Name: Anonymous 2010-06-23 1:03
Class,
After grading the finals, there's one observation I find myself compelled to make, as I don't get to see you all again as a class:
A number of students indicated that the United States fought World War II primarily, or at least in part, to stop Germany and/or Japan from spreading communism.
The problem with that is that neither Nazi Germany nor Imperial Japan were communist countries. In fact, there was only ONE communist country among the major players in World War II, and that was the Soviet Union, who was ALLIED TO THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DURATION OF AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT IN THE WAR. Yes, I know that the full original name of Hitler's Nazi party was the National Socialist Workers Party. I also know, however, that when Hitler took over that party in the 1920s, he purged it of all socialists, eliminated socialism from all of its official platforms, and modeled its policies after the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini in Italy. What's more, Hitler, once he came to power in Germany, established a fascist system which rigidly opposed communism, and rounded up and imprisoned or executed most German communists, and one of the many reasons he chose to invade the Soviet Union in 1941 was because he considered communism a threat to Germany. At one time he entertained the belief that he could make peace with Great Britain and the U.S. by convincing them that the Soviet Union, as a communist nation intent on spreading its revolution around the world, was a greater threat and the U.S. and Great Britain should join the Germans in fighting the Russians. This never happened, because, well, Hitler was an evil bastard who we were never going to make peace with and who was seen as by far the greater threat, and also because, well, THE UNITED STATES WAS NOT FIGHTING WORLD WAR II BECAUSE OF COMMUNISM IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM. Not even a little bit. Let me be clear: There is NO interpretation of World War II in which American war aims against Germany, Italy and Japan could be described as fighting communism, BECAUSE NONE OF THOSE COUNTRIES WERE COMMUNIST. Not even a little bit. Not at all. No. NO NO NO NO NO. AFTER World War II ended, the U.S. turned its attention to stopping the spread of Soviet-led communism during the Cold War, but this is an entirely separate conflict.
I swear my head is going to explode.
Have a nice summer, folks.
Prof. X
P.S. Hoovervilles were not built by Hoover.
After grading the finals, there's one observation I find myself compelled to make, as I don't get to see you all again as a class:
A number of students indicated that the United States fought World War II primarily, or at least in part, to stop Germany and/or Japan from spreading communism.
The problem with that is that neither Nazi Germany nor Imperial Japan were communist countries. In fact, there was only ONE communist country among the major players in World War II, and that was the Soviet Union, who was ALLIED TO THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DURATION OF AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT IN THE WAR. Yes, I know that the full original name of Hitler's Nazi party was the National Socialist Workers Party. I also know, however, that when Hitler took over that party in the 1920s, he purged it of all socialists, eliminated socialism from all of its official platforms, and modeled its policies after the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini in Italy. What's more, Hitler, once he came to power in Germany, established a fascist system which rigidly opposed communism, and rounded up and imprisoned or executed most German communists, and one of the many reasons he chose to invade the Soviet Union in 1941 was because he considered communism a threat to Germany. At one time he entertained the belief that he could make peace with Great Britain and the U.S. by convincing them that the Soviet Union, as a communist nation intent on spreading its revolution around the world, was a greater threat and the U.S. and Great Britain should join the Germans in fighting the Russians. This never happened, because, well, Hitler was an evil bastard who we were never going to make peace with and who was seen as by far the greater threat, and also because, well, THE UNITED STATES WAS NOT FIGHTING WORLD WAR II BECAUSE OF COMMUNISM IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM. Not even a little bit. Let me be clear: There is NO interpretation of World War II in which American war aims against Germany, Italy and Japan could be described as fighting communism, BECAUSE NONE OF THOSE COUNTRIES WERE COMMUNIST. Not even a little bit. Not at all. No. NO NO NO NO NO. AFTER World War II ended, the U.S. turned its attention to stopping the spread of Soviet-led communism during the Cold War, but this is an entirely separate conflict.
I swear my head is going to explode.
Have a nice summer, folks.
Prof. X
P.S. Hoovervilles were not built by Hoover.