EARLY ON THE MORNING Of July 31, 1914, the telephone rang in the Secretary of the Treasury’s office in Washington . Four weeks and six days before, the heir to the Austro- Hungarian throne had been slain at Serajevo. Eight days before, there had been an Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia. Three days before, an Austro-Serbian war had begun which statesmen for twenty-four hours talked optimistically of confining to the Balkans. It was ninety-nine years and six weeks since the last world war had ended at Waterloo.
Download America’s Chance of Peace-Duncan Aikman-Blair Bolles-1939