Why do Americans claim they saved Europe in world war 2?

Question

The much repeated phrase that "USA saved Europe" is very much untrue, and completely dismissive of the intense war that actually occurred far from the USA and for years without USA involvement. Russia saved Europe, so did the UK, so did France and the other allies... for any country to claim that it is more of a benefactor than the others is untrue and shows an emotionally disturbing lack of empathy. I would reckon that historically only the poor, suppressed Russian civilians and soldiers could claim to have saved anyone.
America did supply vast amounts of material goods, but it did not throw itself, or its soldiers, into combat wholeheartedly. America's most consistent aid was against the Japanese, and not until Japan attacked America directly, and even then America eventually resorted to the massively indiscriminate nuclear bombs rather than "waste" men on resolute Japan.

Russia 20,000,000 casualties
USA 300,000 casualties
The ratio of Soviet to American war deaths was about seventy to one

Answer 1

good man, im glad someone finally posted this. This has annoyed me for ages, Americans are way too egotistical, they couldn't beat the vietnamese on there own, and could only beat the japanese with two massive nuclear bombs - destroying thousands of civilians in the meantime.

The allies (excluding the US) fought valiently, and you can tell the US suffered minimal casualties because they celebrate their part in the war!!!

all the stupid bloody hollywood movies try to show how great and full of massive bollock the americans were, such cra.p

Answer 2

By your simple minded answer I will assume you are from Europe so I will give you a quick lesson in history. By the end of 1941 France was out of the war and mostly in Hilter's hands, England was only barly holding on to it's island and was losing all territory in the Asia theater, and Russia was on the verge of collapse. Yes the was an intense war before America's involvement but the Allies were losing! Chamberlin and Stalin were very happy that America became involoved and had been courting it into the war for the past year. Though it did not send men right away because it was training them and mobalizing it's war supplies were felt right away. Britian was able to strengthen its defenses so an invasion was less of a threat, and Russia was able to beat back the Germans thanks to American goods and the winter. Before that Russia was moving all industires away from the front and for a brief period was making close to nothing on it's own. America had to fight the Pacific war portion on it's own for the most part. Only three times in history has a country fought a two front war and won. Not only did America supply itself, it was heavily dependent to supply the rest of the allies. The war effort was "wholeheartedly" death casualties were over 400,000, all industry was converted to war. No cars, refrigerators, stoves, or new homes were built during this time period. Gas and food were rationed; the government imposed new regulations on our freedoms, and even took metel out of coins. Though Russia took many more casualties this was due to Hitler's pliocies and Stalin's type of fighting. America turned the course of the war. Not only that after the war rebuilt Europe and forgave most loans. Russia merely took this as an oppurtunity to further repress human rights. As for Japan and the use of the nuclear bombs. Military estimates, even from the Japanese report close to 1 million American casualties and 10-15 million Japaniese casualties if there had been an invasion. Instead 300,000 lost their lives. Though the bomb did kill thousands it saved hundreds of thousands and has let the world understand to not use it again. If it did not happen the nuclear bomb probably would have been used in all out war and you would be singing a different tune.
War no longer has innocent participants. Civilian populations are targets because they support the troops. Just because they are not on the front lines doesn't make their contributions to the war less as I am sure you are aware of. America fully recognizes the losses other countries had for their efforts, and was and still is as emotionally distrubed by the war as the rest of the world.
People like Hitler, Hussien, and Stalin know only agression and can never be appeased. The U.S. has supported the U.N. and has lost many more brave soldiers to keep people around the world free while most simply try to write letters. The U.S. has tried to get other countires further involved but you have this notion you are above war; no one is above war! You must fight for your beliefs. Yet you are the first to "cry" for the United States to do something when something happens!
So the repeated phrase "The USA saved Europe" is completely true just as Britian saved Europe or any countries that fought for the allies. Further more it does in no way dismiss others involvements or their losses. Americans who say it have good right to and be proud to. The world should be proud as well because it past a difficult test. I am sure that there are many accomplishments that your country has completed that you bare proudly on your chest too.

A seventy to one loss ratio could simply mean you don't know how to fight so I wouldn't use that number if I were you. Granted I know the truth Hitler ordered all to kill all and Stalin ordered massive frontal attacks, those two situations along with some others caused the massive loss of life for the Russians, it in no way bares the weight as a benefator to who can claim won the war. The numbers are merely numbers of the dead, a statistic to help us allow a brief understanding of the losses and never let it happen again.

Answer 3

You sir, are not telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. You, in fact, are doing the same thing that you claim the Americans are doing with the phrase "USA saved Europe". The phrase that America saved Europe is untrue only because the Brits and the Russians also had something to do with it. The phrase should be "the Brits, Russians, and Americans (not necessarily in that order) saved Europe. Let's face it, if America would not have supplied those war supplies to Russia and Britain, all of Europe and the whole world would now probably be speaking German or Japanese. Let's face it, if Britain would not have held on,by the narrow margin of their finger tips, against the Germans in 1939 to 1943, the whole world would be speaking German. Let's face it, the Russians actually had a non-aggression pact with Germany. They both agreed to leave the other one alone. In other words, Russia agreed to leave Hitler to ransack Europe as long as he did not attack Russia. Alas!!! old Hitler was not a man of his word because when he felt the time was right, HE ATTACKED RUSSIA ANYWAY!!!! After that, RUSSIA WAS BEGGING THE USA FOR WAR MATERIALS AND STALIN WAS WANTING THE USA AND ENGLAND TO HURRY AND START THE NEXT FRONT AGAINST HITLER. After the war, Russia ruled the part of Europe that they had control over with an iron fist until they "lost" the "cold war". Now, if you will look back at the newsreels of the war, you will see that it was the ARMIES OF THE USA and BRITAIN THAT LIBERATED MOST OF WESTERN EUROPE. France, (how dare you mention that they had a major part in the liberation of Europe) had from very little to nothing to do with it. Fact of the matter, there was a part of France that was hostile to the allies at the outset of the war. What countries liberated and defeated Italy? USA and Britain. What countries liberated North Africa? USA and Britain. What country was it that fought the Japanese in the pacific ( with SOME help) from the Brits. The USA. SO YOU CAN STOP GETTING YOUR DAMNED DANDER UP WITH YOUR LIES AND INFERENCES ABOUT AMERICA. Also, this massive war that occured without USA involvement was the part where Hitler whipped your a$$es, except for Britain, WAS IT NOT?

