Paris Peace Treaties Research Articles

Эгейское море противоречий (Часть I)

The Aegean Sea as part of the Eastern Mediterranean has been a clash of national interests between Greece and Turkey for decades. In particular, this process has intensified since 1974, and although there have been certain peaks and troughs along the way, now it seems to be at a point of new aggravation in bilateral relations. In general, this state of affairs is due to the particular geographical characteristics of the Aegean Sea, namely the large number of Greek islands, rocks and island formations scattered throughout its waters, often close to the Turkish coastline. Through them, Athens can lay claim to significant areas of both waters, seabed and subsoil, as well as airspace, over which its sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction would extend. Such rights and powers are granted to Greece under the current international law of the sea and, above all, under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which Greece is a full party. However, the Aegean will in any case continue to be a region where other countries, including extra-regional ones, have their own interests in shipping and other maritime activities. In particular, it applies to the Russian Federation and the U. S. Turkey, for its part, is directly dependent on unhindered passage of its ships and warships from the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea and vice versa. The first part of this paper analyzes the historical and documentary background of the Turkish-Greek controversy, based on different understandings of the provisions and language of international agreements, such as the Lausanne Peace Treaty of 1923 and the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947. Turkey’s reasons for linking the issue of Greek sovereignty over particular islands in the Aegean Sea to their demilitarized status as prescribed in these international treaties is described. The reasons why incidents between Greek and Turkish warplanes regularly occur in the Aegean airspace, which have different interpretations of the boundaries between national and international airspace, is explored. Special attention is paid to the legal basis for the formation of air defense identification zones and flight information regions by various states, including Greece. It is shown, which legal documents regulate the establishment of Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) and Flight Information Area (FIR).

Finland’s Continuation War (1941–1944): War of Aggression or Defence? War of Alliance or Separate War?

In September 1939, after having included a secret protocol on spheres of influence in the so-called Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact, Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland and divided it between themselves. It was not long before the Soviet Union approached Finland by proposing exchanges of certain territories: ‘in our national interest we want to have from you certain territories and offer in exchange territories twice as large but in less crucial areas’. Finland, suspicious of Soviet motives, refused – the outcome was the Soviet war of aggression against Finland by the name of the Winter War in 1939–1940. The Soviet Union won this war and compelled Finland to cede several territories – about 10 per cent of Finland’s area. After the Winter War, Finland sought protection from Germany against the Soviet Union and decided to rely on Germany. After Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, Finland joined the German war effort in the so-called Continuation War and reoccupied the territories lost in the Winter War. Finnish forces did not stop at the old border but occupied Eastern (Soviet) Karelia with a desire eventually to annex it. By that measure, Finland joined as Germany’s ally in its war of aggression against the Soviet Union in violation of international law. In their strong reliance on Germany, the Finnish leaders made some very questionable decisions without listening to warnings from Western States about possible negative consequences. Germany lost its war and so did Finland, which barely avoided entire occupation by the Soviet Army and succeeded in September 1944 in concluding an armistice with the Soviet Union. Finland lost some more territories and was subjected to many obligations and restrictions in the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty, dictated by the Allies. This article analyses, according to the criteria of international law, Finland’s policy shortly prior to and during the Continuation War, especially Finland’s secret dealings with Germany in the months prior to the German attack against the Soviet Union and Finland’s occupation of Eastern Karelia in the autumn of 1941. After Adolf Hitler declared that Germany was fighting against the Soviet Union together with Finland and Romania, was the Soviet Union entitled – prior to the Finnish attack – to resort to armed force in self-defence against Finland? And was Finland treated too harshly in the aftermath of World War ii? After all, its role as an ally of Germany had been rather limited.

The Treaty of Trianon as a Source of Instability in the Central-Eastern Europe (Part 1)

