Your first point reminds me of the old Anglophobe question, “What is it
about the British that gives them the ‘divine right’ to have the world’s
most powerful navy?”

The second point clarify’s your interpretation. All I can say is that
anyone who swallows Fischer’s socialist polemics needs to do some more
reading on the neutral nature of the “relative balance of power.” Paul
Kennedy’s “The Realities Behind Diplomacy” is a good place to start.

Fischer is an odd choice for you to use anyway, as the main victims of
expansionist wartime (I won’t even bring up Fischer’s retroactive
errors) German war aims were in Eastern Europe, not the British or
French overseas empires.

Timothy L. Francis
Historian
Naval Historical Center
email address: Francis.Timothy@nhc.navy.mil
voice: (202) 433-6802

The above remarks are my opinions, not those of the U.S. Navy or the
Department of Defense

> ———-
> From: rickt@cris.com[SMTP:rickt@cris.com]
> Reply To: mahan@microworks.net
> Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 1998 8:53 PM
> To: mahan@microworks.net
> Subject: RE: The Kaiser’s Fleet
>
>If I may respectfully disagree with Mr. Francis there was a very big
>difference between the High Seas Fleet and any other European Navy. As
>Hegel reminds us, “quantity changes quality.”
[snip]
>In light of Fritz Fischer’s findings, I don’t think we
>dismiss the threat as simple paranoia.