When the Great War ended (in 1918), virtually the whole world welcomed peace.

Nevertheless, a mere twenty years  later (in 1939) another world war began. We called it World War II. And so, the Great War became known as World War I.

What insights and wisdom can we learn from the 1920s and 1930s to save us from fighting World War III?

Innumerable books have been written with innumerable insights.

I think the single best account is the one by Winston Churchill himself in his book The Gathering Storm, the first volume of his war memoirs.

Almost alone among world leaders, Churchill detected and denounced the follies that were leading to a second world war.

And so, when Hitler stood triumphant after the Fall of France, the British turned to Churchill to save them. Churchill saved Britain by forging a Grand Alliance with Russia and the United States that formed the backbone of the United Nations.

This Grand Alliance won World War II, established the United Nations, and forged additional international agreements and institutions.

Fortunately, despite the many imperfections and failures of the United Nations and of the additional international agreements and institutions, Humanity has thus far avoided a Third World War.

The recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia, together with the rising power and pretensions of China, threaten to unravel the international framework that has avoided a Third World War for almost 80 years.

And so, this is a good time to remind ourselves how Humanity’s follies during the 1920s and 1930s unraveled the peace and led to a world war. In upcoming blogs, I am going to summarize these follies using the term “Wishful Thinking”.

What kinds of Wishful Thinking?

—Wishful Thinking about Blaming Germany;

—Wishful Thinking  about America First;

—Wishful Thinking about Tariffs and Trade Barriers; and

—Wishful Thinking about Weapons.

It is worth pondering how we can forge a new Grand Alliance that can save the Peace and win any Third World War.

It should be a Grand Alliance of any nation and of any person (of any citizenship and religion) that is committed:

—to establishing and defending governments and civilizations of the people, by the people, and for the people; and

—to establishing and defending governments and civilizations that secure the inalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

It should be a Grand Alliance of any nation and of any person (of any citizenship and religion) that is committed to establishing and securing governments and civilizations where each person has Four Freedoms.

These Four Freedoms were proclaimed by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1941 as London burned beneath Nazi air raids:

—freedom of speech and expression;

—freedom to worship;

—freedom from want; and

—freedom from fear.

It should be a Grand Alliance of any nation and of any person (of any citizenship and religion) who opposes the Power of Money, the Power of Religion, and the Power of the Kingdoms of this World, especially when combined together in ways such as:

—White Christian Nationalism;

—Russian Christian Nationalism;

—Taliban Muslim Nationalism;

—ISIS Muslim Nationalism;

—Communism; and

—Nazism.

It should be a Grand Alliance of any nation and of any person (of any citizenship and religion) who shares my vision of an ideal America as first discovered in the hearts of Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

In this ideal America (that is so very different from the actual historical United States of America that has so often gone astray from its ideals):

—we shall bless ALL people;

—we shall overcome ALL pharaohs so that ALL people are free;

—we shall heal ALL hurting people, even if we have been taught to hate their race, their nationality, or their religion; and

—ALL shall mean ALL!

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For related ideas, please read my blogs “Jesus Climbs the Temple Mount”, “Nationalism is Patriotism Gone Astray”, “Keeping the Powers of Money, Religion and Kingdoms Separate”, and “How Do We Build a Civilization That Is Good—That Is Very Good?”.

For related ideas, please read my book Visions of America (first published in 2004 together in one volume with my book Visions of the Church).

As you may know, the idea of forging a Grand Alliance came naturally to Winston Churchill because his ancestor John Churchill (who became the first Duke of Marlborough) led the Grand Alliance in a “world war” against Louis the Fourteenth. When I read Winston Churchill’s masterful biography of his famous ancestor (Marlborough: His Life and Times (published during the 1930s)), I can see the strategies and themes coalescing that Winston Churchill wielded to guide Britain and Humanity to victory in the Second World War.