Versailles #79: Confusion & Delusion (Patreon)

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Our latest episode contains the following theme, expressed by the Germans, to the effect that Germany would not accept the so-called 'war guilt clause'. The 22nd of June was a day of intense anxiety for the Germans and big three alike, because of this theme of defiance, and also, in a sense, delusion. The news of Scapa Flow hardly helped, as any sense of sympathy had been torpedoed, pun intended, and the Germans were faced with another brick wall. One particularly defiant message was sent in the late afternoon of 22nd June by Gustav Bauer, the German Chancellor, who clung to the notion that the most offensive articles could be deleted from the final version of the peace treaty, and it read:

Germany further lays the greatest emphasis on the declaration that she cannot accept article 231 of the Treaty of Peace which requires Germany to admit herself to be the sole and only author of the war, and does not cover this article by her signature. It consequently follows without further argument that Germany must also decline to recognise that the burdens should be placed upon her on the score of the responsibility for the war which has unjustly been laid at her door.

And that wasn't all - as it became evident that Germany would soon either tumble into an unwinnable war, or face the ultimate shame, statesmen across Europe were already planning for what would happen next. Yet, it was outside of Europe, in the court of the newest world power, that these decisions would prove most biting of all. What would the American President do with that undeniable tide of isolationism threatening to subsume American politics? And what would Europe do if, contrary to his public pronouncements, he was in fact submerged?