Posted on 06/26/2018 8:14:14 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
The Kremlin has in recent years advanced a narrative that Russia must not be ashamed of its Soviet past. President Vladimir Putin has used his nearly two decades in power to talk up achievements during World War II as a rallying cry to unite the nation.
In recent years, there have been efforts in Russia to transform Stalin’s image from that of a bloody dictator to a ‘great personality.’
A poll by the independent Levada Center found only 9 percent of Russians blamed Stalin’s leadership for the war casualties, according to a survey published Wednesday.
That is a a rapidly dwindling fourfold decline from the 36 percent of respondents who believed in 1991.
(Excerpt) Read more at themoscowtimes.com ...
The problem was not Japan, Germany or Italy alone, it was all three combined.
Imagine a German-controlled Europe, an Italian-dominated Mediterranean and African continent, and a Japanese-dominated Pacific.
Eventually if we didn’t act against at least one of the Axis powers, they would eventually worm their way into Latin America to become a direct threat.
Of course. I was just attempting to have a little fun poking at the conspiracy, or the conspiracy minded.
If we had actually done nothing, of the three, I’d think the Germans were the most likely to eventually become a direct threat on the NA continent, via Mexico. There’s a reason the Zimmerman telegram was a thing back in the previous war.
Anyway, yes, in the end, our intervention in the global unpleasantness was necessary. I (really) just think it’s sad that we had to start things off by losing a good portion of our navy and thousands of young sailors. Conspiracy or not, the lack of preparedness on 12/7 was at the very minimum a case of stunning incompetence.
Which was followed up by several more acts of stunning incompetence, until about June of 1942. (and a few later, in the area of Guadalcanal)
They were already worming their way into Latin America long before WWII. And you are correct that the stakes were much higher than most people realize these days. Unfortunately, the forces of evil did not go away with the end of WWII. It just morphed into something else. The same thing happened at the end of the “Cold War”. Unfortunately evil does not go away; it is part of the human condition.
The lessons of history should be a guide to help us navigate the future. Unfortunately history is recorded by people with an agenda and modified by people with agendas to the point that its predictive value is severely compromised most of the time. But direct parallels can still be drawn at times.
It is only by the grace of God that our country has lasted as long as it has. Evil is as strong to day as it ever has been and it has infiltrated itself further into our system than most would have imagined that it ever could. If we had not elected a President who is making every effort to alter our course the path to destruction would be considerably shorter. But every step President Trump takes to make America Great Again is matched by incredible evil and nastiness.
War is a series of calamities that result in victory.
Hindsight is 20/20.
“France falling without much of a fight, turned out to be a blessing in disguise.”
That is more likely a political decision versus a military one...but I am not prepared to make the leap to FDR knew based on that.
It can be said that having the vessels forward based there shortened certain logistical tails considerably (it certainly did in the war), so there is at least an argument there.
I have read a few things over the years about it, some interesting, but none compelling enough (to me, at least)
I will say that Sen. McCarthy’s ghostwritten book “America’s Retreat from Victory-The Story of George Catlett Marshall” (which I have a copy of) has some interesting pieces in it that make you wonder, but not much further.
Truer words are seldom spoken.
The Fall of France was also the turning point for changing the mood of this country from Isolationism.
Isolationism was based on the thought that it would be another WWI-type stalemate, and that Germany wasn’t going to become powerful enough to be a direct threat to the US. With France’s quick fall, that view quickly shifted.
Thanks, I had heard the quote, but I didn’t know where it came from.
Stalin's elimination of many of his most valuable officers as was his wont against anyone he considered an adversary made that happen.
But then again, as Uncle Joe liked to say, "A million deaths is a mere statistic".
That is a a rapidly dwindling fourfold decline from the 36 percent of respondents who believed in 1991.
Gosh, it's almost as if the political state of the country has reverted to a rule-by-fear dictatorship since 1991, and as if the "effectives" -- the Red Army veterans who'd managed to escape their end as cannon fodder -- have since died of natural causes. Thanks CondoleezzaProtege.
killing most officers (purges) and leaving military tactics to political commissars and strategies to himself ...
stalin if anything should have even more blame and damnation.
