When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

The situation in our alternative universe continues to heat up, but some might say, for the better. The President Marshall of France, Ferdinand Foch, having survived the recent vote, now has his regime confirmed, but not all delegates have to like it. Foch's regime was buoyed by several successes over the last week, including one development in particular which will leave some delegates happy, and some furious - that, I'm afraid, is the nature of the Game! Remember, get scheming if you want to resolve this situation; change your character if you feel like your situation is hopeless, or change your perceptions altogether and work for a better peace for this world (yeah, right!). Either way, remember that if you want to play the delegation game and shape this world, you need only sign up for $6 a month! We cannot guarantee you a warm reception, but since the delegates involved only have three months left to make this final treaty, we can guarantee that you will be very busy indeed!***********The Delegation Game

The Japanese were utterly determined to pass the racial equality proposal, which actually consisted of a few sentences that would be inserted into the preamble of the League of Nations. This had been their for weeks, and it was publicly known, and feared, by much of the allies, with the exception perhaps of France. Neither the Americans nor the British could afford to accept this proposal, which was akin to political dynamite in 1919. However, the stories behind precisely why neither side could accept the Japanese approach were very different indeed. Either way, Edward House was determined that his President should not have to take the fall...********The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!->Visit the homeland for this new project!->Become a delegate and play the Delegation Game for just $6 a month!->Support the podcast financially and ac

It's high time we turned our attention to a neglected theatre of this story. No, not Africa...No, not the Middle East...Yes, that's right - Asian! Well, more specifically, just Japan! The story of the Japanese rise to power in the late 19th and early 20th century is one which has always fascinated us here at WDF, but in the context of the Paris Peace Conference, the story becomes more interesting still! The Japanese, clearly maligned due to their lack of European-ness, were nonetheless keen to play a prominent role in the proceedings, and yet the demands which they presented represented nothing short of dynamite for a conference already rocked by a succession of scandals...**********The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!->Visit the homeland for this new project!->Become a delegate and play the Delegation Game for just $6 a month!->Suppo

After a traumatic event which rocked France, the world and the Peace Conference to its core, how can the delegates involved possibly refocus their attentions to the task at hand - that of making peace? Fear not, the President-Marshall of France is on the case, and with his ambitious, but by no means impossible 16 Points, the hero of France's war effort attempts to become the hero of the peace conference, and to rebuild the peacemaking efforts of all those now knuckling down in the Anna-Bay Hotel, London...***********The Delegation Game is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!->Become a delegate and play the Delegation Game for just $6 a month!->Support the podcast financially and access ad free episodes with transcripts from just $2 a month! ->Follow WDF on Twitter! ->Join the Facebook group!->Subscribe on iTunes! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for

In the first week of April, 1919, American President Woodrow Wilson had reached the end of his tether. He was eternally sick of Georges Clemenceau lording the agonies of France over his head - what he needed was compromise, not to be accused of being pro-German by the French premier in one particularly explosive meeting. The rift between American and French leaders had arrived at long last, but it was hardly likely to be a fight either man would benefit from. Amidst a terrible illness, Wilson declared his intention to return to the United States, and requested his boat prepare itself at Brest. This was too much for Clemenceau, who backtracked, and was even somewhat nice to Wilson in the French press. Yet this was a Pyrrhic victory if there ever was one - Wilson was worn out and ill from the bust up, and further afield, it was becoming clear that France and America were by no means the only issue of concern which the creaking Council of Four would have to deal...************The Versailles Anniversary Project i

Whoa, Nelly, have we got a story for you! In the aftermath of failed efforts to achieve satisfaction with reparations and with the intervention into Russia, one could be left feeling sorry themselves if you happened to be a delegate in this fictional version of Paris in late March 1919. However, the real movements were coming not from the halls of peace, but out on the streets and in the devious minds of disaffected leaders and citizens, determined to right by France...no matter who stood in the way!***********The Delegation Game is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!->Become a delegate and play the Delegation Game for just $6 a month!->Support the podcast financially and access ad free episodes with transcripts from just $2 a month! ->Follow WDF on Twitter! ->Join the Facebook group!->Subscribe on iTunes! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more

We return to the question of reparations with some startling revelations. If you thought the French were the greedy, grasping and bitter sponsors of a massive reparations bill, then prepare to question everything you know! It was not the French, but the politically trapped British PM David Lloyd George, who was in fact the loudest and most inconsistent advocate of a high bill. Why? That question has puzzled those historians who have attempted to answer it, but in this episode we're going to our best. Why was Lloyd George so eager for a large payment? Why was he giving his peers moderate advice one moment, only to come down harshly the next? Was he constrained by political promises, or did he genuinely intend to punish the Germans out of a deep seated belief in the rightness of his cause? Tune in here to find out the truth...**********The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can