Answer 4

OK tell me how a Russian solider would shoot a German if he had no gun or bullets.
France they had a brave underground fighting but that is as far as it goes.
England would not have survived til America got into the war if it wasn't for LEND LEASE policy of FDR
Once the USA did get into the war England and the US were the main 2 fighting forces that drove back the Axis powers. Yes almost every country was involved on one side or the other.
Europe was the main theater of operation, and was the first concern of the USA. Japan came second.
You know I am really sorry if the USA didn't decide to have more then 1 MILLION men killed invading mainland Japan, how many Japanese do you think would have been killed many more then the 2 atomic bombs. You don't make any comment of the fire bombing Dresden.
FYI In war people die solders , women and children.

The live and let live only works if the other guy will LET you live

Answer 5

Well I am a Brit so no pro/anti American bias here.They did save Europe.Hitlers Faliure in the battle of Britian,his decision to invade the Soviet union and the Japenese attack on Pearl Harbor or the 3 main reasons for the defeat of the axi powers .If you are curious as to why then buy a history book.
America lost a lot of men in the European theater of war but to talk of numbers is stupid(How many millions were slaughtered by Stalin after the Yalta agreement)but the Soviets were still an ally ,it is also worth remembering that we might have all been soviet satalite states if America had not helped in the West to East push after D-Day.
The bombs dropped on Japan in 45 were justified why should American lives be lost instead of Japanese..many American and probably Aussie ,British and Indian lives were saved because of Hiroshama and Nagasaki .
As for the French they fought as well as they could against a superior force and many continued to risk there lives after they were occupied .and don't fprget there were Nazi sympathsers all over Europe including Britian
You will always get a few ingnorant people and the US is no different from anywhere else but for every American who believes they were soley responsible for the libaration of Europe there will be 10 that know the truth.

Answer 6

Wait, USA helped save Europe, essentially if the US did nothing, they would have lost. That is what people meant.

USA did go whole heartedly, D-Day.
I don't even know why you are arguing the A-bomb

EDIT: Do you know the cause for that ratio? If not, I can help you with it. The Russians were terribly equiped when the war between them and the Germans started. The Germans had the most advanced warfare technology while Russia was still barely above WW1 technology. Plus, they were defending themselves from the Germans on one side by themselves. The other side had all sorts of countries defending, and pushing back the Germans. Without every country involved, the War may have been prolonged until the A-Bomb for Japan. But then Germany would have surrendered, and waited until they had the capacity to make themselves an A-bomb, then the first nuclear war would have started

Answer 7

To be honest, its probably accurate to say that the americans saved europe from the russians, who would have likely swept the nazis out and taken all of europe right up to the english channel.

Its unlikely I think that the british along with their canadian/aussie support would have been able to drive the germans far back before the russians swept through on their own.

As for the pacific theatre, the americans carried the day there. I would hardly call the US use of nuclear bombs 'indiscriminate'. The amphibious attacks in the pacific war were utter meat-grinder battles. Japanese troops were obeying orders to fight to the death. The scale of casualties both sides would have suffered in a conventional amphibious assault on Japan are hard to imagine. Blaming the US for using nuclear weapons is utter revisionism - every single country involved in WW2 would have used nuclear weapons the instant they had them. And frankly, the scale of urban bombing carried out by other countries - germany, britain etc - was pretty horrifiying as well. It may not have been two big bombs, but the british firebombed the hell out of germany.

Answer 8

If you are trying to say that FRANCE stood up to Hitler, obviously you are not a history buff, and as such, why try to make arguments on historical events? Americans were not the only factor in winning it is true, but without America joining in, the war would not have ended when it did, and truly we cannot hypothesize anything else from there. Just be glad it ended when it did.

Answer 9

America did save us all , we had exhausted our strength fighting what was a superior force for years , we had nothing left to give but lives ,

America is a completely independent nation and quite rightly was dubious of joining the slaughter that was sweeping through Europe , when the Japanese bombed pearl harbour they give America a genuine reason to send their guys to be slaughtered on a foreign battlefield ,

Had the Japanese successfully joined forces with the Nazis and if America had not acted so brutally so quickly (Hiroshima)

We the allies including America would have lost !

We fought the war but America struck the killing blow that we were to tired to give ,

Thank you America .

Answer 10

After France had fallen in 1940, the United Kingdom was out of money. Franklin Roosevelt persuaded the U.S. Congress to pass the Lend-Lease act on March 11, 1941, which provided the United Kingdom and 37 other countries with US$50 billion dollars in military equipment and other supplies, US$31.4 billion of it going to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

Canada operated a similar program that sent $4.7 billion in supplies to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union.

Sprechen zie deutsch?

Answer 11

The Allied troops composed of US, UK, France and other nations saved Europe during World War 2.