United States and The Third Reich 1933-45.

During World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (32 president of the United States (1933-45)), issued presidential endorsements for U.S., companies to conduct carte blanche commercial transactions with Hitler’s Nazi regime. A case in point was the Ford Motor Company (owned by Henry Ford, an American industrialist, a notorious anti-Semite, and shameless recipient of Hitler’s ‘Grosskreuz des Deutschen Adlerordens’ ‘Grand Cross of the German Eagle’.; 30 July, 1938.

Ford was licensed, by Roosevelt to manufacture and supply military trucks and tanks to Hitler’s Wehrmacht, notwithstanding the Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919, which came into effect 10 January 1920); as a penal prohibition, of such activities, subsequent to Germany’s defeat in the international conflict of 1914 – 18. The 14 points of the Treaty, in part 4, clearly declared: “… national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety”. Notwithstanding the treaty, Hitler’s armaments had exceeded the requirements for national safety prior to 1939. Ford was aware, as were, the international community, which Germany had exceeded its armaments threshold. Ford’s company was the largest producer and provider to the Reich, particularly following Hitler’s invasion of Poland ( “Fall Weiß” ); on the 1st September 1939. Subsequent to the invasion, the Ford company’s profits increased in excess of 50 per cent, during the following four-year period. Ford, was in contravention of part 4 of the Treaty of Versailles. Notwithstanding his breach of the Treaty he, unlike his German co-conspirators, was not indicted to appear at the Trials of War Criminals before the Nüremberg Military Tribunals (N.M.T.).

Other companies who also eagerly collaborated with Hitler’s Nazi regime were: the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (I.T.T.). The I.T.T. Corporation manufactured and supplied telephone, radio communications equipment, and vital components for incendiary devices to Hitler’s Wehrmacht. Other companies include The Standard Oil New Jersey, DuPont, General Motors, Davis Oil Company; and the Chase National Bank.

A Vision for Peace in the Aftermath of World War I.

World War I (1914-18) involved the majority of the nations of Central Europe. Including South-central Europe, north-central Europe, west-northern Europe, Western Europe. East Asia, East Europe and North Asia, the Western Hemisphere, and the Middle East. Namely Hungary, Austria, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom (U.K.), France, Japan, Russia, the U.S., and Turkey; respectively. The Central Powers, for the most part, included: Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Turkey, who were in hostile engagement with the Allies. Namely France, U.K., Russia, Italy, Japan, and from 1917, the U.S.

The carnage, bloodshed, and the tragic loss of human life was unprecedented in the history of warfare. At the first Battle of Saint-Quentin (‘The Somme’ also called ‘Mash Valley’), in North-eastern France, German, French, and British soldiers died from the rifle and machine-gun fire. And explosive shells and massive artillery bombardment, followed later by poison gas. The offensive begun on 1 July and lasted until 13 November 1916. In this Battle alone, 65,000 French, British, and German, soldiers were killed on the first day. This four-month battle resulted in an appalling loss exceeding half a million Allied soldiers, and a congruent number of Germans.

The military and civilian casualties, throughout the entire War (1914-18), irrespective of whether they were of the Central or Allied Powers, were estimated at “8,500,000. Soldiers died as a result of wounds and/or [sic.] disease”, and that “civilian deaths attributable to the war was higher than the military casualties, or around 13,000,000”. “These civilian deaths were caused by starvation, exposure, disease, military encounters, and massacres” (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2003, ‘The last offensives and the Allies’ victory’). However, the precise number of lives lost in this war may never be known. but we can be assured that the magnitude, in terms of the lives lost, were far too high.

This war was the turning point that changed the political and geographical divisions that brought down the Central Powers in the Middle Eastern theatre. And subsequently the imperial Western dynasties, viz., Austria, Germany, Hungary, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire (1922) partitioning it into 39 q.v., separate nation states. The Empire’s centre of power, ‘Anatolia’, eventually became the modern Republic of Turkey in 1923.

President Woodrow Wilson – Architect of The League of Nations.

