Scott asked:
It is common knowledge that the USA was late in committing to a side in WWII. I wonder what the world would look like today had they chosen to support Hitler.
It seems too dogmatic to simply assume that the right side won: Further, that nothing but evil emerged from Nazi Germany. Clearly when the victors get to write history the first goal is to prevent an uprising from the defeated foe, but can we really be so sure that where the planet is at today is a better place?
Answer by Shaun Williamson
There was never any chance that the U.S.A would enter the war on the side of Hitler. Hitler had a plan, after he had defeated Western Europe and the USSR he would wage war on America, the last of the democracies. Hitler frequently expressed contempt for the U.S.A. He despised all democracies.
The American public were against getting involved in any European war and this prevented the U.S. president from entering the war earlier. However he helped the British right from the start by selling them cargo ships and other equipment.
It may seem to you too dogmatic to assume the right side won but then I imagine that maybe you are too young to have any experience of real evil.
Making lampshades out of peoples’ skin, performing medical experiments on children, mass murder including the mass murder of handicapped German children. Killing German students who tried to protest about their loss of freedom. Maybe these things don’t matter too much to you.
The right side did win. Hitler was a madman who was stupid enough to think he could fight on two fronts at once and that he could annoy the Americans by signing a treaty with the Japanese. The Japanese were not so stupid. The Japanese Commander in Chief knew that if they couldn’t destroy the U.S. navy in the first six months of war, Japan would lose.
Hitler was stupid, he completely underestimated the industrial strength of the U.S.A. By the end of the War the U.S. was making a vast amount of weapons, ships, tanks etc. and supplying them to all the allies. Hitler drove out all the Jewish scientists including Einstein. This ensured that the Americans got the atomic bomb and Hitler didn’t.
In a democracy anybody can write the history and if they write truthfully and back up what they write with facts they will be believed. There was no conspiracy to make Hitler seem more evil that he was. The Nazis left behind lots of written records and vast piles of corpses. They tried to hide many of their crimes but they didn’t succeed. I suggest that you should read some history books with an open mind.
People who live in democracies should remember how lucky they are. They can protest, they do get to vote. When you protested in Nazi Germany they took you away and they killed you. Support your local democracy and be glad that you live in a democracy.