[Peace-discuss] The Christmas Truce of 1914: "Threat to National Security"?

[Robert Naiman]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/the-christmas-truce-of-19_b_801243.html

The Christmas Truce of 1914: "Threat to National Security"?

As we celebrate Christmas 2010, 100,000 US troops languish in Afghanistan,
and Bradley Manning sits in "maximum
custody<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daphne-eviatar/bradley-mannings-confinem_b_800737.html>"
in Quantico for the alleged crime of disclosing classified "secrets" about
U.S. foreign policy - "secrets" like the
video<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/05/wikileaks-us-army-iraq-attack>of
U.S. troops killing two
*Reuters* employees in Iraq, a video that the U.S. military refused to
release to *Reuters*.

It is a particular stain on our country to be at war during the Season of
Peace, just as it is a particular stain on our country to be at war during
the Olympics. "Peace on Earth" should stick in our throats a bit this
holiday season, when our own government is bombing other people's countries,
a practice which we have, so far, been unable to stop.

The idea that there is something especially offensive about prosecuting war
during Christmas is longstanding. On December 7, 1914, Pope Benedict XV called
for<http://www.harrisondaily.com/opinion/article_758ae5c8-a68d-59f3-9a4f-bb5df3dbcbce.html>an
official Christmas truce in the war in Europe, "that the guns may fall
silent at least upon the night the angels sang."

The Pope's call was rejected by the warring governments, and two words he
used suggest a reason: "at least." The Pope's remarks strongly suggested
that he objected to the slaughter on the other 364 days as well. And so, the
generals may have argued, it was a slippery slope. Allow the troops to have
a Christmas holiday from killing each other, and they might begin to get
even funnier ideas. Next they'll be demanding Easter, then Yom Kippur and
Eid al-Fitr. Soon you won't be able to have a war on any day of the year. So
there was no official truce.

However, in what was arguably one of the most morally compelling acts of
spontaneous mass civil disobedience in recorded human history, German and
British troops took matters into their own hands, negotiating their own
Christmas cease-fires in their opposing trenches on the Western Front,
exchanging Christmas carols and gifts, and even playing soccer. The story is
told in the 2005 movie, Joyeux Noel ("Merry Christmas"), which was nominated
for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006. It would be a
significant advance in human civilization if this movie would take its
rightful place alongside "Miracle on 34th Street" and "It's a Wonderful
Life" as standard Christmas fare.

It's particularly appropriate to reflect on this history now, as TV talking
heads repeatedly pontificate without a shred of evidence that the WikiLeaks
disclosures "threaten our national security," because in its time, as
Stanley Weintraub reported in his 2001 book "Silent Night: The Remarkable
Christmas Truce of 1914 <http://books.google.com/books?id=vUKgAAAAMAAJ>,"
not only was the Christmas truce considered a threat to "national security"
in the warring countries; even the knowledge that it had taken place was
initially suppressed. The *New York Times* finally broke the press blockade
on December 31, 1914, after which the British press followed suit.

Doesn't it seem ridiculous today that news media initially tried to suppress
reports about the Christmas truce of 1914, apparently in the belief that
such information was a "threat to national security"?

Won't it seem ridiculous someday that people who knew better once claimed
that WikiLeaks was a "threat to our national security," and were taken
seriously?

How long do you suppose that will take to occur?

Merry Christmas. Let there be peace on earth.


-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
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