In the reading Hitler lists off the reasons why he thinks Great Britain and America should not of entered the war against Germany. His thoughts were that Great Britain should have been Germany's ally and that the U.S. had no real reason to enter the war (please note, this is a quick paraphrase and more detail can be found in the reading). Do you personally believe that these ideas, Great Britain alliance and U.S. neutrality, where reasonable? After this, Hitler would later add a postscript predicting the Cold War. If it is true that Hitler had such great political knowledge that he could foresee the Cold war, why could he not of guessed before the war that Great Britain and the U.S. would side against Germany.
The question for you is; why do you think that Hitler was wrong in his assumptions about G.B. and the U.S, but right about the Cold War?
I think that Hitler was wrong in his assumptions about Great Britain and the United States because, like we've said before, hindsight is 20/20 and it's much easier to judge situations when you're not involved. Hitler knew his time was through so he could see a clearer picture of the world because he knew he would no longer be involved. Before WWII he was just concerned with his agenda and only believed what he wanted to.
ReplyDeleteI think Hitler didn't see it coming because he didn't want to. Honestly he must have known The US and GB would enter or could enter but he didn't want to believe that. Plus in his defence he didn't know how powerful the US could be, he underestimated them and thats pry what slapped him in the face the most. I think Hitler avoided thinking about the US and GB because he could pry predict something bad so he just pushed those thoughts aside, which in the end pry hurt him more.
ReplyDeleteI think Hitler was definitely wrong about Great Britain being Germany's ally. Essentially, what Britain was interested in after World War 1 was maintaining peace, and Hitler consistently took advantage of this. Stalin wanted an alliance with Great Britain in 1938 against Germany and they turned him down, trying to avoid the pattern that led to World War 1. They appeased Hitler at Munich that same year and let him get away with a lot of breaches of the Treaty of Versailles. Regardless of this "benefit of the doubt" type gesture from Great Britain, Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 and started another global conflict. Great Britain was basically stabbed in the back and it would be ridiculous to assume that they would want to be Germany's ally. Also, Britain was traditionally an ally of France and the United States, both of which were being threatened by Axis powers, and they just were not stupid enough to join the side opposed by the United States. Like we discussed in class, the United States war production was double all of the Axis powers' combined. No one in their right mind would want to oppose that. Hitler was also a little confused if he thought the United States needed to stay neutral. First of all, right or wrong, U.S. imperialistic aims were going to cause conflict with Japan at some point. And regardless, Hitler should've understood that the U.S. was not going to sit back and let him put all of Europe under a dictatorship. We're much too power hungry for that business.
ReplyDeleteI think there are two major reasons why Hitler's realization of the Cold War, but not of Great Britain's and the United States' choices not to ally themselves with Hitler (or at least become neutral), comes down to two reasons. First, nobody is correct all of the time. One successful prediction does not assure another. It may suggest it, but it doesn't make it certain. Secondly, Hitler was not going to be immediately and directly influenced by the Cold War- he was going to be affected by the US and GB's stance towards Nazi Germany. The stance of a neutral observer might have eliminated bias that obscured his views about the US and GB.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Evan wholeheartedly. It is not unreasonable that Hitler was wrong once and right once, it happens. However, it is kinda nuts how he thought that GB would have sided with Germany. It boils down to who you're allied with, and GB was allied with Germany's enemies. I guess I could see how Hitler would think that the US would stay out at first glance, but he should have looked more into US trade.
ReplyDeleteI think that Hitler was brilliant. But I dont really think that he can be right all of the time as seen by his thoughts about GB. I dont really understand the logic of this, i mean like Kaylan said GB was allied with German enemies and GB is not just going to drop its allies and side with germany its just not how things work. As for the cold war i think that that was pretty good thinking. We can look back now and think that everyone should have seen it coming but in reality it was a genious thought.
ReplyDeleteI think Hitler was good at judging the big picture kind of stuff as it related to the world, so he was able to make an accurate guess about the Cold War. However, the more involved and invested he was in something, the harder I think it was for him to make a good prediction. He wanted Germany to win so bad, and didn't reallythink they could lose, so I think that distorted his views on Britain and the US.
ReplyDeleteAs Katie said, Hitler's view of his own country was skewed by what he chose to believe. At times, he would flat-out ignore the advice of his military commanders because what they were telling him didn't fit his glorified view of Germany. I completely agree with Kaitlyn's analysis of relations between GB and Germany. GB had no reason to trust or side with Hitler. Additionally, what Kaylan pointed out about the U.S.'s trade involvement with GB is very important.
ReplyDeleteI think that Hitler was able to predict into the future because it didn't necessarily relate to his plans for Germany at that time. He was being entirely truthful and honest about what he was thinking, and wasn't being bias in any way. However, when he was thinking about Great Britain and the U.S., he wanted GB to be his ally, so he believed that they would be. He chose to ignore the obvious facts that GB was allied with Germany's enemies, so GB and Germany couldn't be allies, because he wanted it to happen how he had it planned out in his head.
ReplyDeleteI think Hitler couldn't forsee US involvement and British alliance because it would mean direct opposition to his plans. At that point the notion of him failing wasn't an option, so of course two major powers opposing him wouldn't have been in the plans. The cold war didn't involve a ruling Germany, and he made that prediction after he had fallen, so it wasn't as tainted as the earlier prediction.
ReplyDeleteHitler was great at seeing the "big picture," as we said in class the other day. He could probably sense the tensions between democracy and communinism - aka the western ally powers vs. Russia. Besides that, it probably wasn't that difficult for Hitler to sense the oncoming Cold War. However, when it comes to what was happening around him at the time, he thought Britain would join him because they'd been so appeasing all along, and since Hitler obviously thought he would win, maybe he thought others thought Germany would win too, and he assumed Britain would want to be on the "winning" side. Also, everyone hated communism, which Hitler was fighting, so maybe he thought a common "enemy" would bring them together. He also thought the US would remain neutral because they'd already adopted a policy of neutrality. Honestly, he was going off things that were already happening. It's not that strange that he would expect the US to stay out of it, or even that Great Britain would join Germany.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with most in that it was not so abormal that Hitler was wrong about one thing. I mean he had his plan in mind and I think as far as GB was concerned their alliance with the US would have interfered so he did not want to look at it. He was focused on his plans and as we all do when we have plans we assume that's how ti will play out. But the cold war he did not full control so it was not really considered a prediciton.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kate's view on this. I think Hitler was so obsessed with success that he chose to ignore the signs of US involvement and British alliance, because without ignoring it he would have had to recognize the crumbling of his plans. This was not an option for him. I think Hitler was able to correctly predict the Cold War because Germany was the main focus. Hitler was an extremely intelligent individual, but when it came to making plans for his country, I think pride blocked his sense of reason.
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