Goodby 20th Century

[Barrett]

Now that the 20th century really is history, I wonder how it'll be regarded at the end of the 21st, let alone at the end of the millenium. More specifically, how will the Great War fit into the scheme of things in future centuries? That's assuming, of course, that it's remembered much at all. With the centennial still 14 years away, how many people are truly aware of the distinction between the world wars, other than (presumably) WW I preceded WW II. ("Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?")
The major factors to consider, of course, are:
geopolitical
cultural
technical
I just KNOW that you Forumites have some thoughts and opinions on the subject!

[Graeme]

I should think that WWI (or the Great War as it's known on this side of the pond) will stand the test of time as an example, militarily, of what not to do , re the Somme etc.

It will also serve as an example of "good prevailing over evil" tho' perhaps to a lesser extent than WW2 where the Nazi party was everyone's enemy.

I should hope that remembering past mistakes will prevent us from committing them again.

Happy New Millennium.

Graeme

Dear sir Goodbye to the 20th-and good riddance!As long as we have Politicians,Priests and corruptable public servants<and we ALWAYS will> we will have wars.We always learn the hard way,we always will. Yours Andy Fox,Pudsey Yorkshire ENG

[Brad]

I was involved in judging essay's for a flying scholarship once. One kid wrote about the importance of aviation and that his grandfather had been a pilot who fought against Hitler in the world war. HE DID NOT KNOW WHICH WORLD WAR THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN ! I think that twenty years from now WW1 will have all the importance of the war of 1812. By the way this kid has an honors student.

I have a hunch that after a hundred years or so, scholars looking back to the 20th century will regard WW1 and WW2 as a single world war with a longish "armistice" between the major outbursts...

And they will not be too far from the truth, eh?

World War 1 already went into history as the war with the worst usefulness/destruction ratio ever and that image won't change in the future.
Combining ancient objectives and policies with modern technology has easily proven to ruin the rest of the century, to say the least.
You may argue whether WW1 was unavoidable or not, but anyone who says that it was necessary is an idiot. At least WW2 was for a 'legitimate' reason.
Then again, for objective historians this war will remain interesting for its political and technological ramifications, just like how other time periods and wars are treated.

[Kirby]

I don't know about the rest of you but I will always think of WWI as:

GOOD SOLDIERS
STUPID POLITICIANS

VBR
Kirby

P.S. ....and Viet Nam?:

GOOD SOLDIERS
GUTLESS POLITICIANS

I'm afraid I'm going to be a little pessimistic here... I work with kids in education and I am afraid this generation is not being educated about the early 20th century. When I talk to kids about the wars they know about WW2. When I quiz them about how they learned about it, most of them (my guess, 9 of 10) refer to the movies and TV shows they've watched- and I'm not talking about documentaries. I fear that unless we get a major motion picture with big name actors to star in a great WW1 epic, these kids (and unfortunately, many adults) will forget about the Great War. "Saving Private Ryan" made WW2 films OK again and many are now in production. We need a great WW1 air combat film. The Aussies have done great with their ANZAC themed films, it's about time Tom Hanks (or someone equally appreciated) did a film on Eddie Rickenbacker or a remake of Sergeant York. What do you all think?

Very Best Regards,
Mark Daymont

WW1 is not well remembered but as long this site and others exist it will not be forgotten.
WW1 was a great event in history:
US became a superpower, France and Britian survived but were weary of war, royality all over Europe collasped, Russia went communist, borders changed, and of course Wilson's mishandling of the peace tready led to WW2.
WW1 is good example of winning the war and losing the peace.
I hope that the world will learn from history, but sadly I know that we rarely do.

The First World War is a monument to man's insanity. The weapons had improved to a point where they had vastly outstripped the tactics. The world was treated to the spectacle of armies wearing out machineguns on youn men's chests. The Mother of Invention developed the tool to break the stalemat, but the whole bloody mess was fough t at prohibitive cost by both sides. The "good soldiers" spoken of in an earlier response to this post were the men in the trenches. I believe that there is a very hot place in hell that is reserved for World War One General Officers.