Marshal Ferdinand Foch, commander-in-chief of the Allies in World War I, once said at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles: “This is not peace. It is a twenty year armistice” (Churchill 7). Looking back at history, one realizes the validity of Foch's statement. About twenty years after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, another monstrous war struck Europe. That war, World War II, seemed to originate from unresolved disputes dating back to the First War. This raises the question of whether or not the treaty and the war have a strong connection, as Foch predicted. Although historians do not all agree on the issue, a small majority maintains that the Treaty of Versailles had a marked impact on the outbreak of the war. The treaty called for unnecessarily harsh punishments against Germany, which greatly angered its citizens and made them want punishment. Those injustices provided the perfect arena for the National Socialists, or Nazis, to come to power in Germany, and inevitably started World War II. The process of drafting the Treaty of Versailles had questionable methods which help explain some of the problems it caused. On November 11, 1918, Matthias Erzberger, the German Secretary of State, signed an armistice with the Allied Powers to end World War I (Buchanan 70). Germany signed the ceasefire in the belief that the terms of the agreed upon peace would be similar to the Fourteen Points proposed by then American President Wilson (Buchanan 107). Wilson's plan for the treaty encouraged Europe to abandon the grievances brought on by the war and did not harshly punish Germany as a defeated nation (Stevenson 194). This friendly response on how to manage Europe did not last long; in fact, the Allie...... at the center of the newspaper ......University Press, 1998. Print.Immell, Myra H., ed. Second World War. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2001. Print.Kaiser, David. “Treaty of Versailles”. History. A+E Networks, 2009. Web. 03 April 2014.Lee, Loyd E. Second World War. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999. Print. “Versailles Peace Treaty: Articles 159-213.” Treaty of Versailles. Brigham Young University, 1998. Web. March 25, 2014. Stackelberg, Roderick. Hitler's Germany. London: Routledge, 1999. Print.Stevenson, David. The First World War and international politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Print.Stone, Norman. First World War. New York: Basic Books, 2009. Print.Watt, Donald Cameron. How the War Came: The Immediate Origins of World War II. New York: Pantheon Books, 1989. Print.Wilson, Woodrow. "Speech to Congress on the War with Germany." Congress, Washington, D.C., April 2, 1917. Address.