[LC]

Signation

SPEAKER

01,08 September first, 1939. Hitler attacks Poland.

01,26 This is the beginning of the second world war. It will last for six years and it will change the world more than any war before.

01,41 The "Schleswig Holstein", a German warship, fires the first shots of the war.

01,52 The shots are aimed at Polish fortifications close to Danzig.

02,02 At the same time German troops are swarming across the Polish border.

02,11 The Germans use a new military tactic soon to be known as "Blitzkrieg": A fighting machine such as the world has never seen before goes into action.

02,26 The air force carries the war deep into the hinterland.

02,38 The Poles are the very first in this war to experience the horrors of air warfare.

02,46 Hitler has given the order to invade Poland. On September 3 Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.

23/06/89

19:46

PORTISCH-RIFF

P.04

- 2 -

02,57

KISSINGER I

When the war broke out at the beginning of September, 1939, it was one of the most personal and idiosyncratic wars that had ever occured. Hitler had told the German generals a year and a half earlier that he was determined to have a war while he was still a young man. And this actually dominated his policies more than rational analysis of cause and benefits.

Curiously enough, the result of World War I had left Germany strategically stronger than it was before World War I. Before World War I, Germany was surrounded on every front by major countries and could therefore expand only by attacking a major country and thereby provoking a general war. As a result of the Treaty of Versailles, and the Treaty of Saint Germain, Germany was surrounded by a host of little countries - Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, backed up by Hungary, Rumania - none of which were in a position to resist Germany alone.

Germany was bound to become economically and politically the dominant country in Eastern Europe. It was Hitler's impatience and Hitler's insistence on achieving by military means what the geopolitical situation would have made possible to achieve by political means that produced a tragic from the German point of view - unnecessary war and a calamity from which Europe still suffers today.

ELIMINATED

23/06/89

19:47

PORTISCH-RIFF

P.06

06,45 The people of Paris celebrate the peace, celebrate above all the four statesmen who are about to give Europe a completely new order. From left to right: the Briton Lloyd George, the Italian Orlando, the Frenchman Clemenceau, and the American President Wilson.

07,07 But the peace is made without the assent of the losers. The German foreign minister Brockdorff-Rantzau leaves the conference under protest.

07,18
**NEW** Finally, the peace terms are dictated to the Germans in Versailles and to the Austrians in Saint Germain from now on known as the Treaties of Versailles and Saint Germain. One major European power remains excluded altogether - Soviet Russia.

07,35 KISSINGER II

The problem with the Treaty of Versailles was that two of the historic European countries, the Soviet Union and Germany, had no interest in maintaining the settlement and, in fact, many incentives to overthrow it. And another of the historic European countries, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, disappeared completely. The purpose of the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was to permit each of the nationalities that comprised the Empire to determine its own fate. And that is a very laudable objective in the abstract.

abstract.

SPEAKER

08,17 And so with Wilson's help new states were born. In Prague the Czech population is celebrating the birth of the Independent Republic of Czechoslovakia. The insignia of the Habsburg Empire are destroyed, and German shop signs taken down. The end of foreign rule is enthusiastically welcomed.

08,44 The new republic is declared, a national home for the Czechs and the Slovaks. But millions of Germans, Hungarians and Poles will also have to live within the new Czechoslovakian State, and soon they in their turn will claim their right to self-determination.

09,05 Revolution also in Budapest. The Hungarians proclaim their independence and hope to keep the Hungarian speaking areas in Transylvania and Slovakia by declaring Hungary a democratic republic.

09,21 After the proclamation of the republic a gypsy band strikes up the Marseillaise.

09,32 But Hungary remains a defeated country and has to cede large areas to Rumania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.

09,42 White-red flags in Warsaw, Lublin and Krakow. Poland is resurrected. Until now divided between Germany, Russia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Paris Treaties put the three parts of Poland

- 6 -

[LC]

back together again. But the new Poland
will find it no easier than the old one
to cope with its big neighbours Germany
and Russia.

10,18

In Vienna too, the republic is
proclaimed. A republic even weaker than
all the others; for the shrunken state of
Austria no longer considers itself
viable. Austria's parliamentarians
therefore demand immediate unification
with Germany according to President
Wilson's principle of self-
determination. But since such a union
would strengthen Germany it is denied. In
place of the Austro-Hungarian Empire five
new states have come into existence.

