When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Versailles #57: Danzig and the Rhine

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Here we take stock of the situation by the last week of April 1919 by focusing our microscope on two apparently unrelated, but hugely important issues – specifically the future of the Rhine, and the status of the city of Danzig. These two issues of the Rhineland and Danzig were intrinsically linked with the outbreak of the Second World War, and it is thus important in our narrative to establish where they came from. As we will learn here, not only did these two issues provide Hitler with different opportunities, they also r...

Versailles #56: OTD 24th April 1919 - The Italians Walk Out

[PATRONS]

On 24th April 1919, Italy left the Paris Peace Conference. This stunning development was a long time coming, and was a natural result of the behaviour of the big three. Notwithstanding the justness of Italy's demands, these demands had brought her into the war, and now that it was plain the allies would not listen, Vittorio Orlando felt he had little choice other than to call the allied bluff. It was a decision that had been predicted for some time, and though they had tried to avoid this rift widening between them, no member...

Versailles #55: Italian Stallions

[PATRONS]

We finally turn our attention to Italy in this episode history friends, where the relationship of Vittorio Orlando with his peers in the big five comes under our microscope. What were Italy's demands? Why was Italy upset with how its interests had been received? Were these interests fair, or unjust altogether? How do we balance our innate repugnance at Italy's expansionist demands with the fair point that without those promises made to her, 500,000 of her men would still be alive, and 900,000 unwounded? It was quite a conundr...

Delegation Game #12: The Tiger Still Roars!

[PATRONS]

Episode 12 of the game sees our focus hone in on one eventful day, 19th April 1919, where three separate meetings were held, and where dreams were debated and dashed. The Japanese put forward their long anticipated racial equality proposal - which you will have to vote for - and the dominions made their cases before a packed plenary council meeting. With Poincare present, as the Premier of France or shill of Foch depending on your perspective, the stage was set for some memorable exchanges and weighted debates. Then, at the l...

1956 Episode 2.14: Attacked At Home

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Episode 2.14: Attacked At Home takes us to the scenes facing Anthony Eden in Britain in the final days of October. Having orchestrated an Israeli-Egyptian war, the plan now was to issue an ultimatum, and for Anglo-French forces to swoop into Egypt to separate the two belligerents. Such a noble act, Eden believed, would cloak the fact that Britain and France were really there to oust Nasser, recoup prestige and occupy the Suez Canal for Western benefit. It was a thoroughly imperialistic, backwards set of policy aims that moved...

1956 Episode 2.13: When A Plan Comes Together

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Episode 2.13: When A Plan Comes Together examines the final moments of peace between 25-29 October, as the different governments involved in the conspiracy to attack Egypt and make it look like an accident all prepared the ground before them. In Britain, the focus was on the legal argument still, even despite the clear problems which Britain’s legal advisors in the Foreign Office had in painting any British attack on Egypt as legally justified. While some less informed Cabinet members, like the Lord Chancellor, insisted tha...

Tim Bouverie: Appeasing Hitler

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You can order Tim's book here! 

Something very special for you indeed history friends! A mere days away from launch, the lovely Tim Bo...

Delegation Game #11: Victory in Defeat

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The situation in our alternative universe continues to heat up, but some might say, for the better. The President Marshall of France, Ferdinand Foch, having survived the recent vote, now has his regime confirmed, but not all delegates have to like it. Foch's regime was buoyed by several successes over the last week, including one development in particular which will leave some delegates happy, and some furious - that, I'm afraid, is the nature of the Game! Remember, get scheming if you want to resolve this situation; change y...

Versailles #54: OTD 11th April 1919 - Racial Equality Denied

[PATRONS]

The Japanese were utterly determined to pass the racial equality proposal, which actually consisted of a few sentences that would be inserted into the preamble of the League of Nations. This had been their for weeks, and it was publicly known, and feared, by much of the allies, with the exception perhaps of France. Neither the Americans nor the British could afford to accept this proposal, which was akin to political dynamite in 1919. However, the stories behind precisely why neither side could accept the Japanese approach we...

Versailles #53: Asian Persuasions

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It's high time we turned our attention to a neglected theatre of this story. No, not Africa...No, not the Middle East...Yes, that's right - Asian! Well, more specifically, just Japan! The story of the Japanese rise to power in the late 19th and early 20th century is one which has always fascinated us here at WDF, but in the context of the Paris Peace Conference, the story becomes more interesting still! The Japanese, clearly maligned due to their lack of European-ness, were nonetheless keen to play a prominent role in the pro...

