Friends + Interlocutors,

An important article “Blame Churchill for World War II, Not Hitler” by Mike Whitney has just been posted on Lew Rockwell’s libertarian website. I have a few comments.

It is an excellent article but does not tell the whole story. Yes, contrary to what we learned at school, it is true that Hitler did not start the Second World War. The war in Europe began with Germany’s invasion of Poland in September 1939. This took place only after Hitler had attempted to negotiate a solution with Poland’s leaders for many months on the issue of Danzig. He wanted the German port of Danzig returned to Germany. He was shocked when London and Paris declared war. It made no sense. 

Hitler’s first offer, as I recall from my reading, was that an extraterritorial rail link be built to Danzig from the Reich. The area over this rail link had been Prussia prior to the Treaty of Versailles which ended the Great War. That proposal was rejected out of hand by Poland. This was foolhardy. After that, Hitler’s position escalated. But it was Hitler, not Poland, who was negotiating in good faith.

It should be noted that at the start of Hitler’s regime, he made a non-aggression pact with Poland. Both countries were staunchly anti-communist. Hitler viewed Poland as a bulwark against the Soviet Union.

Hitler’s foreign policy was based on revising the Treaty of Versailles, which “peace” treaty was a Diktat by England, France and the U.S. He had much success in that regard, all without firing a shot. First there was the Ruhr and Rheinland, returned to Germany from France in 1936. Then in March 1938 came the Anschluss with Austria. It was a merger based upon self-determination, desired by Austria in 1919 but forbidden by the victors in Paris. Then in September 1938, as a result of the Munich agreement, the Sudetenland reverted to Germany and Austria. In the aftermath, the entity known as Czechoslovakia collapsed, with its components divided among Germany, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. Note, Poland benefited.

Danzig on the Baltic Sea was the last piece of the puzzle. It was used by the British cabinet as a tripwire for war to attack Germany. The powers-that-be in England were jealous of Germany’s economic success. At the time England, not the U.S., was the world’s leading power, controlling an empire which spanned the globe. The British Pound was the world’s reserve currency. Envy was the same motivation for the Great War in 1914. London did not want to be put in the shade by Germany.

We should also never forget that in September 1939 it was England (and France) who declared war on Germany, not vise versa. At the time Winston Churchill was not Prime Minister. Neville Chamberlain was. Why did Chamberlain declare war on Germany? Why did the Foreign Office pressure a reluctant and unprepared France to join in? For one thing, Chamberlain felt that Hitler had taken advantage of him at Munich. There’s that.

In addition and more importantly, Chamberlain (and France) were put under enormous pressure behind the scenes by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to “stand up to Hitler”. Roosevelt was in direct communication with Winston Churchill, head of England’s war party, to coordinate that pressure. In France, U.S. Ambassador William Bullitt was pivotal in getting France to join England’s war against Germany by secret promises of armed support from Washington which Roosevelt authorized.

This is covered in my one and only book, The Unauthorized World Situation Report in the chapter “Europa and the Daughter of Europa”. But I can’t take credit for originality on the subject. The sad story is contained in riveting detail in a largely-ignored book published in 1967 entitled FDR, The Other Side of the Coin. The author is Hamilton Fish III, who was the Congressman from Roosevelt’s congressional district in New York. Here’s a recorded interview with him. He is candid and straightforward. In addition, there is Yale University Professor Bruce Russett’s book, No Clear and Present Danger first published in 1972. 

It is clear from Hamilton Fish’s book that it was actually Roosevelt, not Churchill or Hitler, who was primarily responsible for the start of the war in Europe. It was the President's instigation of the English-French “guarantee” to Poland which did the trick. This guarantee of Poland’s territorial integrity was worthless. England and France declared war on Germany, but neither did anything to aid Poland in the conflict. Later, when Russia invaded Poland’s eastern border, England and France did not declare war against the Soviet Union. Later, Churchill gave all of Poland away to Stalin.

In my view, it is entirely reasonable to assert that FDR was not only responsible for starting the war in Europe but also for bringing about a world war on December 7th, 1941 when he conspired to force the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor. See The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor by Rear Admiral Robert Theobald, among others.

The road to Pearl Harbor really began at Danzig in the summer of 1939. It was Roosevelt's repeated intrigues--chiefly working through the American ambassador to France, William Bullitt, who gave secret assurances to both England and France that Roosevelt would come to their aid in any conflict with Germany--that directly caused the outbreak of war in Europe. London and Paris were hoodwinked.

Winston Churchill was the assistant instigator, the insider. He wanted Chamberlain’s job as Prime Minister. He needed war with Germany to achieve that. In the process, Churchill destroyed the British Empire and set the stage for America.

Patrick

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