1. Are we Aussies secure? - and why we’re not, - including alliance implications of a rapidly-
   growing China
2. Imperial roots of foreign wars Australia involved in, covering the Boer War and
   other 19th Century background to WWI
3. Separate reasons for British and Australian involvement in WWI, including the ‘Japan connection’
4. World War One and the Gallipoli Campaign,- its origins, course, and outcomes
5. World War One's economic drives
6. World War One's human costs
7. Outcomes of World War I and the tragic path to WW II, - beginning with Germany's 'Total War Guilt’ and the Allies' betrayal of their commitments to national independence
   and universal arms limitation.
8. Supporting Germany's rearmament and the final slide to WWII, - as documented by Winston Churchill.
9. World War II and Australia, including Australia’s military contributions to Britain; the threat from Japan; how European and Pacific wars were concluded,- and the Cold War immediately begun!
10. The Cold War, ‘French' Indochina and the Vietnam Wars, including Australia’s self- imposed involvement
11. The Korean War - another civil war in the Cold War
12. Background to Middle East and current resource wars - (in preparation)
    
13. Comprehensive Reference List
    
14. Appendices
    

Full Table of Contents

Broad Approach

Historically-based essays to inform and warn Australians and others of the means through which people here and across the world have been led into wars not of their making, wars entirely contrary to their interests and well-being. Indeed, wars which were in every sense counterproductive to all participants and thus, in Churchill’s clearly understated terms, "unnecessary".

To many this Churchillian view of WWII may seem strange since in contrast to WWI (which we might view as not in the least morally based - simply the result of Imperial rivalry) most Australians continue to see WWII, the Western democracies’ultimate response to the rise, unprincipled greed and aggression of the militaristic Dictators of Germany, Italy and Japan as entirely due to their evil machinations, - the democracies being but the innocent victims, and thus an altogether justified moral response.

But bear in mind, first, that as both Winston Churchill and Lord Robert Cecil so thoroughly document in their accounts of the origins of WWII, British governments of the 1930s consistently either ignored or, worse, encouraged what these militarists were doing.(c.f. 8A&B) And secondly (though not mentioned by Churchill) that these pre-WWII militaristic dictators, being well aware of the long-standing colonising practices of the Western democracies, were quite determined to like-wise compete, - to get their 'share' of the action’. Hence, since the Western democracies had thus not only set quite the wrong example, but also (especially Britain) provided much direct encouragement besides, (see Churchill - WC4i, Book I) they must share joint responsibility with the Axis powers for bringing on that Second even more calamitous war.

What follows is historical background to each of the foreign wars Australia has been involved in (or involved itself in) over the past century, - as seen through the eyes, minds, and (where possible) words of their co-originators, those who saw war as a solution to the problems of their country or, more usually, of its more influential ‘sectional interests’. Next, I’ve outlined something of the human, material, and opportunity costs, - i.e., the burden of those wars on Australians and others across the world. Further stressed is the by-now striking fact of the utter counter-productivity of these wars - even to the ‘special interests'; they were supposed to serve, - not to mention the nations which backed them, so many of which have seen their children needlessly sacrificed, their wealth (and 'glory') seriously undermined.

Finally, based on the potential of human genetic and cultural evolution to provide us with solutions, these essays will consider the nature of economic and other reforms which might get us, our children and grandchildren out of the very real predicament all are facing.

Table of Contents

Illustrated versions of these Essays available on The British Empire (http://www.britishempire.co.uk)

1. Australia’s Foreign Wars: - Origins, Costs, Future?!

A. Introduction:- aims, scope, means, hopes

B. Australian Security: - Are We Aussies Secure?

1. Sources and Maldistribution of Australia’s Wealth
2. The State of the World and its Wealth
3. Lack of Security from our Superpower Ally

C. Alliance Implications of the ‘Threat' of a Rapidly-growing China

1. A Wake-up Call from Tim and Malcolm
2. The Ultimate (real) Threat
3. Other Threats

D. Sources

2. Imperial Roots; the Boer War; WWI Early Background

A. Setting the Stage for WWI: Imperialism at Work

(a) Roots
(b) The Mercantile System - and Adam Smith
(c) Africa - from 1885

B. The Boer War: Origins and Outcomes

(a) The Finding of Diamonds and Gold
(b) Rhodes Attempts Overthrow of Transvaal Republic
(c ) Attempt Fails but British Push to Takeover Goes on and on!
(d) Jan Smuts (former Rhodes’admirer) backs Transvaal's rights
(e) The Boer War - Conduct and Costs
(f) Australia's Involvement
(g) Self-defeating Outcomes

