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Interlude: Historical Notes III

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Why we went to war with the Klingons back '72? Well, first the question is why the Klingons went to war with us then, especially when they were already busy with the Cardassians.

There are many reasons, a lot of them complex. However, if I need to choose one to start with, I must say it was because for decades, the Federation as a whole, especially its political class, understood the Klingons less and less. It was a cultural thing – even as the Federation strived to accept new cultures, even thrived on it, it failed or perhaps didn't want to understand the Klingon one.

Looking back, and consulting Dax, I would say that said trend began the previous century. Both the Federation and Starfleet were in the middle of a titanic upheaval – replicators and holosuites were becoming practical, they saw limited application on most Founder's homeworlds and oldest colonies. The economy as we knew it already saw the writing on the wall, yet failed to stop what was coming – there already were plans for massive infrastructure projects that would eventually put a replicator in every home and give access to holosuites to everyone.

An old cynic like me might even call it the newest iteration of the old idea – bread and circuses as you humans used to say, but lets focus. Right now I'm not speaking about why the Federation changed, what is important how it changed and the consequences and how almost a century old choices made the war all but inevitable. Or in all like-hood, at least a war with the Klingons.

When Praxis blew up, Starfleet was already changing – even when the Klingons were still our peers and primary rivals, there was an increased pressure to shift the focus from defence on science and exploration. That trend began with new people being elected to the Assembly, regional governments and rising in rank within Starfleet itself. There was a cultural and generational shift within the Federation. Old hands who fought against the Romulans, the Klingons and various other, smaller rivals retired in greater and greater numbers to be replaced by a generation who largely never knew a clear and present danger to their person and lay of life. I must say that I both admire and resent them. They were all idealists who searched for a brighter future of peace and mutual understanding. They wanted to cut the ties with our bloody pasts, and that trend was especially strong among the Humans and Vulcans.

Then Praxis blew up and ensured that in the long run the Klingon won't be able to keep with us and worse, the Conspiracy happened. Admiral Cartwright and many senior Starfleet officers, often the biggest and loudest proponents of keeping and reinforcing Starfleet's defence focus were arrested for treason – and the great majority of them were guilty and event those innocent were tarnished along with their views. The backslash was immense and it shook both the Federation and Starfleet to their roots.

More importantly, there was no question any more about what was the right course of action. It was time for a new and bright era of exploration, discovery and peace. Defence not only could but had to be put as a tertiary priority in order to safeguard the Federation by ironically their own defenders at least until the changing of the guard could be complete and there would no longer be a chance for a repeat performance.

Years passed, then decades and both the Federation and Starfleet continued the policies established in the aftermath of the Conspiracy. In many circles, including among officers within the fleet, defence, the tactical track, they became dirty worlds – obsolete, artefacts from a past, bloody age that had to be discarded. Even as it entered almost a century long golden age, the Federation lost the spark that allowed it to survive and endure long enough to become the dominant player in the Alpha and Beta Quadrant.

Starfleet ceased to be a defensive organization in truth, its officers and enlisted personnel no longer saw themselves as soldiers first. More often than not, they weren't soldiers at all, neither in spirit nor in training. The cultural shift was complete and with it I don't believe that it is a stretch to say that the Federation transformed into something different from the one before.

Most tragic, people in power – both in the Assembly, local governments and Starfleet, especially those away from the contested and dangerous borders, no longer believed in nor understood the military mindset, much less the warrior one.

Curzon Dax witnessed said transition as his staff on Qo'nos gradually retired to be replaced by people who could less and less fit in among Klingons and eventually couldn't comprehend nor did they want to, their warrior culture. They saw our hosts as violent barbarians we should not deal with. While thanks to being well trained diplomats, they kept their thoughts private, they did represent the general opinion of the Federation government. This lack of understanding culminated in 2372.

I'm not saying that it would have been moral or just to join the Klingons in their war against Cardassia. Nor that given what we knew at the time, it would have necessary have been for the best. You can read the histories and make your own minds, just keep in mind that hindsight is both wonderful and terrible thing.

What I can say for certain is that the Klingons' fears were justified. The Cardassian military government could indeed have been overthrown by Changeling spies, in fact it was likely one of their plot to sow chaos and create opportunities for themselves. When the Klingon launched their war against the Cardassians and activated their alliance with the Federation, our government met them with a firm refusal. In the Assembly, many ridiculed and derided them for their barbarous and murderous ways and while the representatives of the government didn't join in the fun, they did little to stop it.