10,53

KISSINGER III

So, as a matter of fact, if one counted
Hungarians in Rumania, Poles in Czecho-
slovakia, Germans in Czechoslovakia and
in other parts of Eastern Europe,
Austrians in Northern Italy, especially
in the Tyrol, when considered, all of
these nationalities, there were probably
as many nationalities living under
foreign rule in the name of
self-determination as had lived in the
Austro-Hungarian Empire.

SPEAKER

11,29

This is how Europe looked before World
War One. A balance of power existed
between the big states. The Paris
Treaties destroyed this balance. At the
territorial expense of Germany, Austro

Hungary, and Russia all the new small states emerge: from Finland in the north to Yugoslavia in the south. Germany is not willing to recognize the new frontiers in the east.

12,02

KISSINGER IV

So one could argue about the Treaty of Versailles as far as Germany is concerned. That it was too severe to have Germany accept the legitimacy of the settlement but not severe enough to keep Germany from challenging the settlement. Now, among the European countries this was probably understood by the French who had dealt with Germany for three hundred years. Britain might have gone along with France but the United States had a different view. The United States' view was, that balance of power was in itself evil. Wilson traveled around Europe and asserted that the United States, that we would not go back; we Americans would not go back to the outdated concept of the balance of power, that we were going to base the new international order on the consent of the people.

SPEAKER

13,11
Wilson is visiting the capitals of the allied powers. Here he is received by France's President Poincaré in Paris.

13,24
The President is greeted warmly by the French.

[L]

13,32
Wilson has come to convince France of his concept of a new world-order: peace should be ensured not by military power but, for the first time, by an international organisation, by a league of all nations.

13,56
The enthusiasm of the people contrasts sharply with the scepticism of the statesmen, especially in Paris at whose gates the German army had stood so recently.

14,14
The French accept the concept of a League of Nations, but they prefer to rely on their own military strength. When Wilson leaves France it is with a feeling that he has been revered and honoured but not really understood.

14,32
Wilson travels from capital to capital. In Rome, the American President is welcomed by Italian King Victor Emanuel and jubilant crowds wherever he appears.

14,54
The Secret Service men on their bicycles can afford to take it easy: in Italy's streets Wilson encounters nothing but enthusiasm, among the political leaders and the military however he meets with nothing but scepticism.

15,15
The politicians accord Wilson his personal triumph but they reckon that Italy's new borders will be better protected by a strong army than by Wilson's League of Nations. Even in the United States Wilson finds no support for his plans. The American Congress turns

23/06/89

19:48

PORTISCH-RIFF

Jubilation in Europe.

15.42

KISSINGER V

The concept of the League of Nations, introduced by the United States, was a new idea. That has not existed in that form before. And it was based on three assumptions: One that the threat to peace was always unambiguous. Second, that every nation had an equal interest in preserving the peace. And third, that every nation would come to the same conclusion about the methods to preserve the peace. This turned out to be quite incorrect. Wilson proposed something that his own people were never going to fulfill, and for which there is no evidence that it has ever worked in human history. So, in the end, the balance of power as it emerged from the Treaty of Versailles, depended entirely on the role of France. And precisely because France knew that Germany was highly dissatisfied with the agreement but not so weak permanently as not to be able to challenge it at some moment, France felt that it needed absolute security guarantees.

NEW

SPEAKER

17.00

One of these guarantees is the occupation of the Rhineland, the German territories on the left bank of the Rhine. Using the Rhineland as a springboard the French army should be able any time to march on Berlin.

- 10 -

[LQ]

17,17 Allied troops occupy the Rhineland. Among the first, French cavalry.

17,31 On the right bank of the Rhine too four allied bridgeheads are established.

17,42 Control of all roads and railways and the future demilitarization of the Rhineland serve as a pledge that Germany will honour all conditions of the Versailles Treaty.

17,56 Together with the French, British and other allied troops move into the Rhineland.

18,08 The British set up their own "General Headquarters, British Army of the Rhine" in Cologne.

18,19 British soldiers serve as sentries on the banks of the river. So it is not only the French that watch over the observance of the Versailles Treaty by Germany. Americans are also present and run their own little navy on the Rhine.

