The Super Summary of World History (84 page)

Another lesson from the Second World War; before taking action prepare thoroughly. Get all the information you can, act on the information, anticipate hardships then plan and equip for them, and keep an open mind to other possible reactions to the information. Set reasonable goals, making sure available resources can meet them. If resources are short then scale back the project, reset the goals, or assemble the necessary resources over time. Seek the right mind set for achieving your stated goals. Be consistent in your actions. If you change plans constantly, defeat will stalk you. Hitler hit the Soviets without proper planning, and he was not prepared for setbacks. He set impossible goals, and he changed the goals midstream. Hitler was guilty of false assumptions about the Soviets, and he rejected advice from highly experienced men. Hitler blew it.

Finally,
luck
is necessary in huge undertakings. Yes, luck. It even makes a difference in small projects. Matters beyond your control must fall your way, or you will face trouble. If the Japanese had sunk the three US Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor, as planned, the Pacific war would have changed dramatically. If the Japanese submarines or scout aircraft had spotted the US aircraft carriers earlier, Midway could have turned into a dire American defeat. If the Polish code breakers failed to escape Poland, the course of the war may have changed forever in Hitler’s favor. There are numerous other examples. Luck is not something one controls (at least, that is what we hear—see Scott Adams and Dilbert for another theory), and normal mortals must sit, allowing the fates to decide. Nevertheless, it is a key factor in life. Recognize that failure is not always someone’s fault. Realize events beyond the control of anyone might decide critical events and issues.

Remember,
winning
is
relative
. Setting proper end game goals enhance your chances of success. Good decisions, complete planning, and total commitment to reasonable goals can drive luck—at least partly—out of the equation.

You can do nothing about bad luck except struggle to rise above the circumstances. That is life. The USA was on the deck after Pearl Harbor, Bataan, Wake Island, and the Battle of the Java Sea, but America never gave up and came off the mat at the Coral Sea and Midway never to look back. Bad luck normally does not doom you; it only forces you to work harder to reach your goals.

Another great lesson is
Win
the
Peace
. After a conflict learn how to bring stability to the situation without embarrassing the vanquished. The best peace wins the conquered to your side, and makes them an asset.

Finally, the Second World War shows us how thin the veneer of civilization really is. The Nazi state quickly stripped away any semblance of being civilized. Normal everyday people adopted the Reich’s cruelty without question or opposition. Starting with the persecutions of the Jews, gypsies, slaves, mentally ill, and many others, the German state turned its citizens into soulless barbarians, willing to murder without question. Germans accepted crushing the target groups like cockroaches. Hitler made it look easy, and that is the problem. It was easy, and if Hitler could accomplish it so can others. Humanity is only a short step away from barbarism.

Books and References:

I have read hundreds of books on World War II. Here are a few of the best, in no particular order (* means superior):

*Cross
Channel
Attack,
Harrison, Gordon A., 1950, Konecky & Konecky. The best book on the D-Day landings at Normandy.

*
History
of
the
Second
World
War
, Hart, B.H. Liddell, 1970, Konecky & Konecky. One of the best books on WWII. Wonderful maps!

*Lost
Victories:
The
War
Memoirs
of
Hitler’s
Most
Brilliant
General
, von Manstein,
Field Marshal Erich
, 2004, Zenith Press. How the war in the east was lost, from the mouth of the man who was there.

*
Miracle
at
Midway
, Prange, G., 1983, Penguin. A great account of the battle of Midway, easy to read, and authoritative. Considered a classic by most historians.

*The
Oxford
Companion
to
World
War
II,
Dear & Foot, 1995, Oxford Press. Huge reference book, probably the best general reference on WWII.

The
Coming
of
the
Third
Reich
, Evans, Penguin, 2005

The
Third
Reich
in
Power
, Evans, Penguin, 2006

*
The
Two
Ocean
War,
Morison, Samuel Eliot, 1963, Back Bay Books. Morison can’t be beat on the naval war. Please recall that Morison, like many of the early authors, did not know about Ultra, and Magic, the code breakers who did so much to win the war for the allies.

*
There’s
A
War
to
be
Won
, Perret, Goeffrey, 1992, Ballantine books. I love this book. So much is explained so well that it is hard to overstate the importance of reading this author.

At
Dawn
We
Slept:
the
Untold
Story
of
Pearl
Harbor,
Prange & Goldstein, 1982, Penguin. Prange on Pearl Harbor, what more do you need to know? Gordon Prange also wrote Miracle at Midway.

Dirty
Little
Secrets
of
World
War
II
, Dunnigan & Nofi, 1995, Morrow. Fun!

Eagle
Against
the
Sun
, Spector, Ronald H., 1985, Random House. Easy to read, and comprehensive when it comes to the Pacific War.

Guadalcanal
, Frank, R.B., 1992, Penguin. This is a
must
read
book if you want to understand the Pacific War, and why everything changed after this epic campaign.

