The Current, Episode 37: Philip Zelikow
FULL EPISODE NOW AVAILABLE:
Episode Summary: What did Woodrow Wilson fail to do to stop World War 1? Philip Zelikow, White Burkett Miller Professor of History, former executive director of the 9/11 commission and author of THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED talks successes in American diplomacy, the role of diplomats in history, the Cuban Missile Crisis and more on this week’s episode of The Current
Episode Air Date: April 15, 2021
Length: 33:07
About the Book:
Two years into the most terrible conflict the world had ever known, the warring powers faced a crisis. There were no good military options. Money, men, and supplies were running short on all sides. The German chancellor secretly sought President Woodrow Wilson's mediation to end the war, just as British ministers and France's president also concluded that the time was right. The Road Less Traveled describes how tantalizingly close these far-sighted statesmen came to ending the war, saving millions of lives, and avoiding the total war that dimmed hopes for a better world.
Theirs was a secret battle that is only now becoming fully understood, a story of civic courage, awful responsibility, and how some leaders rose to the occasion while others shrank from it or chased other ambitions. "Peace is on the floor waiting to be picked up!" pleaded the German ambassador to the United States. This book explains both the strategies and fumbles of people facing a great crossroads of history.
The Road Less Traveled reveals one of the last great mysteries of the Great War: that it simply never should have lasted so long or cost so much.