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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 9/26/11

When the World Outlawed War

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But as public pressure grew, Levinson and Borah worked to educate Kellogg on Outlawry.   When Senator Capper introduced a resolution in November 1927 in support of renouncing war, the nation understood that the farmers of the Midwest were behind Briand's proposal, or at least not against it.   The Pocatello Tribune arrived at this cynical interpretation:

 

"The real significance of the Capper plan . . . lie in its showing the belief of western politicians that the voters who prevented American entry into the league are aware that if Europe spends a disproportionate share of its limited funds in military preparation it will have little left for American wheat and corn."

 

This was, of course, before the weapons exporters came to hold more sway in Washington than the wheat and corn exporters.

 

The combination of a number of Republican leaders backing former Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes for the 1928 Republican presidential nomination and Capper introducing a resolution coming out of the Butler-Shotwell camp, a resolution that defined aggressive war, may have helped motivate Borah, with his own presidential ambitions, to manipulate Briand's offer in his own direction.   The treaty would end up banning all war in order to (1) avoid banning only aggressive war, and (2) avoid doing nothing.   The latter was not an option, given the pressure coming from the peace movement.   On December 10, 1927, Jane Addams led a delegation to the White House and delivered a petition with 30,000 names.   Coolidge assured her that he would try to achieve the treaty with France.   Addams sent the same petition to Briand who thanked her.   By January, 1928, to the shock of his staff at the State Department, Kellogg was working hard to achieve a universal treaty, which France did not want, and writing to his wife that he hoped to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

 

On February 5th, with negotiations stalemated, Senator Borah published a front-page article in the New York Times Magazine, largely prepared by Levinson.   The headline was "One Great Treaty to Outlaw All Wars."   Borah claimed that a breach of the treaty by one nation would release other nations from complying with it in relation to that violator.   This would allow self-defense.   It would also allow France to sign such a treaty while still upholding its treaties forming alliances to respond to war.   Kellogg continued to push France, and in March asked the U.S. ambassador to point out to Briand the wisdom of acting while Kellogg was still in office.   Coolidge had less than a year remaining as president.

 

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom passed a resolution commending Kellogg on May 5th.   So did the American Peace Society.   The National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War's 12 million women planned 48 state conferences through which to influence the Senate when it came time to ratify a treaty renouncing war.   On June 23rd, Kellogg wrote to 14 countries.   Germany formally agreed on July 11th, and France three days later.   Agreeing to sign the pact by July 20th would be Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, India, the Irish Free State, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. And these additional nations would sign on to adhere to it: Afghanistan, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Romania, the Soviet Union, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, Siam, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey. Eight further states joined at a later date: Persia, Greece, Honduras, Chile, Luxembourg, Danzig, Costa Rica, and Venezuela.  

 

Does anybody know what Persia is called today?

 

The Kellogg-Briand Pact was put together in an extremely public manner, and as these things go was agreed to very quickly, and with an unusually high number of adhering nations.   Most observers give public opinion and public pressure the credit.   The U.S. peace movement was fully behind it, and that unity was a new and powerful force.   About the public opinion in favor of the Peace Pact it is worth noting a couple of things.   First, the propaganda campaign that had brought public opinion around to supporting war in 1917 had been far more extensive, vastly more expensive, and backed up by a police force.   The peace movement did not have to intimidate or lie to anyone in the United States to gain their support for Kellogg-Briand.   Secondly, the same was true with foreign heads of state acting in accordance with the wishes of their peoples.   Unlike the formation of a coalition of nations to invade Iraq in 2003, this coalition of nations to outlaw war was put together without bribery or threats being required.

 

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David Swanson is the author of "When the World Outlawed War," "War Is A Lie" and "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union." He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works for the online (more...)
 
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