Steve,

You make some good points and Rustic Rebel raises what he sees as another parallel. I will give you another.

After subverting power in 1933, it was obvious to every major power in Europe (Britain, France, Italy and Russia) that Germany was in clear material breach of the Peace Treaty it had signed in 1919. At the time (1933) great faith was placed in an International Organisation called The League of Nations to resolve such matters. Throughout Europe lone voices were raised, providing dire warnings of what would follow if no action was taken - those warnings were studiously ignored. Countries still numbed by the cost and suffering of the previous war chose the path of peace at any price, to the lone warning voices they demanded - "Where is your proof" - denigrating those raising concern and labelling them "warmongers". As events unfolded the individual powerful states of Europe did nothing, as they did nothing The League of Nations did nothing.

Nazi Germany re-occupied the Rhineland - another material breach that went unchallenged.

Nazi Germany annexed Austria - another material breach that went unchallenged

The Sudatenland was annexed, swiftly followed by the invasion of Czechoslovakia. I hate to correct Mr. Hartman but it was this incident in 1938, not the Annexation of Austria in 1936, that prompted the Munich Crisis that resulted in Mr. Chamberlain return to London with his "piece of paper" in his hand. Hitler was absolutely livid - he needed his war in the west that year - thankfully, for the entire world, he didn't get it, because in 1938 he would have won.

By now, finally, the French, the British and the Russians were alert to the danger.

Stalin was in the middle of a purge of the most capable senior officers in the Red Army, a move he would bitterly regret later, factories used to produce T-34 and KV-1 tanks were relocated east of the Ural mountains, out of German eyes and reach.

France started to re-arm, unfortunately, and typically, putting their faith on the static defences based on First World War thinking.

In Britain, Neville Chamberlain's government rapidly re-equipped the Royal Air Force's fighter command, pushed ahead the development of RADAR, reserve and auxiliary units were created in order to train pilots, soldiers and seamen, the Royal Naval Corps of constructors were asked to design convoy escorts that could be built quickly and cheaply, the development of ASDIC was accelerated. Unfortunately in their haste to prepare, they did not dust of the cover of a book written in the early twenties by a British Army Major, Basil Liddell-Hart - others had read his book - General Charles de Gaulle in France, but more significantly General Heinz Guderian in Germany and a Soviet Commander who had survived Stalin's purge Georgy Zhukov. The latter would end up as Germany's nemesis.

Nazi-Germany noted these preparations and tried to counter them diplomatically. His master-stroke was the German- Russian Non-aggression Pact, that isolated Britain and France. Hitler then proceeded to attain the re-unification of East Prussia with his greater Reich. That involved eliminating the "Polish Corridor" the French and British informed Ribbentropp, Hitler's Foreign Minister that any attack on Poland would result in war. Hitler arranged his retaliatory strike on Poland - Another clear material breach, and at last two major powers in Europe acted unilaterally, without the sanction of the League of Nations, issued an ultimatum and declared war on Germany.

Had either Britain, or France, acted with regard to Germany in 1933 in the manner that the current President of the United States and his government has acted with regard to Saddam Hussein in Iraq - There would have been no Second World War in 1939.