The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order: 1905-1922

by Edmond Taylor

One type of Western morale-building propaganda which proved to be particularly self-defeating and even traumatic in the long view was the abusive appeal to the latent idealism of the masses through slogans such as The War to End War (originally inspired by H. G. Wells) and Make the World Safe for Democracy (derived from President Wilson’s message to Congress of April 2, 1917). No doubt the politicians who thus exploited the hopes of their peoples with these high-sounding but demagogic pledges of a better world were the first victims of their own propaganda; the unending wonder, when we look back upon it, is how intelligent and cultivated men — including a trained historian — could ever have deluded themselves into believing that prolonging the sordid massacre in Europe would make it possible to build a better world.