ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY.

On this day in 1928, France, Germany, and the United States signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact making war illegal. They were soon followed by most of the other nations of the globe, and humanity lived happily ever after.

. 7 comments.

Comments

  1. Captain DaFt says:
    August 27, 2013 at 2:37 pm

    Unfortunately, it only made it illegal to start a war, except in self defense.
    The ‘He started it!’ defense was used by Japan against China, and swiftly following, Germany against Poland. Italy said “What the heck, everybody else is doing it!” and jumped on Africa .
    The rest of the world (Well, Europe, Asia, and North America) cheerfully noted that there was no penalty for doing so, and that Boys and Girls, is how WWII was born.

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  2. Clay Potts says:
    August 27, 2013 at 3:11 pm

    1928 Bumper Sticker: “If you criminalize war, only criminals will make war!”

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  3. Horace Jeffery Hodges says:
    August 27, 2013 at 7:21 pm

    Imagine how lawless war would have been if it hadn’t been outlawed!

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

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  4. Colonel Swenson says:
    August 27, 2013 at 8:39 pm

    In a fit of pacifism-by-proxy following World War II, General Douglas MacArthur insisted that the post-war Constitution of the nation of Japan include a clause in which Japan waived its right to commit war. Unfortunately, this was immediately followed by the Korean War, during which the United States sincerely deisred Japan to assist the United States in making war against North Korea and China. Some Judge Advocates on the staff of the general pointed out that renouncing one’s right to make war did not apply to deploying military forces in self-defense, and that the United States had shown the way by replacing the “Department of War” with the “Department of Defense”, at the same time it sharply increased expenditures for weapons during the Korean War and the Cold War. Thus was born the “Self Defense Forces” (Jieitai) of Japan. Its annual expenditures rank it as the fifth highest financed military establishment in the world. It is a sterling example of how euphemism can overcome many obstacles.

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  5. C. Simon says:
    August 28, 2013 at 7:53 am

    The Kellogg-Briand pact looks about as successful as the Just War Theory.

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  6. Martin the Mess says:
    August 28, 2013 at 5:58 pm

    Not to be confused with the Kellogg-Brands Pact, which similarly failed to prevent price wars over breakfast cereal, due to the fascist militarism of that notorious dictator, General Mills. I think the treaty was written by a certain pacifist Quaker whose name escapes me at the moment.

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  7. RepubAnon says:
    August 29, 2013 at 2:30 pm

    This reminds me of the Tom Lehrer song “MLF Lullaby”: “Once all the Germans were warlike, and mean. But that couldn’t happen again. We taught them a lesson in 1918 – and they’ve hardly bothered us since then…”

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