Did Hitler Want War?

Pat Buchanan writes as follows:

"Hitler had never wanted war with Poland, but an alliance with Poland such as he had with Francisco Franco’s Spain, Mussolini’s Italy, Miklos Horthy’s Hungary and Father Jozef Tiso’s Slovakia.

Indeed, why would he want war when, by 1939, he was surrounded by allied, friendly or neutral neighbors, save France. And he had written off Alsace, because reconquering Alsace meant war with France, and that meant war with Britain, whose empire he admired and whom he had always sought as an ally.

As of March 1939, Hitler did not even have a border with Russia. How then could he invade Russia?

Winston Churchill was right when he called it “The Unnecessary War”—the war that may yet prove the mortal blow to our civilization."

I appreciate Pat's efforts in attacking the absurd "Munich Myth" but his statement that "Hitler didn't want war" is just as absurd.

Hitler wanted war -not with the UK/France - but war with the USSR. War was necessary to achieve his goals namely destruction of what he called "Judeo-Communism" and the attainment of "Living Space" in Russia and the Ukraine. Britain and France could have remained at peace with Hitler had then been willing to stand aside and let Hitler dominate Eastern Europe and then attack the USSR. But had they done so, Hitler could have ended up controlling all of Europe from the Rhine to the Urals - and so powerful he could have imposed his will without war on the UK and France.

The big mistake was UK/France's going to war without the USSR as an ally. A UK/USSR/France Alliance in August 1939 would have prevented war since it would have boxed Hitler in and made any further aggression impossible. Attack the USSR, and he'd have France/UK at his back and vice-versa. Attacking Nazi Germany without the USSR was an act of stupidity that almost to led to Hitler controlling all of Europe. The only thing that saved us was the bravery and skill of the Russian/Ukrainian soldier and the stupidity of Hitler.

The Nazi Soviet Pact - Stalin's Greatest Triumph - II

Having written in the previous post about Stalin being unable wage war in 1939, I wanted to write about the other factors in his decision. Stalin in Sept 1939 was faced with the following options:

1) Spurn Hitlers offer of a Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression pact
2) Accept Hitlers offer
3) Reject Hitlers offer and join a Soviet/British/French alliance.

Option 1 makes no sense. It would have allowed Germany to conquer all of Poland and also establish bases in the Baltic states. It also would have left the USSR with no allies and open to a German attack.

Option 3 was rejected for the following extremely valid reasons. Stalin had the best spy service in the world. Communist spies had infiltrated the French, English, and even German governments. Stalin had an excellent idea of the military strength of all three and of their future war plans. Stalin knew Hitler was intent on attacking Poland. A key reason for a Soviet/Allied alliance would have been the defense of Poland which would have involved Stalin in a war he was in no position to fight. And He knew the French only planned to stay behind the Maginot line and the UK had only a couple of divisions. Any war would be fought by Stalin.

So allied alliance provided Stalin with a lot of risk and very little reward. The British/French had no little ability to tie down the German army - so Stalin would end up fighting Hitler almost alone. Finally, even if Stalin was to win or hang on, the chances of England or France allowing the Red Army to "liberate" Poland or Germany were slight. Further, Stalin could not trust the French/British not to make a compromise peace with Hitler or the German Army

Option 2 was the best of the three. It meant the allies and Germany would be involved in a long and probably drawn out war. During this time Stalin could continue to rearm and build up the Soviet Military and war industries. Stalin would be able to occupy and "liberate" the Baltic nations, part of Romania and Poland, and possibly Finland. Should the Allied-Germany war end in a Stalemate Stalin would still have his territorial gains. Should the allies win, the situation after WW I would be replayed with a possible communist revolution in Germany and a Red Army occupation of Poland. In fact, had the Germans been on the verge of losing to France/Britain Stalin could have then attacked Germany and gotten Poland and part of Germany. The only risk to option 3, and the least likely, was the one that actually happened. A relatively quick German victory over France. Yet, even this unforeseen outcome enabled the Soviets 2 years to build the largest army in Europe and eventually defeat Nazi Germany.

Given what we know the Soviet build up Stalin had every reason to believe the Red Army in June 1941 could either defeat or win a draw against Hitler. The German army in June 1941 had no superiority in numbers of tanks or men. And once fully mobilized the Red Army would have 12 million men compared to the Wehrmacht's 8 million. Further with a 35 million men
of military age to Germany's 17 million, and with equal numbers of tanks and aircraft; Stalin had every reason to believe in ultimate victory.

