What were the reasons for World War II? Of course, Hitler attacked Poland. On the other hand, when Stalin invaded Poland and then attacked Finland a few months later, nobody declared war on the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Hitler tried to negotiate a settlement. So what were the reasons for World War II? The Versailles “Peace Treaty” had created so many injustices in Europe that it bore within itself the seeds of a new war. One ought not neglect the colonial arms race in the Pacific between the newcomer Japan and the old European colonial powers…
By Adolf Hitler ∙ December 1, 1988
It has often been said that Hitler's greatest mistakes were his decisions to go to war against the Soviet Union and the United States. Whatever the truth may be, it's worth noting his own detailed justifications for these grave decisions. On Thursday afternoon, 11 December 1941, four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,…
By Martin Merson ∙ July 1, 1988
On the Treadmill to Pearl Harbor: The Memoirs of Admiral James O. Richardson (USN Retired), As Told to Vice Admiral George C. Dyer (USN Retired). Washington DC: Naval Historical Division, Deparhnent of the Navy, 1973, 471 pages. On the Treadmill to Pearl Harbor: The Memoirs of Admiral James O. Richardson (USN Retired), As Told to…
By Georg Franz-Willing ∙ April 1, 1986
I. Historical Development from the Nineteenth Century to the First World War In 1955, the Indian diplomat and historian K. M. Panikkar, a longtime friend and collaborator of Pandit Nehru, the Indian prime minister, published a book entitled Asia and Western Dominance 1498-1945. He shows Western dominance of Asia as beginning with the Portuguese Vasco…
By Martin Merson ∙ July 1, 1988
When Percy Greaves died of cancer on 13 August 1984 – eleven days short of his 78th birthday – little did he know of the seeds he had planted. No man, to this writer's knowledge, has done more to inspire others to continue along the trail he blazed; a trail beginning with his service as…
By Dennis N. Smith ∙ July 1, 1988
Stalin's War: A Radical New Theory of the Origins of the Second World War, by Ernst Topitsch. Translated by A. and B.E. Taylor. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987, 160 pages, $19.95, ISBN: 0-312-0989-5. Can there be any real doubt who was the prime mover in the tumultuous events of 1933-1945? From the vast majority…
By Mark Weber ∙ April 1, 1985
Franklin Roosevelt often lied to further his goals. In a radio address broadcast to the nation on 23 October 1940, for example, he gave “this most solemn assurance” that he had not given any “secret understanding in any shape or form, direct or indirect, with any government or any other nation in any part of…
By Charles Lutton ∙ April 1, 1984
Stalin's Secret War by Nikolai Tolstoy. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1981, 463pp, $18.50, ISBN 0-03-047266-0. Pawns of Yalta: Soviet Refugees and America's Role in Their Repatriation by Mark R. Elliott. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982, 287pp, $17.95, ISBN 0-252-00897-9. Our “present” has to a large degree been shaped by the events of…
By Karl Otto Braun ∙ April 1, 1985
During my career as a German diplomat, I had three superiors. The first was Alfred Rosenberg, head of the Foreign Political Office of the National Socialist Party. The next was Foreign Minister Freiherr Konstatin von Neurath, an “old school” conservative. The last was Joachim von Ribbentrop. After the war these men were condemned as criminals…
By Russ Granata ∙ December 1, 1984
Der Zweite Weltkrieg: Ursachen und Anlass [The Second World War: Origins And Cause] by Georg Franz-Willing. Leoni am Starnberger See: Druffel Verlag, 1979, 310pp, DM 29.50, ISBN 3-8061-0960-5. It is no secret that the bombardment of Germans has merely changed in form and intensity since the 1940s. Moscow and Washington both have seen to it…
By Mark Weber ∙ December 1, 1985
Viktor Suvorov is a former member of the Soviet General Staff who now lives in the West. He is the author of three authoritative works on the Soviet armed forces. Writing in the June 1985 issue of the Journal of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, Suvorov assembles impressive evidence to show that…
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