie’ counterculture protests, For What It’s Worth from its inception took on an anti-war mantle.
Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay, Otis Redding
Another song that was hugely popular with troops in Vietnam, probably because it recalled a nostalgic, peaceful setting entirely at odds with their own.
We’ve Gotta Get Out of this Place, The Animals
Another song associated with an iconic film (this time Hamburger Hill), We Gotta Get Out of this Place had a simple emotional appeal that resonated with US forces stationed in South Vietnam.
It was frequently played by US Forces Vietnam Network disc jockeys, and in 2006 an in-depth survey of Vietnam veterans found that it was the song they most identified with:
We had absolute unanimity is this song being the touchstone. This was the Vietnam anthem. Every bad band that ever played in an armed forces club had to play this song.
What’s Going On, Marvin Gaye
Gaye was motivated by the social upheaval that dominated the 60s and 70s to write What’s Going On. A key experience behind the song was Gaye’s conversations with his brother Frankie, who served for three years in Vietnam, and his cousin’s death in the war.
War, Edwin Starr
Plainly an anti-war, counter-culture song (‘War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing’), War, released in 1970, struck a chord with a disaffected public. It was originally performed by The Temptations, but they were anxious about putting forward such a controversial song as a single.
Fans across the nation campaigned for its release, and it fell to Edwin Starr to take on the song, giving it a more dramatic, intense tone. It was an immediate hit, starting at Number 1 in the Billboard Charts for 3 weeks, and defining Starr’s career.
]]>If I don’t have a lay for three days I get a headache.
So said the 35th President of the United States, as recalled by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. Although he carefully cultivated the image of the devoted family man, John F. Kennedy was possibly the most prolific philanderer ever to grace the Oval Office.
The Kennedy children visit President John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office of the White House.
Image Credit: Cecil W. Stoughton / Public Domain
It was these images of JFK playing with his two children, John Jr. and Caroline, or stood alongside his famous, urbane wife Jackie, that shaped the image of Kennedy the man during his political career. However, the record shows that JFK had a propensity for prostitutes and risqué sexual encounters that bordered on the criminally irresponsible.
This sexual intrepidness, alongside a myriad of other factors, has helped secure the enduring Kennedy myth and image. Although at best a moderately successful president, Kennedy has attained icon status.
Here we list 11 of JFK’s more famous affairs.
1. JFK and Marilyn Monroe, actress and icon
Robert Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and JFK (with back to camera). Taken on President Kennedy’s 45th birthday at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 19 May 1962.
Image Credit: Cecil W. Stoughton / Public Domain
Although it was only speculated for many years, it is now certain that JFK and Marilyn Monroe had an affair.
JFK and Marilyn Monroe met in February 1962, at a dinner in New York. What followed was a brief affair, conducted primarily at Bing Crosby’s house in Palm Springs, but it seems Monroe harboured dreams of becoming the First Lady. Allegedly she wrote to Jackie explaining her intentions.
Furthermore, it is alleged that JFK’s brother Bobby Kennedy had a much longer affair with Monroe, and possibly arranged for Monroe to be murdered and have her death disguised as a suicide.
2. JFK and Judith Exner, mob moll
Judith Exner, former mistress of JFK, in a 1978 portrait.
Image Credit: Everett Collection Historical / Alamy Stock Photo
Before becoming President, JFK openly socialised with the infamous Rat Pack. He was close with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr, and through them maintained a politically expedient channel to mobsters.
It was at one gathering at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas in 1960 that Sinatra introduced JFK to Judith Campbell, an ex of Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana. They struck up an affair, which continued for whilst JFK was President. She regularly visited the White House. This one of JFK’s affairs spanned a few years.
More shockingly, Exner later claimed that she was a courier for packages between JFK and Giancana. These claims were substantiated by the research of investigative journalist Seymour Hersch.
Exner was the first person to publicly expose JFK’s dark side, describing in detail her affair with JFK to a Senate committee and ushering in a period of revisionist analysis on JFK’s presidency.
The Kennedy administration has been conclusively shown to have collaborated with mobsters during Operation Mongoose, the covert programme to destabilise the Castro regime in Cuba (where the mob has substantial financial interests) and that collaboration was perhaps anchored by JFK’s affair with Exner.
