Although Franklin Delano Roosevelt had long been committed to joining World War II, most Americans were reluctant to throw themselves into that distant conflict. It was the attack on Pearl Harbor that allowed Roosevelt to send American boys to their graves with a clear conscience.FULL ARTICLE by Bettina Bien Greaves
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/13090/japans-gift-to-fdr/
Japan’s Gift to FDR
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Here’s an article for all the Japanophiles and Wapanese here.
How relevant.
So much of the history lessons from my k-12 years reflects the leftist narrative, including the sanctification of roosevelt. At least there have been persistent rumors that roosevelt knew an attack was coming and did nothing–so the cover-up didn’t completely work.
I hope this book helps a broader audience understand how our participation in global wars has been for less noble reasons than we were taught. After seeing the build-up to our occupation of iraq, I think more people are open to the debatable nature of our foreign involvements.
You’d be surprised how much the “leftist narrative” resembles the one we’re discussing. The narrative you were taught in grade school is actually the red-white-and-blue anthem we’re all taught to sing before we reach the age of reason. And THAT narrative is anything but Red.
A good book on the subject of everyone’s actual motivations in WW Two is Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization. Amazon has it remaindered, so you can pick up a copy just for postage.
On the machinations behind today’s headlines, you and today’s ‘left’ are pretty much in accord. The relevant information we need to interpret events is left unspoken on the evening news we’re given. And the distinction between ‘statist’ views and ‘anti-statist’ views is today largely irrelevant when it comes to whether or not one agrees with US foreign policy and trade policy. The Empire has very few advocates on the authentic left. None, to be precise.
http://mises.org/misesreview_detail.aspx?control=332
Thanks for the article. On the Amazon site there are a number of very negative reviews of this book, all of them taking the position that Baker is some sort of apologist for Hitler and Stalin’s crimes. Nothing of the sort! He just shows us that Roosevelt and Churchill were far from angels themselves, and used as a standard tactic the wholesale destruction of urban civilian populations.
This shows that some people relate only to narratives that have one hero, in a white hat, and one villain, in a black hat. They can’t grok a situation where everyone’s behaving in a very ugly fashion and there are no heroes.
Whatever you think about the war, an Europe completely crushed under Stalin’s boot would have been far worse.
Under what scenario do you think Stalin would have defeated both Hitler and the western Allies?
Isn’t it likely that without American Lend-Lease materiel the Russians would have been destroyed at Stalingrad, or at least that they and Hitler would have fought to a draw and the USSR would have lost southern Russia, the Ukraine and Caucasus?
Had we not come to Britain and Russia’s rescue the victors would have been Germany and Japan, with Mussolini’s Italy probably being awarded the African continent as a door prize for showing up.
I just thought I’d chime in: Finland was attacked by the USSR which almost pitted France and the U.K. against the Soviets. Now, that would have created in interesting three-way world war; or at least something which involved no sympathy for the Soviets. If no Lend-Lease aid I think you may be right.
But the Soviets had many highly-trained forces in Eastern Russia. They were there out of fear of a Japanese attack. To think, if the Soviets couldn’t have shuffled their elite forces West, Hitler almost certainly could have won in the Caucuses. But with reinforcements, the relocation of Soviet war factories now in full-swing, and a nasty Russian winter the tide turned against the German 6th Army.
Oh, and Italy would not have taken Africa. They sent some 150,000 troops to Africa only to be defeated by 36,000 British troops already stationed in Egypt. Lots of prisoners in 1940… Look up Operation Compass.
One could argue that those who thought it right could have fought in the war and those who did not agree could stay home. Except that US citizens were forced at gunpoint to join the army and fight.
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