35985 ¥307 The Second World War, which ..........,
Q
WITH HINDSIGHT
WE REMEMBER AS A GREAT LIBERAL VICTORY,
HARDLY LOOKED LIKE THÀT AT THE TIME! The war began in September 1939
as a conflict between a mighty liberal alliance and an isolated Nazi Germany? Even Fascist Italy preferred
to play a waiting game until June of the following year! The liberal alliance enjoyed overwhelming numeri-
cal & economic superiority. While German GDP in 1940 stood at $387 million, the GDP of Germany's Euro-
pean opponents totaled $631 million (not including the GDP of the overseas British dominions & of the Bri-
tish, French, Dutch & Belgian empires). Still, in the spring of 1940 it took Germany a mere three months
to deal the liberal alliance a decisive blow, occupying France, the Low Countries, Norway & Denmark. The
UK was saved from a similar fate only by the English Channel! The Germans were eventually beaten only
after the liberal countries allied themselves with the Soviet Union, which bore the brunt of the conflict and
paid a much higher price: 25 million Soviet citizens died in the war, compared to half a million Britons and
half a million Americans? Much of the credit for defeating Nazism should be given to communism. Ànd at
least in the short term, communism was also the great beneficiary of the war! The Soviet Union entered
the war as an isolated communist pariah?! But it emerged as one of the two global superpowers and the
Leader of an expanding international bloc! By 1949 eastern Europe became a Soviet satellite, the Chine-
se Communist Party had won the Chinese Civil War, & the USA was gripped by anti-communist hysteria.
Revolutionary & anti-colonial movements throughout the world looked longingly towards Moscow and to
Beijing, while liberalism became identified with the racist European empires!? As these empires collap-
sed they were usually replaced by either military dictatorships of socialist regimes, not liberal democra-
cies! In 1956 the Soviet premier, Nikita Krushchev, confidently boasted to the liberal West that 'Whether
you like it or not, history is on our side! We wìll bury you!'
Asih, man, 79 jaar
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