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The Meeting Between MacArthur and Atatürk in 1931:

ATATÜRK TELLS MACARTHUR,"THE SECOND WORLD WAR WILL BREAK OUT BETWEEN 1940 AND 1945..." (emphasis mine)

Receiving MacArthur at Çankaya, Atatürk exchanged views with him on the general situation in Europe and Asia following the First World War.

The American The Caucasus magazine summed up the meeting like this:

When MacArthur asked Atatürk what he thought of the situation in Europe, Atatürk had this to say: "The Treaty of Versailles has not solved any of the problems which led to the Great War. Rather, it has only deepened the divide between the opposing sides. Moreover, the victorious states have imposed conditions of peace on the losers which take no account of these countries' activities, geopolitical or economic peculiarities. They have only behaved with feelings with enmity. Therefore, one can only describe the present state of peace as a ceasefire. If you Americans had not decided against taking a role in Europe and had instead insisted on the implementation of Wilson's programme, this ceasefire might have been a long one and could have one day turned into a lasting peace. In my opinion, the fate of Europe, in the future as in the past, depends on the policy of Germany. This extremely dynamic, hard-working, disciplined, 70-million-strong nation will, especially if it allows itself to be swept along by a political atmosphere of the sort that arouses national feelings, sooner or later will do away with the Treaty of Versailles."

Atatürk went on to note that Germany was capable of gathering together an army that in a short time could occupy the whole of Europe except for Britain and Russia and predicted that war would break out between 1940 and 1945. he added that France was no longer strong enough to create a powerful army and that Britain would not therefore be able to rely on France as a buffer any more. About Italy, he said,

"Italy is certainly developing under Mussolini's administration. If during the course of a war Mussolini can use his country's strength without actually getting involved in the war, he could play a leading role at the negotiating table. However, I fear that Italy's present leader will not save himself from the desire to play the role of Caesar and thereby will demonstrate immediately that Italy is still a long way from creating a military power."

Atatürk also expressed the view that in a future war, as in the last, America would find it impossible to remain neutral and predicted that Germany would only be defeated when America came into the war against her. These were the interesting words with which he emphasized this point: "If the statesmen of Europe do not take up the major political questions which are the cause of their primary disagreements once again and do so in a spirit of goodwill with the benefit of the people, and not national egotism, in mind, I fear that it will be impossible to prevent a disaster. Moreover, the question of Europe from now on is not the disagreements among France, Britain, and Germany. Nowadays, we have a new force in the east of Europe that is threatening all civilisation and even mankind. This terrible force, which is doing everything in its power to push the world into war, also employs a political system about which America and Western Europe still know very little, but which is able to take the best advantage of the smallest mistake made by an opponent. The main victor of a war breaking out in Europe would not be Britain, or France, or Germany, but Bolshevism. We as Turks, the neighbors of Russia and the nation which has fought with them more than any other, follow developments there closely and can see the danger very clearly."

As far as Asia is concerned, MacArthur made the following remarks: "I totally agree with you. I too am worried that the statesmen of America and Europe cannot see the real danger. We are thus being dragged towards a war which will greatly benefit an enemy that threatens all of us. It seems to me that any war breaking out in Europe would also spread to Asia. Japan would look on the quarrels of the major powers of Europe as an opportunity to realise its aims in Asia. America, of course, could not sit and watch all this and would be dragged into such a war, while Russia will try to increase its power in Asia. If at that point our politicians refuse to buy the help of Russia in return for huge areas of land, fine; otherwise, while trying to get rid of one power, we will have accepted a larger power in its place."

At the end of this exchange of views between two great soldiers, Atatürk smiled and said to MacArthur, "We seem to agree perfectly, but let us hope that our views are wrong and that the statesmen who hold the future of the world in their hands are right."

(Atatürk died the year before the beginning of World War II.)

source: Çankaya, compiled by Necdet Evliyagil