My Amazon Review of Richard Overy's "Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945"

 

A Long Slog

 

Reading “Blood and Ruins” is a long slog vaguely reminiscent of the German Army’s long retreat from Stalingrad to Berlin from 1943-1945. Richard Overy, a distinguished British historian, has written an encyclopedic history of World War II which he rightly starts with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. However, with the book running 1040 pages in the print version, it is way too long for the average lay reader interested in the history of that time.

 

He makes up excuses for German, Italian and Japanese aggression in arguing that they were frozen out of the international trading system by colonial preferences of the British and the French. Other countries were frozen out, but they did not start aggressive wars. He also argues that the British and French motivations were to preserve their empires. True, but they were also out to save their own necks in Europe.

 

Overy is a distinguished historian, and I am the rankest of amateurs. Nevertheless, I think he wrong on two major points. He characterizes Chamberlain’s appeasement policy as “containment.” Give me a break. If it were a containment policy, it failed disastrously. He refuses to characterize Soviet Russia as an imperial power. That is flat out wrong. Starting with the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact the goal of the Soviets was to create an empire in Eastern Europe which they succeeded in implementing with the advancing Red Army. He also ignores that the Soviets had designs on the West with the Communist parties it controlled. In many respects the Soviets were as much as an aggressor as Hitler.

 

Where Overy shines is his discussion of the horrors of the Pacific war and life under the Japanese occupation. Having known someone who fought in the Battle of Tarawa as a 17-year-old Marine, Overy brings that battle to life. He is also correct in noting that the war resulted in ending the imperial system that had to give way to new nation states in Africa and Asia.

 

There is much in this book, but as I noted at the outset, it is a slog.

For the full amazon URL see: A Long Slog (amazon.com)

My Amazon Review of William Walker's "Danzig:A Novel of Political Intrigue"

To Die for Danzig

Cameron Watt in his “How War Came” devotes an entire chapter to Danzig: “Hitler Steps up the Pressure: “Die for Danzig.”” The events in William Walker’s book occur prior to 1939; more specifically the period between 1934 -1936 when Sean Lester was the League of Nations High Commissioner for the “free city” of Danzig. Walker places Danzig at the fulcrum of the growing struggle between Hitler and the rest of Europe.

The mostly German city of Danzig (pop. 400,000) was established by the Treaty of Versailles as a “free city” that would give Poland an outlet to the Baltic Sea. Today it is the Polish city of Gdansk. The League of Nations was responsible for maintaining its constitutional safeguards which would have worked well in more harmonious times, but with the rise of Hitler the German majority of the city moved sharply in the direction of the NDSAP (Nazi Party) thereby creating a crisis for the League.

Although this is far from the best written historical novel Walker integrates the actions of some very real people with his protagonist, Paul Muller an upper-class League diplomat of Swiss-English parents.  In the novel he is Lester’s chief aide and we find him fighting battles in Geneva, the League’s headquarters and on the streets of Danzig. He sees up close the role of Nazi thugs intimidating their opposition and the appeasement policy of Anthony Eden in Geneva as he continually sells out Lester. Eden would later break with that policy, but early on he was an appeaser.

Through Muller we become a fly on the wall in meetings at the League and in Danzig where Lester tries to negotiate with NDSAP leaders Arthur Greisser and Albert Forster who are following direct orders from Berlin and we also get a sense of the opposition Social Democrats who are fighting a losing battle. We also see which is timely for today, the very real risks diplomats and their families take in difficult environments.

I recommend William Walker’s book to those readers who want to get a sense of what dealing with the growing Nazi threat diplomats faced on a day-to-day basis as they struggled to maintain a semblance of collective security.

For the complete Amazon URL see:

https://www.amazon.com/review/R31HBKYKCACO1T/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Reliving the 1930s - Part 2

On May 7 I blogged that we were reliving the 1930s with the Great Recession being the analog to the Great Depression and the appeasement of Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine being an analog to the appeasement of Hitler. Unfortunately we also are reliving the virulent anti-Semitism the 1930s as well.

There is no question that if Hamas had the power there wouldn't be a Jew alive in Israel today. If you are skeptical all you have to do is to read Hamas’ charter and listen to the statements of their leadership. The Gaza War was not about a two state solution for Palestine, but rather it was an attempt to kill as many Jews as possible and to make martyrs out of innocent Palestinian children. The killers of those children do not reside in Tel Aviv, but rather they sit comfortably in Hamas headquarters in Gaza and places far away from the battlefield.

Of course to much of the European Left and to some extent the American Left along with a few on the far Right, the right of Israel to defend itself from rocket attack and an invasion from underground tunnels metastasized itself into a most virulent anti-Semitism. There is a straight line from the Hamas killers to the street demonstrators in Paris to the anti-Israel marches in the United States. For those who argue that the marchers and demonstrators were concerned about human rights rather than bashing Israel in particular and Jews in general, all I have to say is where are the protests against the carnage in Syria, ISIS terror in Iraq and Libya? I guess for them it is OK for Arabs to kill other Arabs.

Reliving the 1930s

According to aphorism attributed to Mark Twain, “history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” I am afraid our generation is reliving some of the horrible experiences of the 1930s. The Great Recession of 2008-09 was our version of the Great Depression. The recent experience certainly was not as bad, but after many decades of plenty, it certainly felt that way.

As the 1930s progressed concerns shifted from the still depressed economy to the rise of fascism and a series of foreign policy crises in Europe and Asia. Instead of Hitler fascism we are now witnessing the rise of Vlad, “The Impaler,” Putin’s version of it. In the 1930s Germany was the revisionist power seeking to undo the strictures of the post- world War One settlements. Today Putin is attempting to revise the post-Cold War settlement established from 1991-1994. His seizure of the Crimea and his attempts to further dismember Ukraine are part and parcel with his strategy to restore the past greatness of Russia. Just like Hitler, he is succeeding.

Why? The West is doing its best to rhyme the failed policies of the 1930s of vacillation and appeasement. Both the United States and Europe want the world go away so they can hide in cocoon of isolation. This is true of factions of both the left and the right of the political spectrum. Unfortunately this policy is a luxury we cannot afford. To paraphrase the Russian revolutionary Trotsky, the U.S. and Europe might not be interested in the world, but the world is interested in them.

Instead of making speeches, our vacillating President should act by imposing real sanctions on Russia, providing direct military aid to the Ukrainian government, increasing rather than decreasing the military budget, moving NATO forces into the front line states on a more permanent basis and take the energy infrastructure steps necessary to wean Europe off of Russian gas. Will President Obama act? The stakes are high!