ABSTRACT
The Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy was then an outstanding force for peace within Europe because it had attached— politically or culturally— most of the Balkans to itself and given them a West European orientation. Germany was the strongest military power in Europe and as such in a position to oppose a firm bulwark against Russia. France and Italy each had first-class military forces. Russia, whose western frontier at that time ran approximately from Memel through Warsaw to Odessa, was still intellectually responsive to West Russian and European elements. In treaties on Germany the three Western powers renounced the Potsdam Agreement and, moreover, pledged themselves to join with people in seeking to reunite Germany in peace and freedom. The soldiers who sacrificed their lives in Indo-China did so not for France alone, but for the cause of freedom throughout the world.