How
Great
Generals
Win,
Alexander, Bevin, 1993, WW Norton & Co. Some coverage of WWII generals. Alexander’s thoughts are always worth reading.

How
Wars
are
Won,
The
13
Rules
of
War
from
Ancient
Greece
to
the
War
on
Terror
, Alexander, Bevin, 2002, Three Rivers Press.

Miracle
at
Midway
, Prange,G., 1983, Penguin

Panzer
Battles
, von Mellenthin, FW, 1956, Konecky & Konecky

The
Gathering
Storm
, Churchill, W., 1986, Mariner Books

The
Pacific
War
Companion,
From
Pearl
Harbor
to
Hiroshima,
ed. Marston, D., 2005, Osprey Publishing

The
Rise
and
Fall
of
the
Third
Reich
, Shirer, William, 1990, Simon & Schuster. A classic, but somewhat difficult to read. None-the-less, there are few better books on the regime.

The
Rommel
Papers
, Rommel,
Erwin
, 1982, Da Capo Press

The
Second
World
War
1939
-
1945
, Fuller, J.C.F., 1948, Da Capo Press. Yet another must read book on WWII by an outstanding English analyst.

The
Shattered
Sward,
The
Untold
Story
of
the
Battle
of
Midway
, Pershall and Tully, 2005, Potomac Books. Excellent book, somewhat controversial.

The
United
States
Strategic
Bombing
Survey
, Greenwood, 1946 (also available on line). First hand information, great statics, well written.

The
US
Army
in
World
War
II,
The
Fall
of
the
Philippines,
The
War
in
the
Pacific
, Roberts, Greenfield general editor, 1953, National Historical Society. This is a series of books on the US Army in the Pacific War. Excellent detailed analysis of each campaign, but detail on other services and their role is small, and the impact of Ultra and Magic is missing because of the date of publication.

The
World
At
Arms,
The
Reader’s
Digest
Illustrated
History
of
World
War
II
, Wright, Michael editor, 1989, The Reader’s Digest Association Limited. Excellent and pithy account of the world wide struggle.

War
Plan
Orange,
The
US
Strategy
to
Defeat
Japan
1897
-
1945
, Miller, Edward S., 1991, Naval Institute Press. Surprising analysis of the Pacific War, and how the US planned for the conflict.

Wikipedia,
the
on
line
encyclopedia.
Look under World War II or the various subject headings, such as: Pearl Harbor, D-Day et al.

The Pearl Harbor Papers: Inside the Japanese Plans
,
Prange, Gordon W.
(1999), Brassey’s,
ISBN 1574882228

Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War, Buchanan Crown Publisher, 2009.

 
Chapter 16

The Cold War 1945 to 1989

The Cold War dominated the time between the end of World War II and 1990. The USSR and the United States of America held the trump cards, nuclear bombs and missiles. The two nations controlled the fate of the world in the sense that they controlled whether the world would come to an abrupt end. While the Cold War progressed so did society which went on as if the threat of nuclear obliteration was just an apparition. The Space Race, computer development, superhighway construction, jet airliner development, the creation of an international phone system, the advent of television, enormous progress in medicine, and the creation of mass consumerism—among many other things—all played a part in the world that developed after World War II. However, much of the world progressed poorly compared to the Western Democracies. In Africa, India, Asia, and the Middle East, colonialism was in its last throws and transitioning to new ways of governance was rough. Hundreds of wars accompanied by mass killing marred the world emerging from eighteenth century colonialism. Nothing has been easy in this ongoing birth of a modern world.

The Cold War began immediately after World War II concluded, or perhaps even before, and ended when the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989. There is little doubt that President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted a world based on a sizeable level of trust between the United States and the Soviet Union. For reasons that are hard to determine, he trusted the dictator and murderer of millions, Joseph Stalin. Winston Churchill tried to warm up to Stalin, but quickly discerned Stalin was not trustworthy. He saw that Roosevelt was falling for the duplicitous Stalin’s words of compromise and attempted to warn Roosevelt, but to no avail.

At war’s end, Roosevelt was no longer the president of the United States, and Churchill was no longer the prime minister of Great Britain. Roosevelt died in the last months of the war and Churchill was voted out of office. The new men, Truman as president of the United States and Atlee as prime minister of Great Britain, took over where their predecessors left off. As for Truman, he was in the dark about everything. The atomic bomb was news to him. Roosevelt had told him nothing; as a result, Truman was on his own when confronting the problems of a new world filled with massive armies and atomic weapons.

One of Truman’s first decisions was to drop the atomic bomb on Japan in an attempt to end the war. Some have said it was the first act of the Cold War, designed to show Stalin the power possessed by the United States, and to deter a Soviet attack on Western Europe. Truman, however, said he used the atomic bomb to end World War II.