Versailles #24: OTD 18th Jan 1919 - The World Convenes At Paris
When Diplomacy Fails Podcast
Zack Twamley
4.8 • 773 Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2019
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
OTD IN HISTORY - 18TH JANUARY 1919 - THE PEACE CONFERENCE OPENS!
We finally made it, to the point of a new beginning for the world, in the war torn locations where so many foreign faces were travelling, and upon which so much hope had been places. There was a lot riding on the Paris Peace Conference, and those present on its very first plenary session, attended by all delegates then available in Paris, and a gigantic press corps, could not hide their excitement or positivity.
It seemed as though anything was possible, with the world assembled here, to make a better peace for a better world. How could any power present deny the importance of peace? How could any power deny the importance of new institutions to safeguard the peace of the world like the League of Nations? Surely, only the wicked, the cynical, the deceitful, would dare ruin this goal of all civilised nations? Surely cooperation would be easily gained for the grandest of Woodrow Wilson's plans? Surely the world would not be let down by selfishness or fail to realise its potential?
But the pragmatists knew better. They knew better because they had seen the true extent of the problems, some impossibly complex, others straightforward but no less intractable. Even those that had attended the previous week's meetings knew that arriving at consensus was not going to be as easy as they may have initially expected. But they were here, and they were eager to forge a lasting peace. The will and the intelligence was present, and the moment of truth had arrived, to put these qualities to their ultimate test...
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello there, history friends. My name is Zach Twomley and you're about to listen to the latest episode of, as I've said, the delegation game. It's not the latest episode of the delegation game, but that episode is out today as well. In fact, I almost forgot that this episode existed for the Versa I anniversary project because over the last few days my head has been so deep in the delegation game. There is so much going on |
| 0:21.7 | with it. All these people that I added to a special group on Facebook, they all set up their |
| 0:27.2 | own little messengers and they've been making schemes and plots and everything. And it's amazing. It's |
| 0:33.3 | so great to see and it makes me so happy. I've never been so busy before and my brain's kind of |
| 0:39.1 | melted. So let's hope this episode goes well. If not, oh well, I'm sure they'll be fine. This is a |
| 0:46.2 | pretty momentous day, guys, because 100 years ago today, the Paris Peace Conference opened and |
| 0:51.5 | everything which came from the Paris Peace Conference began on this day a century ago. |
| 0:56.3 | It's pretty much the beginning of our project, except it's not, of course, because we've been doing |
| 1:00.5 | it for a good while. And maybe some other podcasters would start on this day, but I started earlier |
| 1:05.9 | because I know you guys love the detail that I bring to the table. And I'm able to bring it to the |
| 1:09.9 | table because you |
| 1:10.9 | supported me so well. When diplomacy fails is and has always been a listener supported podcast, |
| 1:15.8 | we are singing or swimming on the basis of the support we get. And because you guys support |
| 1:21.2 | this podcast so well, we are all the time swimming. So I'd like to thank you so much for that. |
| 1:27.0 | And I'd also like to say yeah, |
| 1:29.0 | there's so much great stuff to come and every single bit of it is made possible because I have |
| 1:33.7 | the time to work on this project and this podcast like never before. The Patreon has shot up in |
| 1:40.1 | the last few weeks thanks mostly to the delegation game, but also because you guys are |
| 1:44.6 | really engaging really well with what we're putting out, and I really love that. It's so great |
| 1:48.7 | to see. It's incredible this has all come together so well, because I've been planning it for so |
| 1:53.2 | long, so when things work out, that makes me very, very happy indeed. Speaking of things working |
| 1:58.8 | out, I think we should just get right into the Versailles |
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