At long last, we turn our attention to the controversial issue of reparations. Perhaps no issue at the Paris Peace Conference, and no single tenet of the Treaty of Versailles has been the source of as much controversy as the question of how much Germany should pay to answer for its crimes of launching the Great War, yet in this first of an unofficial two-parter, we will learn that the conventional narrative of reparations is very far removed indeed from the reality. The eternal wisdom of John Maynard Keynes, we will discover, was far from so universal as historians have come to believe, and our impression of where the peacemakers went wrong and who was to blame over the reparations question is, I will explain, unfairly and unjustly skewed. It's time to set the record straight, or as straight as we can make it, so if you're eager for a revisionist take on 1919's most controversial question, look no further than our 50th episode!**********The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support an

After a week of conspiracy and controversy, the fallout must be confronted. An exhausted and demoralised cast of delegates are challenged with creating some kind of policy approach to Russia, to listening to one another without going crazy, and with remaining wary at all times of former enemies, or should that be former friends? Regardless of what they planned to do in the future, there could be no denying that what they had done in the past had left Paris a haunted shell of its former self. The question remained to be answered - would it all be worth it in the end?************The Delegation Game is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!->Become a delegate and play the Delegation Game for just $6 a month!->Support the podcast financially and access ad free episodes with transcripts from just $2 a month! ->Follow WDF on Twitter! ->Join the Facebook group!->Su

A century ago today, Budapest was circling the drain of revolution, after several months of Bolshevik infiltration and grand promises, combined with mounting frustrations over President Mihaly Karolyi's consistent failings. What was to be done about the situation in Hungary? Where a population was so desperate to realise their dream of independence after four centuries under Habsburg rule? The allies had no idea, and paid Hungary barely any attention. While the peacemakers in Paris dallied, the Hungarians refused to sit still. If no one would listen then they would shock the world, and bring in only the second Bolshevik country in the world. By doing so, some Hungarians imagined that they would be able to take what was rightfully theirs. In fact, they doomed their country to suffer. Not only was Hungary now a defeated member of the Central Powers, it was now *shudder* a dangerous, Bolshevik, communist state, and had to be contained at all costs. It was a journey which began with Bela Kun, and ended with the t

Check out the collaboration I did with Thom Daly, where we talked about Ireland and Brexit! As the Paris Peace Conference welcomed back the American President and the Big Three began to entrench themselves once more into the familiar grind, it became clear that much had changed. Rather than move further away from each other, it was fortunate indeed that the allied leaders determined to double down on their efforts to foster cooperation by gathering together for a new kind of meeting – the first assembly of the Council of Four. For the next few months, the meeting synonymous with personable allied meetings, great progress and large egos would dominate the halls of Paris. Yet, in this episode, as we’ll see, the meeting had humble beginnings, and its results hardly suggested that the allies were onto a winning formula. Within this show, we will also draw on the observations provided by House, to build a picture of an allied front which contained no end of problems, but a reassuring determination nonetheless

Episode 7 of the game analyses the events surrounding the shocking murder of Georges Clemenceau, and the return of the American President to the scene. How will the President cope with the new atmosphere of cooperation, facilitated by Roosevelt's help and support, when he couldn't stand the man? How will France cope with its shattering loss of the father of victory? What other schemes were ongoing? How did a Pole sneakily dodging between several delegations fit into proceedings? All this and much more going on in the latest episode - thankssss for listening, and thanksss especially for playing!*************The Delegation Game is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!->Become a delegate and play the Delegation Game for just $6 a month!->Support the podcast financially and access ad free episodes with transcripts from just $2 a month! ->Follow WDF on Twitter! ->J

After a month back home in the States, it was high time Woodrow Wilson returned to face the music in Paris. Exactly what tune this music would contain varied depending on whom you asked. Would Wilson find support in the leaders of the free world, or would he find only opportunists instead? What kind of impact upon the negotiations would be had by the Republican Party openly condemning his League Covenant, and insisting upon particular changes? Now that they knew he needed these four key changes to the League in order to proceed, could Georges Clemenceau, Lloyd George or Orlando be expected to be generous, or would they use their knowledge of Wilson's new weakness against him? Regarding Wilson, he was looking a wee bit tired after that adventure back home - had it all been a waste of time? And what was up between the President and his friend the Colonel, who had truly held the fort for him while he had been gone? All these questions and so many more were in need of attention, as Wilson returned to Paris o