Delegation Game #10: Rebuilding Peace

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After a traumatic event which rocked France, the world and the Peace Conference to its core, how can the delegates involved possibly refocus their attentions to the task at hand - that of making peace? Fear not, the President-Marshall of France is on the case, and with his ambitious, but by no means impossible 16 Points, the hero of France's war effort attempts to become the hero of the peace conference, and to rebuild the peacemaking efforts of all those now knuckling down in the Anna-Bay Hotel, London...

Versailles #52: OTD 5th April 1919 - Wilson Has Had Enough!

[PATRONS]

In the first week of April, 1919, American President Woodrow Wilson had reached the end of his tether. He was eternally sick of Georges Clemenceau lording the agonies of France over his head - what he needed was compromise, not to be accused of being pro-German by the French premier in one particularly explosive meeting. The rift between American and French leaders had arrived at long last, but it was hardly likely to be a fight either man would benefit from. Amidst a terrible illness, Wilson declared his intention to return ...

Delegation Game #9: Paris Is Revolting!

[PATRONS]

Whoa, Nelly, have we got a story for you! In the aftermath of failed efforts to achieve satisfaction with reparations and with the intervention into Russia, one could be left feeling sorry themselves if you happened to be a delegate in this fictional version of Paris in late March 1919. However, the real movements were coming not from the halls of peace, but out on the streets and in the devious minds of disaffected leaders and citizens, determined to right by France...no matter who stood in the way!

Versailles #51: The PM Surprises Us All!

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We return to the question of reparations with some startling revelations. If you thought the French were the greedy, grasping and bitter sponsors of a massive reparations bill, then prepare to question everything you know! It was not the French, but the politically trapped British PM David Lloyd George, who was in fact the loudest and most inconsistent advocate of a high bill. Why? That question has puzzled those historians who have attempted to answer it, but in this episode we're going to our best. Why was Lloyd George so e...

Versailles #50: Deliberations on Reparations

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At long last, we turn our attention to the controversial issue of reparations. Perhaps no issue at the Paris Peace Conference, and no single tenet of the Treaty of Versailles has been the source of as much controversy as the question of how much Germany should pay to answer for its crimes of launching the Great War, yet in this first of an unofficial two-parter, we will learn that the conventional narrative of reparations is very far removed indeed from the reality. The eternal wisdom of John Maynard Keynes, we will discover,...

Delegation Game #8: Haunting Paris

[PATRONS]

After a week of conspiracy and controversy, the fallout must be confronted. An exhausted and demoralised cast of delegates are challenged with creating some kind of policy approach to Russia, to listening to one another without going crazy, and with remaining wary at all times of former enemies, or should that be former friends? Regardless of what they planned to do in the future, there could be no denying that what they had done in the past had left Paris a haunted shell of its former self. The question remained to be answer...

Versailles #49: OTD 21st March 1919 - Hungary Sets The World On Fire

[PATRONS]

A century ago today, Budapest was circling the drain of revolution, after several months of Bolshevik infiltration and grand promises, combined with mounting frustrations over President Mihaly Karolyi's consistent failings. What was to be done about the situation in Hungary? Where a population was so desperate to realise their dream of independence after four centuries under Habsburg rule? The allies had no idea, and paid Hungary barely any attention. While the peacemakers in Paris dallied, the Hungarians refused to sit still...

Versailles #48: Ten Becomes Four

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Check out the collaboration I did with Thom Daly, where we talked about Ireland and Brexit! 

As the Paris Peace Conference welcomed back the American President and the Big Three began to entrench themselves once more into the familiar grind, it became clear that much had changed. Rather than move further away from each other, it was fortunate indeed that...

Delegation Game #7: Slaying the Tiger

[PATRONS]

Episode 7 of the game analyses the events surrounding the shocking murder of Georges Clemenceau, and the return of the American President to the scene. How will the President cope with the new atmosphere of cooperation, facilitated by Roosevelt's help and support, when he couldn't stand the man? How will France cope with its shattering loss of the father of victory? What other schemes were ongoing? How did a Pole sneakily dodging between several delegations fit into proceedings? All this and much more going on in the latest e...

Versailles #47: A Presidential Return

[PATRONS]

After a month back home in the States, it was high time Woodrow Wilson returned to face the music in Paris. Exactly what tune this music would contain varied depending on whom you asked. Would Wilson find support in the leaders of the free world, or would he find only opportunists instead? What kind of impact upon the negotiations would be had by the Republican Party openly condemning his League Covenant, and insisting upon particular changes? Now that they knew he needed these four key changes to the League in order to proce...

