tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6666208467022745303.post4616145772336096104..comments2024-03-13T02:17:39.644-07:00Comments on Restating the Obvious: Some not so obvious opinionsHarry Eagarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04196202758858876402noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6666208467022745303.post-3573633797573888572013-05-11T21:09:25.159-07:002013-05-11T21:09:25.159-07:001. The United States had no impact on the outcome ...<i>1. The United States had no impact on the outcome of the war in Europe. The British pinned the Germans and then the Reds beat them, but before the US became a combatant,. </i><br /><br />That ignores that without the US, Hitler would not have been fighting a two front war. Germany had to divert significant resources to North Africa, and defending itself from US bombers. It also ignores the Battle of the Atlantic; without the US, Britain would have had to settle.<br /><br />Puzzlingly, you neglected to mention the effect that the purges, pestilential political commissars, and Stalin's disregard of England's clear warnings of impending attack had on the Soviet Army's nearly catastrophic failures at the beginning of Barbarossa.<br /><br /><i>2. It was reasonable for the USSR to occupy the former aggressive fascist states for its future security. </i><br /><br />Even if one grant that assumption, how is it that Poland or Czechoslovakia count as fascist states? Moreover, how is it possible to distinguish that excuse from the first steps towards an eventual communist Europe?<br /><br /><i>3. The Bolsheviks were, unlike the tsars, not militarily aggressive. Between their defeat before Warsaw in 1920 and invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the Red Army showed great reluctance to step outside its own borders. Only pressure from aggressive fascist states got it to do so. </i> <br /><br />Keeping in mind that the difference between communism and fascism is vanishingly small, Germany and the USSR were trapped in a Hobbesian security dilemma. <br /><br /><i>4. Although the Bolsheviks would happily have subverted as many countries as they could manage (or what else was the Comintern for?), they were unwilling to export communism by military force. </i><br /><br />Yet they were perfectly happy to use it in Eastern Europe (Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Wall), and they maintained a gigantic military establishment in Eastern Europe.<br /><br />Without the US, the USSR could have relentlessly intimidated Western Europe. Once you get to that, the American Cold War narrative makes all the sense in the world.<br /><br />Hey Skipperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10798930502187234974noreply@blogger.com