She also claimed to have aborted JFK’s child.
3. JFK and Inga Arvad, ‘spy’
Danish journalist and suspected spy Dr. Inga Arvad, born Inga Maria Petersen.
Image Credit: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo / Alamy Stock Photo
Dane “Inga Binga” was a long-term girlfriend of JFK whilst he worked in the navy, and was rumoured to be a Soviet spy. Their break-up was driven by Kennedy’s father, who feared the terminal effects this relationship could have on his son’s future political career.
4. JFK and Anita Ekberg, actress
Anita Ekberg on the set of Back From Eternity, 1956.
Image Credit: AA Film Archive / Alamy Stock Photo
The star of La Dolce Vita and global sex symbol was briefly connected with the President.
5. JFK and Ellen Rometsch, call girl
East-German-born Ellen Rometsch was married to a German Air Force sergeant Rolf Rometsch, who was stationed in Washington during the height of the Cold War.
However, Ellen Rometsch was also a high-class call girl who had a brief dalliance with JFK. She was one of many prostitutes who Dave Powers, JFK’s Special Assistant, solicited for the President.
Moreover, she was heavily rumoured to be a communist spy and was expelled from the US in August 1963 (at the behest of Attorney-General Robert Kennedy), with the Profumo Affair in Britain highlighting the danger of sexual promiscuity.
6. JFK and Gene Tierney, actress
Actress Gene Tierney photographed in 1942.
Image Credit: Masheter Movie Archive / Alamy Stock Photo
A running theme of JFK’s affairs was his dalliances with movie stars. One of the more illustrious was Gene Tierney, who Kennedy had an affair with around 1948, when she was still married.
7. JFK and Mimi Alford, White House intern
Whilst an intern at the White House, 19-year-old Alford lost her virginity to the President and engaged in an 18-month affair. A few years ago she revealed the details of their relationship, including that JFK took recreational drugs with her.
JFK also successfully dared her to perform oral sex on his Special Assistant, Dave Powers, in the White House pool.
8. JFK and Marlene Dietrich, actress and singer
Marlene Dietrich while filming Morocco (1930).
Image Credit: Paramount Pictures, Josef von Sternberg / Public Domain
Dietrich revealed the details of her 1962 tryst with the President, saying, ‘I don’t remember most of what happened because it was all so quick’.
She later told friend Gore Vidal that her initial reaction of, “You know, Mr President, I am not very young” eventually became, “Don’t muss my hair. I’m performing”.
She was also a long-time lover of JFK’s father, Joseph P Kennedy.
9. JFK and Mary Pinchot Meyer, CIA agent’s ex-wife
Mary Pinchot Meyer at JFK’s 46th birthday party on the presidential yacht Sequoia.
Image Credit: Robert L. Knudsen / Public Domain
Meyer, who had a fairly well-known affair with JFK, was shot and killed in mysterious circumstances in 1964, a year after the president’s death.
It has been claimed that she was murdered to prevent her revealing the details of their affair.
10 and 11. JFK and Fiddle and Faddle (Priscilla Wear and Jill Cowen), White House secretaries
Two secretaries in the Kennedy White House whose primary role was to skinny-dip with the President in the enclosed pool. They also were brought on business trips to Berlin, Rome, Ireland and Costa Rica.
JFK’s wife, Jackie, once gave a tour of the White House to a Paris Match reporter and, coming across Priscilla, apparently remarked in French, “This is the girl who supposedly is sleeping with my husband”.
]]>How did this line of thought develop, and how did the Nazis use it to spread their genocidal policies?
Darwin, Spender and Malthus
Charles Darwin’s 1859 book, On the Origin of Species revolutionised accepted thought about biology. According to his theory of evolution, only the plants and animals best adapted to their environment survive to reproduce and transfer their genes to the next generation.
This was a scientific theory focused on explaining observations about biological diversity and why different species of plants and animals look different. Darwin borrowed popular concepts from Herbert Spencer and Thomas Malthus to help convey his ideas to the public.
Despite being a highly universal theory, it is widely accepted now that the Darwinian view of the world does not transfer effectively to every element of life.