The article notes that the Trianon Peace Treaty of June 4, 1920 between the Entente countries and Hungary, as a result of the First World War, turned out to be, like all the other six treaties of the Versailles system, mostly unfair. In the forcibly the territory of Hungary decreased by 2/3, the population decreased 2,7 times, a third of the Hungarian ethnic group became part of neighboring states.
 It is noted that during 1920-2020. In Hungary, there were no powerful political forces of various trends and trends that would recognize the Trianon Peace Treaty as just. At the same time, the ruling political elites of the neighboring states of Hungary considered and still consider the conditions of the Trianon fair. Such opposite assessments of the consequences of Versailles engendered antagonism, making it impossible to reach a compromise between the countries of Central-Eastern Europe.
 Attention is drawn to the fact that during the domination in Europe of the coalition of countries led by Germany of the Versailles Peace Treaty, including the Trianon, were dismantled, a new order was introduced, in which opponents of Versailles – Germany, Italy, Japan, the USSR, played an active role. Hungary, Bulgaria.
 It is noted that the winners of the World War ІІ restored the borders of the countries of Germany’s allies in Europe, in accordance with their own geopolitical interests, which corresponded by 70% to the borders established by the Entente after the World War І. The Trianon borders were restored over Hungary by the Paris Peace Treaty of February 10, 1947. The USSR, Great Britain, France and the United States acted from a hegemonic position, were guided by the right of the winner and in many respects imposed on the defeated countries the conditions of the Versailles system were discredited, did not draw proper conclusions and did not build international relations on principles close to justice, but preserved the complicated territorial contradictions of the past with the corresponding treaties.
 It is indicated that the threat of assimilation and disappearance of foreign Hungarians is one of the main reasons for the revitalization of modern Hungary. Measures to overcome the syndrome of the dismemberment of the Hungarian nation in Central-Eastern Europe have been going on for centuries with little results; The rate of decline in the number of Hungarians in neighboring states over the past century is the highest, so Budapest believes that there is no time to delay the introduction of autonomy for foreign Hungarians, because in the next 25 years the very need for it will disappear through their disappearance.
 It is emphasized that the level of ensuring the rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia especially affects the relationship of Hungary with Ukraine. The improvement of relations between Hungary and Ukraine has minimal chances, since the positions of the parties on the procedure for the application of educational and language laws in Transcarpathia do not coincide.
 Taking into account the decisive activity of Hungary and the Hungarian foreign communities in 2020 (the century of the signing of the Trianon Peace Treaty on June 4, 1920), it is concluded that this problem will not only not lose its relevance, but will significantly increase.

Holy Alliance Congresses as instruments of establishing international law and order

The article describes the progress of the activities of the congresses of the Holy Alliance as a tool for establishing internationallaw and order, their results and significance for the development of international law. The tasks of the Holy Alliance were fulfilledthrough a system of international legal norms adopted at three diplomatic congresses. The first of them took place in the German cityof Aachen. During the congress, a number of regulations were signed, two of which are in the spotlight, because they enshrined theimplementation of the new international law – the protocol and declaration of November 15, 1818. The preamble to the Aachen Protocolidentifies France’s place in the system of international relations and European policy on the basis of the Paris Peace Treaty. Francebecame a full ally of Austria, England, Prussia and Russia. The second task solved at the congress was the fixation of the universal ruleof law, initiated by the Congress of Vienna in 1814–1815. Thus, there was an informal division of states into two groups: the first gua -ranteed the international rule of law, the second – pledged to comply with imperative norms. The significance of the Aachen Congressfor the development of international law lies in the introduction of the practice of adopting special regulations on diplomatic relations.The Second Congress of the Holy Alliance was regarded as two separate ones sometimes, since it was started at Opava, October23, 1820, and continued with a short break in Laibach until the end of April 1822. At that congress, a protocol was signed on the rightof armed intervention in the affairs of other states and the introduction of Austrian occupation troops into the Kingdom of Both Sicilieswas authorized. The Verona Congress discussed the issues of armed intervention in Spain, the recognition of Latin American countries,the fight against slave trade, the freedom of navigation on the Rhine and more.Despite the shakiness of the Alliance, its rather short lifecycle, the form of international communication itself has proved to beeffective and, at times, effective, and has, in fact, been reproduced in the form of the League of Nations and the United Nations. Theexisting provisions have created the basis for further interstate dialogue, expanding the range of international imperative norms andimproving the tools for their elaboration.

Terminological Games: The Finnish Security Police Monitoring the Far-Right Movements in Finland During the Cold War

This article focuses on the use of terms and concepts related to the nationalist movements by the Finnish security police during the Cold War. The key objective of the security police was to protect the legal order of the state and monitor the groups and phenomena potentially harmful to that cause. The previous experience regarding the rise of the radical nationalism and fascism in Finland in the 1930s and the 1947 Paris peace treaties were the historical and legal contexts within which the interpretations were made. As the article shows, interpretation made by the security police, however, relied occasionally on a limited understanding about the evolving far-right scene, thus producing terminological confusions, and in some cases even evidently biased interpretative patterns may be observed. The article also studies how terms and concepts produce differing evaluations and differing understandings regarding the phenomena at hand. The analysis is supplemented by a short excursion on the other side exploring how the far-right used the terms in order to avoid police scrutiny.

