Much talk is heard about war and peace, the role of NATO, collective will, preparedness to win wars, the need to create deterrence, avoid more appeasement, and get things back on track. Rightly so. The world is unstable, and peace comes through strength. Rings true does it not?
One hundred and ten years ago this month, July 1914, World War I started. It resulted from wishful thinking, a power vacuum, fatal misjudgments, and an imbalance between two competing alliances, the “Triple Entente” (Britain, France, and Russia) and “Triple Alliance” (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Three years later, the US ended that war, leaving 17 million dead, and 25 million wounded.
Eighty-five years ago next month, August 1939, the soon-to-be-enemies Soviet and German governments signed a secret pact, swearing allegiance to each other, imagining they would divide the world, beginning with Poland. It was called the “Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact.”
One month later, Germany invaded Poland, divided between the Soviets and Germans. There is no honor among thieves, fascists, or communists. A year later, Germany turned on the Soviets.
War in Europe only ended in May 1945, after the US-led D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944. It ended in the Pacific, after vicious fighting, in August 1945, with two US atomic bombs. Dead: 70 million.
So, wars are expensive in life, loss, and cost, better avoided through relentless communication, diplomacy, preparation, and an unquestionable will and ability to win, which often deters them. As nations and leaders from the Chinese strategist Sun Tzu to American President Ronald Reagan knew, peace comes through strength – so strength is worth cultivating.
George C. Marshall, top US general, “organizer of victory” in World War II, author of the Marshall Plan, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, and Nobel Peace Prize winner spoke to America and the world before, during, and after World War II – but importantly, he still speaks to us now.
Having served on the George C. Marshall Foundation board, studied his life, visited his gravesite at Arlington, and pondered how this man of war could have embodied such peace, his words echo.
Marshall would likely guide us to slow down, fortify our foundation, and focus on preparing for unsavory contingencies, however unlikely, wars far from home and closer, deter further unraveling. He would press the nation’s leaders to think bigger, stop bickering, understand the stakes – and push us to.
Wrote the elder Marshall, looking back: “War is abhorrent to me and I pray that we may avoid it, for I have lived with daily casualty lists and that is a truly awful experience. I have gone through hospital after hospital and viewed the human wreckage of war. I always left with the feeling that we had failed miserably in our efforts to avert the cause of such sacrifices.”
Elsewhere, this man – who tried to keep China from going Communist, led the Red Cross, and never stopped speaking about war and peace – warned how fast things happen. “Warfare today is a thing of swift movement – of rapid concentrations. It requires the buildup of enormous firepower, against successive objectives at breakthrough speed. It is not a game for unimaginative plodder.”
If it moved fast in his day, how much faster today, with cyberwarfare, information, space, and drone warfare, feints within feints, fifth, sixth, and seventh columns before us and among us?
Two last lessons from Marshall resonate, a man some decry as too plodding himself, not warlike enough, not a nail-chewing dealer of death – although personal hero to Colin Powell and others.
World War II ending, Marshall reflected: “We are now concerned with the peace of the entire world. And the peace can only be maintained by the strong.” Simple truth: Peace comes through strength.
The last lesson is often lost, yet guided Marshall all his life, passed on in letters and speeches, one he hoped might stick. It, too, is timely. If peace comes through strength, strength is not just guns and butter. To truly win, we must know ourselves, believe in ourselves, and believe in God.
Wrote Marshall to a friend: “We must not only never lose sight of God in our daily lives, but must turn to Him more and more for guidance in these difficult days.” Rings true does it not, then as now?
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
