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Agree or disagree?
Why? Explain.

2007-03-21 11:54:18 · 11 answers · asked by Lorelie 1 in Arts & Humanities History

11 answers

Hitlers attack on the USSR was not a mistake. They were winning the conflict there with complete supremacy. The United States was sending supplies to the USSR but would send no manpower. This turned the USSR against the United States after their government told its citizens that we would not help them out. Without the citizens seeing a U.S. presence they believed that they had basically been left out to dry. Eventually this turned to the Cold War.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was the real mistake. This brought U.S. public opinion into retaliation. The Japanese did not see immediate colossal downfalls until after we pinched the German forces. It was not until later that the Japanese island would fall due to American technology.

2007-03-27 13:56:14 · answer #1 · answered by pvtlandrum 2 · 0 0

I agree on both counts. Hitler had a non-aggression pact with Stalin before the war in order to PREVENT having to fight a 2-front war. However, by the time Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, Stalin had been making more & more demands as far as territory. Stalin was charging Hitler a high price to stay neutral. Perhaps, if Hitler knew just how many reserve troops Russia had, he may have thought twice about attacking. Apparently the Russians had more troops than the Germans realized. By the end of the war, the Russians were fighting a better campaign, as well.

As far as Pearl Harbor, had the Japanese totally destroyed the entire US Pacific fleet, then maybe it would have been a good move on their part. But that wasn't the case. I've also heard that Hitler did not think the US could fight effectively in two theaters of war. He expected the US to fight primarily in the Pacific. Obviously Hitler was wrong.

2007-03-21 19:27:09 · answer #2 · answered by BethS 6 · 0 0

Not necessarily mistakes in the strategic sense - bot the US and the USSR had to be taken on sooner or later. The mistake was in the methods used in the attacks.

USSR: England remains as a huge source of weapons for the Red army- some 1/3 of their tanks and 1/4 of their planes were western. Over 95% of their transport trucks were western (including all the Katyusha launchers). The USSR war also means Rommel does not get support. 3 more divisions would have taken Suez, an another 2 would have taken Syria and Iraq. Complete lack of cooperation with Japan.

pearl harbor- IMO a total nincompoop. The harbour remains intact, and all the submarines based there start raiding japanese waters within a week. Panama remains open, so reinforcements arrive within weeks. Not a bad idea in itself, but to be done AFTER defeating the USSR. After all the Japanese had their hands full fighting the Chinese- they needed another war like a hole in the head. One theory is that Pearl Harbour was orchestrated by Russian spies (the Sorge ring) as a way of getting Stalin off the hook

2007-03-21 19:13:21 · answer #3 · answered by cp_scipiom 7 · 0 0

Nothing is a mistake, regardless of the outcome. A man as influential (yes) as Hitler would not make a mistake in this regard. One must look towards Hitler's intentions of global dominance to validate that this was a necessary step in order to acheive success. Regardless of the outcome, it was not a mistake, just a loss. How many wars has the US lost? especially in the last 50 years; most notorious would be Vietnam, and although that was a huge loss, was that a mistake? Absolutely not. The US elite did what they thought necessary to maintain the status quo, which is what the intentions of the US were at the time. and still are.

As for Japan, this was obviously not a mistake, but rather a success. As the grandson of a man who was stationed in the South Pacific during WW2, I am partially bias to the Pearl Harbour attack, however, in the view of Japan during WW2, that was an obvious success. They did what they needed to do to knock the US, figuratively speaking, on its ***.

I apologize for any offense taken from this particular point of view, but afterall, thats exactly what it is. As a student of history, I am open to other interpretations and would love to be proven wrong.

2007-03-28 10:13:36 · answer #4 · answered by John P Hayes Jr 1 · 0 0

I agree competely if it wasn't for pearl harbor the US would never have joined the war and never would have dropped an A Bomb on Japan.If it wasnt for the attack on the Soviet Union,the germans would not have lost so many soldiers to the russian winter and the Russians would never have stormed Berlin and forced Hitler to commit suicide.
The Germans also made the mistake of invading Poland starting a war with Britain,France(who in 1940 surrendered to Germany),Australia,Belgium and New Zealand.

2007-03-21 19:09:48 · answer #5 · answered by Idealist 5 · 0 0

obviously, hitler couldn't fight a two way war especially against a well rested and well oiled soviet war machine. Hitler screwed over by attacking in russian winter and giving his soldiers summer uniforms with glass bottles for supplies(woudl crack under frost) Japesne joined too late to make a difference. Hitler was foolish to open a front in the east against the russians. The winter stopped the german soldiers and same thing happened to napolean he was forced out of russia cause the the cold winters.
The soviets lost 15 million soldiers to the german blitzkerig. Hitler could have won if he attacked in spring or early summer. He would have destroyed the russians

2007-03-26 18:30:57 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Hitler's attack on USSR was a mistake because they beat him and his army could no longer sustain a war on the western front (Soviet Union relieved pressure on allied forces)

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor drew US into the war unnecessarily (for them)

2007-03-21 18:59:40 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Hitler attacking the USSR before finishing Great Britain was a huge mistake and it cost him the war. He underestimated Russia. He thought he could beat them and get back to England before they became a problem. But of course things in the Soviet Union took too long and Germany became bogged down there allowing England and the U.S. to use the island as a giant aircraft carrier, bombing Germany day & night with ever increasing numbers of planes. Hitler's aim from the beginning was to invade the USSR. That is why he invaded Poland. But doing that neccesitated going to war with the west. He didn't want a war with Great Britan and felt he could come to terms with them after the fall of France. And if he couldn't, he would bomb them into coming to terms. Hitler made mistake after mistake after mistake in judging the will of his enimies and the streangh of his own forces.

Japan might have been successful if they had gotten the American carriers at Pearl and failing to do that Japan felt they would get them at Midway. But because we had broken the Jap code and knew of their plans at Midway, the US surprised the Jap carriers and sunk them all. So Japans mistakes were not getting our carriers at Pearl and leaking the infomation that they were going to attack Midway and when. Their loss at Midway was the turning point of the war.

2007-03-21 20:29:56 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

It depends on how you look at it. Japan dearly needed the resources from the islands it was in the process of conquering, and they knew that eventually the U.S. would get involved to stop them. Taking out the U.S. Navy before they could get involved was Japan's best chance of victory.

As for Hitler, many of his military decisions were based on his personal views, particularly the racial ones. Hitler knew from the beginning that he wanted to take out the Soviet Union because it was communist and Slavic- two things he hated. Everyone- even Stalin- knew that eventually Hitler would turn eastward.

2007-03-26 21:43:05 · answer #9 · answered by desertmedusa 1 · 0 0

Agree completely. Both got whooped by the nation they attached.

AND....East Germany wound up being occupied by the Soviets and Japan wound up being occupied by the U.S.

Both had to accept unconditional surrender.
(I think there is a lesson here...hello...Mr. Bush?)

.

2007-03-21 19:11:07 · answer #10 · answered by ? 5 · 0 0

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