The Origins and Evolution of Vietnam'sDoi MoiForeign Policy of 1986

AbstractDrawing on new archival evidence, this paper focuses on the origins of Vietnam's foreign economic policy of 1986, better known asdoi moi(renovation). The existing scholarship contends thatdoi moiideas emerged amid Vietnam's socio-economic crisis during the late 1970s through a bottom-up process of market-oriented activities by local authorities. I argue, however, that these scholars overlooked the early ideas of economically engaging the West to obtain advanced technology to raise the Vietnamese products’ quality, and therefore, their competitiveness in the socialist bloc. Following the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973, Vietnamese diplomats-turned reformists studied the role of western technology and capital investment in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The Politburo entrusted Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Co Thach, a senior advisor to Hanoi's chief negotiator Le Duc Tho in Paris, to conduct a series of clandestine studies on the role of western technology in economic relations between East and West. Thach's learning about the West's technological revolution led them to the shocking conclusion that the Soviet bloc was at least a decade behind the West in technological development. The fear of Vietnam being trapped in economic backwardness propelled these reformers to advocate bold ideas of economically engaging the West in the post-Vietnam War era to extract advanced technology to support post-war economic development and modernisation. However, it took an economic crisis (1977–78), followed by another costly two-front war against Cambodia and China between 1979 and 1985, for reformist Nguyen Co Thach's ideas to prevail over the conservative faction's military-first policy.

Kommissionen, Ausschüsse, Tribunale: Internationale Einrichtungen im Staatsvertrag von St. Germain

Within the framework of the Paris Peace Treaties after World War I, a structure of various international bodies was created in order to implement numerous provisions. For the most part, their significance and their activities in the interwar period have receded into the background, especially concerning the lesser known parts of the Peace Treaties. Therefore, this contribution aims to provide an overview of the bodies linked to the Austrian Peace Treaty, the Treaty of St. Germain, showing their diversity regarding their significance, legal nature and legal basis, composition, scope of functions, duration and their relations with the Austrian Republic.

Suicides in the Vorontsov Сorps in France 1815—1818: Examples and Causes

The article considers the problem of soldier suicides in the Russian occupation corps under the command of the Count Mikhail Vorontsov, which was a part of the Occupation Coalition Army, located in the north-east of France in 1815—1818 according the terms of the Paris Peace Treaty concluded at November 20, 1815. The author basing on the reports of the investigative commissions that studied the details of such incidents and also on the eyewitness accounts, tryed to analyze the main motives that pushed the soldiers to take their own lives, as well as modes of suicides and the reaction of the command to this phenomenon.

Uwarunkowania procesu pojednania w Kambodży

Determinants of Reconciliation in Cambodia Forty years after Cambodian genocide the reconciliation is still in early stage. Despite such long time there was almost nothing done, especially in 20th century, to make that process happened. The article discusses the determinants, reasons and factors that had impact on reconciliation. Determinants can be divided into different categories. First of all the socio-historical background. Circumstances in which Khmer Rouge come to power, their revolutionary approach to economy, implemented reforms, use of children, displacements of people and categorization of citizens had great impact on post-1979 Cambodia. Another determinant is a political one. Policy of post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia rulers stunted the reconciliation. There reason of such actions are multidimensional but the most important one is provenance of People’s Republic of Kampuchea leaders. The most important figures in Cambodia politics are ex-Khmer Rouge soldiers, accused by some of taking a part in genocide. What’s even more confusing, the most powerful opposition party in 1980s were perpetrators themselves and their allies. Even after signing Paris Peace Accords in 1991 until early 2000s there was no will to punish Khmer Rouge officials responsible for genocide. The Cambodian culture of silence, the third determinant, only exacerbates a difficult situation. Cambodians rarely speak about atrocities and harsh past because of fear, shame or trauma. Even in school textbooks until 2009 there was almost nothing said about tragic events which happened between 1975 and 1979. History of Democratic Kampuchea still affects the Cambodian society. Despite sentencing few Khmer Rouge officials in 2010s, there’s still lot to be done also on state-level. Reconciliation and coming back to the state of balance is the main challenge for Cambodia in the nearest future, crucially important to social and political life of this nation.

