There’s a post on the present and future of NATO over on Austin Bay’s blog that deserves your attention. The post consists largely of a post that blogfriend Mark Safranski, the ZenPundit—yes, that’s him over on my blogroll—made on the H-DIPLO listserv. I think Mark’s observations are quite sound.
One point that really needs to be made is that the differing attitudes and policies of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Russia have roots in these countries’ differing experiences in World War II. For the United States and the United Kingdom in World War II our “Greatest Generations” made sacrifices, put their lives on the line, suffered losses, and ultimately achieved an enormous triumph over a genuine evil. Our iconography and mythology of the time fully reflects this. Our nations achieved an almost archetypal victory over evil, we rejoice in this victory, it’s completely legitimate that we rejoice in this victory, and we’re entitled to do so.
That wasn’t the experience for France or Germany. For them World War II was nothing but loss, destruction, defeat, and shame. These reactions, too, are completely legitimate and, unfortunately, fully deserved.
For Russia the experience of the “Great Patriotic War” (as they call it) is bittersweet. No other nation suffered so terribly during World War II or experienced such incredible losses. A whole generation was wiped out. But they also achieved a great victory over a terrible enemy. The Russians believe that they defeated the Germans in World War II and I’m not so sure that they’re completely wrong. I think that we, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia, defeated the Germans in World War II.
I won’t go point-for-point with the specifics of how these differing experiences and the lessons from them that our parents and grandparents have taught us influence our differing attitudes but it’s obvious that they have and that the conflicting policies of the countries should be understood in this context.
After reading, in quick succession, a book about Stalingrad and a book about El Alamein, I have to concur that they, in fact, did defeat the Wehrmacht and would have done so even without our help. Of course, it helped that Hitler was a complete moron who didn’t know shit about logistics. Thank God for that.
Yes, prak. That in turn brings up a point about the bombing of north German targets e.g. Dresden and Hamburg. Stalin begged for it and we agreed (not that the Brits didn’t have reasons of their own). The reasoning apparently was that guns firing on (mostly British) bombers wouldn’t be turned on the Russians.
And that, by the way, was the reason I was upset about Clinton’s hamhanded handling of the D-Day commemoration. The Russians should have been invited. No, they didn’t take part. But they were our allies and they probably won the war. And why stick a finger in their eye? It was all so needless.
Well, you should read this piece about the politics surrounding Bush’s upcoming visit to Moscow, timed to celebrate the victory in the Great Patriotic War. Tricky stuff. Apparently we asked the Rooskies to repudiate the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact!