On Jun 27, 2016, at 8:28 PM, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Britain's guarantees prior to WWII. There were strong antiwar sentiments in
both France and Britain between the wars but both "guaranteed" the safety of
various nations. See for
examplehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Polish_military_alliance ;
Several treaties went into effect after WWI, see
http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-war-i/major-treaties.html ;
<http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-war-i/major-treaties.html> But neither
Britain nor France maintained the military strength to enforce them. The US
congress backed away from Wilson's guarantees and refused to ratify them.
"Pacifism" was considered a viable political position. It gave Hitler a
great head start in Europe and Japan the same thing in the pacific. The U.S.
made guarantees as well, in the Philippines and in China and then didn't
maintain the necessary military force. The British and French guarantee to
Poland seems especially heinous because those Poles hold a grudge. However,
pacifists are few and far between today. Britain is no longer pacifistic in
its politics. A military guaranty from Britain today would be honored.
