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By Root 1538 0

Great Depression, the Great War, and created vastly unequal classes. The radicals said democracy had the working poor dying and starving while war profiteers grew rich on the peoples’ blood. These claims found ready support among the dispossessed of Europe and within the “have not” nations of the Axis. Communists leftist established violent revolutionary cells all over Europe trained in pushing an international revolution, and they struggled to seize governments by subversive means. Meanwhile, the fascists won elections, took control of entire nations, and used national power to smash the leftist. The fascist tactics established repression and violence as suitable policies for national control. Most Europeans welcomed the end of chaos, even by an oppressive government. Oppression of the people was a given under the radical left or right. The communist, fascist, or militarist nations all embraced violence to control their dominions.[216] Post 1919, the Soviets, Germans, Italians, and Japanese abandoned all philosophical niceties and just conquered whom they wished. Power alone was lord.

In World War I, the Russian Empire helped the Allies from the first and played a critical role in staving off Allied defeats in 1914. Prior to Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939, Stalin signed a peace treaty with Hitler allowing the Nazis to strike west without the threat of a two-front war. In 1914-1918 France held the line against Germany at tremendous cost. In 1940, France fell six weeks after the German assault began. The fall of France had major repercussions, as Japan decided to assail Allied interests in the Pacific, and England was left fighting alone until the Nazis invaded the USSR in the summer of 1941.

Comparing 1914 and 1939: in 1914, war was outright foolish. In 1939, it was a necessity. By avoiding a European war in 1914 the world could have progressed along paths of democracy and steady increases in personal liberty and wealth. If democracy continued sidestepping war with Hitler in 1939, the Axis may have created a world hell itself would envy.

Deciding Factors

Some of the deciding factors of the war in order of importance were:

1) Poor decisions by Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany,

2) The breaking of the German and Japanese codes by English and US code breakers,

3) The amazing performance of the Soviet Union against the German Army in 1941,

4) The considerable industrial might of the United States,

5) The unbreakable will of the English people,

6) The quality of Allied leadership—they made good decisions,

7) The fall of France, and

8) The good luck of the Allies.

Some of this will need explaining.

1) Better decisions by Adolph Hitler would have changed everything. One example should suffice for now. If Hitler had followed his general staff’s war plan for the invasion of the Soviet Union, he may have been able to knock the USSR out of the war (obtain a favorable peace) by 1942, thereby releasing enormous numbers of veteran troops and their equipment to defend his Western European empire.

2) The code breakers were critical. Assume for one moment that Hitler broke the Allies’ codes, and the Allies did not break the Nazi codes. One can see German submarines accurately directed to Allied convoys, Allied bombing raids consistently intercepted, massed Axis units throwing the D-Day invasion into the sea, the Battle of Stalingrad stalemated, and Rommel stopping Montgomery at El Alamein. Just defeating the D-Day invasion would have changed the war and the world immensely. Had Japan broken the American codes, she could have annihilated the US carriers at Midway and intercepted the US invasion force steaming for Guadalcanal. Outside of Hitler’s incredibly poor decisions, breaking the Axis codes was the most important event of the war.[217]

3) The USSR’s miraculous performance saved the West. The USSR suffered horrifically in 1941 when the Germans invaded. German generals were right to be happy with the way the war was going; after all, they destroyed an army at least their size and seized enormous