Modern Views
However, Livy's account remains, even if only as a parable, a powerful illustration that the middle course is not always the best. Erich Eyck, in A History of the Weimar Republic, uses this example to emphasize the folly of the Entente powers: having defeated Germany in World War I, they humiliated her and thus opened the way to the rise to power of Adolf Hitler but without significantly weakening her, so that Germany under Hitler was a threat.
This view was opposed by a school of thought of which Frank Capra was a well known publicist. In his 1945 film "Here is Germany". he puts forth the view that if the Treaty had been enforced, Germany could not have started World War II. This does not disprove Eyck's position, however, as with the 'Capra' policy, Germany *would* have been significantly weakened. The folly of the Entente lay not in the Treaty, but in allowing the Treaty to be torn up, clause by clause.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of The Caudine Forks
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