To this day, I don't know how my successor broke the news to Chancellor Gowron. What I do know for sure is that the Klingons couldn't fail to notice how the Assembly thought of them. Tensions rose and when the Empire's military tried to enforce their demand of searching every vessel leaving Bajor for changeling, we came perilously close to shots being exchanged between USS Defiant and IKW M'Char when the latter attempted to board and search the freighter SS Xhosa.

The Federation Council saw that accident as the final straw. They have been trying their best to dissuade the Klingons from continuing with their aggression and my personal belief is that their approach was a wrong one. From second hand sources I know that the Council pleaded for a ceasefire on moral, ethical reasons. They wanted to support the new Civilian Depata council that replaced the Cardassian military government seeing an opportunity to eventually add a new democratic nation to the Federation. Most damning, all military concerns raised by the Klingon Ambassador on Earth were dismissed out of hand.

My belief, one confirmed by contacts among the Klingon officers who survived the wars and were in a position to know, is that the way the Federation Council, backed by the Assembly handled the situation, painted the Federation as a whole as weak, cowardly and most damning, honourless. When the Council officially and loudly condemned the Empire for their invasion of Cardassian space, Chancellor Gowron and his advisers had enough.

Gowron withdrew from the Kithomer Accords, expelled my successor and their staff, followed by general expulsion of all Federation citizens from Klingon territory.

An alliance that lasted nearly eighty years and served us all well was no more and that was just the beginning.

Multiple incidents followed – from Captain Sisko rescuing the Depata Council from Klingon pursuers and the Empire's retaliation against Deep Space Nine and the multiple border clashes erupting in the aftermath. It was then that the Federation and through it, Starfleet failed grievously both in their responsibilities to their citizens and on the diplomatic front. Instead of making a show of strength and meeting the Empire blow for blow – the only thing that could have won back their respect if not trust and thus possibly preventing the war, the Federation Council kept pressing Gowron to cease all hostilities – both against the Cardassians and on the borders.

Naturally, that only angered the Klingons even further.

Tensions only escalated further when Starfleet began open support for Cardassian humanitarian convoys. That led to more clashes with the Klingons and various deceptions by the Empire in an attempt to discredit Starfleet and make it back off. It was clear that at this point, at least Gowron was still wary of committing to open war against the Federation. Instead of seizing this possibly last opportunity for peace and pushing, thus making a show of strength that could have prevented the war, both the Federation Council and the Assembly continued to stall, call for peace, withdraw and negotiate – which predictably failed miserably. For the warrior culture of the Empire, all those action signified a single fact – that the Federation was weak. If there were diplomats who knew the Klingons and their culture they either failed to speak up to the Council or the people who ran the Federation at the time dismissed what they were told. Only the worlds on and near the Klingon border protested and prepared for war as well as they could and they were ignored by the Federation at large.

I don't know. Perhaps we will never know for sure. What I do know, is that finally Gowron's patience ran out. He made a daring move, one encouraged by the way the Federation handled the crisis. The Empire dispatched a task force to Archanis and demanded that Starfleet withdraw within ten days or they would open fire. The Empire could have attacked much sooner – surviving records and testimonies confirm that they had all available forces – the bulk of the Imperial fleet and virtually all House Fleets from the half of the Empire closest to the Federation, ready to strike even before the ultimatum.

For at least ten days cloaked Birds of Prey probed the Federation sectors bordering the Empire, some scouted deeper looking for a sign of a general mobilization and that the Starfleet was committing heavy forces to what would soon be the front-line of a war.

What those scouts saw were indeed preparations for conflict – but only by the forces Starfleet already had in that region of space. There was no sign of general mobilization, no hint that the Federation would even try to leverage its industrial power in the coming conflict. Any agents the Klingons had within the Federation would have reported the same.

Do I need to tell you what messages those facts sent to the Klingons? Not only Starfleet and the Federation were weak, they dared ignore the Empire as a strategic threat and that was an insult Gowron couldn't let pass. With the start of the Cardassian war, the Klingon industry has been at full military footing, yet despite all clashes and provocations, there was no sign that the Federation would respond in kind. There was no significant increase of new construction, nor any hurry to try bring mothballed and older ships in for modern refit.

The ten days expired, there was still no trace of an appropriate Starfleet response and Gowron attacking thus igniting the war of '72.

Long story short, the defences on the border utterly failed to stop the Empire's assault, just as Gowron and his advisers expected. At best, Starfleet managed to slow down the onslaught and paid for that achievement with blood.

Wasted blood.

In the unfolding war, the Klingons managed to capture multiple worlds and kept pushing Starfleet back. The Federation response was uncoordinated. While various units were ordered to race to the border, there was still no general mobilization nor an attempt to transition to war economy. The response was too little too late, further convincing all who watched with baited breath that the Federation was weak – a paper tiger as I heard an old acquaintance put it.

