The Great War's forgotten front1998

This is an authentic story of a frontline soldier in World War I. A Czech conscript in the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal armed forces, the soldier underwent a terrible ordeal in the hopeless war between the Habsburg monarchy and the Kingdom of Italy on the Piave River. But when given an opportunity, the soldier changed allegiance, volunteered for service in the newly formed Czechoslovak Legion in Italy, fought in Slovakia against the invading Hungarian army of Bela Kun, and thus helped his new homeland, Czechoslovakia, to secure its borders. The soldier's son, a professor emeritus of political science at Stanford University, provides commentaries on the soldier's background and experience as well as a frame of reference for the times, places, and events which characterize the soldier's war. In addition, he reflects on the meaning of World War I for us today. He offers the view that the war was the great existential divide that not only changed the world but has defined, for better or worse, much of the twentieth century. Ironically, the "war to end all wars" ushered in the most turbulent and bloody century ever.