The Importance of Military History

A great passage from another article in Statesmanship.

Churchill was 65 years old when, for the first time in his life, he "had the authority to give directions over the whole scene." He never doubted that, had he possessed such authority in 1915, the Dardanelles strategy could have been successfully executed. Nor did he doubt that, had it been so executed, the First World War could have been brought to a successful conclusion some time either in 1915 or 1916. Had that happened the nations of Europe might have been spared the terrible blood-letting of the last two years of the War, and the main political structures of the nineteenth century dissolved by the war-among them the Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian monarchies-might have endured far into the twentieth century. Had this happened, Churchill believed, the changes brought in the name of Progress-of Science, of Democracy, and of Equality-might have been less revolutionary, less bloody, and more salutary than any we have in fact known.

The massive impact individual battles have on the larger picture of history, tends to be overlooked by modern historians. That assertion isn't simply own. It's also the opinion of none other than Victor Davis Hanson, in his work Ripples of Battle: How Wars of the Past Still Determine How We Fight, How We Live, and How We Think.

The idea, that the esteemed scholar and I share (share only in the sense that he really clued me into it), is that battles and the conduct of war can have a far-reaching, though often invisible impact.

This would be an excellent example of that phenomenon. Churchill firmly believed that given the authority, he could have successfully concluded the first world war in 1916. Such an achievement would have been tremendous. The slaughterhouse years of 1917 & 1918 simply wouldn't have been. The political and cultural forces that produced the disastrous Versailles Treaty may never have existed. Hitler may have never come to power, WWII may never have happened. The 20th century would have less resembled the butcher's shop of horrors that it came to.

Of course, this is all counterfactual and speculative. But one fact is undeniable. If WWI had ended two years early, the course of history would have been radically different.

Given Churchill's subsequent record, I'm with him. And I'm with those who argue for the importance of great idividuals. And I'm also at work. So, that's all for now.