In the aftermath of World War I, many of the world leaders shared an abhorrence to war ever occurring again. One of these leaders had a vision for world peace, which was galvanised into the establishment of a global body. That would maintain the decisive influences over international disputes, to ensure against any future hostilities.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1859-1924), 28th president of the United States (1912-21), a scholar and leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, statesman and diplomatist par excellence in world affairs. He was to become the architect, and initiator, of the League of Nations, which was founded at the Paris Peace Conference on the 14 February 1919. And ensconced at Geneva, and was subscribed to by the World War I Allies: France, U.K., Italy, Japan, and from 1917 the U.S. For which Wilson was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Unfortunately, Wilson’s vision was not realised in toto. Some of the member nations behaved towards the League as if it were a forum that they could manipulate for their self-serving policies. Antagonist and quiescent nation states were initially alienated from the League. Eventually, they were given entrée to membership in the 1920s.

The principal purpose of the League during the inter-war years was to retain harmonious relationships between the various nation states. It successfully resolved varied international altercations between some nation states, with the formal consent of the membership of the League, subsequently preventing hostilities. The work of the League was, nevertheless, critically damaged by the U.S’s., non-compliance. Namely to the treaties formulated, and included in the Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919); in the post-War I period. Subsequently, the League was disempowered, through lack of support by the major powers, to resolve individual grievances viz., those of Italy, Japan, and Germany. These events, all-inclusive, were, in my opinion, instrumental in precipitating the outbreak of World War II. Hitler’s rejection of the Treaty of Versailles, at Münich (Münich)  in December 1920. His violation of the 1925 Pact of Locarno, by sending his Wehrmacht (‘armed forces’) into the Rhineland on the 7 March 1936. And subsequently, his invasion of Poland in August 1939. Following the closure of World War II, the League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations (U.N.); on 24 October 1945. In consequence of this – and the impact of the Great Depression (1929 to 1939) on the industrialized Western economies – Rome and Berlin amalgamated to form an Axis on the 25 October 1936. The following month (25 November) Germany, and Japan cooperatively signed an “Anti-Comintern Pact”, against the Soviet Union. In the following year, on 6 November 1937, Italy was included in this agreement. Four months earlier in July, Japan had invaded China. In the ensuing three years, a Tripartite Pact was signed on 27 September 1940, by Germany, Italy, and Japan to amalgamate a political and military Axis.

World War II (1939-45).

World War II (1939-45) followed twenty-one years after the closure of the World War I theatre (1918), as a consequence of residual issues from the previous war. And the failure of the economic infrastructures of the pre-Depression period qu.,Among the major issues that inaugurated the armed conflicts beginning with Manchuria (1931), Abyssinia (1935), Spain (1936), and followed by World War II three years later. This war was a composite of the Axis governments, and the Allies: France, U.K., the U.S., Russia, and China. Following Hitler’s invasion into the Rhineland, Poland et al., Japan made an air strike on the U.S., naval base, Oahu Island, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941. This air strike resulted in 3,540 military casualties (Japanese were estimated to be below 100, and the U.S., total were 3,440). The death toll, for the entire period of the War (1939-45), reached a staggering estimated medial on aggregate of 35,000,000 to 60,000,000 (Britannica 2003, ‘The Allied landings in Europe and the defeat of the Axis powers’). This total includes both civilian and military personnel, of the Allies and Axis Powers; the largest number of casualties ever recorded in the history of warfare.

United States’ Aversion to Global Peace.

Various administrations in Washington have maintained an attitude of being impolite and uncooperative towards the various international organizations working towards securing global peace. For example, in July 1998, the council of the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) introduced the ‘The Rome Statutes’ (1998) that were examined and approved by 120 signatory nations. However, the council of the I.C.C., was nevertheless, unsuccessful in obtaining cooperation from William Jefferson Clinton (1946-) (42nd president of the U.S., (1993-2001)). In becoming a signatory, together with the other nations, for the I.C.C’s jurisdiction over these particular crimes. These Statutes included a body of rules of laws concerning: ‘war crimes’, ‘crimes against humanity’, ‘crimes of genocide’, and ‘crimes of aggression’ et cetera. Under these statutes, any head of a nation state, found in breach of these rules of law, could face prosecution in an I.C.C., jurisdiction.

Further examples include; the occasion of the Convention for the ‘Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty’ (1996), in which Clinton’s delegate abstained from becoming a signatory, and at the treaty, in Ottawa Canada, for ‘Banning of Anti-personnel Landmines’ (1997); Clinton’s delegate was absent. At the convention for ‘Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines, and on Their Destruction’ (1998); Clinton’s delegate abstained from becoming a signatory. Five years later (July 2002) at the I.C.C’s final preparatory meeting, at the United Nations (U.N.) headquarters, there was a conspicuous absence of the George W. Bush’s (43rd president of the U.S., (2001-2009)) delegate.

