Wilson vs. Lenin: Political Origins of the New Diplomacy, 1917-1918

448 Pages·1964·17.979 MB·English

by  Arno J. Mayer

Wilson vs. Lenin

W ilson vs. Lenin
P OL I T I CAL ORI GI NS OF
THE NEW DIPLOMACY,
1917-1918
by Arno J. Mayer
Meridian Books
THE WORLD PUBLISHING COMPANY
CLEVELAND AND NEW YORK
To My Parents
note: In the original edition of this work, Wilson vs.
Lenin was the title of only the Epilogue. For the
Meridian edition I have decided to use it as the title
of the book as a whole because I believe it reveals the
content and nature of the book more accurately than
the original title. The latter, Political Origins of the
New Diplomacy, is retained here as a subtitle.
A. J. M., November, 1963
A MERIDIAN BOOK
Published by The World Publishing Company
2231 West noth Street, Cleveland 2, Ohio
First published in 1959 in the Yale Historical Publications series. Studies 18,
under the direction of the Department of History, Yale University, David Horne,
editor, as Political Origins of the New Diplomacy, 1927-1918.
First Meridian printing January 1964.
Copyright © 1959 by Yale University Press, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form without written permission
from the publisher, except for brief passages included
in a review appearing in a newspaper or magazine.
Reprinted by arrangement with Yale University Press, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 59-6799
Printed in the United States of America MWP164
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Historical and Political Framework 1
1. The Politics of War Aims Z The Consolidation of the Forces
of Order, 1914-16 3. War Aims during the Political Truce: the
Secret Treaties 4. War, Revolution, and Crisis, 1917-18 5.
The Political Carriers of the New Diplomacy 6. Labour, UDC,
and T^nin 7. Methods and Objectives of the New Diplomacy
first phase: Strains in the Political Truce
1. The March Revolution and the Petrograd Formula 61
Z Toward the Reichstag Resolution 98
3. Allied War Aims in Transition 141
4. Beyond Traditional Diplomacy 191
second phase: Europe and the Bolshevik Revolution
5. The November Revolution and the Peace Decree 245
6. Reaction among the Belligerents 267
third phase: The New Diplomacy
7. Brest-Litovslc as Catalyst 293
8. Lloyd George Answers die Summons 313
9. Wilson Issues a Countermanifesto 329
Epilogue: Wilson vs. Lenin 368
Bibliography 395
Index 421