Like Lenin's treaty with Germany in 1917, the treaty was with Hitler was a masterstroke that not only allowed the USSR to survive but almost ended with all of Europe going communist.

The Nazi Soviet Pact - Stalin's Greatest Triumph

Nothing is more frustrating than reading history and having well-paid historians repeat the same untruths over and over. One of the most common is that the Nazi-Soviet pact was Stalin's biggest mistake and that Stalin "trusted" Hitler. Its written as if it was accepted truth instead of a myth.

1. Anyone who wants the background on this subject should read:

a) Read and Fischer - The Deadly Embrace
b) Molotov Remembers
c) Khrushchev's Memoirs

2. The situation in September 1939 was this. The USSR was in no position to go to war.

First, not only was the Red Army Officer Corps recovering the Stalin's purges, the Red Army and Air Force had only obsolete tanks and aircraft. Tanks capable ( t-34 and KV-1) of fighting the German PZ III and IV were not available in quantity until June 1941. Russian Single engine fighters equal to the ME-109 were not available until April 1941 (Yak-1 and LAAG-3) .

Secondly, the 2 years breathing space gave the USSR a chance to call up millions of men and further mechanize and increase its tank strength. The Red Army increased from Sept 1939 to June 22, 141 as follows:

Rifle Divisions
Sept 1939 - 96
June 1941 -198

Men
Sept 1939 - 1.5 million
June 1941 - 5.4 million

Tank Corps
Sept 1939 - 4
June 1941 - 29

Motorized Divisions
Sept 1939 - 1
June 1941 - 31

Tank Divisions
Sept 1939 - 0
June 1941 - 61

The degree of mechanization from Sept 1939 to June 1941 is shown not only by the above figures but by the fact that the USSR produced 250,000 trucks from Sept 1939 to June 1941 and the Red Army had 300,000 trucks at the start of the war.

Thirdly, the delay allowed the Soviets to build and move important war plants in the Urals and 500 and 600 miles away from the Border. This along with the Evacuation plan put into effect in June-Dec 1941 allowed the Soviets to survive the initial German assault and continue war production. Further, this evacuation was only effective because the soviets built almost 2, 000 locomotives from 1949-1941 increasing their number from 16, 000 to 18,000.

Fourth, I haven't even covered the massive increase in explosive, ammunition, anti-aircraft, and anti-tank production that occurred during this period.

Stalin - Not a "Russian nationalist" or an Anti-semite

One of the more enduring myths of history is that Stalin was a "Russian nationalist". John Lukacs seems to be particularly wed to this theory. The fact is that is that Stalin was a dedicated communist revolutionary. Further, he is a Georgian not a Russian. Stalin grew up in Georgia and spoke Georgian as a child. He only learned and spoke Russian in school. His only wife was a Georgian. Stalin thought nationalism petite-bourgeoisie.

Stalin gave his whole life to the revolution. After leaving school in 1899 at the age of 20, he joined a tiny, obscure extremist party - i.e the Russian Communist party. He spent the next 17 years in exile, prison, and engaging in revolutionary activity. He November 1917 he joined Lenin in a risking takeover of the Russian government and then spent the next 3 years fighting a bloody civil war to establish a Bolshevik dictatorship.

As anti-semitism, Stalin's inner group at the Politboro in 1939 consisted of the following:

Beria -head of the NKVD -Georgian
Molotov - Russian married to a high level Jewish communist official
Kaganovich - Jewish
Voroshilov - Commissar of War -Russian married to a high level Jewish communist official
Mikoian - Armenian
Andreev -Russian married to a high level Jewish communist official
Zhdanov - Russian
Litvinov - Commissar of Foreign Affairs -Polish Jew
Mekhlis - Jewish, Stalin's former aid and editor of Pravda
Poskrebyshev - Russian, Stalin aide

It should also noted that Stalin's 1st son was married to Jewish girl called Soloman and Stalin only daughter was married to a Jew. His second son was also briefly married to a Jewish girl, but divorced her.

Also, from 1927-1936 Stalin would usually go on a 2 month vacation near the Black Sea. Who did he leave in Charge? From 1927-1930 it was Molotov. From 1930-1936 it was Kaganovich. IOW, one was married to a Jew, and the other was a Jew. Some anti-semite!