18,39 The American soldiers see themselves as a peace keeping force, at the same time they try to be helpful: American soldiers escort food deliveries by German farmers to the starving cities.

19,02 Handing out candy the Americans are soon popular with the children.

19,11 The US congress dispatches some of its members on tours of inspection. The congressmen would like to see the

[L]

American troops brought back home but they do understand the French motives for the occupation of the Rhineland.

19,27 KISSINGER VI

It was clear that the only manner in which the Versailles settlement or the Saint Germain settlement could be maintained in Eastern Europe would be if France was prepared to use military force at the first sign of challenge. And that challenge, in turn, had two components: One, as part of the Versailles settlement, the Rhineland was a hostage for France because France would move in there if Germany began military operations in the east. And secondly, of course, it meant that France would be so much stronger, it was required that France be so much stronger than Germany.

SPEAKER

20,11 In order to weaken Germany the German arms industry is demolished. The submarine shipyards are blown up. Some warships are turned over to the allies, others scuttled. Never again must Germany be allowed to build up a powerful navy. Gun turrets are dismantled, the gun barrels sawn to pieces. This goes for the field artillery too, all its guns are turned into scrap metal.

20,49 This scrap metal turns out to be exceptionally valuable however. What's left of the German steel industry is capable of transforming scrap into first

[L]

class steel in their Siemens-Martin
furnaces.

21,09 The German steel industry is now producing the goods that Germany must send to France as reparation. The state pays for this production which is supposed to weaken the German economy but which in fact is strengthening it, for the factories are working, ensuring employment and profits, money which will be reinvested in new machinery.

21,50 Among many other goods Germany also has to deliver railroad cars and locomotives as part of the reparations.

22,06 Germany experiences a galloping inflation that drains the buying power of the people, but the inflation enables the state to pay off the internal war debts very quickly. For foreigners it becomes highly profitable to invest in Germany's industry. German goods are cheap and that leads to high exports. Thus the reparation system does not substantially weaken Germany but it succeeds in weakening France.

22,35 KISSINGER VII

The goods that were delivered from
Germany to France had the practical
consequence of reducing the demand on the
output of French industry and, therefore,
helped to increase French unemployment
and discourage the modernization of
French industry because they could not
compete with goods that were delivered

23/06/89

19:48

PORTISCH-RIFF

P. 08

[LC]

- 13 -

for nothing. At the same time, the delivery of goods outside of Germany stimulated inflation which for a while had terrible consequences inside Germany, but also made it easy to consolidate the industries and for foreign interests to buy up industries and modernize them. The demand for expropriations and for dismantling of industries was another factor that had the paradoxical and unintended consequence of enabling Germany to modernize its industry by replacing the industries that it had to deliver to the victor nations. So the total impact of the reparations system may well have been to modernize German industry, to improve the long term German economic position and, if anything, to weaken the economic position of France and, to an extent, of Britain.

ELIMINATED

SPEAKER

24,04

A first wave of unemployment spills across Great Britain and France. Protest marches in London. The demonstrators demand work in return for their suffering in the trenches. They demand the fruits of their victory in the Great War. Instead Britain still has to pay for the war with money that would be desperately needed for investments.

24,36

The situation in France is even worse. Not only must the French pay for their own war damages, they too have to repay their war debts.

24,49 The social unrest destabilizes the political system and brings about one government crisis after another.

25,01 The third victor nation, Italy, finds itself in the midst of political upheaval. A new movement mobilizes the masses - fascism. The fascists promise work and social justice and in 1922 they stage a march that converges on Rome from all corners of Italy.

25,25 The fascists appeal to nationalist feelings. War veterans and many unemployed join the radical movement.

25,36 Marching on Rome armed with clubs the black shirts want to bring down the democratic government. The fascists look on themselves as a counterforce to left radicalism saving Italy from communism.

25,58 Leader of the Italian fascists is Benito Mussolini. His march on Rome succeeds. Democracy capitulates. From now on Mussolini will rule Italy, he becomes Italy's leader, the Duce. A model for many rightist movements in Europe. Also for Hitler in Germany. And Mussolini's later alliance with Hitler will decisively influence the course of World War Two.

