Mein Kampf
most postponed one or two years. But the curse of German as well as of Austrian diplomacy was that it had always tried to postpone the inevitable reckoning, until at last it was forced to strike at the most unpropitious moment. We may be sure that another attempt to rescue the peace would only have brought on the war at a still more unfavorable juncture.
No, he who did not wish this war must have the courage to draw the logical conclusion. But this could have meant only the sacrifice of Austria. The war would still have come, but probably not with everyone against us; instead it would have taken the form of a dismemberment of the Hapsburg Monarchy. And it was necessary to decide whether to take part or simply to watch empty-handed while Destiny took its course.
But the very people who today curse most loudly and judge most wisely about the starting of the war were the ones who took the most fatal part in steering into it.
For decades the Social Democrats had been carrying on a most scoundrelly drive for war against Russia; the Centrist Party on the other hand for religious reasons had been the leader in making the Austrian State the pivotal point of German policy. Now the results of this madness were upon us. What came was bound to come, and could no longer be avoided under any circumstances. The German government’s share of the guilt was that in order to preserve peace it missed all the most opportune moments to fight, got entangled in the alliance to preserve world peace, and thus finally became the victim of a world coalition which was determined enough to oppose a World War to the urge to preserve world peace.
If the Vienna government had given a gentler form to the ultimatum, that would have made no change in the situation, or at most would have caused the government itself to be swept away by the indignation of the people. For in the eyes of the masses the tone of the ultimatum was far too considerate, as it was and by no means too brutal or too extreme. Anyone who today tries to deny this is either a forgetful blockhead or an intentional liar.
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