War Is Over There, If You Want It

Last week's Graphical History Tour focused on the election of Paul von Hindenburg to the German presidency in 1925, which set some editorial cartoonists worrying about the possibility of a return to World War I.

"Still Abroad" by W.A. Rogers in Washington Post, May 5, 1925

There was plenty to worry about other than German politics, as it happened. Not the least of which was countries in Europe and North Africa inexplicably moving around willy-nilly underneath Mars's feet.

"The Soft Spot" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Apr. 29, 1925

Let's start with trouble in the Balkans, in which, for the moment, Bulgaria had the starring role.

Bulgaria, a.k.a. the Balkan Prussia, had been racked with violence between the far right and far left in the years following World War I. Assassinations were almost commonplace: Tsar Boris III had narrowly escaped death in April; and two days later, a bomb killed 150 members of the Bulgarian political and military elite in Sofia as they attended the funeral of murdered General Kosia Gheorhieffe. Reportedly, Gheorhieffe had been assassinated with the expectation that the Tsar would be at his funeral, too.

"Spring in the Balkans" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 25, 1925

The right-wing Bulgarian government of Prime Minister Aleksandar Tsankov responded with a curfew and mass arrests of known and suspected communists, and accused the Soviet government of Russia of being behind the plot.

"To Sustain the body of Capitalism" by O.R. "O. Zim" Zimmerman in Daily Worker, Chicago, May 1, 1925

It should be noted that Tsankov had come to power in 1923 after a coup against his predecessor, Aleksandar Stamboliyski of the leftist Bulgarian Agricultural National Union. Stamboliyski wasn't just overthrown; he was tortured, killed and dismembered — and not necessarily in that order.

"Zim" Zimmerman at the Communist Daily Worker in Chicago drew a skeletal Fascist government of Bulgaria enjoying a refreshing glass of workingman's blood while a bloody hand of imperialism threatened to grab a handful of angry workers.

"The Chief Occupation of Socialists" by O.R. "O. Zim" Zimmerman in Daily Worker, Chicago, May 15, 1925

The Berbers of the Rif region of northern Morocco, led by Abd El-Krim, had been fighting a guerilla war against Spain since 1921. Rif was nominally a Spanish protectorate, dating from when Europeans parceled out chunks of Africa to each other in the 1880's, although Riffians had effectively resisted Spanish rule from the beginning. Riffians, however, saw none of the benefits of Spanish mining in their mountains, while providing most of the labor and suffering all of the environmental damage.

"The Riffians and the Ruffians" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 13, 1925

The Riffian guerrilla tactics won early successes, but Spain resorted to chemical warfare (as alluded to in Zimmerman's cartoon) as well as the first amphibious landing of armored tanks. Then France, a "protector" of other parts of Morocco, joined the war on the side of Spain. Franco-Spanish forces launched a final offensive against Abd El-Krim's vastly outnumbered forces on May 8.

Objection to the Franco-Spanish military action was led by Mussolini's fascist government in Italy. Not because he was standing up for Moroccan sovereignty, but because he insisted on Italy getting some of the spoils.

Turning now to the Pacific:

"Improving the Landscape" by Edmund Duffy in Baltimore Sun, May 11, 1925

After joint war games of the U.S. Army and Navy at Hawaii in May, the Chair of the House Naval Affairs Committee, Rep. Thomas Butler (R-PA), advocated turning the island chain into "the strongest military outpost in the world."

"I have always contended that Hawaii should be made our Helgoland in the Pacific," Butler announced, "east of which no enemy national would dare to come without first capturing it. I am prepared to vote to establish the greatest air base on Earth at Pearl Harbor."

"Scaring the Little Fellow in the Pacific" by Ed LeCocq in Des Moines Register, May 2, 1925

The New York Herald Tribune, in approving Rep. Butler's proposal, averred, "Under ordinary conditions, there would be little danger of an attack on Hawaii, since the attacking fleet would have to reckon, in the first instance, with the American fleet covering our coasts in the military sense, but far from them, perhaps in reality. ... But for the purposes of a base used either offensively or defensively, Pearl Harbor must be brought up to the mark."

At the time, access to Pearl Harbor was hampered by a narrow inlet at low tide. Ships had to wait outside the harbor for high tide, and ships within the harbor had to wait for one another for their turn to set sail. According to reporter Arthur Sears Henning (May 6, 1925), 

"When the American fleet reached Honolulu at the conclusion of the recent war games the destroyers, cruisers and lesser craft found anchorage at Pearl Harbor, but the battleships were compelled to anchor in the open ocean off the reef."

Addressing Senators and reporters invited to Hawaii to witness the war games, Admiral John D. McDonald thundered, 

"Turn and look yonder to the ocean. See those ships out there where they don't belong? That isn't their place — their place is in Pearl Harbor! They're not in Pearl Harbor, and the reason they're not in Pearl Harbor is because they can't get in. ...  If you want to find out whether or not they belong out there in the open water, just ask the captain of any one of those ships."

According to an Associated Press report on May 10, the Army-Navy assessment of the war games concluded that "the defenses of the island of Oahu cannot be relied upon to protect the Pearl Harbor base from an enemy investment in the event of such a surprise attack in force as was simulated in the maneuvers."

"Hula, Hula" by Homer Stinson in Dayton Daily News, May 18, 1925

Stinson may have had Rep. Thomas Butler confused with Sen. William Butler (R-MA), in office for only a few months to fill out the term of deceased Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, and not, as far as I have been able to determine, one of the senators who got to go to Hawaii for the Army-Navy war games. 

Be that as it was, the Departments of the Army and Navy estimated the cost to bring Pearl Harbor "up to the mark" at $40 million (over $730 million adjusted for inflation today). Their proposal included upgrades to the base's military barracks, communications systems, and gun emplacements.

"Picturesque Hawaii, as the Militarists See It" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 23, 1925

Well, no spoilers here about how Pearl Harbor fared when the war games got real. Tune in again next week, when we promise more pleasant diversions.

How about a trip to the zoo to visit family?