August 27, 2003

"GENTLEMEN MAY CRY PEACE, PEACE, BUT THERE IS NO PEACE"---PATRICK HENRY

         Dave Kopel of NRO reminds us that today is the 75th anniversary of the Kellog-Briand pact which outlawed war. "The Pact, produced by American Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand was eventually ratified by sixty-two nations, almost every sovereign in the world at the time. It passed the U.S. Senate with only a single negative vote. The Pact had, arguably, one success, in defusing a 1929 Soviet-Chinese dispute over a railroad in Manchuria. The other effect of the Pact was to encourage countries engaged in international aggression not to issue a formal declaration of war. Thus, there was no declaration of war for Japan's 1931 invasion of Manchuria, Italy's 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, and Germany's 1938 threatened invasion of Austria (which eventually took place peacefully, thanks to the cowardice of the Austrian government and the democracies). Kellogg was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize (Briand had already won one), putting him and Briand in the ranks of Prize winners such as Yasser Arafat, Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Rigoberta Menchu, Le Duc Tho (North Vietnamese foreign minister), and others whose public careers ended up helping to cause war and violence.

The Pact helped produce World War II, by making it appear that it was immoral or illegal to take decisive military action against Hitler when he was still weak, in the mid-1930s. All 15 of the original signatory nations ended up fighting in World War II. Notably, the Pact was produced under the administration of Calvin Coolidge, which shows that even conservatives can delude themselves with Wilsonian illusions about the power of international agreements. Technically, the Pact is still in force, a permanent reminder of folly of all who believe that pieces of paper, rather than powerful armies, will deter the aggression of dictatorships."

         Kellog's 1930 Nobel prize address is a perfect expression of the liberal utopian sentiments that echo to this day in the remarks of Kofi Annan and those who place their faith in fantasies of universal peace under the sway of international courts and the UN. As the world was plummeting towards a disastrous war, Kellog was happily predicting that reasoned discourse, good will, and education would bring peace: "...during the last ten years the European countries have, with patience and statesmanlike vision, been settling these difficult problems, which in other times might have brought on international conflict. Many of these disputes have been submitted to the Court of International Justice, and the judgment of that tribunal has always been accepted as final. That there are yet many differences which must be adjusted, there is no doubt, but I have the utmost confidence in the people that these problems will be worked out by peaceful means, for all must realize that war will only bring on additional burdens and greater injustice, and is there anyone who believes that any of these questions growing out of the war is worth plunging Europe, and perhaps the world, into another war? What we need is to keep cool and above all keep our confidence in the people that in time these questions which are agitating the public mind will be adjusted.

There will always be disputes between nations which, at times, will inflame the public and threaten conflicts, but the main thing is to educate the people of the world to be ever mindful that there are better means of settling such disputes than by war. It is by such means as the prize offered by your Committee that the attention of the world will be focused and that men and women will be inspired to greater efforts in the interest of peace. The churches, the peace societies, the schools and colleges should add their educational influence to this great movement."
         The cant dispensed by Secretary of State Kellog helped sedate the Western democracies, at the cost of millions of lives. Let us hope our current Secretary of State is not campaigning for a Nobel Peace Prize.

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