Artisans Angkor: Reclaiming Cambodian Silk Crafts under French Patronage (1992–2017)

Following the 1991 Paris Peace Accords that granted a return to a relative political stability in Cambodia, the non-profit organization Les Chantiers Ecoles was launched with the support of the European Union to revive local traditional crafts and sericulture that had nearly vanished under the Khmer Rouge regime. This vocational institute was the result of a cooperation between the French and the Cambodian government. It provided training to disadvantaged young villagers of Siem Reap’s area in polychromic woodwork, stone carving, metal, lacquerware, and silk weaving. Eventually, the project turned into a social enterprise under the French name Artisans Angkor. Drawing its inspiration from the surrounding archaeological splendors of Angkor Wat, the company emphasizes its authentic making processes. Artisans Angkor welcomes tourists to its silk farm near Siem Reap, using this production site as a showcase for sericulture from silkworms breeding to weaving, promoting the revival of indigenous golden silk while selling a wide range of souvenirs. Relying on the performative value of silk craft practices, Artisans Angkor has developed an engaging storytelling as well as an educational and marketing tool, which elevates crafts as tokens of Cambodian cultural identity. Praised by the Cambodians who consider the brand a national success, the enterprise has however kept a French leadership. Tracing the company’s history, this paper examines to which extent Artisans Angkor follows the definition of a Transnational Artisan Partnership developed by anthropologist Susan Falls and how it pertains to a form of soft power for the French. Through the analysis of its aesthetic and discourses, this case study highlights the project’s hybrid nature and demonstrates how it relates to the colonial model of the School of Cambodian Arts implemented in 1920 under the French Protectorate to promote Cambodian crafts.

Europa, die internationale Architektur und die Weltpolitik 1917–1920

The disintegrative effects which the Paris Peace Treaties had on Europe should not be underestimated. In the centreof the continent in particular, they established a set of scattered states that resulted from the disintegration of severalimperial orders. The years 1917/18 to 1920 not only reflect lines of development in European, but also in manyareas of world history, as will be illustrated by the examples of the USA, Russia, Japan and China.

Völkerbund und ILO. Im Sinne der Erhaltung des politischen und sozialen Friedens

The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919, the same day on which the League of Nations was founded withthe principal goals of safeguarding world peace and promoting international cooperation. The League of Nations Covenant,which was included in all of the Paris peace treaties, is regarded as the instrument for monitoring these treaties.The Covenant of the International Labour Organization (ILO) is also part of all Paris peace treaties – its primary aimis to promote universal social justice. Whereas the League failed in securing peace, the ILO continues to be an agencyof the UN.

Challenging the Paris Peace Treaties, State Sovereignty, and Western-Dominated International Law –The Multifaceted Genesis of the Jus Cogens Doctrine

AbstractThe genesis of thejus cogensdoctrine in international law has long been associated with a turn to a more value-laden international law after the Second World War promoted by British rapporteurs in the International Law Commission. This article builds on this narrative but adds two seemingly contradictory story lines. In the 1920s and 1930s German-speaking international legal scholars like Alfred Verdross developed the concept as a tool to renounce the disliked Paris Peace Treaties in the context of increasingly aggressive German revision policies. Furthermore, after 1945 Soviet thinkers of the Khrushchev era usedjus cogensto criticize Western economic and military integration, while newly independent states regarded the concept as a promising vehicle for distancing themselves from the traditional Western international legal notions in the era of decolonization. Hence, instead of embracing a progress narrative, a dark side account, or a contributionist reading of the history of international law, this article highlights the multifaceted origins of thejus cogensdoctrine.

Challenging the Paris Peace Treaties, State Sovereignty, and Western-Dominated International Law – The Multifaceted Genesis of the Jus Cogens Doctrine

The genesis of the jus cogens doctrine in international law for long has been associated with a turn to a more value-laden international law after the Second World War promoted by British rapporteurs in the International Law Commission. This paper builds on this narrative but adds two seemingly contradictory story lines. In the 1920s and 1930s German-speaking international legal scholars like Alfred Verdross developed the concept as a tool to renounce the disliked Paris Peace Treaties in the context of more and more aggressive German revision policies. Furthermore, after 1945 Soviet thinkers of the Khrushchev era used jus cogens to criticize Western economic and military integration, while newly independent states regarded the concept as a promising vehicle for distancing themselves from traditional Western international legal notions in the era of decolonization. Hence, instead of embracing a progress narrative, a dark sides-account or a contributionist reading of the history of international law, this paper highlights the multifaceted origins of the jus cogens doctrine.