“If you open that Pandora’s Box, you never know what Trojan ‘orses will jump out”.

Sir Roderick Barclay, Ernest Bevin and the Foreign Office (1975).

I believe, the U.S. is opposing partisanship to these treaties because, in effect, they would severely censure their future aggressive military campaigns., and in all likelihood, could open a Pandora’s box regarding past infringements by the U.S., itself (et alii.), i.e., if these laws were retroactive.

Any alleged breaches or non-fulfillments, of these treaties, accompanied by evidential depositions, could prompt the I.C.C., to serve writs on the president himself. And accomplices for allegedly ‘aiding’, ‘abetting’; or as ‘accessorials before or after the facts’, and in all likelihood military personnel could also be served with writs. The I.C.C., could draw from both the Kellogg-Briand Pact ‘ of 1928, and the ‘ London Agreement’, of 8 August 1945 (as did the Nürnberg series of trials in Germany (194-46)), in which the I.C.C., could reject any pivotal defence contention, that ‘the duty or responsibility is that of the state, and not individuals’.

The statutes, of both the ‘Agreement’ and ‘Pact’, disallow the defence argument, as it did at Nürnberg, that both ‘the judicial proceedings, and determination would not be ex post facto’, on the grounds that actions, of defendants, would have been deemed as criminal acts subsequent to the codification of the statutes into Law in 1928 and 1945.

International Military Tribunal for The Far East.

The Charter of the ‘International Military Tribunal for the Far East’ (C.I.M.T.F.E.) was established on 19 January 1946 for the Far East, which became the legal instrument describing the essential laws, and processes, by which suspect war criminals could be formally indicted, tried, and sentenced. Three categories of crimes were devised. The first of which concerned the premeditated stage of the crimes, viz., “Class A” (Crimes against peace). The following two, involved the actual undertaking of the crimes: “Class B” (War

On the 25 April, 1946, Amendments were made to the Charter, under the provisions of Article 7, which included crimes known as the “Nan-ching Massacre”, committed by the Japanese Imperial Army, against the Chinese civilian population at Nan-ching, in East-Central China; from December 1937 to January 1938. Although the actual number of deaths, of the Chinese population, is unknown, it is estimated to be approximately 150,000. Eleven judges were drawn from the Allied victors. Namely, the U.K., French Republic, U.S.S.R., Republic of China, the Netherlands, Canada, U.S., India, the Philippines, New Zealand, and Australia. Twenty-five Japanese political, and military, suspects were charged with ‘Class A’ crimes. And 300,000  were also charged with ‘Class B’ and ‘C’ crimes, and were indicted to stand trial (over a duration of almost two years) at the C.I.M.T.F.E. jurisdiction in Tokyo. Seven of the defendants were proved to be guilty, as charged, and sentenced to death, and were executed at Sugamo Prison in Ikebukuro on December 23, 1948. Seven were sentenced to life in prison, and two received reduced sentences. Japanese bureaucrats, and soldiers, in Korea, Manchuria, China, et al., were tried in other jurisdictions. And minor crimes were heard in other trials in the Asia-Pacific region. Twelve scientists, who worked in the ‘Epidemic Research Laboratory’ Centre, in Pingfang Northeast China were accused of ‘Having manufactured and used biological weapons during World War II’. The accused, some of whom included, Lt., Generals Kajitsuka Ryuji, Takahashi Takaatsu, and Major General Kawashima Kiyoshi, were indicted. They appear before the U.S.S.R.’s, ‘Khabarovsk War Crime Trials (25-31 December 1949)’. ‘Unit 731’ was particularly active for eight years during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Fought between the Republic of China, and the Empire of Japan (7 July 1937 to 9 September 1945); and World War II (1939-1945). During this period medical experiments were conducted, at ‘Unit 731’, ” on live humans to develop biological weapons, such as bubonic plague, typhoid, anthrax (v.i. ) and cholera” (‘China Daily’, 3 August, 2005). Among the prisoners experimented on were: Russians, Chinese, Koreans, the Allies et al. “. Outside the camp, an estimated more than 200,000 Chinese were killed by biological weapons produced in the laboratories of Unit 731”. All defendants were found guilty, as charged, and sentenced to terms between two to twenty-five years hard labour. Subsequent to serving only seven years of their sentences, all the prisoners were either pardoned or paroled, released and repatriated to Japan (1956). Many of them entered into distinguished positions in politics, universities appointments; and business corporations.

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