Teach
03-05-2015, 05:09 PM
For years, when I was younger, my friends and I would get together on Friday evenings to play cards. Nothing serious, mind you: draw poker, seven-card stud, blackjack, etc. This wasn’t the “World Series of Poker”. No Texas Hold’em or Omaha in those days. No “River”. The only river we knew was “The Charles” (pronounced “Chahlz” by us Bostonians). As for the “Flop”. Isn’t that what a particular high jumper’s maneuver was called?
Well, one thing we did do that you see in “The World Series of Poker” was to bluff. Usually it was the guys with the most money who would do most of the bluffing. They knew who they could bluff and when.
What’s this all leading up to? The World. The current geopolitical situation. ISIS. Vladimir Putin. Russia. Ukraine. The past is prologue. What was it that George Santayana said: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
As a student of history (I taught it for over 35 years), I’m reminded of the pre-World War II period in Europe during the 1930s. Hitler became the master of testing the waters (bluffing). His first venture was “the Rhineland”. In March, 1936 he marched his Nazi troops into a demilitarized zone that had been created by the Versailles Treaty. Frankly, the French choked. They had the manpower and material to blunt and turn back this encroachment, but they didn’t. Some, in their defense, said that the French had suffered so terribly during WWI. Even the former premier, Georges Clemenceau, was buried facing to the east lest the Germans sneak up and attack France once again. Hitler himself said that if the French had resisted, his troops would have had to retreat with, as he put it “their tails between the legs”.
Two years later, it was Hitler’s boyhood homeland, Austria. The historians called it “Anschluss “a joining, an amalgamation”. I suggest mention that the Austrians as a country were far from equals with Germany. It was all part of Hitler’s plan to undo what he saw as the injustices of the Versailles Treaty. His quest: Lebensraum. Lebenspeiss. “Living room. Living space”.
By the way, generally speaking, most Austrians welcomed the Nazis with open arms. Bells rung from church bell towers and Nazi flags festooned the steeples. Austrians showered the Nazi soldiers with flowers.
Then, in the fall of 1938, it was Deladier of France, Chamberlain (“Peace For Our Time”) of Britain and Mussolini and Hitler at Munich. Hitler bluffed some more. All he said was that he was looking to bring all German speakers and ethnics into a greater German Reich. That meant the Sudeten Germans in an area to the west and north in Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland.
According the Hitler, this was his last territorial request. The Western Democracies were outmaneuvered and bluffed again. Chamberlain when he arrived by plane in London, before heading for 10 Downing Street, he said, in some many words: Everyone will be able to sleep comfortably tonight.
By March, 1939, Hitler had taken over the rest of Czechoslovakia. About six months later, Hitler’s forces would invade Poland. World War II in Europe was under way.
As I look back at the past and at today’s turmoil in Russia-Ukraine, it seems that Putin is following Hitler’s playbook to the letter. Test. Probe. Look for weaknesses. Make temporary concessions. False promises. Keep the pressure on. Eliminate your opposition (Hitler killed Ernst Rohm and a host of others). Take what you can get (Crimea).
I hope the world leaders call Putin’s bluff. You can’t allow yourself to be intimidated. If you do, it’s at your own peril. You must call bluffs!
Well, one thing we did do that you see in “The World Series of Poker” was to bluff. Usually it was the guys with the most money who would do most of the bluffing. They knew who they could bluff and when.
What’s this all leading up to? The World. The current geopolitical situation. ISIS. Vladimir Putin. Russia. Ukraine. The past is prologue. What was it that George Santayana said: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
As a student of history (I taught it for over 35 years), I’m reminded of the pre-World War II period in Europe during the 1930s. Hitler became the master of testing the waters (bluffing). His first venture was “the Rhineland”. In March, 1936 he marched his Nazi troops into a demilitarized zone that had been created by the Versailles Treaty. Frankly, the French choked. They had the manpower and material to blunt and turn back this encroachment, but they didn’t. Some, in their defense, said that the French had suffered so terribly during WWI. Even the former premier, Georges Clemenceau, was buried facing to the east lest the Germans sneak up and attack France once again. Hitler himself said that if the French had resisted, his troops would have had to retreat with, as he put it “their tails between the legs”.
Two years later, it was Hitler’s boyhood homeland, Austria. The historians called it “Anschluss “a joining, an amalgamation”. I suggest mention that the Austrians as a country were far from equals with Germany. It was all part of Hitler’s plan to undo what he saw as the injustices of the Versailles Treaty. His quest: Lebensraum. Lebenspeiss. “Living room. Living space”.
By the way, generally speaking, most Austrians welcomed the Nazis with open arms. Bells rung from church bell towers and Nazi flags festooned the steeples. Austrians showered the Nazi soldiers with flowers.
Then, in the fall of 1938, it was Deladier of France, Chamberlain (“Peace For Our Time”) of Britain and Mussolini and Hitler at Munich. Hitler bluffed some more. All he said was that he was looking to bring all German speakers and ethnics into a greater German Reich. That meant the Sudeten Germans in an area to the west and north in Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland.
According the Hitler, this was his last territorial request. The Western Democracies were outmaneuvered and bluffed again. Chamberlain when he arrived by plane in London, before heading for 10 Downing Street, he said, in some many words: Everyone will be able to sleep comfortably tonight.
By March, 1939, Hitler had taken over the rest of Czechoslovakia. About six months later, Hitler’s forces would invade Poland. World War II in Europe was under way.
As I look back at the past and at today’s turmoil in Russia-Ukraine, it seems that Putin is following Hitler’s playbook to the letter. Test. Probe. Look for weaknesses. Make temporary concessions. False promises. Keep the pressure on. Eliminate your opposition (Hitler killed Ernst Rohm and a host of others). Take what you can get (Crimea).
I hope the world leaders call Putin’s bluff. You can’t allow yourself to be intimidated. If you do, it’s at your own peril. You must call bluffs!