Posted on 05/01/2014 2:51:59 AM PDT by Reaganite Republican
Since Obama is already well-along in his scheme to ideologically purge and fundamentally transform our nation's once-proud military, the only voices speaking out against America's dramatic military decline would be those no longer in office/active service... so he doesn't have to endure the kind of reality that Gen Patton presented to the (Democratic) US administration in 1945...
On May 7, 1945, just before the German capitulation, Patton had a conference in Austria with U.S. Secretary of War Robert Patterson.
Patton was gravely concerned over the Soviet failure to respect the demarcation lines separating the Soviet and American occupation zones. He was also alarmed by plans in Washington for the immediate partial demobilization of the U.S. Army.
Patton said to Patterson: "Let's keep our boots polished, bayonets sharpened, and present a picture of force and strength to the Red Army. This is the only language they understand and respect."
Patterson replied, "Oh, George, you have been so close to this thing so long, you have lost sight of the big picture.
"I understand the situation. Their (the Soviet) supply system is inadequate to maintain them in a serious action such as I could put to them.
They have chickens in the coop and cattle on the hoof -- that's their supply system. They could probably maintain themselves in the type of fighting I could give them for five days.
After that it would make no difference how many million men they have, and if you wanted Moscow I could give it to you. They lived on the land coming down. There is insufficient left for them to maintain themselves going back. Let's not give them time to build up their supplies.
If we do, then . . . we have had a victory over the Germans and disarmed them, but we have failed in the liberation of Europe; we have lost the war!"Stand-up guy and American war hero Patton paid for this moral and strategic clarity (which could have prevented the 40+ years occupation of eastern Europe) with his life (as so many in the way of the Obama regime's foolhardy agenda have).
You are so right. In particular WWII marks a turning point. Instead of serious war (and DECLARED) with gentleman’s rules, we got undeclared gentleman’s wars with serious (stupid) rules. Mostly, that we must be “nice” and help/totally rebuild. And what do we get for being nice? Kicked around as “imperialist” “occupiers”.
Patton ‘got it’. He wanted to truck right in to Moscow—we could’ve ended the cold war before it started with an invasion and a few nuke strikes.
Nobody will ever convince me that he wasn’t “offed”.
Probably no nukes would have been used, even if we had them.
“a few nuke strikes.”
I am not sure Patton knew about the weapon. Furthermore, there was not enough fissionable material to make more than a few bombs at the time of VE day.
That said, I am not so sure we would have won an engagement in the East. Our supply lines were extended quite far and our “allies” were not keen on going beyond Germany, most of it that is. We were gearing up for an invasion of the Japanese homeland too. I think we also demonstrated our lack of expansion also in China in that we did not enter into the conflict with the commies there post beating Japan either.
I do believe that Patton was right on in his assessment of Stalin and the Commies but our will to expand the war was not in the cards even though Germany had a non aggression pact with Russia tacitly giving the Nazis the impetus to attack westward.
obamaCare is communism.
My dad was one trigger pull away from giving Patton his war with Russia.
My thoughts are that a war with Russia at that time was not a good idea. We were still at war with Japan, and Russia had a non aggression pact with the Japs. What if Russia had then come in on the side of the Japs?
The industrial might of the USSR was beyond the Urals where we could not get to them. Russia also had control of Iran at that time. Our bombers would have had to fly through the same type anti-aircraft fire that isolated the German armies in Stalingrad.
It was later found that Russia had another army uncommitted to the war. It has been surmised that they may have invaded Alaska and moved East.
Americans were tired of war and another one would have been a PR disaster back home.
My dad was returned to the US to prepare for the invasion of Japan. Truman (bless him) ordered the dropping of the two nukes and the invasion never took place.
I don’t know if he knew about the Manhattan Project or not—he probably didn’t know.
We had troops on both Russian fronts though at the close of WWII. An eastern invasion of Russia could have been facilitated since our troops were already at the doorstep around Japan, however you make a good point about the Chinese conflict.
It’s just interesting to contemplate what could have been, had the American people had the will to finish the job. Russia had lost over 20 million from what I understand—they would have been sitting ducks I think.
“We were still at war with Japan, and Russia had a non aggression pact with the Japs.”
News to me...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Japanese_War_(1945)
Amen
Back then pretty much Russians and Ukrainians were lumped together.
***News to me...***
Back in the early years, Japan invaded parts of Russia and got their butts handed back to them. They then signed a neutrality pact which lasted till Russia violated it and attacked after the Nazis surrendered. Russia had agreed with the Allies to attack Japan after the fall of Germany which they did.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Japanese_War_%281945%29
The Russo-Japanese War of the early 20th century resulted in a Japanese victory and the Treaty of Portsmouth by which, in conjunction with other later events including the Mukden Incident and Japanese invasion of Manchuria in September 1931, Japan eventually gained control of Korea, Manchuria and Southern Sakhalin.
In the late 1930s there were a number of Soviet-Japanese border incidents, the most significant being the Battle of Lake Khasan (Changkufeng Incident, July–August 1938) and the Battle of Khalkhin Gol (Nomonhan Incident, May–September 1939), which led to the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact[10][11] of April 1941.
The Neutrality Pact freed up forces from the border incidents and enabled the Soviets to concentrate on their war with Germany, and the Japanese to concentrate on their southern expansion into Asia and the Pacific Ocean.
At the Yalta Conference (February 1945), amongst other things, Stalin secured from Roosevelt the promise of Stalin’s Far Eastern territorial desires, in return agreeing to enter the Pacific war within two or three months of the defeat of Germany.
By the middle of March 1945, things were not going well in the Pacific for the Japanese, and they withdrew their elite troops from Manchuria to support actions in the Pacific. Meanwhile the Soviets continued their Far Eastern buildup. The Soviets had decided that they did not wish to renew the Neutrality Pact.
The terms of the Neutrality Pact required that 12 months before its expiry, the Soviets must advise the Japanese of this, so on 5 April 1945 they informed the Japanese that they did not wish to renew the treaty.[12]
This caused the Japanese considerable concern,[13][14] but the Soviets went to great efforts to assure the Japanese that the treaty would still be in force for another twelve months, and that the Japanese had nothing to worry about.[15]
EXACTLY
Russia is out for RUSSIA... anybody thinking they are a loyal friend or benefactor in good faith is delusional and -eventually- in for a hideous shock
Ok it’s not budding capitalism. If you say so
What I am not ‘delusional’ about is the fact that the USA is currently under a Marxist executive branch and I could give a frozen Canuck rats rear end what the Russians are doing in that part of the world when my nation has bigger fish to fry. Perhaps you are use to public health and banned handguns in Ca-NA-duh (that should balance out you’re ‘delusional’ slur) but we don’t take kindly to Marxism here. We are current at loggerheads and my nation could melt down into severe public strife.
I don’t care what Putin does in Crimea and the Ukraine. As a man I respect him a bazillion times more than zer0.
Some Paulbots on here apparently
Not guilty
Just don’t buy into Russia being a good guy, it is a bad guy, depraved
Russia capitalist? That is a joke. Putin put one of his business rivals in jail. When it comes to bids on development assets the winner is always a crony of Putin with the lower bid.
I second that. Churchill tried to warn FDR about Stalin, but that commie FDR would not listen. Russia and Russians go to hell. Your birth rates have already destined you to the dustbin of history. Good riddance.
Reagan was anti-Communist, not anti-Russian. Reagan was not a racist. He was a U.S. patriot who opposed Communism, at home and abroad.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.