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From: "B. Rice Aston" <>
Subject: [[SAR-TALK]] Fw: Why Fight a War
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 12:22:55 -0600

Re: email Friday, March 28
Subject: Why Fight A War

Compatriots,

FYI

Rice Aston


1927 - Munich, September 30, 1938 - December 7, 1941 - December 11, 1941
From 1927 to December 7, 1941 the winds of world war blew stronger every
month. Yet, many, perhaps a majority of Americans, especially the American
First Organization, saw no threat to America from Hitler, Mussolini, or
Tojo. This credulity ended with the disaster at Pearl Harbor on December
7, 1941 and the declaration of war by Germany and Italy against American
four days later.

Peace-loving people buckled under to the bullying tactics of Japan as it
violated the League of Nations charter and occupied Manchuria in 1933 and
raped Nanking in 1937-1938 ; to Italy as it invaded Ethiopia in 1935; and
to Germany as it ripped up the Treaty of Versailles, rearmed, annexed
Austria, and threatened war unless its demands for Czechoslovakian
territory were satisfied

Desperately trying to avoid a European war, Britain's prime minister,
Neville Chamberlain, flew to Germany three times in order to persuade
Hitler not to use force to achieve his goals. Czechoslovakia was
sacrificed, but it appeared Chamberlain’s efforts were crowned with success .

Neville Chamberlain: “Peace in Our Time” Statement
30 September, 1938
"We, the German Fuehrer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister,
have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the
question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for two
countries and for Europe.

"We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval
Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war
with one another again.

"We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method
adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two
countries, and we are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible
sources of difference, and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe."
Chamberlain read this statement to a cheering crowd in front of 10 owning
St. and said:
“My good friends this is the second time in our history that there has come
back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace
in our time."
At first, newsmen lauded a peace that had been "achieved," but they
eventually realized from Munich came the sacrifice of Czechoslovakia,
temporary peace, and World War II.

Generals Beck, former Chief of Army German General Staff, and Hadler,
Chief of Army German General Staff, believed the Munich effort would drag
Germany into a war it could not win. It is generally accepted that in the
fall of 1938 Hitler would have survived an armed conflict for only a few
days. General Jodly declared at the Nuremburg trial:
“It was entirely out of the question, with five fighting divisions and
seven armored divisions in the western fortification, which was nothing but
a large construction site, to keep 100 French divisions at bay.”
German General Jodl wrote in his diary:
“The Pact of Munich is signed. Czechoslovakia as a power is out…the genius
of the Fueherer and his detrmination not to shun even a Warld War have
again won the victory…”
The prescient warning of Winston Churchill has proved more enduring over
time. In the ensuing debate over the Munich Agreement, he told the House of
Commons:
"We has sustained a total and unmitigated defeat…We hare in the midst of
a disaster of the first magnitude… And do not suppose that this is the end.
This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This . . . is the foretaste of
a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme
recovery of moral health and moral vigor, we rise again and take our stand
for freedom as in olden time."
Hitler now had nothing but contempt for Chamberlain and Dadlier, speaking
to his generals he referred to them as “little worms.”

One year later Churchill’s dire prediction came to pass and the world was
plunged into the most devastating war in history and Chamberlain resigned
in disgrace.

The America First Movement

A lot of people in the America First movement believed that entry in World
War I was a mistake which should not be repeated. Their core beliefs
were that World War II was not our war, that we should not come to the aid
of England, France, Poland, Russia, Holland, Belgium, Ethiopia, Greece,
Yugoslovia, or Czechoslovakia, and that Hitler, Mussolini, or Hideiki Tojo
no threat to America. This group Included Charles A. Lindbergh, former
president Herbert Hoover, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., Henry Ford.

Several leading war resisters were members of the United States Senate and
among them was the cantankerous Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota. The war
resisters in the Senate and the House pushed for legislation prohibiting
the export of arms to any power at war and authorizing the president to
prohibit people from traveling on the ships of nations at war, and their
bill, the Neutrality Act of 1935, passed in both the Senate and the House
of Representatives. The Bill was in tune with public opinion for many
Americans believed we should not be involved and should not provide aid to
either side. Other neutrality acts followed: 1936 no loans to either side
and 1937 “cash and carry” sale of goods (no guns).

