If the GOP had successfully made a deal with Hitler to avoid WWII, who would be in charge now?

[onehandle]

Poll question: If the GOP had successfully made a deal with Hitler to avoid WWII, who would be in charge now?

I just watched Countdown from last night and Keith mentioned the Fact that Republicans thought we could make a deal with Hitler.

[KansDem]

1. Ich weiss nicht...

Warum hast du das gefragt?

[shraby]

2. we'd be speaking the German language by now.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. Read The Man in the High Castle (1962) by Philip K. Dick...

...and then read Farnham's Freehold (1964) by Robert Heinlein.

The first gives you an excedlent view of that what if proposition. The second is mostly for theory of Lifeboat politics.

We would be speaking Americanish right now and pursuing pre WWII isolationist policies, but there would have been no Equal Rights act of 1958 or 1964. And, most likley, civil rights would have led to another civil war or. more likely, intifada. The U.S. would be, at best, a second rate nation, and not a world power that faced down the Soviets over the ruins of the Third Reich. Without the U.S. to take German attention from the Russian Front, they would likely have won there before invading England, and putting that War Criminal, Chruchill, on trial for crimes against humanity. Germany and Japan would be the Great world powers that would fight for surpemacy.

Israel would not exist in any form, and Jews would live as far away form Europe and North Africa as possible.

[Ganja Ninja]

4. A Bush.

I'm surprised you had to ask.

[OutNow]

5. Not Accurate - Germany wasn't the initial problem for USA

We seem to forget that US involvement in WWII was initiated by Japan not Germany. After Pearl Harbor the USA declared war on Japan, and Germany (part of the AXIS Powers) then declared war on the USA. The GOP was not happy with this sequence (ie. old man Bush was actively trading with Nazi Germany) but had no way to stop our entry into the European theater of war at that point.

In any case, many of the same corporate powers that controlled the economy then still control the economy now.

[jobycom]

6. If Olbermann said that, he's being a bit disingenuous. Liberals like Upton Sinclair and JFK

wanted that, too.

The largest group of war protesters were the America First Committee, which comprised Republicans, Democrats, Socialists, and those harder to classify. Famous members included Gerald Ford, Upton Sinclair, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles Lindbergh, Gore Vidal, Father Coughlin, and a range of politicians across the spectrum. JFK sent a note of support and a donation to the group.

Many of the members of the group opposed Hitler, and wanted to stay out of the war because they believed it did not concern the US. Others hated Roosevelt and sided with Hitler for his business stand, while hating what Hitler was doing to the Jews (not that the full extent of his actions were known yet). Charles Lindbergh, for instance, opposed our entry and even visited Hitler and received the Iron Cross from him, but when speaking here often condemned Hitler, saying only that he wanted to avoid the war because it was not in our best interests.

There were a lot of people on the other side of the issue, too, from all across the political spectrum. One interesting voice was Woody Guthrie, who wrote many songs calling for us to get involved, and condemning Nazis and fascism. That's what the saying on his guitar literally meant--he wanted us to get involved in WW II and kill Nazis. The saying wasn't as metaphorical as it is in its use today. Google his song "Lindbergh" for a contemporary opinion of the America First group.

It was a complicated issue at the time. Some people still argue that America First kept us out of the war long enough to let the Soviet Union get involved and take the brunt of the force, so that by the time of our involvement we were stronger and better prepared, and our casualties were minimized because we avoided a conflict that was only of peripheral interest to us. I think that's a weak claim, but some still make it.

So there was a wide mix of people who opposed the war, and for various reasons. Saying only that the GOP wanted to make a deal with Hitler is misleading.

[TygrBright]

7. Halliburton. It would still be Halliburton, the American subsidiary of IG Farbenindustrie. n/t