General Discussion

but when the Versailles Treaty was finalized he commented, "This isn't peace. This is a truce for twenty years." Which turned out to be exactly right.

The stab in the back was given resonance when the German military, under Ludendorff, dodged all responsibility for the surrender. Ludendorff went personally to Kaiser Wilhelm and insisted he ask for an armistice, but then left it to the Social Democrats to negotiate the terms, even though they'd been out of the loop for years and knew nothing of the military situation. The result being that the public blamed them for the surrender, rather than the military which had botched it all.

Another factor was how the Allies extended "the Starvation Blockade" even after 11 11 1918. The Germans surrendered under the assumption that the blockade would be lifted once the shooting stopped, and the famine conditions that prevailed in the major cities would improve. In fact, things got worse. The only source of protein for Germans by that time was the catch of the Baltic fishing fleet. When the German navy surrendered the Allies entered the Baltic and refused access to German fishermen. The blockade was used then as a tactic to force the German government--by now run by the Social Democrats--to agree to the terms of Versailles. In the meantime many thousands more Germans--mostly elderly, young children, and disabled--starved to death. I can't imagine the bitterness something like that would cause among the families who suffered such losses.

Have you read The Illusion of Victory: America in World War One, by Thomas Fleming? It's very much a revisionist history of "the Great War." It's rather controversial among historians of the era, but worth the read if only for a take that's very different from the general American view of that war.

Thanks for the link to Jennifer Keene. I'll check it out later today or tomorrow.

Best wishes.