tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post560760270668452691..comments2024-03-19T11:28:58.168-04:00Comments on History Unfolding: What General Milley didDavid Kaiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-88320810991395402032021-10-14T00:23:37.418-04:002021-10-14T00:23:37.418-04:00Professor
Re the plot against Hitler, you had sai...Professor<br /><br />Re the plot against Hitler, you had said this:<br />"During the more than twenty years that I taught strategy and policy at the Naval War College, I had many occasions to think about the military plot that attempted to assassinate and overthrow Adolf Hitler in July 1944. That plot actually went back at least until 1938, when some high-ranking officers discussed overthrowing Hitler to prevent a disastrous war with Britain and France. The plot revived again after that war broke out in the fall of 1939, but it collapsed completely after Germany defeated France. It revived in 1943-4 when the war against the USSR began to go badly and the British and Americans had landed, first in Italy and then in France. While the most senior officers involved had already lost their commands, many others were still active. They paid for their complicity with their lives...."<br /><br />Having looked at Weinberg's brief account, World In The Balance, "July 20 1944: The Plot to Kill Hitler", it seems very unlikely that any efforts from outside Germany the US might have mounted to support such an effort would have made much of a positive difference in the outcome.<br /><br />All the best Bozonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18078858723231122013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-39521695605521565132021-09-25T14:39:36.163-04:002021-09-25T14:39:36.163-04:00Professor:
You pose a question Here:
"The qu...Professor:<br />You pose a question Here:<br /><br />"The question I wondered about from time to time--but never, I think, raised in class--was, if the American presidency had fallen into comparably evil hands, would senior American officers be willing to do something similar?..."<br /><br />My questions about the plot against hitler are a little difrferent.<br /><br />One has only to watch The Wilderness Years series to see that Britain was dead set to send Hitler at the throat of Russia if war came, and could not believe that he would turn West first, overrun France and bomb Britain.<br /><br />Churchill had a differe tn view.He would help the plotters against Hitler, but was and remained out of power in 1938.<br /><br />FDR was undoubtedly also approaced by the anti Hitler plotters.<br />My questions are: <br />1.Did he offer or give them any aid? <br /><br />2.Did he not abhor the British idea of sending Germany against his friend, and the friend of Socialist FDR America, Bolshevik Russia?<br /><br />3.Wasn't he a friend and confidant of Aerican Jews high in his adinistration, who abhored Hitler? I could give a list.<br /><br />One can see why Britain declined the plotters' overtures.<br /><br />4.Why, then, did FDR not help the anti Hitler plotteres covertly as much as possible?<br /><br />All the bestBozonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18078858723231122013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-29761762125286948052021-09-23T16:21:47.836-04:002021-09-23T16:21:47.836-04:00What Milley did could be termed heroic, but only i...What Milley did could be termed heroic, but only if he pays the price, and that price is resignation. He cannot be absolved of actions contrary to civilian control of the military, no matter the circumstances. Although what Milley did was necessary, it sets a precedent which cannot stand, that the military can act without the knowledge or approval of civilian superiors. If Milley's acts have no consequences, then the line that traditionally and constitutionally separates the military from the civilian government will be moved ever closer toward military control. Where that ends is obvious. What Milley did represents a real danger to our democracy. He can reestablish the precedent of civilian control of the military by accepting the consequences of his actions, resigning and publicly explaining why he did. Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11629116622092214120noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-56797980511678010292021-09-22T15:57:55.957-04:002021-09-22T15:57:55.957-04:00Professor
On a loosely related theme:
Is Manafort...Professor<br /><br />On a loosely related theme:<br />Is Manafort a Soviet born sleeper cell agent?<br /><br />All the best<br />Bozonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18078858723231122013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-65262723579291925832021-09-19T01:42:29.361-04:002021-09-19T01:42:29.361-04:00Professor
footnote:
"...The hardest thing to...Professor<br />footnote:<br /><br />"...The hardest thing to judge remains, as always, political intention...."<br />C. Andrew, Her Majesty's Secret Service. p. 498Bozonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18078858723231122013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-14974649079793551082021-09-18T12:08:55.824-04:002021-09-18T12:08:55.824-04:00Professor:
Thanks for these reflections.
Absorbin...Professor:<br /><br />Thanks for these reflections.<br />Absorbing.<br /><br />Regarding the plots against Hitler, and their efforts to solicit foreign help (both British, French, and American?), I am reminded of the French Civil war of the 16th Century, and of French factional appeals to Elizabeth or Philip; and of the simultaneous Wars in the Low Countries against Spain, in which similar appeals were made to nominally neutral powers, Britain, France.<br /><br />As you note, Trump is a coward, and one would have thought that someone like Milley would have seen that too. I could, and you could. And are we the sharpest tools in the shed?<br /><br />But Chinese perceptions are notoriously different from American ones regarding what each regards as "the same situation". <br /><br />Sadaam Hussein made a similar miscalculatiion, apparently, after all, I have read.<br /><br />Why then not accord General Milley the benefit of the doubt, arguing that he knew war would not be declared, but nevertheless trying to avert a misperception he feared might occur.<br /><br />All the bestBozonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18078858723231122013noreply@blogger.com