Pat Buchanan makes up the history of Nazi Germany

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44210

This howler-filled piece of drivel was published in 2005, and purports to be a debunking of Winston Churchill's place in the Western Pantheon. I'm not going to worry about Mr. Churchill's reputation; I think it's quite safe from the likes of Buchanan. The reason I want to zero in on this particular piece of rubbish is that it exemplifies what my blog is fighting against.

Enough with the generalities - let's get specific.

After all, the Germans voted Hitler in. Pat, have you read any history at all? Hitler became Chancellor by appointment, not by election. He refused to join the Reich government in 1933 in any role other than Chancellor, and his hardline stance was accepted by Franz von Papen. This arrogant arch-conservative was repelled by the violence and vulgarity of the Nazis, but convinced himself, and the moribund Reich President, Hindenburg, that he could surround Hitler with sufficient conservative timeservers to keep him under control. Von Papen, like so many others, underestimated Hitler's ferocity, to the future distress of the planet.

The war Britain and France declared to defend Polish freedom ended up making Poland and all of Eastern and Central Europe safe for Stalinism. Stalin was a power-drunk liar and murderer, and the only place I can find common ground with Buchanan is his condemnation of Stalin and his legacy. That said, Buchanan's above statement is unmitigated rubbish. Eastern and Central Europe became safe for Stalinism as a result of Hitler declaring war on the Soviet Union in June, 1941. This cataclysmic event, which for this writer is the most important event of the 20th century, started out as a total German rout. However, once Stalin recovered his wits (Buchanan refers briefly to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which Stalin deeply wanted to succeed, and was traumatized when Hitler's attack rendered it null and void), and the Russian people had been mobilized, the tide turned. German strategy required a speedy victory, precipated or accompanied by the collapse of the Soviet government. When neither ensued, and the Russians were able to call on "General Winter", the Wehrmacht found itself badly over-extended inside a scorched-earth, and completely hostile, Mother Russia. This is not the time or place for a detailed examination of the Great Patriotic War, as the Russians know it. There are countless books on the topic. For our purposes, we need only point out that Buchanan is wrong, wrong, wrong. Who could have known Hitler would break his treaty and attack? Who could have known that the Soviets would bend almost to the breaking point, then counter-attack so successfully that they not only pushed the Nazis out of the Russia, they pushed them all the way back to Berlin? Along the way, they occupied Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and many other countries - all of which had been under the Nazi bootheel. None of the Western allies could have foreseen such a turnabout - and if they had, what could they have done about it?

We'll deal with the Russian contribution to Allied victory in another post, in which I'll face headon patriotically-blinded historians like Victor Davis Hanson.

inevitably, Stalin would inherit Central and Eastern Europe. There was nothing inevitable about Stalin's takeover. It was a result of Hitler's disastrous declaration of war.

What is inevitable is Buchanan reaching faulty conclusions about Churchill's legacy, because Buchanan is a Know-Nothing fraud.

The U.S. & Nazi Germany - December, 1941

Tom Brokaw, alleged journalist, was the one who threw the critical straw on this camel's back. He told his American audience that WWII started on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese air force attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbour. As Allied war veterans all around the planet threw their stewed prunes at their TVs, I decided to take what feeble efforts I could to help them by starting to write the simple truth about recent history. For example, by the time the Zeros appeared on that Hawaiian morning, Poland, Holland, Belgium, Norway, Denmark and France had fallen under the Nazi jackboot, the Battle of Britain had been fought and won, and the Wehrmacht had penetrated a thousand kilometres inside the Soviet Union. In short, the war had been underway for more than two years, Mr. Brokaw!

Ask an American, particularly a Rush Limbaugh acolyte, how it was the U.S. entered the big war (not that the Great War wasn't well-named - I'll deal with that one in other posts) against Germany. Most have never considered the question, and so assume that the FDR speech to Congress the day after the "date that will live in infamy" (no argument there) requested a blanket declaration of war against all the Axis nations (i.e., Germany, Italy, Japan). It did not: FDR wanted to declare war on Japan, and received virtually unanimous consent to do so. On Dec. 11, Mussolini, then Hitler, declared to the world that, by the terms of the Tripartite Agreement, their countries were at war with the U.S. Roosevelt again went to Congress to ask for the U.S. to make its own declaration, which shortly passed. Had the arrogant Axis leaders not taken such an incredibly foolish step (on their own - Japan had not asked for their assistance), one is hard pressed to imagine Roosevelt asking for European war so shortly after the stunning shock of the Pearl Harbour fiasco. To the nearly exhausted English and their allies (Canada, Australia, New Zealand) getting the Americans on side was a gift beyond measure.

Let's conclude simply: World War Two started on September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded its eastern neighbour, Poland. Britain and France declared war on September 3, after repeated requests to Hitler for his forces to retreat. The U.S. entered the war on December 8, 1941, against Japan, and December 11, against Italy & Germany, after those countries declared war on it.