** World War II Diplomacy United States








World War II: Diplomacy--The Diplomatic Corps


Figure 1.--This event in Washington, D.C. xemplifies the comity thatbhad developed among diplmats before the rise of the totalitarian powers that led to World War II. The press caption read, "Children Broadcast International XMAS Greetings: This group mof children, sons and daughters of prominent diplomats in the nation's capital, extended Christmas greetings to the children of the United States from the children of ytheir respective countries, in the third annual international Chtistmas broadcast from Washington, D.C., December 20. Photo shows (left to right, front row) -- Luis Quingtanilla, son of th Counsellor of the Mexican Embassy; Mesa de Bayle, daughter of the Charge de Affairs of Nicaragua; Charles Francis Lombard, son of the Military Attache of France; Marjorie Bertha Morgenstieerne, daughter of the Minister of Norway; Masako Saito, daughter of the Japanese Ambassador; [Note Ambassaor Saito was the ambassadir at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack.] Masako Pola Fotitch, daughter of the Minister of Yugoslavia; anf Guillermo Najera, son of the Mexican ambassador." The chiksrenb are dressed in a mix of national costumes and contemporary fashions. Put uour cursor on the image to see the 1936 group wuth a German boy in his Hitler Youth (HJ) uniform. Of course the questiin I have is why is the German boy set off. I suspect it was his choice, nit the work of the other children or the photographer. HJ boys were hardly encouraged to respect and associate with children from other countries and different etnic backgrounds. The fact that he is wearing his HJ uniform suggests that hos parents were enthisiastic NAZIs. Given his age (about 10 yearsold in 1936) he would have neen thrown into the World War II malestorm in 1944. The German ambassador at the time was Hans Luther.
Europe over time developed mutually accepted customs and norms. This was particularly the case of diplmats who fealed with their counterparts on a day to day basis. They and theirvfamilies lived in other coutries. They tended to be urbane, cultured, an vhighly educated. And most spoke one or more foreign languages. There were wars in the 19th century, but not for the most part wars bent on destruction og other states. Rather the wars were over terroitorty, in some cases only a small province ot two. This changed in the 20th century with the rise of toitalitarian states, first the Soviet Union (1917), than Fascist Italy (1923), militarized Imperial Japan (1920s), and finally NAZI-Germany (1933). Semi-Fasicist regimes arose or were imposed in a number of smaller states. The goals and methods of the totalitarian states were very differentb than these regimes were very different than the exiustung world orderw hich they souht to change fundamnenatally. This of course changed the diplomatic scene. Soviet, German, Japanese, and Italian diplomats no longer sought to reach agreement, but as state agents to force compliance with aggressive demands ultimately seeking to extend control over targetted states. And then once occuupied to impose explotive demands on puppet regimes. Nothing more exemplifies this sift than the change over in Germany from Gustaf Stresemann Jochim von Ribentrop and in the Soviet Union from Maxim Litvinov to Vyacheslav Molotov. A major goal of the NAZI Foreign Ministry as the War unfolded was to get occupied countries to turn over their Jews. They were not asking these regimes to participate in the killing process, but to help round up Jews so they could be transported to the death camps. With the developmement of the chilling efficent death camps, the major limitation on killing Jews was rounding them up.







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Created: 3:56 AM 1/21/2020
Last updated: 3:56 AM 1/21/2020