Posted on 05/22/2022 2:27:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
The mood in the U.S. during the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany could have been personified in Charles Lindbergh, America's aviation hero of those times. An antisemite, he admired German efficiency and felt that America shouldn't waste its resources helping Britain battle the Nazis. Ordinary Americans, too, were focused not on Hitler, but on the domestic economy. The shadow of the Great Depression was looming. Why sacrifice blood and treasure to save Europe? A negotiated peace with Hitler was acceptable.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took first took office in 1933 and held four terms until his death in 1945, knew that the U.S. must actively engage in international affairs. But he was restricted by the isolationist sentiment saturating the nation. And since he needed congressional support for his domestic New Deal policies, FDR was wary of going against the grain. In the mid-1930s, however, tensions increased as German invasions began. With war clouds gathering over Europe, the need for U.S. involvement became apparent.
In Watching Darkness Fall: FDR, His Ambassadors, and the Rise of Adolf Hitler, David McKean presents a gripping, well documented history of America's turnaround — from watching from the sidelines to fighting the Nazi evil. FDR's decisions were influenced by his ambassadors in five capitals: Breckinridge Long in Rome; William Bullitt in Moscow, and later Paris; Joseph P. Kennedy in London; and William Dodd in Berlin. As was customary, FDR rewarded friends and campaign contributors with such appointments. But he was aware of their strengths and foibles and tempered their reports with his astute judgment.
Dodd proved the most prescient in assessing Hitler's ambitions and the international threat posed by Nazism. He doubted the abilities of his fellow ambassadors, who seemed oblivious to the precarious situation in Europe and what it meant for America. .
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Probably as thrilling and terrifying as what we’re living through right now.
Mustn’t ignore the fact that, as we know now, FDR’s administration was riddled with Stalinist moles. Even up to his live-in personal hatchet0man, Harry Hopkins.
What’s coming may eclipse it.
Sure hope I’m wrong....
And if we hadn't might Hitler have prevailed in Europe and Tojo in Asia?
There are some very good alternative fictions on WWII. For example: Blitzkrieg Europa: Book 1 of the Blitzkrieg Alternate series Kindle Edition
I’m reading William Shirer’s ….The Nightmare Years…..(a prelude to his Rise and Fall of the Third Reich)
He also says Dodd was very prescient about Hitler, and a strong ambassador for the US
He left his position after gritting through the build up of horrors and trying very hard to affect change……he was disgusted by Hitler, et al….
His daughter was getting a bit too cozy with the muckrucks!
Also……he went after the Jewish people, yes
…..but he also went after Christians, esp Christian pastors……sending hundreds, if not thousands, to jail and concentration camps like Dachau, etc
One of those pastors wrote the poem….”First they came…”
I see too much similarity in our nation today!
Marking.
Yes, and we're now riddled with their seditious progeny, no less Stalinist and vastly more numerous.
Ping
Pat Buchanan wrote aa book questioning our involvement in WW2 and WW1.
I read his book on Churchill and found it had much logic, the great statesman was also a warmonger. I guess I missed the one on WW1.
WW1 was nothing like WW2 in terms of righteous crusades —there really was no true evil side (unless it was the Ottoman Empire) . We certainly should have stayed out of it and more than likely the worst thing that could have happened for the west was a long and bloody, weakening affair that ended in the defeat of Germany with an unjust peace treaty ensuring another world war in 20 years.
Uhhh hmmm. Wait a minute….
I’ve read a few of Larson’s books and enjoyed all of them. Garden of Beasts describes a lot of day-to-day life in Germany before the war. I wasn’t aware that if the brownshirts were marching down the street, Germans were required to stop what they were doing and render the Nazi salute—or face a beating. A small offense compared to the atrocities later on, but revealing as to their true nature.
Lately, when seeing films from that time I wonder about all of those party members who had the contracts for the bunting, flags, uniforms, badges and other Nazi accouterments that you see everywhere. It’s often forgotten that the Nazis were all about making money for themselves. Hitler got royalties for every copy of Mein Kampf sold (and every library and school were required to have copies). He also received royalties for his image which was printed on millions of postage stamps.
“...WW1 was nothing like WW2 in terms of righteous crusades —there really was no true evil side (unless it was the Ottoman Empire) . We certainly should have stayed out of it and more than likely the worst thing that could have happened for the west was a long and bloody, weakening affair that ended in the defeat of Germany with an unjust peace treaty ensuring another world war in 20 years...” [Phoenix8, post 13]
Pat Buchanan’s historical sense is about as meager as was that of Joe Kennedy Sr (a verbal formulation I’ve borrowed from the late Anton Myrer, an author whose political proclivities I never had use for otherwise).
Try not to join them in your spotty interpretations & analysis.
Winston Churchill had no influence on Britain’s 1914 declaration of war against Imperial Germany. That was driven entirely by treaty obligations: the treaty co-signed by France, Britain, and Germany guaranteeing Belgian neutrality, which Germany violated that summer.
Germany frightened all the European powers (big & little) for a couple generations - more than once. After the heir to the Imperial Austrian throne was killed in June 1914, the German foreign affairs establishment buffaloed Austria-Hungary into attacking Serbia, while deliberately lying to other European diplomats about what it was doing. At the last moment, Kaiser William got cold feet and tried to stop the German attack; staffers simply threw up their hands and said that stopping was impossible.
Britain’s military capabilities on land were so small that Imperial German General Staffers deliberately ignored their impact; they miscalculated the impact of British maritime capabilities.
Even so, by 1917 the Kaiserliche Marine’s submarine campaigns came within a few weeks of knocking Britain out of the war. American naval capabilities, and changes in organization and tactics, saved the Allied cause.
The United States declared war only after Imperial Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare, early in 1917. German subs repeatedly sank British-flagged merchant vessels, killing American noncombatants - despite repeated German promises not to do it again.
President T Woodrow Wilson explicitly pointed all this out in his request to Congress for a declaration of war. Congress agreed.
The Versailles Treaty of 1919 was in no way remarkable compared to treaties previously made between European nations for centuries. It’s a dishonest sleight of historical hand to complain about its “injustice” - that comes from presentist moral absolutists who arose after the war and now dominate much postmodern “orthodox” discourse on history and international affairs, among academics, moralists, and intellectuals. Oh yes, it also has been influenced by German propaganda.
These aspects are supported by documented historical fact, not by wishful thinking about American exceptionalism and isolationist sentiment.
A good place to start expanding one’s perspective are two volumes by the late Robert K Massie: _Dreadnought_ and _Castles of Steel_. He covered the rise of German power in maritime and naval capabilities during most of the 19th century, the naval arms race, and World War One at sea. And he did so in incontrovertible detail.
As you point out, the Nazis were a through and through criminal enterprise!
I wonder if there are any government criminal enterprises in existence today?
Seal #2 — The rider on the red horse was given a great sword.
Thanks for the book reference, I’ll check it out.
That’s why I’m certain the first rider, Satan’s anti-messiah is not too far off from his debut.
The globalists are creating a storm of war and famine and disease.
The 3 riders that follow him.
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