Reflection of and about Hungary in the english-speaking world in the interwar years

This article would like to serve as an addition to the perceived historical picture of Hungary in the Anglo-Saxon world, relying on articles published in British but mainly in American daily newspapers and magazines in the 1920s and 1930s. While some of the articles were by Hungarian authors or authors with Hungarian origins, the majority was not and, so they give a good indication about the impressions that Anglo-Saxon peoples were both having and getting about Interwar Hungary. One can find voices from both the Left and Right of the political spectrum, positive and negative interpretations of Hungary alike in such well-known periodicals as The New Republic and Foreign Affairs, or lesser known outlets as The Living Age or Current History. In addition, the study invites the opinion of several American ministers who served in Hungary in the examined period. There unpublished opinions about their host country add further nuances to the picture of Hungary and Hungarians in American minds. These opinions together, ranging from domestic policies to the foreign policy issues that all sprang from the Paris peace treaties, also contributed to the larger understanding of Hungarian political and cultural issues. This picture is a colorful one, spanning from politics to economics, from cultural to psychological aspects.

The Ottoman Experience of World War I: Historiographical Problems and Trends

Previous articleNext article No AccessReview Article: World War I Centennial SeriesThe Ottoman Experience of World War I: Historiographical Problems and Trends*†Hasan KayalıHasan KayalıUniversity of California, San Diego Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 89, Number 4December 2017 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/694391 Views: 911Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref © 2017 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Robert Gerwarth The Sky beyond Versailles: The Paris Peace Treaties in Recent Historiography, The Journal of Modern History 93, no.44 (Dec 2021): 896–930.https://doi.org/10.1086/716966

Music as a means to accomplish ideological tasks: Pula (Istria, Croatia) in the formative years of Yugoslav socialism (1947–1955)

After the signing of the Paris Peace Treaty in September 1947, Pula, a town in the south of the Istrian peninsula in Croatia, became a part of the People’s Republic of Croatia and Yugoslavia. The period after the takeover of the city by the Communist authorities until the mid-1950s was marked by intense emigration, mostly of the Italian population, and also by re-industrialization and urbanization. At the same time, the process of forming art and culture according to the new ideological demands began. The instrumentalization of cultural life by ideology in the period between 1947 and 1955 left a significant trace on Pula’s musical life. One of the main tasks of the authorities in the field of music culture was to promote musical education and popularize musical art, which was to be made available to a wider audience, especially labourers. The choice of music genres was narrowed significantly in order to ensure a close connection between the artist, his work, and the people. In the formative period of socialism in Pula, a music school opened, numerous cultural and artistic societies were established, operas were regularly performed at the theater and the Arena, and the city even had an operetta ensemble.

Moderator or Manipulator? How International–Local Relations Emerged as a Function of UN Authority-Building in Cambodia

ABSTRACT The success or failure of international peacebuilding missions is predominantly evaluated in reference to interveners’ ability to exercise their mandated authorities. To test the value of an empirically based analysis of authority-building processes in the course of such missions the article turns to the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC, 1992–1993). In order to safeguard the country’s stability many supported the idea of holding presidential elections in addition to the ones for the Constituent Assembly forming the new government. To organize such unforeseen elections UNTAC would have had to change its mandate as determined by the Paris Peace Accords (PPA). Based on extensive archival research the paper analyses the debate surrounding this proposal as a series of legitimacy claims that were selectively recognized and rejected. The article concludes that evaluations of peacebuilding missions are indeed too focused on interveners’ authority to decide, while neglecting or underestimating challenges to their authority to interpret. This fosters a false sense of control over the direction of political processes.

