The Other Date That Will Live in Infamy

“Not the famous date, December 7, 1941. But another, July 30, 1914—one almost unknown but only slightly less momentous. That’s the day that Germany stops trying to cajole its ally, Austria, into adopting a more conciliatory stance toward Serbia. It is the last day to avoid World War I.” Sanford Rose

Dolors & Sense

By Sanford Rose

KISSIMMEE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—9/2/2013—Not the famous date, December 7, 1941. But another, July 30, 1914—one almost unknown but only slightly less momentous.

That’s the day that Germany stops trying to cajole its ally, Austria, into adopting a more conciliatory stance toward Serbia. It is the last day to avoid World War I.

Not that Germany spends a lot of time in the business of urging conciliation. It spends only one day in that activity. It starts on July 29 and stops on July 30.

If all this sounds insane, it is, and the insanity is traceable to Kaiser Wilhelm, who is almost certainly bipolar, or, as it was described in his time, “maniacally depressed.”

Let’s briefly recapitulate:

On June 28, the Austrian archduke gets gunned down by Bosnian terrorists operating under the orders of the Serbian “Black Hand” and funded, incidentally, with Russian money.

The archduke is a friend of the kaiser, one of his few friends. The kaiser becomes enraged, rebuking his ambassador to Austria for urging the Austrians to be cautious in their reaction. No caution for him; he advocates rapid and draconian measures.

The Austrians, who cannot do anything rapidly, in part because they have to get the support of the Hungarians (the other half of the Dual Monarchy), wait until July 23 to send Serbia an ultimatum asking, among other things, for the right to participate in the investigation of, or even perhaps in the judicial proceedings against, the Serbian organizers of the assassination plot and of other anti-Austrian activities. Austria demands “integral” Serbian acceptance of the ultimatum.

Serbia asks Russia whether it should yield. Russia says: “No, we’ll protect you.”

Serbia yields on most but not all of the points in the ultimatum.

Austria severs diplomatic relations.

Russia starts preparing for war against Austria.

France, which is Russia’s ally, affirms that alliance.

Britain, which is France’s ally (although Britain’s leaders claim disingenuously that there is only an entente, not a pact), starts dropping hints that if France goes to war to support Russia, it will go to war to support France.

Suddenly, the kaiser, faced with the danger of a war against Russia, France, and Britain, and supported only by a militarily unreliable Austria, does an abrupt volte-face. He counsels moderation. In answer to an appeal from the Russian tsar that he mediate the dispute, he finds a settlement formula that would be agreeable to Britain and urges Austrian acceptance.

That’s on July 29. Then the kaiser gets a last-ditch telegram from the Russian tsar begging him to do something, lest war measures “agreed upon five days ago” go into effect.

The kaiser goes apoplectic, charging that the duplicitous tsar was mobilizing for days while at the same time urging his mediation.

Under such circumstances, says the huffy kaiser, he can’t continue mediating and urging restraint on the Austrians.

Thus an effort to make the Austrians compromise their differences with Serbia, which is prerequisite to halting Russian war preparations, abruptly stops. It starts late in the day on July 29. It ends in the afternoon of July 30. On August 1, Germany mobilizes.

“Whom the Gods would destroy . . . .”