Imagine if we went after the Soviet Union instead of the Axis after Pearl Harbor...?

Question

...what state do you think the US would have been in? What state would the world be in?

Answer 1

Obviously, he's comparing Japan and Russia to Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively. You know Axis Powers vs Axis of Evil.

To answer your question, we'd be in worse crap than we are in Iraq and we'd still be paying for it and probably would have dropped another 2 or 3 nukes on Russia alone.

Answer 2

you were not attacked by the "axis" but by Japan.
Nazi germany declared war on the US, not the other way around.
BTW, the soviet union was an ally of Nazi Germany- remember? or did you overlook that part of history?

As to the "imagine" question- I imagine the US would have beaten the whole axis- Japan, Germany, Italy and the soviets on top.
I imagine that as the result, all of East Europe would have been spared the 50 years of soviet dictatorship.

You did not feel it in the US, but it was hell on earth.

China would have never suffered under Mao
the war in Korea and Vietnam would have never been fought
the nuclear weapons technology would have been a monopoly of the US, instead of within reach of every nutcase in the world

lots of nice things I can imagine.

But definetly the world would have been a nicer place- because instead of ignoring evil, it would have been confronted and destroyed.

Answer 3

Intriguing sci-fi idea.

That would have meant our ignoring Japan, Germany and Italy and their allies and going to war with our own ally, the Soviets, who had been attacked by the Axis. And when we were hardly mobilized for war. We might have signed a pact with the Soviets sooner, of course...

A more plausible scenario would be to have us occupy Central Europe AFTER the defeat of the Germans, offer a treaty to the Japanese and then we would have fought the Russian along with raising armies from our allies and removing the communists from power. There's a fine scenario for a writer-- a hot war instead of a cold one; Russia without the nuclear capability, and a United Europe of states instead of a toothless and scientifically ridiculous UN--H.G. Wells' dream of a united world in "Things to Come" realized after a nine year victory, in say 1956,
with a free China, divided like the former communist Russia into manageable sized national states as it is now, and Marshall plan for world rebuilding and amicable leagues--minus the insane promoting of population growth in Africa, the Far East and South American by altruistic socialist Democrats and statist Republicans. Wow.
I have a title for the novel--"White Dawn".

Answer 4

The Day After Tommorrow accelerated. We'd be toast. The Russia's blown up themselves, ruin the ozone layer and the domino's fall faster than a global warming alert.
I am from Hawaii. I've been to Pearl Harbor many times.
Weird is seeing Japanese tourists there as well. But today is a new era. USSR was volatile as is Iran. But, some people listened some did not. God bless US all now that mistakes are not made in war but corrected.

Answer 5

Or, imagine that we simply stopped Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union ? The Germans would have then had a possibility of defeating the Soviets...

Or, imagine that following the defeat of Germany in 1945, we enlisted the Germans to push BACK the Soviets out of East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc.

I simply can't SEE the US ignoring Japan's actions though.

Answer 6

Since we went to war with Germany after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and Germany was at war with the USSR, it would have been foolish to attack both sides of WWII.

Answer 7

Let's see -- the U.S.S.R. retakes Alaska and gains enough clout to replace the U.N. with a communist-oriented world organization. With its industrial infrastructure destroyed by Japanese bombing, the U.S. has to fall back on its agricultural exports to rebuild its economy. With no Alaskan oil, energy problems hit the U.S. economy 15 years sooner. Communism spreads farther and it's a much bigger crisis when it collapses.

Answer 8

That makes no sense at all.

If you are trying to make a comparison to Iraq.

You failed,

In that we didn't invade Iraq right after 9/11.

We went into Afghanistan.

Answer 9

Would have been a disaster. Russia could have fought a strong defensive campaign in the hills and mountains of Russia. Our losses would have been tremendous.

Answer 10

Uhh, I'm mystified at the, well I not sure, but I wonder just what kids are being taught in history these days.