Nikk said:
A few points Malachi.
1) Ever since tudor times it was England's/Britain's policy to do what it could to avoid having the continent of Europe dominated by one power. So for Britain to view a Russo/German war as desirable is absurd as the most likely outcome would be a Soviet victory.
2) British arms production and R&D efforts were greatly expanded after Munich as war was seen as inevitable.
3) The British tried to arrange a defensive pact with the Soviets. Stalin thought cooperation with Hitler was more advantagous hence the Nazi-Soviet pact and the division of Poland. Does the Katyn massacre ring any bells?
Yeah, and the Maginot Line was built to guard against the Germans too, so what?
Governments and counites are not monolithic entities. They are made up of millions of people. Some fo those people, in so case key and powerful people, were Nazi sympathisers. In addition, many citizens were Nazi sympathisers.
Many people had many different views and feelings about the issues at the time. There was also the fact that no one was, nor still is, fully infomred about what was really going on. Many people supported the Nazis becuase they viewed them as anti-Communsits who had successfully brought Germany out of a depression and improved teh country.
The Germans had many people helping them all over the world, America, Australia, South Africa, all over Europe, and even inside Russia, and of course Japan. The Nazis and Chiang Kai-Shek and the Kuomintang were also in collaberation. In fact the Kuomintang was backed by the Nazis, the US, and Russia! What a combination, but that's the way it was. The top Kuomintang General, Tai Li, acknowledged during the war that Heinrich Himmler was his role model.
The German's weren't "evil", they were anti-Communsits that went to extremes. The whole "Jewish" Holocost was not really a "Jewish" Holocost, it was a Communist Holocost. The fact of the matter was that a large number of Jews were Communsits. The first target of the concentration camps were Communsits, not Jews. Jews as a group didn't become targets of the concentration camps until later, but essentially the Nazis viewed the Jews as either Communists or corrupt capitalists, two different groups within the same group, neither of which they liked. They felt that the Jews were a threat to capitalism from both sides, either as Communsits or corrupt capitalists, THAT is why the focused on the Jews.
That's also why there was some level of support for the Nazis all over the world, many people agreed wiht that view.
The fact of the matter is that many French cooperated with the Nazis, and the Nazis expected the British to do the same, but then Churchill came to power and the war turned in a way that the Nazis had not expected.
The Nazis never had the intention of "taking over the world", building an "evil empire" or any of that crap. The Nazi goal from teh very start was the destruction of Communism and the expansion of Germany eastward.
The British and French declared war on Germany, not the other way around. The Germans didn't intent to go west, they intended to invade Russia, but once the French and Brits declared war on them then they attacked them because they had initiated aggression against the Germans.
The whoel thing was a big mess because American, British, French, Dutch, Swiss, South Africa, Australian capitalsits had helped to build and create the German Reich. Germany was the international capitalist stronghold of the world at that point, that's how it became so powerful.
Ford, GM, Dow Chemical, Du Pont, Standard Oil, IBM, etc, etc, etc, had all pumped funds and material into Germany in preparation for the war against Russia to destroy Communism, but then Stalin signed the non-aggression treaty. At that point Hitler had backstabbed many of his backers. He betrayed the international capitalists. But see, many of the international capitalists were not dealing directly with Hitler, they were dealing with other Nazis who were making promises that they could not keep. Hitler got pissed at his guys for going behind his back and making deals with America, etc, its a big convoluted mess, not too much different then what is going on in Iraq right now, except on a scale about 100 times bigger.
Hitler was over confident, and he didn't like the pressure being applied to him from the foriegn investors and such, so he tried to do things "his way", which resulted in disaster for everyone, both the Germans, and all of the foregin backers of the 3rd Reich. So much of this had to do with money moving, and investments, and trying to secure business contracts etc, it was a big international money grab with people "investing" in the Nazis in the hopes of profits after they had successfully taken Russia.
Like I said, IBM, Ford, GM, Du Pont, etc, they were all pro-Nazi initially and helped to built the Nazi empire.
Once they got screwed by Hitler, that's when they turned on him, partly for revenge, partly to get their money back, and partly because they had a concience, although Henry Ford never renounced his Nazism or gave back his medal that he had been given by Hitler for his support of the Nazis.
The European "liberal" regimes were the ones that declared war on the Nazis, not the conservatives, the conservatives were pro-Nazi. Churchill was not a liberal, but he was damed sure against being invaded by anyone for any reason.
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