Literature Review

Background

A lack of empathy, driven by greed, hubris, or lack of cultural understanding can lead to Tuchman’s (1969) definition of folly. The different approaches, one approach showing empathy and a respect for the change capacity of a vanquished foe, the other showing the opposite, can be found in the handling of Germany in the twentieth century. The vengeful stance that the Allies took with Germany after World War I is frequently cited as the casus belli for World War II by setting the conditions that allowed Hitler’s rise to power (Van Meter, 1979). But then after World War II, Germany (at least West Germany) had a completely different outcome.

The historic postwar transition effects on societies have been almost as traumatic as the lethal portion of the battles themselves. At the end of World War I, the victorious Allies came together at Versailles Palace in Paris to hammer out a peace treaty, the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty has historically been seen as a disaster as far as actually making peace. Given the costs paid by the Allies, both in blood and treasure and the mood of their respective electorates, the ability of the ‘Big Three’ democracies, Britain, France, and the United States, to make peace based upon reciprocity, was very low. The United States had the additional difficulty that isolationism was a very strong sentiment during that time. So much of an isolationist sentiment was present that the United States never ratified the Treaty of Versailles or became a member of the League of Nations (Dockrill & Fisher, 2001).

The case of Germany after World War II was quite different than that existing after World War I. The main difference in the situation on the ground was that the Allies had invaded and were occupying Germany. Much of the German infrastructure had been destroyed and resources were scarce. Many members of the disarmed German army were attempting to be captured by the Allied forces because prisoners of war were allotted the same rations as Allied soldiers, which was much better than the civilian population were able to attain. There were also a great number of displaced persons and disbanded German army personnel (still under arms) walking around the countryside making for an uncomfortable security situation. The positive aspect of the security situation was that none of these worrisome groups were organizing into an insurgency. The main problem faced by the Allied occupation forces was crime and reestablishing civil order. Unfortunately, one of the situations that remained the same between the wars was the propensity of the United States to rapidly withdraw manpower assets from the theater due to the rapid demobilization of its military. This made the security circumstances then, as it has in the recent past, problematic for commanders attempting to conduct stability operations (United States Army History Archives, 1947).