[lit-ideas] FW: Re: Quote from Allan Bullock's book

  • From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "lit-ideas" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2005 14:06:52 -0500

This isn't to suggest that this is the only answer.  Like with all of
history, it depends on which historian you ask.  This is Bullock's
explanation.  



> [Original Message]
> From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: lit-ideas <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 12/24/2005 1:30:18 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Quote from Allan Bullock's book
>
> According to Bullock's book (Bill tells me) Hitler's plan was to expand
> Germany eastward, into Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, Soviet Union,
> conquer them, settle them with Germans and enslave the native populations,
> as well as take their resources, becaause that was the logical direction
in
> which to expand.  It's apparently all set out in Mein Kampf, his blueprint
> written in the 1920's.  An analogy might be, say, Thomas Jefferson's
buying
> the Louisiana Purchase, making a greater United States.  Hitler was
> expanding into a greater Germany.  Britain did it by creating colonies. 
> Hitler was essentially doing 19th century empire building coupled with
19th
> century social Darwinism.  He moved eastward because there were already
> more Germans there than, say, in France.  There's a very sane logic to
> annexing, as it were, Austria, Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland), Poland,
> the countries that already had a lot of Germans. The countries Hitler was
> targeting called for help from the Allies and the rest is WWII.   Mixed in
> there of course, is ethnic hatred of Slavs, Jews, Gypsies, etc.  Not much
> love in wanting to enslave populations.  
>
> Interestingly, both Hitler and Stalin had clear, precise visions from the
> very beginning of their careers.  They could have written today's
> management books on how to set and achieve goals.  Stalin apparently knew
> or suspected Hitler's plans (one maniac knows another) and said Hitler
will
> invade us.  That he killed his generals will not appear in the management
> books.  One might argue (my opinion) that by forcibly democratizing Iraq
> Bush is acting on 19th century values, but unlike Hitler and Stalin, with
> no planning aforethought.
>
>
>
> > [Original Message]
> > From: david ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Date: 12/24/2005 12:28:40 PM
> > Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Quote from Allan Bullock's book
> >
> >
> > On Dec 24, 2005, at 8:49 AM, Andy Amago wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Page 571 from Allan Bullock's, Hitler and Stalin, a quote.  Bill  
> > > read it to me.
> > >
> > > "On one occasion, July 2, [1938, during the planning of the  
> > > invasion of Czechoslovakia] when Ribbentrop was lunching with  
> > > Hitler in Munich, the arrival of a British emissary was announced.   
> > > Hitler started up and said: 'Gott im Himmel!  Don't let him in  
> > > yet.  I am still in a good humor.'  He then proceeded, in front of  
> > > his staff, to work himself up until his face darkened, he was  
> > > breathing heavily, and his eyes were glazed.  His reception of the  
> > > Englishman was so stormy that it was clearly audible through the  
> > > door to those still sitting at the lunch table.  When he had  
> > > finished, Hitler returned, wiping his brow.  'Gentlemen,' he said  
> > > with a chuckle, 'I need tea.  He thinks I'm furious.'"
> >
> > I'm dipping into a book of essays by military historians.  Last  
> > night's reading was an essay by John Keegan on how Hitler might have  
> > won.  I learned something--that Hitler, at one point in the summer of  
> > 1941, decided to demobilize thirty five infantry divisions.  Alas  
> > there are no footnotes, but if Keegan says it, I'll trust that he's  
> > right.
> >
> > Now I'm chewing over Keegan's suggested strategy, which rises from  
> > the standard analysis of why Hitler launched operation Barbarossa: to  
> > get oil and to get Stalin.  Keegan argues that a more rational  
> > leader--and there's the rub--might have seen that he could eventually  
> > achieve both objections by seizing middle eastern oil fields.  How?
> >
> > Route one would be to send Rommel from North Africa, through Egypt  
> > and Transjordan towards Kuwait and Basra and Baghdad.  As we know,  
> > the British would prove a stubborn obstacle here.
> >
> > Route two is more interesting--skipping the invasion of Crete and  
> > sending the 7th Airborn Division instead to Cyprus and thence through  
> > Lebanon and Syria to Mosul and Baghdad.  Keegan concludes that this  
> > was impossible because the Axis had insufficient shipping in the  
> > Mediterranean.
> >
> > The route he thinks might have won the war is an invasion from  
> > Bulgaria, through Istanbul to Baku, Tehran and Mosul, with Abadan as  
> > a final target.  He concedes that the Turks would have fought hard in  
> > response to this violation of their neutrality, but, he argues, their  
> > equipment was all First World War era stuff.  And his point is that  
> > there was no way for the Allies to respond to such a move.  If Hitler  
> > had used the twenty divisions he sent to invade Russia, it is  
> > Keegan's view that a) he would have succeeded and b) he would have  
> > secured oil that would have made possible a subsequent campaign to  
> > seize Russian oil fields and hence to paralyze Stalin's army.
> >
> > It's all "would haves" and "ifs," but since everyone is looking at  
> > these maps nowadays, it's not impossible to try the notion out.
> >
> > I remember "Six Characters" quite well, but I can't think of anything  
> > interesting to say about it.
> >
> > David Ritchie
> > not grinding lamb or cleaning house in
> > Portland, Oregon
> > >
> >
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