Historically, some have transplanted Darwin’s ideas uneasily and imperfectly onto social analysis. The product was ‘Social Darwinism’. The idea is that the evolutionary processes in natural history have parallels in social history, that their same rules apply. Therefore humanity should embrace the natural course of history.
Herbert Spencer.
Rather than Darwin, Social Darwinism is derived most directly from the writings of Herbert Spencer, who believed that human societies developed like natural organisms.
He conceived the idea of the struggle for survival, and suggested that this drove an inevitable progress in society. It broadly meant evolving from the barbarian stage of society to the industrial stage. It was Spencer who coined the term ‘survival of the fittest.’
He opposed any laws that helped workers, the poor, and those he deemed genetically weak. Of the infirm and incapacitated, Spencer once stated, ‘It is better that they should die.’
Although Spencer was responsible for much of the foundational discourse of Social Darwinism, Darwin did say that human progress was driven by evolutionary processes – that human intelligence was refined by competition. Finally, the actual term ‘Social Darwinism’ was originally coined by Thomas Malthus, who is better remembered for his iron rule of nature and the concept of ‘struggle for existence’.
To those who followed Spencer and Malthus, Darwin’s theory appeared to confirm what they already believed to be true about human society with science.
Portrait of Thomas Robert Malthus (Image Credit: John Linnell / Wellcome Collection / CC).
Eugenics
As Social Darwinism gained popularity, British scholar Sir Francis Galton launched a new ‘science’ he deemed eugenics, aimed at improving the human race by ridding society of its ‘undesirables’. Galton argued that social institutions such as welfare and mental asylums allowed ‘inferior humans’ to survive and reproduce at higher levels than their wealthier ‘superior’ counterparts.
Eugenics became a popular social movement in America, peaking in the 1920s and 1930s. It focused on eliminating undesirable traits from the population by preventing “unfit” individuals from having children. Many states passed laws that resulted in the forced sterilization of thousands, including immigrants, people of color, unmarried mothers and the mentally ill.
Social Darwinism and Eugenics in Nazi Germany
The most infamous instance of Social Darwinism in action is in the genocidal policies of the Nazi German Government in the 1930s and 40s.
It was openly embraced as promoting the notion that the strongest should naturally prevail, and was a key feature of Nazi propaganda films, some which illustrated it with scenes of beetles fighting each other.
After the Munich Putsch in 1923 and his subsequent brief imprisonment, in Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler wrote:
Whoever would live, let him fight, and he who does not want to do battle in this world of eternal struggle, does not deserve life.
Hitler often refused to intervene in the promotion of officers and staff, preferring to have them fight amongst themselves to force the “stronger” person to prevail.
Such ideas also led to program’s such as the ‘Aktion T4’. Framed as a euthanasia program, this new bureaucracy was headed by physicians active in the study of eugenics, who saw Nazism as “applied biology”, and who had a mandate to kill anyone deemed to have a ‘life unworthy of living’. It led to the involuntary euthanasia – killing – of hundreds of thousands of mentally ill, elderly and disabled people.
Initiated in 1939 by Hitler, the killing centres to which the handicapped were transported were precursors to the concentration and extermination camps, using similar killing methods. The program was officially discontinued in August 1941 (which coincided with the escalation of the Holocaust), but killings continued covertly until the Nazi defeat in 1945.
NSDAP Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler in October 1938. Head of the T4 programme (Image Credit: Bundesarchiv / CC).
Hitler believed the German master race had been weakened by the influence of non-Aryans in Germany, and that the Aryan race needed to maintain it’s pure gene pool in order to survive. This view fed into a worldview shaped also by a fear of communism and a relentless demand for Lebensraum. Germany needed to destroy the Soviet Union to gain land, eliminate Jewish-inspired communism, and would do so following the natural order.
Subsequently, Social-Darwinist language suffused Nazi rhetoric. As German forces were rampaging through Russia in 1941, Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch emphasised:
The troops must understand that this struggle is being fought race against race, and that they must proceed with the necessary harshness.
