’Amazingly Indiscreet’: The Plot to Capture Wilhelm II

Following the Armistice and Kaiser Wilhelm II’s abdication in November 1918, Allied and Associated Powers leaders grappled with the Central Powers’ responsibility for “war guilt.” Among those placing the blame squarely on the German Kaiser was a former U.S. senator, Colonel Luke Lea, who actively pursued an unsanctioned personal task: seizing Wilhelm as a war criminal. Recently discovered documentation sheds new light on Lea’s mission to transport the Kaiser from a Dutch castle for a trial before the Paris Peace Conference. Lea’s “amazingly indiscreet” plan complements and broadly compares to similar views shared by senior Allied leaders at the end of World War I.