swampyankee
Chief Master Sergeant
- 3,954
- Jun 25, 2013
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I think in general terms, the appeasement of Hitler was a lost cause from the gate, except of course I have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, but the premise of this thread is "what if" based and honestly it would certainly have changed things if Europe as a whole had stood up to Hitler's early moves. He himself was initially amazed that no one did, and then labelled the British and French governments rightly as fools when they continued the appeasement. Pretty good exchange if you ask me, off one or 10 idiots and save literally millions.
If the war starts after Hitler has seized Czechoslovakia than he gets his hands on an experienced , innovative tank industry which is a huge asset.
I cannot, given the politics of the times, see France performing any better in 1938 than in 1940, can you? And the collapse of the French military was indeed a surprise to Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt and Hitler.
It's going to be a long war no matter what, IMO.
That may have worked, the way WW1 ended set the stage for WW2"....I doubt much of anything could have prevented the war."
USA stays out in 1917 and France, Britain, Germany fight to an exhausted, negotiated draw early in 1919.
All three of these nations were traumatized ..... and display that behavior in the interwar years
Appease Hitler? or appease Stalin to curb Hitler? We chose, in the end, to do the latter. Ten years later we were totally committed to an alliance with a productive prosperous partner "whose goals were racially-based slavery, bloody vengeance on the victors of the Great War, and killing off Jews and Gypsies."
Communism has too-often received a get-out-of-jail card free ... IMO.
Putin still wants 'the buffer' in eastern Europe and the Baltics that we appeased Stalin with at Yalta/Potsdam. He wanted it in 1939 and he got it then ... with Hitler's blessing.
".... It's also the boogeyman. "
Sure ... just a political invention ... harmless ... as Tartars, Ukrainians, ethnic Germans, Lats, Estos, Poles and millions of others will testify.
Appease Hitler? or appease Stalin to curb Hitler? We chose, in the end, to do the latter. Ten years later we were totally committed to an alliance with a productive prosperous partner "whose goals were racially-based slavery, bloody vengeance on the victors of the Great War, and killing off Jews and Gypsies."
Communism has too-often received a get-out-of-jail card free ... IMO.
Putin still wants 'the buffer' in eastern Europe and the Baltics that we appeased Stalin with at Yalta/Potsdam. He wanted it in 1939 and he got it then ... with Hitler's blessing.