Connection of Historical Dots

I finished “Between Peace and War” tonight. I gained momentum as I proceeded with reading. I read this as a history book rather than a poli-sci one and have learned a lot from the book. A few dots of events have been connected here again to make my line of time longer and more comprehensive. At the time of writing, who could have imagined that the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia would be no more on the world map.

The book was first published in 1981. Reagan and Thatcher were already there but it was still pre-Gorbachev, and of course pre-Al-Queda, pre-9/11. Lebow writes “If Moscow and Washington learn to coexist, future historians may well see the Cuban missile crisis as a significant positive turning point in their relations.” “It is still too early to tell how successful the superpowers will be in defusing the tensions of the Cold War, but there can be no question that Cuba was an important catalyst of détente…”

While some of us born especially in Asia after World War II may tend to concentrate their interest on events pertaining to this world war, Lebow provides materials to be learned on the other world war and a string of alliance combinations.

Fashoda crisis in Sudan (1898); the British presence in Egypt, important for its communications with India and the Far East, led to clash with France that attempted to choke it by establishing an outpost on the upper Nile in Fashoda.

Reading pages on Austria-Hungary’s annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1908-1909) and the July crisis after the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand (1914) by a Serbian man that triggered World War I, I was reminding myself of the illustration of the incident in my high school textbook. Germany pressed Austria-Hungary, a motley empire of peoples, to take military action against Serbia, which Russia could not ignore as a fellow Slav nation. The alliance of German and Austria believed that they would be able to limit the war to a localised one. Germany declared war on France, an ally of Russia and its violation of the neutrality of Belgium, guaranteed by Britain, prompted Britain to take action against Germany.

On Nehru’s reaction towards the Chinese military action, Lebow writes “The prime Minister maintained a benign image of the Chinese much longer than most Indians did and felt personally betrayed by their ultimate resort to force. He later confessed to the Lok Sabha: ‘It is sad to think that we in India, who have pleaded for peace all over the world, sought the friendship of China, and treated them with courtesy and consideration and pleaded their cause in the councils of the world, should now ourselves be victims of a new imperialism and expansionism by a country which says it is against all imperialism.’” This part is more in tune with the description by Brown.

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Ishihara Shintaro (石原慎太郎) returns to the Tokyo governor’s office. During the campaign, he was still mentioning the name of his late younger brother (裕次郎), who was a superstar actor. So many years passed since his death and I don’t think his name has much appeal anymore.