- May 17, 2013
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The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend.................................
WWII we aided a known enemy of our Ideology, and our Way of Life, to defeat the bigger threat of Germany and Japan. We could not let Russia fall as the massive ground battles in Russia were draining German Troops which could have been used to the West instead of the East. Had Russia fallen, we'd have had a hell of a lot harder time retaking Europe.
So the lend lease act wasn't a bad thing, as our ultimate goal was the defeat of Germany.
The real problem was the aftermath of Germany's fall. As now the Enemy of our Enemy is now the MAIN ENEMY OF THE U.S. and basically FREEDOM. Which led to the Cold War and our countries fighting by proxy around the globe. The USSR finally fell via it's own sword. Financially, and from the people themselves who rebelled against the failed policies of Socialism itself.
Which is now why they have turned to Capitalism over Socialism as the later is eventually an utter failure.
Back to FDR. Churchill warned him not to play into Stalin's hands in the battle for Berlin but was ignored. He tried to remind FDR of the consequences of allowing Stalin to have more territory at the end of the War, but it fell on Deaf and Dumb ears, otherwise he would have pushed our fronts further east to avoid a divided Germany at the end of the War. A divide that lasted nearly 4 decades.
The view above is one that obfuscates the emphasis of the Lend-Lease program.
You claim it was because of a need to keep Russia from falling.
First, they couldn't have made a separate peace with Germany....Operation Barbarossa proved that.
Second, I can easily explode the idea that the program was simply to prevent the Russians from being defeated:
Army Maj. George Racey Jordan was an 'expediter' who kept careful records of what was sent to Russia....and when.
Victory in Europe Dayknown as V-E Day or VE Daywas the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 (in Commonwealth countries, 7 May 1945) to mark the date when the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany
According to Jordan, shipments to the USSR via Lend-Lease continued until 1949.
And, they included the material used to build Russia's atomic bomb.
We sent shipments around the globe at that time. The world was destroyed via WWII.
As for the Nuclear Bomb, I'd have to read more on that subject but I tend to go toward your argument as you are a well informed poster. The people of Russia were devastated after the War and in the Battle of Stalingrad they ate rats and even their dead.
So sending in supplies wasn't out of the question even years after the War. Which also included building materials to help rebuild cities that were literally destroyed. We did this in Germany and Japan as well, and as a result we had a very large economic boom as our infrastructure was virtually untouched. The rest of the word was in Ruin.
Quite frankly, we didn't fight Russia then because the World and America were tired of all the dying. My father, uncles and Father N Law all fought in WWII. They were of the time and the jest of it from my perception was they were tired of seeing their friends die. Which was the mindset of the time and WHY WE DIDN'T GO AFTER RUSSIA AT THE TIME.
On hind sight we made the wrong decision by not finishing the job to prevent the problems we had as a result for 4 decades, but at the time so many had died they didn't want more death. This is reasonable logic for the time, even though we'd have been better off finishing it then.
FDR's decisions towards the end of the War were Naive. Even when Churchill tried to press him to NOT ALLOW WHAT WAS COMING. Churchill looked at the bigger picture of what was to come, and FDR didn't. Yet you also have to take in the casualties of Berlin as well. Russian lost a lot of people there.
Anyway, it's history and it is what it is.