The Modern-day Treaty of Versailles
United States President Donald Trump’s June 17 memorandum of understanding (mou) with Iran, signed at the Palace of Versailles, carries a grim historical echo: The 1919 Treaty of Versailles promised peace after World War i, but left the German war machine capable of rising again.
Peace agreements become dangerous when they reward enemies, restrain allies, and leave the core instruments of aggression intact. That was the fatal weakness at Versailles in 1919. The same pattern now appears in the Iran mou.
World War i shocked civilization with industrial-scale slaughter. Entire populations were mobilized. Artillery, shrapnel, machine guns and poison gas consumed a generation. Roughly 12 million soldiers died in four years, elevating the world’s desire for peace to a near-religious ideal. Germany and the Austria-Hungary Empire were beaten, but not truly defeated. They had defied the British Empire, France, the United States and Russia, and had nearly won. Their military spirit was not broken.
The victorious powers gathered at Versailles, not merely to end a war but to build a new world order. British delegate Harold Nicolson captured the mood, saying, “We were preparing not peace only, but eternal peace.”
To make this happen, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson presented a 14-point plan. These included:
- The League of Nations: a new international organization to police the world
- Promises of free trade among all nations
- Calls for global disarmament
Plans to destroy Prussian militarism were missing. Instead, Wilson wanted to appeal to Germany to accept a place of equity and to love peace. He said:
We have no jealousy of German greatness. …. We grudge her no achievement or distinction of learning or of pacific enterprise such as have made her record very bright and very enviable. We do not wish to injure her or to block in any way her legitimate influence or power. We do not wish to fight her either with arms or with hostile arrangements of trade if she is willing to associate herself with us and the other peace-loving nations of the world in covenants of justice and law and fair dealing. We wish her only to accept a place of equality among the peoples of the world—the new world in which we now live—instead of a place of mastery.
President Trump shares the same idealistic belief that nations that want to conquer you can be dealt with rationally.
Trump has his own League of Nations, the Board of Peace, and his own 14-point plan for peace with a warlike nation. Conspicuously missing from the mou is the means to dismantle Iran’s war machine, leaving intact its ballistic missile program, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxy terrorist network.
Wilson’s 14-point plan sowed the seeds for another world war. As will Trump’s 14-point plan!
At the beginning of The Gathering Storm, Winston Churchill laid out the theme for the volume: “How the English-speaking peoples through their unwisdom, carelessness and good nature allowed the wicked to rearm.”
President Trump is making the same mistakes in dealing with Iran.
Versailles crippled France’s ability to defend itself. France suffered the most in World War i, with 1.4 million Frenchmen dying defending their homeland from the Germanic shock troops. Israel now plays France’s role. Not only did it suffer in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, but its people also live under constant threat of Iranian missiles.
In 1919, French President Georges Clemenceau and Marshal Foch (leader of the Allied armies) demanded that Germany be dismantled and disarmed and French security guaranteed. Churchill wrote (emphasis added):
But [Foch] demanded that the French frontier should henceforth be the Rhine. Germany might be disarmed; her military system shivered in fragments; her fortresses dismantled: Germany might be impoverished; she might be loaded with measureless indemnities; she might become a prey to internal feuds: but all this would pass in 10 years or in 20. … But the Rhine, the broad, deep, swift-flowing Rhine, once held and fortified by the French Army, would be a barrier and a shield behind which France could dwell and breathe for generations. Very different were the sentiments and views of the English-speaking world, without whose aid France must have succumbed. …
The territorial provisions of the Treaty of Versailles left Germany practically intact. She still remained the largest homogeneous racial block in Europe. When Marshal Foch heard of the signing of the Peace Treaty of Versailles he observed with singular accuracy: “This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years.”
Israel faces the exact scenario with the mou. Iran’s war-making capabilities are intact, and Israel faces extreme pressure from President Trump to revert to the indefensible border with Lebanon that allows Hezbollah to lob missiles and drones into Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel know this mou is not peace but an armistice until Iran can plot the next October 7.
In 1919, Clemenceau was convinced to accept the bad arrangement because President Wilson made personal guarantees of protecting French security. Yet the Senate rejected the treaty, an isolationist Republican government came into power, and France was left stranded, alone against Germany.
Israel faces the same bleak future: Will President Trump promise Israeli security and then walk away, leaving Israel to face Iran alone?
Historic parallels are never exact—likewise, the situation in 1919 has some profound differences from today—but the similarities prove the unteachability of mankind. History repeats itself because human nature refuses to admit error in humility and learn from the past.
Democracies are short-sighted, selfish and unstable; making them unsuited to dealing with evil regimes and dictators: “The structure and habits of democratic states, unless they are welded into larger organisms, lack those elements of persistence and conviction which can alone give security to humble masses; how, even in matters of self-preservation, no policy is pursued for even 10 or 15 years at a time,” wrote Churchill. “We shall see how the counsels of prudence and restraint may become the prime agents of mortal danger; how the middle course adopted from desires for safety and a quiet life may be found to lead direct to the bull’s-eye of disaster.”
Our desire for eternal peace without wisdom is leading us to the bill’s eye of disaster!
The 1919 Treaty of Versailles had short-term benefits but led to another world war far worse than the horrors of the first! Likewise, the Iran mou will be a short-term benefit that will lead to another world war—a nuclear conflagration that will defeat the English-speaking peoples!
Daniel 11:40 prophesies that World War iii will begin with a clash between a rearmed Germany and a rearmed Iran! This pivotal verse is the ultimate testimony to the futility of the English-speaking people’s victories in war and quest for peace apart from God!
Our historic weakness toward Germany, first displayed at Versailles in 1919, and our weakness toward Iran, displayed at Versailles this week, have allowed the wicked to rearm and will lead to nuclear world war.
Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry proclaimed this warning at the very outset of this war with Iran in his article “World War III Will Start with Iran.” He wrote:
President Trump appears to have a certain readiness to fight, but some of his statements signal that he is unwilling to finish the job. … God wants us to trust Him. Not only individually—He also wants our nations to trust Him! If you’re going to trust God, you must trust Him completely. You can’t be halfway about it—just invoking His name or offering up a few token prayers—and expect Him to protect and deliver you.
Our world has chosen the way of warfare instead of full trust in God. And if you are going to war in this evil world, you had better go all the way! Weakness in a world full of beasts will get you killed! …
I have long warned, based on the prophecy of Daniel 11:40, that Iran’s actions will cause the start of World War iii—unless our nations repent. Sadly, we are far from repentance!
The true path to eternal peace begins with repentance toward God! The sad history of the Versailles peace treaties is only a small entry in the catalogue of fruitless human effort toward peace. Despite high ambitions and noble intentions, peace agreements have always led to war! We have strong warnings of this outcome in history and Bible prophecy!
How can mankind achieve peace? Can we know the way?
Last century, for a brief moment, the way to peace was restored. This is the only path to eternal peace in the Middle East—and the entire world! To learn about it, read Mr. Flurry’s free booklet The Way of Peace Restored Momentarily.