PREFACE
D ubing the first World War one of the most controversial political
issues inside Europe's major belligerent nations was war aims. In the
Allied as well as in the Central countries the controversy over this
issue of domestic and foreign policy became part of the struggle for
power between the “parties of order1* (predominantly the Right) and
the “parties of movement" (predominantly the lieft). The Right
tended to favor expansionist war aims and the perpetuation of the
Old Diplomacy as part of its determined effort to maintain die in­
ternal status quo. The Left pressed for nonannexationist war aims
and the adoption of die New Diplomacy In its campaign to change
the status quo. In this conflict between the Right and the Left lie
some of the important political and ideological roots of the New
Diplomacy.
A history and analysis of the politics of war aims from August 1914
to November 1918 in all the major belligerent nations could not be
adequately handled in one volume. The chronological scope of the
present study has therefore been limited to cover, primarily, only the
period from March 1917 to January 1918.
This alternative was preferred to the other choice-concentration
on one nation for the full war period—because, first, by focusing on
the politics of war aims in more than one nation, it is possible to capital­
ize on the analytic advantages which can be gained from compara-
Hoe research into history and politics. Second, the partfadar period
covered pemdQl a study of the breakdown df Europe's political and
Ideological equilibrium under the combined impact of the military
stalemate, the Russian Revolution, and the American intervention. This
breakdown contributed significantly to the dawning of a new ideologi-
Vii
viii PREFACE
od era in Intnattonl pottles, of which Lentti April Hmes and
Wilson's Fourteen Points are representative and symbolic.
Except tangentially, this book does not deal with either the doctrine
or the ideology of the New Diplomacy. Instead, it seeks to explicate
the political dynamics of the emergence of this New Diplomacy in
1917-18. The success or failure of the left-wing campaign for the
adoption of liberal war aims depended on domestic as well as inter­
national developments. Therefore, the interaction between domestic
and international politics will be closely examined in an effort to
assess its impact on war aims—that is, on foreign policy.
The introductory chapter presents a historical background as well
as an analytic framework for the study of the politics of war aims. All
subsequent chapters deal with those political developments, domestic
and international, which contributed to the eventual verbal articula­
tion of new aims in the Allied and Associated camp.
Even though this articulation never occurred in the Central camp,
there are at least three reasons for including chapter on Germany.
First, the struggle over war aims in this country offers clear evi­
dence of the significance of the interaction between domestic and
international politics. Second, it is important to emphasize that in
both coalitions the political struggle was engaged in by parties and
factions which had not only essentially similar roots of power but also
comparable political objectives. Third, once die July 19th coalition
had crystallized in the Reichstag, the Allied forces of movement
argued, quite realistically, that an official, liberal war-aims pronounce­
ment by the Entente would serve to weaken Germany by further en­
couraging the forces of movement in the Central camp.
Limitations of space are the main reason for not including a chapter
on Italy and one on Austria-Hungary. Also, however, it seems that
their role in the diplomacy of the respective alifanrag in 1917-18 was
subsidiary rather than primary. Certainly Italy’s influence on Allied
diplomacy and ideology in the last year of war was not nearly so
crucial as her part in the drafting of the peace treaties. In a projected
volume on the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, 1 plan to give detailed
treatment not only to Italian politics and diplomacy but also to the
diplomatic legacy of the collapse of the Dual Monarchy.
This book could not have been written without the invaluable
scholarly counsel of many of my teachers and senior colleagues. Above
all, 1 must record my profound debt to Hajo Holboro of Yale Univer-
PREFACE ii
rity. He stimulated my original interest in the diplomacy of World War
1 and heightened my awareness of the interaction between domestic
politics and foreign policy. Throughout all subsequent research and
writing stages I had the benefit of Professor Holbom’s sound advice.
Charles Seymour, President Emeritus of Yale University and lead­
ing historian of America’s diplomacy during the war, read two
successive drafts of the manuscript and made those critically sug­
gestive comments which have put so many students of the war period
in his debt Carl E. Schorske of Wesleyan University not only gave
me the benefit of his expert scholarship on German Social Democracy,
but also made incisive suggestions on all parts of die book. Like­
wise, E. H. Carr of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Robert S. Cohen
of Boston University patiently questioned many important points of
fact as well as of interpretation. I wish to acknowledge also the
equally useful though less extensive help of John Blum, Scott Bu­
chanan, Frank Manuel, Herbert Marcuse, Harry Rudin, and Arnold
Wolfers. Needless to say, I alone assume full responsibility not only
for all remaining factual errors, but also for my historical judgments
and interpretations.
The publication of this book has been greatly assisted by a grant to
Yale University by the Southern New England Telephone Company.
Through the Charles P. Howland Fellowship, Yale University made
possible my initial research in Europe. To the staff of the following
European and American libraries 1 am grateful for skillful assistance:
Sterling Memorial Library at Yale, Widener Library at Harvard, New
York Public Library, Library of Congress, Bibliothèque Nationale,
and the Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contem­
poraine. I also wish to thank the curators of the following collec­
tions: The House Collection in Yale University Library; the Waiter
Hines Page Papers in Houghton Library, Harvard; the Wilson and
Lansing Papers in the Library of Congress; the E. D. Morel Papers
in the London School of Economics; and the Archives of the British
Labour party in Transport House, London. Finally, without my wife's
careful editorial help and cheerful typing this manuscript would have
been delayed many mare months. Her unfailing understanding and
encouragement have been of essential importance.
A. J. M.
Brookline, Massachusetts
May 1958