Posted on 12/11/2013 5:51:00 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Editor's Note (1999): In his new book, A Republic, Not an Empire, Patrick Buchanan claims that as of mid-1940 Hitler "was driven by a traditional German policy of Drang nach Osten, the drive to the East." He did not want war with the West, insists Buchanan. (Pp. 268-69.) Why then did Hitler, following Pearl Harbor, declare war on the United States? Buchanan insists this was the irrational act of a madman. In fact, insists Gerhard Weinberg, it was consistent with an objective Hitler had long nourished.
It had been an assumption of Hitler's since the 1920s that Germany would at some point fight the United States. As early as the summer of 1928 he asserted in his second book (not published until I did it for him in 1961) that strengthening and preparing Germany for war with the United States was one of the tasks of the National Socialist movement. Both because his aims for Germany's future entailed an unlimited expansionism of global proportions and because he thought of the United States as a country which with its population and size might at some time constitute a challenge to German domination of the globe, a war with the United States had long been part of the future he envisioned for Germany either during his own rule of it or thereafter.
During the years of his chancellorship before 1939, German policies designed to implement the project of a war with the United States had been conditioned by two factors: belief in the truth in the stab-in-the-back legend on the one hand and the practical problems of engaging American military power on the other. The belief in the concept that Germany had lost the First World War because of the collapse at home -- the stab in the back of the German army -- rather than defeat at the front automatically carried with it a converse of enormous significance which has generally been ignored. It made the military role of the United States in that conflict into a legend. Believing that the German army had not been beaten in the fighting, Hitler and many others in the country disbelieved that it had been American participation which had enabled the Western Powers to hold on in 1918 and then move toward victory over Germany. They perceived that to be a foolish fable, not a reasonable explication of the events of that year. A solid German home front, which National Socialism would ensure, could preclude defeat next time; the problem of fighting the United States was not that the inherently weak and divided Americans could create, field, and support effective fighting forces, but rather that they were so far away and that the intervening ocean could be blocked by a large American fleet. Here were the practical problems of fighting America: distance and the size of the American navy.
To overcome these practical obstacles Hitler built up the German navy and began work on a long-range bomber -- the notorious Amerika Bomber -- which would be capable of flying to New York and back without refueling. Although the bomber proved difficult to construct, Hitler embarked on a crash building program of superbattleships promptly after the defeat of France. In addition, he began accumulating air and sea bases on the Atlantic coast to facilitate attacks on the United States. In April 1941 Hitler secretly pledged that he would join Japan in a war on the United States. This was critical. Only if Japan declared war would Germany follow.
As long as Germany had to face the United States essentially by herself, she needed time to build her own blue-water navy; it therefore made sense to postpone hostilities with the Americans until Germany had been able to remedy this deficiency. If, on the other hand, Japan would come into the war on Germany's side, then that problem was automatically solved.
Hitler was caught out of town at the time of Pearl Harbor and had to get back to Berlin and summon the Reichstag to acclaim war. His great worry, and that of his foreign minister, was that the Americans might get their declaration of war in ahead of his own. As Joachim von Ribbentrop explained it, "A great power does not allow itself to be declared war upon; it declares war on others." He did not need to lose much sleep; the Roosevelt administration was quite willing to let the Germans take the lead. Just to make sure, however, that hostilities started immediately, Hitler had already issued orders to his navy, straining at the leash since October 1939, to begin sinking American ships forthwith, even before the formalities of declaring war. Now that Germany had a big navy on its side (Japan's), there was no need to wait even an hour.
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This article is excerpted from Gerhard Weinberg's Germany, Hitler, and World War II (Cambridge University Press: 1995). It is reprinted with permission of the author and publisher and was reposted at TomPaine.com in 1999.
“He might have, but he didn’t have air dominance. The Battle of Britain, where the elimination of the RAF had been the initial focus, suffered from mission creep and degenerated into a campaign against population centers which only stiffened British resolve.”
Churchill’s decision to bomb German cities which provoked Hitler’s shift from away from RAF targets to population centers may be ~the~ one decision alone that saved England.
“Patton got his start killing Mexicans back in 1916. I can only imagine what a demon he would have been fighting them in WW2.”
Indeed. Supreme rampage with rest stops for tequila and tacos.
Weird how well the brain is wired to stop at periods. I’ve tried to scan your reply and can’t do it at near the speed were it normal sentences.
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Try it:
Weird. how. well. the. brain. is. wired. to. stop. at. periods. I’ve. tried. to. scan. your. reply. and. can’t. do. it. at. near. the. speed. were. it. normal. sentences.
So? If? I? Really? Want? To? Mess? You? Up? And? Make? You? Read? This? In? A? Lilting? Voice? I? Do? THIS?
“How” “About” “Sounding” “Like” “I” “Am” “Being” “Snarky” “By” “Air” “Quoting” “Every” “Word”.
I. Would. Hit. That. Boop.
:) .
In 1939 the population of Germany (including annexed Austria, Memelland, and the Sudetenland) was approximately 80,600,000. By 1940 Germany had invaded Poland, and had occupied a large amount of territory, circa 9,082,000 people. This puts the population of Germany at around 89,682,000 people. Add in Czechoslovokia in total over 100,000 million.
I am talking about the original size of Germany >before< it went on a rampage of Europe. At 147,046 square miles Montana is closet to Germany’s 137,847 square miles. Period.
I did it to make a point. That being the size of Germany >before< it went on a rampage in WW2. The poster did not read or comprehend that I was referring to the >original< size of Germany, not when she invaded all those other countries.
yOu. COuLD. bE. “a. rEal. basTArd” bY. mIxiNg. IT. uP. wITh.stRaY. “caPs”.
>I< >Also< >Like< >Your< >Newest< >Punctuation<!
>It< >Rocks<!
At 147,046 square miles Montana is closet to Germany’s 137,847 square miles. Period. This is before Germany went on a rampage invading all of Europe and then declaring war on the US. The original statement was: How could a country the size of Montana think it could take on the world?
Sometimes it’s not worth chewing through the leather straps in the morning.
L! O. >L<
My eyes are gushing blood.
Good article and insight by the way.
Along the same lines: Lightining in the Night by Allhoff.
http://www.amazon.com/Lightning-night-Fred-Allhoff/dp/0135365570
But, it was written in 1940.
Thanks for the book title. I never read that - is it still in print? That seems a likely source for the article I vaguely remember.
Thread bonus question: Fat Man bomb was tested at Trinity. Where was Little Boy tested?
It never was. Do I win a cookie?
It should also be available in numerous editions at any middling sized used book store.
Odd book. The author used the I Ching to make every plot decision as he wrote. It somehow works.
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