America was the real enemy of Germany

[Dave Bender]

[Split from "The Nazi Four Year Plan"]

Tooze is correct in recognizing that Munich further derailed German rearmament efforts when Hitler realized that America was the real enemy of Germany and only a world war would solve this and their was no point in putting this off any longer. From Hitler’s fevered mind this all added up to war , his way. That’s why many historians refer to WW-II as Hitler’s War.

Only as long as FDR remained president. He was anti-German and very sympathetic towards the Soviet Union.

Without a major European war there is a good chance FDR would be out of office during 1941. A more patient German Chancellor would have waited him out, then sought to improve German-American relations.

[Takao]

It wasn't that FDR was sympathetic to the Soviets, rather FDR was an opportunist. He saw the USSR as an untapped economic outlet that might purchase large amounts of American goods. Further, he saw that the USSR could be a brake against the expanding Japanese empire. However, in the end, the USSR turned out to be neither a boon to the US economy or a brake on Japanese expansionism.

Without war on the horizon, it is very unlikely that FDR would have even run for a third term. Still, there are no guarantees on who would have been his successor. Although, two of the Republican candidates, Taft and Dewey, would have been more palatable choices for a reemerging Germany than the rest.

[Gooner1]

Only as long as FDR remained president. He was anti-German and very sympathetic towards the Soviet Union.

Without a major European war there is a good chance FDR would be out of office during 1941. A more patient German Chancellor would have waited him out, then sought to improve German-American relations.

Anti-German or Anti-Nazi?
What would Germany have to do to improve relations with the USA? Start repaying the Dawes-Young loans, abolish the Concentration Camps, abolish the more rabid anti-Jewish laws, scale down the pace of rearmament and stop threatening the neighbours would probably be a good start.

[Michate]

Anti-German.

Cancelling of payments for loans, concentration camps, laws directed specifically against population groups, rapid rearmamemt and military expansion and threatening of or attacking of neighbours were no grounds for FDR not to maintain very good relations with USSR.

[Gooner1]

So when/if FDR was booted out, you think relations between Nazi Germany and the USA would become all hunky-dory?

[Dave Bender]

You might want to do a bit of research on Soviet Espionage in the USA during the 1930s and 1940s. Here are some good web sites. This is only the tip of the iceberg. By using Google you can find historical testimony given to the Dies Committee and FBI.

Verona Project
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venona_project

Soviet Espionage in the USA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of ... ted_States

1939 Time Magazine article on Dies Committee.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 32,00.html

[john becktel]

. . . when Hitler realized that America was the real enemy of Germany and only a world war would solve this and their was no point in putting this off any longer. From Hitler’s fevered mind this all added up to war , his way. That’s why many historians refer to WW-II as Hitler’s War.

it looks like the post above led to the reply below which is the point i wish to follow

Only as long as FDR remained president. He was anti-German and very sympathetic towards the Soviet Union.

Without a major European war there is a good chance FDR would be out of office during 1941. A more patient German Chancellor would have waited him out, then sought to improve German-American relations.

rather than thinking of fdr as either anti-german or sympathetic toward the ussr, one can think of him as having his own understanding of where american interests lay. if germany achieves autocracy and hegemony over europe, and japan achieves the same in china and the rest of asia, and the british imperial preference system continues, then i think the us, a trading nation, is in a hard place.

i think any german regime with such objectives is a threat to the us. after the nazi regime is established and over time they reveal their foreign policy and racial views, and their actions in support thereof, then they move way up the us enemies list. i think this is independent of who the president is.

as for the ussr, it's kind of hard to believe these 'godless commies' as they were thought, were ever going to have a warm place is american hearts. but they did have a large army in contact with the german army which, after the fall of
the french army, did give them a special virtue. and of course, fdr was a wilsonian and much favored the idea of collective security based upon the strength of the us, ussr, gb and china. but this one may or may not be independent of the president and party in power. but there was no publicly debated alternative at the time.