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Post by waymarker on Nov 20, 2011 2:06:35 GMT
It's fun to speculate how things might have gone differently. For example maybe Hitler would have taken up residence in The White House if America hadn't entered WW2. I mean, Goering (below) had already ordered the development of a transatlantic bomber as early as 1939.. And Hitler was developing an atom bomb, here's a Nazi study of the effect of an atomic detonation on New York-
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Post by cotillion on Nov 21, 2011 9:05:22 GMT
Germany never could have won WWII, though.
At best, they could've continued to dominate the European sub-continent, had the Americans not chosen to intervene. And even then, America was bankrolling the Soviet war effort. Red Army + a functioning economy = scarily effective opposition.
And Hitler was too blinded by belief in his own "strategic genius" to ever limit himself to merely European domination. If President Hindenburg had heeded the advice of Carl Schmitt, and smashed both the Nazi Party and the KPD through use of Article 48, then maybe, if the traditional Junker class had re-established itself through the power vacuum represented by such a situation, then Germany would've proceeded to build its regional hegemony more slowly and thus effectively.
There had been plans as far back as the 1920s, under Gustave Stresemann, to take back Danzig and the Polish territories, as well as the Sudentenland and seek closer relations with Austria. If a competent German leader had done so, over a period of two decades rather than in the space of 6 years, and had cut a deal with the Soviet Union in the manner Hitler did (but without the intent to betray), Germany would've been in a position to dominate Europe economically and militarily, with a secure Eastern Flank. Alternatively, they could play up their anti-Communist credentials in the manner Hitler tried to, and secure a considerable amount of backing in Paris, London and Washington. That would secure the Western flank, and allow them to take a leading role among the mostly militaristic and anti-Communist states of Eastern Europe, such as Poland, the Baltic states and Hungary. Ultimately such an alliance might've attempted to attack the Soviet Union, but if it tried for limited objectives - say, the liberation of Ukraine - rather than total destruction, it could seriously alter the balance of power between Berlin and Moscow. Especially in the above scenario, since Poland had been infiltrating spies into Ukraine for years, and Ukraine's relative importance for food supplies, as well as advanced basing to deter any future attacks from the Soviet Union.
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