Versailles #46: First Half of March, 1919

[PATRONS]

Our largest episode yet, with an absolute legion of things to get through... it must be the first two weeks of March, 1919! Herein we see several things go down in the Council of Ten, which was still shorn of its major leaders, but which did not sit still nonetheless. The Italians get antsy over some bad Serbian behaviour, everyone gets antsy about the Germans and their army, Lloyd George returns and makes people antsy! Everyone is getting antsy, but some important work was also being done in the background, as the clock tick...

1956 Episode 2.12: Collusion and Delusion

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Episode 2.12: Collusion & Delusion follows on from the previous episode, and takes us to the contentious few days between 22-24 October 1956, where the war plan that would create the Suez Crisis was created, developed and signed by Britain, France and Israel in an unassuming Parisian suburb. This process was, of course, far from straightforward or guaranteed to produce a result. It required the French reassuring both the Israeli and British representatives about the solid nature of their plan, and it also demonstrated the...

Versailles #45: William Bullitt's Mission

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In episode 45 of the Versailles Anniversary Project, we examine the lesser known mission of William C. Bullitt, Philadelphia aristocrat and Ivy League prodigy – at least according to his mother – who was selected to lead a top secret American delegation to Soviet Russia. Bullitt’s aims were multi-layered, and he didn’t quite understand the limits of this mission or of his own capabilities, but that won’t stop us analysing the fortunes of this very interesting statesman. Bullitt would find a Russia starving and demor...

1956 Episode 2.11: A Protocol For War

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Episode 2.11: A Protocol For War takes us at long last into that controversial moment when Britain, France and Israel began to move closer together. The Sevres Protocol was neither developed nor signed in a day, and in the first two weeks of October, negotiations critically important to the later conflict were underway. At first, Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd hoped to make use of the UN Security Council to gain British satisfaction in Egypt, and for a time he was successful in this aim, because Anthony Eden was ill and unabl...

1956 Episode 2.10: Israeli Sneaky

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Episode 2.9: Israeli Sneaky takes us first to a scene of division. The Commonwealth, seen as so vital to British interests, was beginning to fracture along the question of what the best course of action to take against President Nasser would be. The Canadian, Australian and NZ governments were all uneasy at the prospect of war, and some, like the Canadian Foreign Minister Lester Pearson, advocated a diplomatic approach. While Eden forged ahead with an aggressive policy, torpedoing another conference on the Suez Canal in the p...

Versailles #44: From Russia, No Love

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In our latest episode, we introduce you to the revolutionary wasteland that was Russia in 1919. Russia was a very confusing place at this time, because it was the subject of a lot of debate regarding that key question – should the allies launch some kind of military expedition against the Bolsheviks? That apparently simple question was complicated by the fact that the allies already had forces in different corners of Russia – 180,000 soldiers in total. How had they gotten here, why were they here, and if allied disunity o...

1956 Episode 2.9: The Fix Is In

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Episode 2.9: The Fix Is In looks at that moment which has become infamous in history – the collusion between Britain, France and Israel. We are almost ready to see these sneaky meetings take place, and for the infamous agreement take shape, but first, it is worth investigating another important and underrated angle of the Crisis. The key element of the Suez Crisis story that demonstrates how low Britain sank must be the manifest failure of the British Government to develop any legal argument in favour of their interventioni...

Versailles #43: Freikorps European Tour

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Before we delve into the Russian situation, I felt it would be beneficial, and darkly interesting, to examine what was happening in between the lands caught in the middle of the Russian and German crises. The Freikorps - disgruntled, right wing, extremist former soldiers and civilians, was exactly the wrong ingredient to help heal a fractured portion of the continent. Yet, unable to accept that their war was over, and determined to leave a mark upon the region and expand their fatherland, these men launched a campaign of utte...

Versailles #42: Lodge's Reservations

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The unofficial second parter to our examination of Woodrow Wilson's campaign to get the League of Nations approved of back home, in episode 42 we further our analysis of the different parties and their interests in the US. Who was in favour of the League, who wanted the League with some adjustments, and who was resolutely opposed to it no matter what? Where did Henry Cabot Lodge fit into this sliding scale, and when he released his Reservations document to Congress on 28th February - wherein he underline 14 problems he had wi...

Delegation Game #6: Power Vacuums

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In the aftermath of Woodrow Wilson's exit from Paris, along with the British and Italian premiers, Clemenceau was alone to hold the fort against a resurgent and empowered German delegation. It was at that moment that an anarchist's bullet felled the Tiger, which provided an unprecedented opportunity for the Germans to fill this newly emerged power vacuum. This development, as we will discover, will have profound consequences for all the delegates going forward...