Figure 1.--This is a scene in Crystal City, an gricultural community in south Texas -- the spinich capital of the world. The photograph was probably taken in the early-1930s. Public opinion at the time throughout America was that the United States should never again become involved in another European war. The idea of involvement in an Asian war was not even considered. Note the cars. This line up of cars was siomething not seen even in German cities, let alone Japanese and Soviet cities. At the time these contries were preparing for war, building tanks, artillery, military aircraft, and war ships. America was building cars, washing machines, and refrigerators--all products made with critical war materials (including steel, copper, chrome, and rubber). In additiin America and Britain controlled much of the world's oil production needed to run all those cars or military vehicles. Reich Marshal Göring sneered, "The Americans only know how to make razor blades.' What the totalitarian powers did not calculate was how quickly consumer industries in the Western democracies could be retooled for war. And auomotive industries would play a central role in World War II. Western Civilization hung on the ability of Western political leaders to understabnd the totalitarian threat and convince the voting public of the need to meet the fearful totalitarian challenge. France failed. Britain and America did not.

The overwhelming view in the Western democracies in the inter-War era was that World War I had been a grotesque mistake. --leading to a pointless loss of life which decimating a whole generation. The mindset prevalent in the Western democracies and even in Germany until the NAZIs seized power was that another War had to be avoided at all cost. This idea was powerfully expressed in Erich Maria Remarque's powerful anti-war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front. Unlike World War II when popular culture lauded the achievements of Allied soldiers, authors, poets, and artists after World War I attacked the the World War I effort as a huge mistake that resulted in a sea of blood for no reason. While there are countless films, novels, and paintings attacking the war effort, we can not think of a single author who asked the question, of what would have occurred had the Germans won the War. This is the environment in which the policy of appeasement occurred. Many adopted pacifist ideas. Public opinion increasingly even after Hitler and the NAZIs seized power coalesced with the idea that Germany was misunderstood and mistreated after World War I. Thus major changes were needed in the World War I settlement and that appeasement was justified. At the same time, there was widespread resistance in the face of the Depression crisis to military spending. The great enemy of mankind was seen as war, not growing totalitarian military power. Hitler was distasteful, but many thought his demands were mostly legitimate. Mussolini in Italy was seen in an even more positive light. Often mentioned at the time was that the trains were now running on time. And his idea of a Corporate State had considerable currency among New Dealers in America. Japan was recognized as the most progressive state in Asia. The Japanese were seen as a quaint, polite people with sedate tea parties and elegant gardens. They made beautiful porcelain, luxurious silk fabric, and cheap tin toys. Unlike Germany, they were not seen as a potential threat. There was concern about the atrocities in China, but China like Czechoslovakia was far away. Soviet military power was also not understood. The NKVD was effective in sealing off the country. Stalin's genocide in the Ukraine was not widely reported. Many thought that the Soviets had dome a more effective job of dealing with the Depression than their own government and that the Soviet Union was a workers paradise--a land of happy, dancing peasants and factory workers. The idea that these totalitarian powers were on the verge of destroying Western Civilization, simply was not part of the consciousness of the voting public in the Western democracies.

Created: 5:31 PM 11/4/2022
Last updated: 5:31 PM 11/4/2022