The Final Crisis
Age of Total War
Fall 2005
The View from Number 10 Downing Street
Chamberlain told Parliament on
Oct. 3, 1938, he want to Munich to agree to a peaceful land transfer that the
Anglo-French team had already agreed to before Munich.
The crowning achievement that
this came without war.
Chamberlain then argued that his
settlement was better for the Czechs than Hitlers ultimatum.
More important it opened up the
possibility for disarmament.
Popular Opinion Following Munich
For those who wanted Peace, this
was the highlight following Munich.
Writers championed Chamberlain
as the peacemaker.
Those who supported Appeasement
believed that following Munich Hitler would be satisfied.
In this view, Hitler had enough.
The Opponents of Appeasement
Opponents thought that
Appeasement was a great defeat for Britain.
They felt that Britain had lost
the esteem of nations that believed in England.
Others argued that British
prestige also declined as a result of Munich.
Likewise, those who held those
views demanded a crash course in rearmament.
Planning for the Rest of Czechoslovakia
Hitler wanted more than what he
got after Munich.
Before he could solve the Polish
problem, He had to resolve the Czech problem.
Berlin sought to have the Poles
demand more.
Then encouraged the Hungarians
to make additional demands.
And then worked with Slovak
separatists to break with Prague.
The Second Czech Republic
Following Munich Emil Hacha
replaced Benes in Nov. 1938 as President.
The new components were Bohemia,
Moravia, Slovakia, and Carpatho-Ukraine.
The Germans encouraged the
Slovaks to break with Prague as well as the Carpatho-Ukrainians (or Ruthenians).
In this light, Emil Hacha is
invited to Berlin.
The Hacha-Hitler Meeting
During the early hours of March
15, Hacha was informed by Hitler that the Luftwaffe was ready to attack.
Hacha had a heart attack and was
revived.
He then signed over the rest of
the Czech state to the Germans.
Hitler went to Prague on March
16, declaring Bohemia-Moravia as a German protectorate.
He Broke His Word
Chamberlain realized that Hitler
could no longer be trusted.
He then had to find Allies.
Offered an alliance to Romania.
Particularly where and when
would Hitler stop?
If Russia was out
then who could
force Hitler to think of the possibility of fighting a two front war?
Poland was the answer.
With a Flick of a Cigarette
On March 31, 1939, Chamberlain
pledged support to Poland.
If Hitler threatened Poland.
Especially following the
occupation of the rest of the Czech state and the seizure of Memel.
The British now offered similar
agreements to Romania, Turkey, and Greece.
And pondered talks with Moscow.
Hitlers Response to the Anglo-Polish
Guarantee
Hitler renounced the
Anglo-German Naval Agreement (1935).
He also renounced the
German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact (1934).
Then he demanded a return of
Danzig to Germany.
An overland link to East
Prussia.
Poland join the Anti-COMINTERN
Pact.
The Situation in France
Yes, London forced France to
stand tall.
But the public was not it.
One of the questions heard in
Paris was Who wants to die for Danzig?
It was obvious that the publics
faith was not there.
It would be more ominous when
Hitler reaches an agreement with Stalin.
Did anyone want to stop Hitler?
A Slow Boat to Moscow
Chamberlain realized the only
way to eventually stop Hitler was to open a dialogue with Moscow.
An Anglo-French team was sent to
Moscow to negotiate with Stalin.
But all of the negotiators were
of lower level types.
One can argue that Chamberlain
was never serious.
A View From the Kremlin Heights
A least that is the view that
Stalin held.
One of his moves was to
eventually replace his architect of collective security, Maxim Litvinov as
Foreign Minister who was a Jew, with Molotov.
Molotov took a hard line, no
doubt with Stalins blessing.
Where is the alliance?
Where is the military
convention?
The Stumbling Block
The Soviets demanded access
through Poland.
Something the Poles would never
agree.
Warsaw would never accept
either.
Moscow was now looking to
Berlin.
Turning the tables on them.
