We should have destroyed Stalin right after Hitler. Nobody agrees with that. They accept what is and not what could have been: no Communism to fill most of the post WWII void. Now we have Muslims carrying the torch. History and people is bizarre.
“We should have destroyed Stalin right after Hitler....” [shanover, post 15]
Easy to say, tougher to do.
In his book _Winston’s War_, Max Hastings writes that on VE Day, the Red Army fielded 480 divisions. All the rest of the Allies together fielded 129 divisions at maximum strength. The Allies lacked the capability.
In subduing the Third Reich, the Red Army did most of the destroying. And the dying.
In late spring 1945, when Winston Churchill was still UK Prime Minister, he did direct the Imperial General Staff to plan a ground campaign, to force the Soviets out of Poland. After mulling it over, the Combined Staffs didn’t peg the chances of success as very high.
But the chief stumbling block was reckoned to be public opinion. The people of Britain, America, and the other Allied nations were tired of war by then; it was estimated that they would topple their own governments before they’d consent to yet more combat.