Many Americans admired Hitler and Mussolini, Hitler because he rejuvenated
Germany, and Mussolini because “he made the trains run on time.”

The anti-war group was described as “non-interventionists” and their
beliefs doggedly persisted among many, perhaps a majority of Americans,
even as these revealing events began to unfold:

Background

1927 The Weimar Republic paramilitary organizations membership reaches two
million.

1931 Japan attacks Manchuria and it is renamed Manchuko and becomes a
puppet state of Japan.

1932-1934 Geneva Conference proposes disarmament, Germany rearms and
withdraws from the conference and the League of Nations.

1933 - Hitler is elected leader of the Nazi party. The League of Nations
does not respond to Japanese occupation of Manchuria because Japan has
withdrawn from the League of Nations.

1934 Mussolini became Fascist dictator of Italy.

October 1935 - Mussolini attacks Ethiopia and Italy withdraws from the
League of Nations.

1937-1938 - The rape of Nanking

April 10, 1938 German annexed Austria.

September 30, 1938 Munich pact in which German takes over the Sudetenland
from Czechoslovakia.

November 9, 1938 the notorious “Kristal Nacht” during which Jewish shop
windows are smashed, Jewish shops, homes, and synagogues looted, destroyed
and burned, and 20,000-30,000 Jews taken to concentration camps.

March 14, 1939 German annexes the rest of Czechoslovakia

The Non-interventionist debate Accelerates

September 1, 1939 German troops invade Poland. Great Britain and France
declare war on Germany. The anti-interventionist debate began in earnest.

September 28, 1939 Poland is partitioned between German and Soviet Russia.

In Oct, 1939 - Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany.

May 7, 1940 Neville Chamberlain resigned in disgrace.

May 10, 1940 The German Blitzkrieg begins as Rotterdam and other Dutch
cities are attacked from the air. By the end of the month, Holland and
Belgium had surrendered and the evacuation of French and English troops
from Dunkirk had begun.

June 14, 1940 German troops enter Paris and a French appeal for U.S. aid
is declined.

January 6, 1941 Contrary to widespread isolationist sentiment, President
Roosevelt recommends a Lend-Lease program that will provide U.A. aid to allies.

April 5, 1941 Greece and Yugoslavia are invaded by German troops.

June 22, 1941 German troops invade Soviet Russia.

Sept 1, 1941 - Nazis order Jews to wear yellow stars.
Sept 3, 1941 - First experimental use of gas chambers at Auschwitz

September 4, 1941. A German U-boat tries, but is unable, to sink the U.SS
Greer.

September, 11, 1941 - US freighter "Montana" sunk en route to Iceland, none
killed.

Sept. 19, 1941 - armed US-Panama freighter "Pink Star" sunk en route to
Iceland with cargo of food

September 4, 1941. The U-562 finds the battleship Texas between
Newfoundland and Greenland. The U-boat commander assumes that the Texas is
under lendlease to England, attacks her. Torpedoes and depth charges are
exchanged, but none find their target.

Sept. 27 - US-Panamanian oil tanker "I.C. White" sunk en route to South
Africa, 3 killed

September 29, 1941 - Nazis murder 33,771 Jews at Kiev.

Oct. 16 - US tanker "W.C. Teagle" sunk and U.S.-Panama freighter "Bold
Venture" sunk

Oct. 17 - US destroyer "Kearny" torpedoed and damaged with 11 killed inside
Security Zone

Oct. 19 - U.S. freighter "Lehigh" sunk in South Atlantic

Oct. 30 - U.S.-Panama armed tanker "Salinas" torpedoed and damaged

Oct 31 - U.S. destroyer "Reuben James" sunk inside Security Zone, 115

Nov 20, 1940 - Hungary joins Axis Powers, Rumania joins November 23, and
Solvokia November 25.

November 26, 1940. The Governor General of the Belgian Congo declares a
state of war exists with Italy.


The anti-war debate concludes

Dec 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese and the debate over
non-intervention ceased.

December 11, 1941 Germany and Italy declare war on America

Munich had proved to Hitler that neither Britain nor France would oppose
his appetite for territory. The last great opportunity to avoid WW2 had
passed and the world was aflame with war.



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• [[SAR-TALK]] Fw: Why Fight a War by "B. Rice Aston" <>