Van Voren, Robert Undigested Past: The Holocaust in Lithuania Woolfson, Shivaun Holocaust Legacy in Post-Soviet Lithuania: People, Places and Objects (review)

REVIEWS 381 van Voren, Robert. Undigested Past: The Holocaust in Lithuania. On the Boundary of Two Worlds: Identity, Freedom, and Moral Imagination in the Baltics, 31. Rodopi, Amsterdam and New York, 2011. 195 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. €20.00 (paperback). Woolfson, Shivaun. Holocaust Legacy in Post-Soviet Lithuania: People, Places and Objects. Bloomsbury Academic, London and New York, 2016. xiii + 250 pp. Map. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £24.99 (paperback). Robert van Voren has written an unusual, compact study of probably the worst period of twentieth-century European history. The title (Undigested Past: The Holocaust in Lithuania) alludes to the fact that the country in question has had a hard time accommodating these difficult years into its national narrative — and the struggle goes on today. Nonetheless, the most unusual aspect of the book is its attempt to put Lithuanian difficulties into a comparative context. To do this, the author displays comparatively how very hard it was for the population of The Netherlands to ‘digest’ the full story of its own reactions to Nazi occupation and genocide. So if the Lithuanian population has to face criticism for only slow progress in coming to terms with ‘the skeletons in its closet’, then it should not be singled out as the only group found wanting. This text might only be 182 pages long, but it has big ambitions. It provides a discussion of the historical background to the place of Jews on Lithuanian soil, the origins of antisemitism among the Lithuanian population, Jewish life during the interwar period, the perpetration of the Holocaust, popular collaboration, motives for participation in genocide and, finally, two chapters examining why the dreadful events happened and the difficulties encountered in their finding adequate recognition. Without doubt Undigested Past is a thoughtful piece of work, but potential readers should probably be made aware that it is founded on secondary literature. As such it provides a useful guide to a large amount of work, but at times the study can seem quite familiar. Historically, about 5 million Jews lived in the Russian Empire, mostly in the Pale of Settlement where they carried out their existence quite separately from the Gentile population. They experienced pogroms in the 1880s, then again in 1905 before some 200,000 of them were deported to the Russian interior during the First World War, a time when that community was stigmatized as unreliable and potentially pro-German (pp. 15–16). Regarding the origins of race-hatred, van Voren deploys some depressing information against the Catholic Church. A catechism from 1908, for instance, read, ‘priests and elderly Jews hated Christ the Lord. His enemies agreed to destroy him’ (p. 36). The interwar period started out promisingly for the Jews living in the newly independent Lithuanian state. The Paris Peace Treaty created the preconditions for extensive Jewish autonomy and the terms were incorporated SEER, 95, 2, APRIL 2017 382 into the Lithuanian constitution of 6 August 1919. Initial good fortune, however, soon began to wane and from the mid 1920s on the state experienced a growing policy of Lithuanianization (p. 42). By 1923 about 7.6 per cent of the population of Lithuania was Jewish. Most of the Jews were urban and many were proletarian. It was, perhaps, more or less predictable that by 1 January 1941, at which point the Soviet Union had occupied Lithuania, Jews were overrepresented in the Communist Party, comprising 16.6 per cent of members (p. 53). Van Voren notes, however, that the Communist authorities didn’t just persecute Lithuanians, they persecuted Jews too (p. 59). Across his text van Voren deploys some truly unforgettable statements. One of the more eccentric comes from Lithuanian émigré author, Tomas Venclova: ‘What happened during the first days of the war was a catastrophe for the Jews, but was a far worse catastrophe for the Lithuanians’ (p. 67). Really? Thereafter follows a predictably depressing cataloguing of atrocity. That said, van Voren is to be commended for noting that some 800 Lithuanians have been honoured by Yad Vashem as belonging to the ‘Righteous Among Nations’ and the author makes clear that at least some Lithuanians paid with their lives for assisting Jews (p. 106). Nevertheless, he concludes that...

Henry Kissinger's Negotiation Campaign to End the Vietnam War

President Richard M. Nixon was elected in 1968 with the widespread expectation that he would bring about an end to the costly and unpopular war in Vietnam. The task largely fell to National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger. When the negotiations began, North Vietnam appeared to have a winning hand with time on its side. To induce agreement from North Vietnam on acceptable terms, Kissinger orchestrated a complex negotiation campaign with multiple fronts: North Vietnam, the U.S. public and Congress China, the USSR, West Germany, and South Vietnam. Kissinger’s efforts culminated in the signing of the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, which held for about two years before collapsing in the wake of Watergate. The account in this working paper carefully describes — but does not analyze nor draw lessons from — core features of these challenging negotiations. Forthcoming papers will provide analysis and derive general insights from this negotiation campaign.