Stalin and his ALLY Adolf Hitler colluded to attack Poland.The heavy loss was inevitable, unless Stalin ordered to take the preemptive action attacking Germany.Certainly Stalin did not order the start of the war between Germany and the USSR.Should Americans hold FDR liable for the loss in Pearl Harbor? - granada
But. The heavy loss was inevitable because Stalin’s purges had eliminated the top command of the Red Army. And also because Stalin’s purges had decimated the population of the USSR.
Stalin DID NOT attack Hitler first.
. . . but by allying himself with Hitler and the invasion of Poland, he participated in the initiation of WWII and isolated himself from Britain, which had allied itself with Russia against Germany during WWI. In fact the USSR was unfriendly to Britain before Hitler invaded the USSR.
Yeah, he didn’t order the start of the war between Germany and the USSR, although that’s only because Hitler ended up beating Stalin to the punch of starting said war. It’s pretty clear from some battle plans and a secret speech that Stalin was at least planning to order the start of the war between Germany and the USSR, as you can read here: https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/setting-record-straight-stalin-used-hitler-start-world-war-ii/
Russia/USSR did’t participate the the Treaty of Versailles.
Were France and Britain trustworthy?
Don’t forget the two countries signed Munich agreement with Adolf Hitler in 1938.
And it was Britain who refused to ally with USSR to confront Germany in first place.
Don’t forget the two countries signed Munich agreement with Adolf Hitler in 1938.
They also signed an alliance with Poland, and declared war on Germany when it invaded.Both Germany and the USSR wanted Poland . . . and much more. Including each other’s territory. After the German blitz of France, of course, Stalin knew a lot better than to pick a fight with the German army. Having purged his officers, Stalin had good reason to know that his army was not well led.
Only the German invasion of the USSR made any agreement between Stalin and Churchill possible.
“They also signed an alliance with Poland, and declared war on Germany when it invaded.”
That was a pathetic joke.
Britain and France declared the war on Germany, but were reluctant to fight for Poland. The only option was an offensive launched by allies that would force Germany to withdraw troops from Poland territory.
It didn’t happen. After a brief advance, French troops backed down to avoid the battle.
As Germans said:
Poland paid price for Warsaw government’s illusions about its allies.
Stalin ignored warnings of the Nazi invasion. After the British warned him, anyone telling the psychopath the truth was at risk of getting shot as a British agent. Stalin believed the Nazis, when they claimed to be moving forces east to protect them from British bombers. (At this stage of the war, British night bombers were lucky to inconvenience the proper city in an attack.) Stalin then increaed and sped up oil deliveries to the Nazis. Stalin responded to the invasion with a nervous breakdown. He should have been sacked after hiding in his dacha for a week. However, every communist leader with any ability to do so had been assisinated or convicted of treason. Stalin's war orders were horrible, leading to armies being surrounded. Fortunately, Hitler was no more competent.
Yeah, no kidding. The guy was a psychopathic murder, and many times extremely incompetent as well. I wouldn’t even be surprised if Stalin ended up doing what Hitler ultimately did when the Nazis were obviously about to lose had Hitler succeeded in invading the Soviet Union (in other words, blow his brains out), and he arguably came very close to doing so based on how he hid at his Dacha, similar in fact to how Hitler on his last days hid in a bunker and then committed suicide.
Ironically, however, there was evidence pointing to Stalin trying to subvert Hitler and planning to backstab him (and in fact, their “alliance” and letting Hitler run wild on Western Europe was meant to buy them enough time to rebuild their forces), but Hitler beat him to the punch in turn.
Of course, the Soviets pretty much WANTED a war, Stalin included, believing THAT would be prime breeding ground for forcing in Communism, as you can read here: https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/setting-record-straight-stalin-used-hitler-start-world-war-ii/ That’s also another reason he wanted to fight Hitler, just to create the conditions necessary to push Communism, and he implied that Lenin had similar plans in mind.
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