The Wilson Deception (24 page)

C
onfronted with the prospect of writing a sequel to
The Lincoln Deception,
I could not resist the magnetic pull of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. The decisions reached by the victorious Allies after months of negotiation determined the path of so much modern history: the rise of Nazism in Germany and World War II, the birth of the Chinese Communist Party, the mangled resolution of the Near East (perhaps unraveling right now as Iraq and Syria begin to dissolve). When historical fiction deals with real events, readers often want to know what really happened, so I offer some basic guidance.

The novel's timeline for the conference is based on history. Two surprising events are entirely true. First, an anarchist really did shoot French Premier Georges Clemenceau during the conference, and Clemenceau finished the conference (and the last ten years of his life) with a bullet in his back. In addition, there was a crisis at the end of the peace conference when the German government balked at signing the treaty. The risk loomed, though it seemed preposterous, that the war could be resumed after seven months of peace. In an overnight maneuver in late June, the German Cabinet was largely replaced and the new Cabinet approved the treaty, as did the German legislative branch.

The novel's cast of characters also is drawn from real life, beginning with the tragic central figure, Woodrow Wilson, and including Clemenceau, Lloyd George, and Lawrence of Arabia. As I set out to wrestle this sprawling story into some sort of shape—and to insert the fictional Jamie Fraser and Speed Cook into it—I made the happy discovery of Secretary of State Robert Lansing and his two nephews, future Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and future CIA Director Allen Dulles. All three men were in Paris for the conference. Lansing was almost entirely shoved aside by Wilson, which made him a natural commentator from the sidelines. The Dulles boys were intimately involved in the conference. Allen, who had spied for the United States in Switzerland during the war, became an indispensable staff support for Wilson. Foster Dulles led the American effort on the treaty with Germany. Many of the secondary characters in the novel—Chaim Weizmann, Rabbi Stephen Wise, W.E.B. Du Bois, Winston Churchill, Mark Sykes—were really there in Paris, though I may have adjusted the dates when they were in town to meet the needs of my story.

Similarly, I have sketched the events and characters of these historical figures based on what history tells us. The influenza epidemic of 1918-19 killed millions, including key British diplomat Mark Sykes early in the conference. Wilson had two health breakdowns during the conference; he did like to sing hymns, recite limericks, and tell “darky” jokes. And the US Army treated its black soldiers abominably. Joshua Cook's unit, which has become known in history as the Harlem Hellfight-ers, won a well-deserved reputation for discipline and courage, largely because it was assigned to the French Army, which treated them as men. All of these events, however, have been filtered through my unreliable imagination.

Those wishing to learn more about the peace conference might look at Margaret MacMillan's
Paris 1919,
Harold Nicolson's memoir
Peacemaking 1919,
and John Maynard Keynes'
The Economic Consequences of the Peace.
Fine recent biographies of Woodrow Wilson include
Wilson
by Scott Berg and
Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
by John Milton Cooper, Jr. For a sense of the strange hero T.E. Lawrence, I turned to a work by his friend Robert Graves,
Lawrence and the Arabs.
With the centennial of World War I upon us, we can expect many more excellent treatments of the war and the peace.

Though the writer's life is a solitary one, he never writes the book alone. I'm very grateful for the support and guidance of my editor, John Scognamiglio, and of Will Lippincott, my agent and friend. I was fortunate that two excellent readers, Gerry Hogan and my wife Nancy, cast their critical eyes over the manuscript. It benefited greatly from their attention. My friend Rich Zweig helped me think about how a physician might respond to the extreme stress of caring for so many grievously injured and sick patients.

My greatest fortune is that Nancy's still sticking with me. The least I can do is dedicate the book to her.

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Copyright © 2015 by David O. Stewart

 

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Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number: 2015937825

 

ISBN-13: 978-0-7582-9069-4
ISBN-10: 0-7582-9069-1

First Kensington Hardcover Edition: October 2015

ISBN: 978-0-7582-9069-4

First Kensington Electronic Edition: October 2015