Military Doctrine in Germany
Predated Hitler
Was
offensive
in nature
Innovative
in scope in military thought
Integration
of doctrine to political objectives of the state
Hitlers Grand Strategy
He wanted to restore German
military might.
By doing so Germany could regain
her lost territories.
Likewise, Germany could then
press for the acquisition or
Lebensraum at the expense of
Russia/Soviet Union.
To achieve his goal, he had to
have a rearmament program that would awe his enemies.
Lessons Learned from Defeat
The
Reichswehr
studied World War I.
They discovered they needed
Tanks and Artillery.
Despite Versailles, they never
lost the offensive spirit.
They worked on the Hutier
tactics developed late in World War I.
During the Weimar Republic the
army trained.
Trained in Russia.
German Rearmament Program
The Work of General Hans Von
Seeckt
He realized that horses and leg
infantry lacked the necessary stamina to continue prolonged movements.
He experimented with trucks
(motorization).
Later, in secret training
facilities in Russia, the Germans worked with tanks.
Worked on assaulting prepared
positions.
No need for prolonged Artillery
Fire.
Adopted the Hutier Tactics
developed earlier.
Hutier Tactics
Reduced time for artillery
fires.
Short preparatory fires were
used.
Assault troops brought forward
just before jumping off time.
Avoid enemy prepared positions.
Coordination of all arms (Combined
Arms) during the attack.
The limiting factor was mobility
and communications.
Hutier Tactics in Operation
Focus of Blitzkrieg
Directed against enemy C3I.
Breakthrough the enemy front and
race toward the enemys rear areas.
Present the illusion of
attacking everywhere.
Overload the enemys
intelligence network.
Use air power to disrupt enemy
forces moving forward.
Combined Attacks to cause
confusion.
Need to secure your own
communications.
The Work of Guderian
He studied all the British
theorists, Fuller may have had the most impact.
As a World War I Signals Officer
had a deep understanding of the importance of protecting communication nodes.
Thus the Germans had to destroy
their enemys command and control network.
He also placed a premium on
Combined Arms.
Hitlers Role
Hitler realized the importance
of Guderians work and ran with it.
He bypassed the Army Command
structure that blocked Guderian.
He pressed for more tanks and
troop carriers.
Guderian became Hitlers
favorite general (for a while).
The Rapprochement
Hitler was in a great hurry.
War was in the offing.
So was Stalin.
When Zhdanov asked for the
Anglo-French to send a military mission to Moscow.
And it went by a leisurely boat.
It said it all.
Stalin reached a trade agreement
with Berlin.
Opening the way for what
followed.
The World Was Shocked
Stalin believed that the West
was directing Hitler eastward at the Soviet Unions expense.
At least, that was his
interpretation from Munich.
So he would reach an accord with
Berlin.
Direct Hitler westward.
There Hitler would be drained.
But sometimes it doesnt work
out that way.
The Agreement
Both sides would refrain from
conflict.
Redefine borders and zones of
interest.
Including Finland and the Baltic
States.
Russia would have an interest in
Bessarabia, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.
And Poland would be divided
between the two.
What did Molotov then say:
Fascism is a matter of taste.
The British and French Respond
Once London received word of the
Nazi-Soviet Pact on August 23, 1939.
Chamberlain responded with the
Anglo-Polish Pact.
If Hitler attacked, then it
would be war.
Was Chamberlain sincere?
Was it a bluff?
Was Chamberlain tying to bluff
the greatest bluffer of all?
Roosevelt and the World Situation
FDR faced a serious problem in
taking an activist foreign policy.
One was the neutrality acts.
There were four of them passed
during the 1930s.
All designed to keep America out
of war.
By learning from the problems
learned from the World War.
The Merchants of Death
The prevailing view was that it
was the loans.
The sale of munitions that
amplified the problem and lead the US into the Great War.
This was partially the result of
the Nye Committee.
Named after Gerald P. Nye, U.S.
Senator from South Dakota who chaired the Senate Committee.
