The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #120753   Message #2629479
Posted By: Skivee
11-May-09 - 09:09 PM
Thread Name: BS: What if Stalin had lived 10 years longer
Subject: RE: BS: What if Stalin had lived 10 years longer
Peter and Wolfgang...errrrps. You are correct, sir. I need new glasses.
On the other hand, the implied idea that broad capitalist interests in the US engineered the conflicts with the Japanese and Germans is a bit broad. The great depression was fading years before we were sucked into the conflict.
The Nazis were building ties WITH American industry as far back as the Early 30s. The support of Henry Ford, Charles Lindburgh, Joseph Kennedy for Nazi policies is well documented. It is less well known that many huge American companies forged bonds with them. Beyer and Sherling pharmacuticals, Standard Oil, Western Electric, Ford, Boeing were all doing business (just for a few examples, There were many more). Lots of folks in the higher strata of American society were far from viewing Hitler as an evil player.
If Hitler had not come along or had been killed in the vicious early internal intrigues of the party, It's quite possible that Heidrich would have followed a similar path. They were cut from the same cloth.
There's no doubt that capitalists made a lot of capital during the war, but that's not the same things as them working to start it.