26,33 KISSINGER VIII

In the end Mussolini came out to be not exactly the model for Hitler. Mussolini was, of course, an authoritarian, maybe even a totalitarian ruler. But he

- 15 -

[L.C]

governed in a country in which historically the authority of the government is mitigated by the skepticism of the population, and where one does not have this concept of absolute obedience elaborated in, for example, Germany under Prussian leadership.

SPEAKER

27,16 Russia at the same time experiences first revolution then civil war ...

27,24 ... followed by expropriation and collectivization under the red banner of communism.

27,35 The communists see themselves as the liberators of mankind from need and suppression - and to achieve these goals they impose a new dictatorship. Famine follows on the heels of mass collectivization. But a great effort is made also to industrialize Russia and to establish the first socialist society. A model for the whole world, the communists proclaim. In the west this is understood as a war cry, as a threat.

28,13 This is Joseph Stalin, Lenin's successor, watching his communists as they march for world revolution...

28,19 ... but for the moment Stalin has his hands full stabilizing his own rule in Russia. Stalin's dictatorship frightens the west even more and leads to greater isolation of the Soviet Union in the world.

28,47

KISSINGER IX

To begin with, the Soviet Union was considered outside the system. So historic Russia was not part of the balance of power. It was considered ideologically outside the system and it was in reality so weak that it could no longer act as a balancer, even less so since nobody wanted to deal with it. And precisely because France knew, that its pre-war ally, Russia, was no longer part of the balance the French began to construct the Maginot Line which advertised that in case of war France would go on the defensive in the west. That was another way of saying that if Germany attacked France's allies in the east it would be able to destroy them without French intervention.

SPEAKER

29,45 The Maginot Line. Along the entire border between their country and Germany, the French have built fortifications such as the world has never seen before.

30,00 The underground bunkers are connected with each other by little railways.

30,12 These fortifications are the French answer to the bloody battles of World War One in which over one million young Frenchmen lost their lives. These bunkers, bristling with guns, are intended to prevent any future German army from attacking France. On the other

- 17 -

[LC]

hand it hinders any French forward
strategy aimed at Germany.

30,48 The guns are loaded automatically, and
aimed by periscopes. The gun turrets are
raised hydraulically.

30,57 An imposing fortress. And yet an
admission of weakness.

31,06 KISSINGER X

The whole weight of preserving the peace
was thrown on the country that in
proportion to its population had suffered
the greatest casualties, and had been in
many ways most demoralized by the war,
namely France. The United States withdrew
from the settlement, and Britain withdrew
into its traditional posture not
recognizing that politically and
psychologically France alone could not
preserve the European peace. France would
have therefore liked to impose harsher
terms so long as it could not get
American and British military guarantees,
and for much of the twenties France was
oscillating between an attempt to assure
its security by physical means and
half-hearted attempts to come to some
settlement with Germany. And it managed
to fall between all stools.

SPEAKER

32,09 America's role at that time turns out to
be decisive. New York in the twenties has
become the centre of world finance.

23/06/89

19:49

PORTISCH-RIFF

P.09

[Lc]

- 18 -

SPEAKER

32,07

France's foreign minister Aristide Briand tries to forge a new relationship between France and democratic Germany. He finds an understanding partner in Germany's new foreign minister Gustav Stresemann. They meet at Locarno in Switzerland and sign a treaty which reorganizes the reparation system and relieves Germany from much of the burden placed on her by the Versailles Treaty. The new treaty now signed in Locarno by Briand and Stresemann is intended to satisfy German grievances and thereby reassure France that the Germans will not try to revise the frontiers drawn by the Versailles Treaty. But in this Briand only partially succeeds in Locarno. Stresemann confirms the German French frontiers as drawn by the Versailles Treaty but is not ready to do the same as far as the eastern frontiers of Germany are concerned. Surprisingly the western statesmen tolerate this one-sided German interpretation of the Versailles Treaty.

NEW

NEW

KISSINGER Xa

The Treaty of Locarno in which Germany accepted the western frontiers and guaranteed the western frontiers as they were drawn by the Treaty of Versailles, it was already a startling concept that the Treaty of Versailles was not enough to guarantee the frontiers, that it required an additional guarantee which in itself was an attack on the legitimacy of the treaty. But Germany would not give

NEW