Most people would think that wars are launched because a country needs more territory, or because a country's borders are threatened, or because of appeasement. The real reason for war is that countries begin to feel that their honor is threatened; they feel that other nations are not giving them the worth and dignity they deserve, and so they take to the battlefield.
On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace, Dr. Kagan is a classical scholar who hopes to get politicians and statesmen to understand history so as not to repeat it. He reminds that this was the intention of Thucydides of ancient Greece who wrote a history of the Peloponnesian Wars for "those who wish to have a clear understanding both of events in the past and of those in the future which will, in all human likelihood, happen again in the same or a similar way."
His book starts with the Peloponnesian War of the fifth century B.C.- -the subject of a four-volume history Kagan finished in 1987--and ends with the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. He also analyzes the Second Punic War of 218 to 201 B.C., World War I, and World War II. War usually arrives over long distances and long stretches of time. For instance, in 226 B.C. Rome was
. . .
Eight years later, after many twisting and turnings and concessions by Rome, it led to war. Early in the 19th cent British merchants began smuggling opium into China in order to balance their purchases of tea for export to Britain. Opium from British India paid for Britain' s imports from China, such as porcelain, silk, and, above all, tea. began to subsidize the French Army in South Vietnam. " The politicians dictated the war in Vietnam, it was a limited war, the military was never allowed to fight the war in the manner that they thought that they needed to, in order to win it (Baker). On August 4, 1964 the Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred in which American Naval Vessels in South Vietnamese waters were fired upon by North Vietnam. Like Americans, they disagree on political issues. The presidential political involvement in Vietnam had little to do with Vietnam at all. Today, land taken from the Palestinians and earmarked for military purposes or Jewish settlements amounts to more than 52% of the most fertile areas of the West Bank and 40% of the Gaza Strip. " Frontline WGBH Educational Foundation.
Approximate Word count =
3658
Approximate Pages =
15 (250 words per page double spaced)
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