The Neutrality Acts
The First Neutrality
Act (1935) -
passed after Italy's attack on Ethiopia in May
1935, empowered the president, on finding a state of war, to declare an embargo
on arms shipments to the belligerents and to announce that U.S. citizens
traveling on belligerents' ships did so at their own risk.
The Second Neutrality
Act - The 1935 act was replaced by the
Neutrality Act of 1936 (February 29), which added a prohibition on extending
loans or credits to belligerents.
The Third Neutrality
Act - When the 1936 law expired, the
Neutrality Act of 1937 (May 1) included civil wars, empowered the president to
add strategic materials to the embargo list, and made travel by U.S. citizens on
belligerents' ships unlawful.
The Fourth Neutrality
Act - The Neutrality Act of 1939 (November
4) contained a "cash and carry" formula devised by Bernard M. Baruch.
Belligerents were again permitted to buy American arms and strategic materials,
but they had to pay cash and to transport the goods in their own ships
Roosevelt Faces a Troubled World
When Mussolini attacked Ethiopia
the President could not help the victim.
Later, when the isolationists
felt that there was a likelihood of war
then war credits were added before the
Spanish Civil War.
Not to hamper China
FDR did not
identify the war in China as a war.
But when war did breakout in
1939 the only alternative was Cash and Carry.
FDR and the Quarantine Speech
FDR tried to warn the nation of
the need to do something about foreign aggression.
He did this in Chicago on Oct.
5, 1937.
FDR was ahead of American public
opinion.
But then
others were not willing
to take that chance.
They were the American Firsters.
One of Early the Anti-Roosevelt Haters
This was John T. Flynn.
Who started out as a Roosevelt
supporter.
Earlier he had written for
New Republic, Harpers Weekly, and Colliers.
The his attitude shifted in 1936
by the results of the Nye Committee, since he wrote the reports for the
Munitions Committee.
He saw FDR as another Mussolini.
Why did Flynn Dislike Roosevelt?
He abhorred the regimentation of
the NRA.
He believed that Roosevelt was a
born militarist.
In September 1940 he helped form
the American First Committee.
Along with Robert E. Wood of
Sears, Charles Lindbergh, and worked closely with Burton K. Wheeler and Hamilton
Fish.
The Birth of the American First Committee
Much discussion had emerged
concerning the AFC.
Which was founded at Yale Law
School by R. Douglas Stuart Jr.
Gerald Ford and Potter Stewart
eventually joined even though they both left.
What did FDR do for this to cause
the birth of the AFC?
He proposed weakening the
Neutrality Laws
which concerned Stuart and others who argued that World War I
was a tragedy.
General Robert E. Wood of Sears
agreed to chair the AFC.
The Tenets of The American First Committee
The United States must build an
impregnable defense for America
No foreign power, nor group of
powers, can successfully attack a prepared America
American democracy can be
preserved only by keeping out of the European War
"Aid short of war" weakens
national defense at home and threatens to involve America in war abroad
Flynns Overarching View
Flynn played an important role
in the AFCs propaganda campaign.
He argued: "The Last War
Brought: Communism to Russia, Fascism to Italy, Nazism to Germany. What Will
Another War Bring To America?
Even Charles Coughlin supported
the AFC in his Social Justice.
American First and Anti-Semitism
Charles Lindbergh, a militant
member of the AFC, made an inflammatory speech in Des Moines, Iowa.
He claimed: three most
important groups who have been pressing this country toward war are the British,
the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration.
But so did Gerald Nye who added
that the Jewish people are a large factor in our movement toward war.
These speeches led some to
consider the AFC anti-Semitic in scope, but was it?
Growth of the AFC
The AFC got their message out
via speeches and publications.
Soon there were over 450
chapters.
And the membership rolls reached
800,000.
But then
so when the war broke
out on December 7, 1941, the organization went out of business.
George Santayana Dictum
Santayana once said those who
forget the past will be forced to relieve it.
The real lesson
of Appeasement may be those who most vividly remember the past are the ones most
likely condemned to repeat historys mistakes.