Our largest episode yet, with an absolute legion of things to get through... it must be the first two weeks of March, 1919! Herein we see several things go down in the Council of Ten, which was still shorn of its major leaders, but which did not sit still nonetheless. The Italians get antsy over some bad Serbian behaviour, everyone gets antsy about the Germans and their army, Lloyd George returns and makes people antsy! Everyone is getting antsy, but some important work was also being done in the background, as the clock ticked down to the time when Woodrow Wilson would return, and the next phase of the Paris Peace Conference would begin...Big detailed episodes like these come to you all courtesy of the lovely patrons this podcast has, so make sure to thank them out loud right this second! And if you feel like joining the greatest group of history friends this side of audio, you know where to go and where we'll be! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode 45 of the Versailles Anniversary Project, we examine the lesser known mission of William C. Bullitt, Philadelphia aristocrat and Ivy League prodigy – at least according to his mother – who was selected to lead a top secret American delegation to Soviet Russia. Bullitt’s aims were multi-layered, and he didn’t quite understand the limits of this mission or of his own capabilities, but that won’t stop us analysing the fortunes of this very interesting statesman. Bullitt would find a Russia starving and demoralised, yet he couldn’t help but be impressed by Lenin or by the potential of this regime. Return the food and withdraw the soldiers, Bullitt believed, and the Russian people would eject the more extreme Bolsheviks, and the West wouldn’t have to lift a finger. When Bullitt returned to Paris with these incredibly optimistic ideas, he found that everything had changed in the two and a half weeks since he had been gone. Compromise and Bolshevism were now impossible partners, and Bullitt himself h

In our latest episode, we introduce you to the revolutionary wasteland that was Russia in 1919. Russia was a very confusing place at this time, because it was the subject of a lot of debate regarding that key question – should the allies launch some kind of military expedition against the Bolsheviks? That apparently simple question was complicated by the fact that the allies already had forces in different corners of Russia – 180,000 soldiers in total. How had they gotten here, why were they here, and if allied disunity over Russia’s future was the order of the day, then why hadn't they simply been allowed to return home?These questions were all difficult to answer, but as we will learn in this episode, understanding Russia is impossible unless we first get to grips with the context of 1919 Russia, and the impact which the closing months of the Great War had had on the psyche of all sides. Different factions in Russia were a dime a dozen, with Siberia, Crimean, Ukrainian, Caucasian and Far Northern fronts, am

Before we delve into the Russian situation, I felt it would be beneficial, and darkly interesting, to examine what was happening in between the lands caught in the middle of the Russian and German crises. The Freikorps - disgruntled, right wing, extremist former soldiers and civilians, was exactly the wrong ingredient to help heal a fractured portion of the continent. Yet, unable to accept that their war was over, and determined to leave a mark upon the region and expand their fatherland, these men launched a campaign of utter ruthlessness for much of 1919. In this episode we examine it, as best as we can, before we set our sights firmly on Bolshevik Russia... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The unofficial second parter to our examination of Woodrow Wilson's campaign to get the League of Nations approved of back home, in episode 42 we further our analysis of the different parties and their interests in the US. Who was in favour of the League, who wanted the League with some adjustments, and who was resolutely opposed to it no matter what? Where did Henry Cabot Lodge fit into this sliding scale, and when he released his Reservations document to Congress on 28th February - wherein he underline 14 problems he had with the League as it stood - what was his end goal? Did he genuinely want the League to be improved, or, for political reasons, as well as some surprising other ones, did he want it to fail completely, and never see the light of day?As an Irish historian examining such a contentious period of American history, I must say I really had a ball in this episode, and I hope you enjoy this very important detour from our Versailles narrative. The tale of Wilson's failure forms a large part of what

In the aftermath of Woodrow Wilson's exit from Paris, along with the British and Italian premiers, Clemenceau was alone to hold the fort against a resurgent and empowered German delegation. It was at that moment that an anarchist's bullet felled the Tiger, which provided an unprecedented opportunity for the Germans to fill this newly emerged power vacuum. This development, as we will discover, will have profound consequences for all the delegates going forward... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The last two weeks of February 1919 were awash with legions of issues, hurt feelings, long winded speeches and too many other details to possibly count. We've already seen the period from the point of view of Harold Nicolson, but was it any better of an experience for those that were actually empowered to act? Hint - not really, but to truly unpack all that this whopper episode has to offer, you must delve into it yourself! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.