C. So What was it Really all About? Britain's Slide into World War I

D. Sources

3. World War One: - Origins

A. Origins of Australia's Involvement in WWI

(a) Background: - Japan's Forced Awakening by the West
(b) Japan, Europe, and Australian Security
(c) The 1911 Imperial Conference
(d) Australias's Covert Commitment
(e) General Sir Ian Hamilton assesses Australia’s Defence

B. WWI’s European Origins: ’National Interests’& ’Manifest Destiny’

(a) Flawed (self-defeating) Motivation
(b) Alliance Entrapment: The Case of Britain (its Dominions) and France
(c) Britain’s Inner Cabinet Four, - Decide to join the War

C. Sources

4. World War One - and the Gallipoli Campaign

A. WWI: Introduction

B. The Gallipoli Campaign: Origins, Course and Outcomes

(a) Background- Australia and the Turkey option
(b) Motivations for Attacking Turkey
(c) Moves Towards an All-Naval Assault
(d) The Naval Assault
(e) 'Third Thoughts'- to a Rushed Military Campaign
(f) Military, Political and Human Outcomes

C. Sources

5. World War One: Economic Origins

A. Economic Motives behind Australia’s support in WWI

(a) 1916: In desperation, - British hopes for negotiated peace
(b) Kitchener’s false assurances lure them ‘on to victory’….
(c) …and renewed hopes of crushing German competition
(d) The Somme and…
(e)...the desperate need for conscription
(f) Lloyd George combats Wilson’s peace proposals
(g) but President Wilson persists
(h) Finally the US opts for war
(i) A second Australian Referendum for Conscription - also fails!
(j) Russia sues for peace…
(k) ..Allies close to collapse,
(l) but Wilson set on victory , - yet with a just peace…
(m) …while Hughes, like others, intent on 'spoils of war'

B. General Reflections on Wars’ Economic Origins

C. Sources

6. World War One : Human Costs

A. Overall Human Costs of WWI

B. Some Bottom Lines

C. Sequelae of Russia’s Revolution - A Relevant ‘Aside’

D. Sources

7. Outcomes of World War I - the Tragic Path to World War II

Introduction

A. Germany’s Alleged ’Total War Guilt’and Punishment

(a) The Versailles Treaty Provisions
(b) And Lloyd George’s Crisis: Re-election?

B. More Spoils of War: Disposing of Others’Lands

(a) The League's Pledge for Self Determination Betrayed.
(b) A Case History: Dismembering the Ottoman Empire

C. Betraying the Versailles Commitment to Universal Arms Limitation

(a) The Versailles Treaty and its League Covenant
(b) The United States and Naval Agreements
(c) New Hope: Strong Public Support for Arms Limitation
(d) The Great Depression, a New British Election, &Japan Invades China
(e) The First World Disarmament Conference, 1932-1933
(f) US Presidential Initiative - the Hoover Plan
(g) Final Efforts to Save Conference - and Stop a Nazi Take-Over

D. Sources

8. Supporting Germany’s Rearmament; & the Steady Slide to WWII

A. Supporting Germany’s Rearmament

(a) Introduction
(b) British-assisted Rearmament Under Hitler - the Record
(i) The Stresa Conference
(ii) The Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935

B. And the Steady Slide to WWII

(a) Italy, Abyssinia, Britain and the League
(b) The Public's Response to Flawed British Policy: the ‘Peace Ballot'of 1935
(c) 1936, Hitler's Reoccupation and Remilitarisation of the Rhineland
(d) Understanding 'Appeasement': What Drove British Policy
(e) 1937-8, Alarmed, Roosevelt Offers America’s Help
(f) 1938 Austria Engulfed
(g) And Czechoslovakia Betrayed
(h) German General Staff Attempts Hitler’s Overthrow
(i) Chamberlain's Final Assistance - to Catastrophe
(j) Churchill's Summing Up
(k) Ultimate Opposition to Joint Action - then War

C. Sources

9. World War II and Australia

A. September 3, 1939, War

(a) Poland Invaded, Britain Declares War, Australia Follows
(b) Britain continues 'Standing By' - the Phoney War
(c) German U-boat and Air Superiority

B. Early Defeats

(a) Norway, then France, Fall
(b) A British Settlement with Hitler?
(c) Challenge to Churchill’s leadership fails

(a) Germany Invades Russia, June 22, 1941
(b) Churchill and Roosevelt Meet - the Atlantic Charter

D. Japan Enters WWII

(a) Japan’s early lightning gains - with early historical roots
(b) Singapore Falls; facing invasion, Australia fights back
(c) Midway Battle turns the Naval Tide
(d) Young Australians repel forces aimed at Port Moresby
(e) Its Security Assured, how then should Australia have fought the Pacific War?

