Waiting for Hitler: Have We Learned the Lessons of Locarno?

Lake Maggiore, Italy — During a five-hour boat trip along this picturesque lake hugging the southern slope of the Alps, the leaders of England, France, and Germany — belligerents in World War I — dreamed of a world at perpetual peace.

The result was a series of treaties known as the Locarno Pact, the agreement that paved the way for Germany’s entry into the League of Nations on September 10, 1926. The mood of soaring optimism — the “spirit of Locarno” — seemed to herald a new age of international harmony. “Away with the rifles, machine guns, cannon!” declared French delegate Aristide Briand. “Clear the way for conciliation, arbitration, peace.”