Even after Captain Sisko and the crew of the Defiant, yes that Sisko, managed to expose a Changeling spy among the Klingon leadership and broker a tenuous ceasefire, the Federation Council continued to send all the wrong messages to the Klingons, and all its neighbours too.

Even as tense peace talks began, an increasing number of Klingons clamoured for continuation of the war and the loudest voices came from the Houses left behind to keep the Empire's borders secure, but they were by no means alone. Even Gowron himself was reluctant to end the war unless the Empire was allowed to keep what they conquered – and that was already sizeable territory, including the whole Archanis sector. It wasn't like the Federation had put up a spirited resistance. In fact, despite having a proof that the conflict was at leat in part sparked due to Dominion machinations, many Klingons were eager to continue the war. They believed that the Empire could emerge victorious – even as they already had sizeable forces fighting in Cardassian space.

Think about it – the Federation, the superpower of its age, flinched back and was losing against a nation of much smaller size and military, one that was busy fighting a two front war. Think about the messages sent to the Dominion and any smaller powers on our borders. Why is so surprising many of them did attack us in the following years?

And make no mistake, the Klingons were winning many battles before the ceasefire and managed to deplete a significant portion of the Federation's existing fleets to moderate loses of their own.

A notable event occurred during the peace talks, one that almost restarted the war. Elements from three House Fleets struck the Federation Colony of Ajion Prime, most likely as a response to their defeat at Ganalda IV where a task force consisting primary of ships belonging to said House Fleets was repulsed with heavy casualties when they attacked headlong against an equal number of Starfleet vessels heedless of the fact that the defenders had a significant edge in tonnage and firepower. Many colonists died at Ajion along with the bulk of the defending Starfleet vessels along with multiple reinforcements who raced to the rescue only to be defeated in detail. Only the arrival of a powerful Imperial Naval Task Force made the House Fleets back down and salvaged the cease fire. This event was merely a herald of things to come...

It was only during the later days of the ceasefire and the negotiations that followed when Starfleet was finally able to begin assembling a fleet to retake the Archanis sector, which as I said above, fell to the Klingon among with many systems all across the border. Those successes were and the way Starfleet responded were seen as a further sign of weakness – it took too long for the Federation to begin reinforcing an active war on its most dangerous and contested border. This was the side of the Federation that saw a war with the Cardassians, bordered the Klingons and was close to the Romulan Neutral zone! Most damningly, it had near the border the only known connection to an Imperial and almost certainly hostile power of unknown size – the Dominion, one that had no qualms in meddling with the Alpha and Beta quadrant powers to their detriment. This was the very power which had a high placed agent within the Klingon military who helped persuade Gowron to go to war with the Federation in the first place!

Arguably the only thing that prevented the war from resuming were the events within Cardassian space. There, a desperate Gul Ducat, acted perhaps as the Dominion had always hoped a highly placed Cardassian would – he brokered his nation's incorporation within the Dominion, not only seizing power and becoming the Cardassian's new leader in the process but giving an excuse and pretext for Dominion intervention into the Klingon - Cardassian war. Following that announcement, a powerful Jem'Hadar fleet transitioned through the wormhole and fell upon the Klingon forces fighting in Cardassian space. The Dominion military wasted no time in cutting supply and communication lines, striking Imperial forward bases and falling upon Klingon battle groups who raced to meet the new enemy before losing all the logistics painstakingly created for the conquest of the Cardassian Union. Predictably, that led to fights predominately on the Jem'Hadar's terms and they did win most of them. In the process, they destroyed a significant percentage of the Imperial Navy.

Gowron was forced to sign a white peace with the Federation, order his forces in Cardassian space to retreat – those that still could and raced for Deep Space Nine and the wormhole. It was there that Captain Sisco managed to convince the Chancellor that it was time to either hang separately or may be triumph together. Reluctantly, Gowron re-established the Kithomer Accords, yet the Federation still refused to fight the Cardassians, much less the Dominion. Even as large Dominion convoys consisting of huge freighters protected by powerful escorting fleets exited the wormhole and headed for Cardassian space, the Federation Council refused to risk a war by denying the Dominion access.

Needless to say, the Klingons were fit to be tied, however Gowron wasn't about to restart the war after the losses his people suffered in Cardassian space – not when the Jem'Hadar's presence steadily grew more powerful. That anger was shared by the majority of Klingons and eventually it culminated in the events following the disastrous battle at Tezwa, but that is another story...

from The End of an Era

by Markus Dax