E. Back to ‘Germany First'- and further delaying the Second Front!

(a) The Strategy and Rationale
(b) Post-Stalingrad Eastern Front: January 1943 - May 1945
(c) Britain’s Contribution to Winning the War against Germany

F. The Dominions and the RAF’s Air War on Germany

(a) The Origins of the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS)
(b) EATS and the Defence of Australia - any Connection?
(c) Air Operations - Europe
(d) Ill-used Australian Aircrew
(e) RAF Bomber Command and its Operations (do see official UK, US Reports!)
(f) The contrast: US Air Force’s Specific Target Bombing from mid-1944

G. Defeating Japan

(a) Victory Over Japan Clinched by Economic Strangulation (not Bombs)
(b) As the Japanese Ready to Quit, why Fire- and Atom-Bomb them?!!
(c) Japan Surrenders

H. WWII’s Human Costs

(a) Country by Country - historian David Kennedy’s figures
(b) Some Economic Outcomes

I. WWII and the Origins of the Cold War

(a) Contrived Origins
(b) And MAD Nuclear options
(c) Non-nuclear Strategies of the Cold War - and Civil Wars

J. Sources

10. The Cold War, 'French' Indochina, & the Vietnam Wars

A. The Vietnam Wars' Cold War Origins - Supporting France

(a) Supporting France’s Colonialism
(b) Betraying the Atlantic and United Nations Charters
(c) US Military Support for France
(d) French Defeat at Dien Bien Phu & the Geneva Accord

B. Replacing the French

(a) Side-lining Geneva Accord, US replaces France
(b) Driven by Dogma, - Military Escalation
(c) J.K.Galbraith (and others) warn J.F.K
(d) Kennedy gone; Johnson also ‘bows to the Right'
(e) UN Conciliation Rejected, Bombs instead
(f) Ambassador George Kennan (and others) cry shame…
(g) …but bombing further escalated
(h) National/Personal Pride prevail
(I) Lack of S.E.Asian Support (or even interest) continues
(j) Johnson leaves; 'Peace Candidate' Nixon Bombs and invades Cambodia
(k) Daniel Ellsberg; and Rising Public Disgust
(l) Final lose-lose Outcomes

C. Australia’s Self-imposed Involvement in the Vietnam War: 1964-1971

(a) Menzies aiming at US Support, ‘in case of need’…
(b)…encourages stronger US bombing
(c) Were we Dinkum,? Was Australia Threatened?!

D. Sources

11. The Korean War - another Civil War in the Cold War

A. Origins

(a) Early Background

(b) ‘South Korea’
(c) ‘North Korea’
(d) War Getting Closer, North and South - 1948-1949

B. War in Earnest

(a) Overt War - June 25, 1950
(b) More Years of Cruel War to assure ‘Successful Negotiation’
(c) Australia’s Involvement

C. Armistice in 1953 - yet Still no Peace Today!

(a) Post-Korean War - 1953 to the New Millenium
(b) Some US Nuclear Background
(c) 1956 - Nuclear Weapons Transferred to Korea
(d) The 1993 Promise of a Real US-North Korea Settlement
(e) Fallback!! - Korea in Current Times

D. Sources

12. General References

Download Reference List in PDF format

Appendices

• A. Versailles Treaty Provisions Affecting Germany (from Keynes, JMK1)
  
  
• B. The 1899 & 1907 Hague Peace Conferences to Prevent War & Weapons of Mass Destruction
  
  
• C. Submission by Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW) to Australia’s Defence Review 2000
  
  
• D. Survival Through the 21st Century - (essay based on talk to ANU Club for Women 13.3.2002)
  
  
• E. MAPW Submission on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI)
  
  
• F. MAPW Submission. "The adequacy with which Australia's policy and guidelines for controlling military transfers safeguard Australia's defence, security and international relations" (Mid 1993) to Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
  
  
• G. MAPW Submission, Inquiry into the Implications of Australia’s Defence Exports
  (1994) Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
  
  
• H. OCKHAM'S RAZOR 'Arms and the Man’ - Talk on ABC Radio National, 1995
  
  
• I. Winston Churchill in 1929 on Threat to Humankind from future Weapons of Mass Destruction
  
  
• J. "The Question of Terror" from Eureka Street, June 2002
  
  
• K. "Australia and Our Violent Century: Time to Learn" Essay for Manning Clark Essay
  Competition, 1999
  
  
• L. Australia’s Governor-General, Lord Gowrie’s speech at opening of the Australian War
  Memorial, Armistice Day 1941