Yo, listen up: SC2 needs proper US representation!

[JerseyJohn]

Cantum Americus

I plead guilty on both counts. I've always felt Hitler was a product of his times, it WWI had never happened, if it was like it was twenty years earlier, he'd have been a minor artist and probably a lot less insane.

Von Mannstein, yes, he says things in Lost Victories that indicate he thoroughly hated the Nazi regime. Unlike most other Fieldmarshalls he wasn't hesitant in letting Hitler know about it. This is consistant with his personality, by 1939 he should have held a higher position but was kept as a staff officer because he said things people didn't want to hear.

Germany in the Twenties had a lot of Royalist activity, without the nazis it's a coin toss between the Crown Prince and the communists. Both the exiled Wilhelm II and his son were early supporters of the Nazis and withdrew from that stance when anti-Semitism became a major platform. I've always admired that aspect of them.

So, let's say someone like Hitler takes control of the national socialists in the early twenties, uses the Crown Prince, Ludendorff, von Papen, Hindenburg and the various others to his own ends, as Hitler did, and takes control, as Hitler did, but is not the Jew-hating psychopath Hitler was ... It's an entirely different situation and maybe Germany ends up conquering Europe after all.

Interesting runaway Bolsheivism scenario and an excellent premise. Sure, that could easily have happened.

Stalin and Hitler were indeed kindred spirits. Even in their worst days they had a strange respect, almost liking for one another.

There are many similarities in their backgrounds. As a boy Hitler was influenced by the local church and Stalin went even further in that direction. Both were anti-semites. The key difference is Hitler grew up a momma's boy and Stalin practically hated his mother. Hitler's doting mother died when he was still a teenager and Stalin's strict mother died long after he'd established himself. He'd almost ignored her for many years and didn't attend her funeral.

Shortly before his death, Stalin was planning hiw own version of the Holocaust and it would probably have rivalled Hitler's. Like Hitler, and Hussein, Stalin made himself the embodyment of the nation.

Interesting parrellel with Franco as well. Without Hitler and Mussolini there probably isn't a Spanish Civil War. Without German transports Franco and his troops stay in Morocco, they'd have had no choice in the matter. Without Italian weapons he never has a large army and without German aircraft he's got no significant advantage over his rivals. One less blood bath.

Interesting stuff.

[ April 10, 2004, 10:20 PM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ]