ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 9, 1990                   TAG: 9004090264
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FRANCE AGGRESSOR IN 1870, NOT GERMANY

PAXTON Davis recently mentioned the year 1870 as an example of the "German bully." Presumably he refers to the Franco-Prussian War.

France, not Germany, was the aggressor. The dictator Napoleon III of France declared war on Gemany on July 15, 1870.

The French lost the war in about seven weeks. Most of the world applauded the German victory. Opinion was universal that the fate of Napoleon was richly deserved. The desire of France for revenge was in large measure a cause of World War I.

I am sure that Davis is aware of all this. To portray it as he has done would seem to constitute intellectual dishonesty.\ JOHN T. LAWSON\ NARROWS 


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