The Nazis targeted certain groups or races that they considered biologically inferior for extermination. In May 1941, the tank general Erich Hoepner explained the war’s meaning to his troops:
The war against Russia is an essential chapter in the German people’s battle for survival. It is the old struggle between the Germanic peoples and the Slavs, the defence of European culture against muscovite-Asiatic invasion, the defence against Jewish communism.
It was this language that was integral to promulgating Nazism, and especially to gaining the assistance of tens of thousands of regular Germans in persecuting the Holocaust. It gave a scientific veneer to a rabid psychotic belief.
Historical opinion is mixed as to how formative social Darwinist principles were to Nazi ideology. It is a common argument of creationists such as Jonathan Safarti, where it is often deployed to undermine the theory of evolution. The argument goes that Nazi Germany represented the logical progression of a godless world. In response, the anti-Defamation League has said:
Using the Holocaust in order to tarnish those who promote the theory of evolution is outrageous and trivialises the complex factors that led to the mass extermination of European Jewry.
However, Nazism and Social Darwinism were certainly intertwined in possibly the most famous example of perverted scientific theory in action.
]]>I knew the United States could knock out some of our installations, but not all of them. If a quarter or even a tenth of our missiles survived — even if only one or two big ones were left — we could still hit New York, and there wouldn’t be much of New York left.
The closest the world came to seeing this scenario played out was during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Soviet warships leave the port of Havana, Cuba. 25 July 1969.
The standard narrative is this: The Soviet Union secretly installs nuclear warheads in Cuba (60 miles from the Florida coast). On discovering this, the Kennedy administration is torn between ‘hawks’ and ‘doves’, with JFK and his brother eventually pressing the decision to institute a blockade around Cuba, preventing Soviet ships entering the island.
As ships are drawing closer and the prospect of conflict heightens, Khrushchev ‘blinks’. The ships turn back, and ultimately the warheads are withdrawn from Cuba.
This narrative obscures several key points:
- JFK played fast and loose with American lives
- Robert Kennedy did not ‘see down the hawks’ or conceive the blockade idea
JFK’s politics of war and peace
The successful diffusion of the Cuban Missile Crisis is often hailed as the crowning moment of JFK’s Presidency. To his substantial credit, JFK didn’t cede to the hawks in launching an immediate strike on Cuba.
He was also prepared, at the risk of political expediency, to strike a secret deal whereby the US withdrew its nuclear missiles from Turkey in exchange for the Soviet withdrawal of ICBMs from Cuba. Kennedy’s legacy is shaped by this ability to ‘thread the needle’ — face up to the Soviets challenge whilst giving them a way out.
It is true that Kennedy was a cold political pragmatist, well-suited to these crisis moments. In a post-WWII world, appeasement was a very dirty word, and the dominant outlook in the military hierarchy was that nuclear war was inevitable and that the US should strike first.
In this vein, Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy and Cold War veteran Dean Acheson all pushed for an immediate air attack on the Cuban missiles when they were discovered. Kennedy calmly saw down this challenge. It seems he was revolted by the idea that people could countenance a nuclear conflict so blithely.
Reporting his infamous meeting with Khrushchev in Vienna the year before, Kennedy had said:
I talked about how a nuclear exchange would kill seventy million people in ten minutes, and he just looked at me as if to say, ‘So what?’ My impression was that he just didn’t give a damn if it came to that.
However, it must be added that Kennedy himself played fast and loose with American lives. Political factors drove him to front up to Khrushchev in such a way that, had the Soviet Premier not had a moment of extraordinary humanity and called off the ships, a nuclear conflict would almost certainly have resulted. The Cold War was inherently full of posturing and bluster, but Kennedy, when given the option to dissolve tensions, would always heighten them.
Robert Kennedy
Another major feature of the standard narrative of the Cuban Missile Crisis is that Attorney General Robert Kennedy was his brother’s main ally in seeing down the hawks and advocating a peaceful resolution.
In reality, at the outset RFK was major hawk who initially advocated a full invasion of Cuba. When he did take on a ‘dove’ position, it was only after vociferously defending the hawk’ stance.
Moreover, the idea for a blockade came from Robert McNamara. He would later gain historic infamy as a spearhead of the war in Vietnam, but his thinking in this conflagration was central to its peaceful outcome.
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