The Super Summary of World History (106 page)

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    When the United States buys foreign goods money leaves the US system, thus lowering the money supply. It is the same when immigrants send money out of the United States back to the home country.

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    p.127
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal
, Murphy, Regnery, 2009. Note: if a nation sets its price on gold redemption at 20 dollars per ounce, then the amount of money it can print is limited by its supply of gold. If a nation has 1 ounce of gold, it can print twenty dollars worth of paper money. With no gold standard (or silver or other precious metal that holds a stable value) a nation can print all the money it wants, and the money’s value with rise and fall with the amount printed and the strength of the nation’s economy. How the money men figure a nation’s economic strength vs the amount of money in circulation is beyond me, and, naturally, there are other factors.

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    During the 1930’s in Germany, inflation became so bad that a wheelbarrow full of money would not buy a loaf of bread. This happened because the German government printed too much money. When there is a lot of something, like air in an open field, it has little value. When you have very little of something, like air in a collapsed mineshaft, its value rises dramatically. Of course, the item must be wanted or needed. Who cares about an abundance of cockroaches?

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    This is an often misunderstood point about capitalist economies. Corrections must take place if the capitalist system is to work. Irregularities are shaken out by periodic corrections so the economy can continue to expand. If the irregularities are allowed to go on, they can cause depressions and a lot of economic hardships. Andrew Mellon, secretary of the Treasury under Coolidge, believed this and adjusted his economic program accordingly with excellent results.

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    The US Constitution does not say how many justices are on the Supreme Court. It just establishes the court. Roosevelt was threatening to add enough justices to the court to overcome the rather conservative majority that was striking down his New Deal programs.

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    P. 187,
Against Leviathan, Government Power and a Free Society
, Higgs, Robert, 2004, The Independent Institute.

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    War economies are hard to judge because the employment and production are skewed; however, when the production is being blown apart in some far away land it cannot really add to the domestic product. How to measure a war economy is still up for debate, but many economists say WWII was not a period of economic recovery.

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The Forgotten Man, A New History of the Great Depression,
Shlaes, Amity, 2007, Harper Perennial.

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The Forgotten Man,
Shlaes, Amity.

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    p. 110, 111,
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal
, Murphy, Regnery, 2009. Fun book to read, easy for the non-economist.

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    We are all captives of our theories. Theories set the framework for analysis of various problems, and a lack of theories—or faulty theories—can hamper the ability to respond to events effectively. When Keynes came up with his monetary theories about how to end the depression they presented the decision makers with a new way of looking at events, and new ways of solving the crisis.

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    p. 166,
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal
, R. Murphy, Regnery, 2009.

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    Stalin supported the spread of communism to China and planned and supplied the North Korean invasion of South Korea, among other violent acts perpetrated throughout the world. We are talking total deaths, not percentages. Mao might be able to claim more murders, but it is hard to tell. The current count is Hitler killed 21 million, Mao killed 34 million, and Stalin killed 62 million. These numbers are from a study by the University of Hawaii in 2008.

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    This was the
combined arms doctrines
developed by the British on the Western Front in WWI.

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    Japan was fighting in China right up until the end of World War II in 1945, because that was a major focus of the military government—winning in China.

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Japan’s War: The Great Pacific Conflict
, by Edwin Hoyt.

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    See: John Keegan,
The First World War
, 2000, Vintage Press.

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    There are large problems defining fascism. Most of their economic programs were socialist as the government controlled industry and tried to ensure the populace made a decent living; however, the fascists were militarists and ardent nationalists advocating expansionist policies. Fascism in Italy was much different than Germany where racism was a key element of the mix. Socialism is not automatically expansionist; however, Communism is expansive in nature. All these interlacing ideas make fascism difficult to pin down

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    In Eastern Europe, two similar dictatorships struggled for triumph. Ironically, this totalitarian clash determined if democracy would survive in Western Europe. The purpose for war was clear in the
Persian Wars
also. Maybe I should say the modern purpose for war was never clearer.

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    See: Winston Churchill,
The Gathering Storm.

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    When I say violence as a part of government control, I do not mean some police officer kicking a rioter. The kind of violence adopted included executing or forever imprisoning people who were opposed to the government. If a person even talked about disliking an official in the regime they could be, and often were, executed.

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Ultra
: the British broke the German
Enigma
code, a machine code which the Germans believed unbreakable; thus, seldom changed.
Magic
: the United States broke the main Japanese code, a traditional “book” code that was often changed, thus destroying the US ability to read the code until new keys were found. One might say the invasion of the USSR was the most important event of the war, but that was a decision by Hitler and thus absorbed into the first reason given in the list.

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    We must acknowledge Adolf Hitler’s brilliance as a politician. He went from a corporal in the army, to the leadership of a penniless Nazi Party, to ruler of all of Germany, and then ruler of Europe in a very short time. One must also acknowledge it was Hitler’s support for the new tactics of Blitzkrieg—the use of tanks and aircraft in massed formations—and the development of the tanks and aircraft themselves, that allowed this to happen. Hitler’s ready acceptance of the new ideas changed warfare.

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    The USSR occupied Poland after WWII and covered up their murders of the Poles until the fall of the USSR in 1989-1991.

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    By mining the coastal waters, the English would force ships out of neutral waters into the North Sea where the Royal Navy could intercept them.

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    They were using motorcycle messengers, just as they did in World War I.

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    Just another very bad decision by the Fuehrer. Why he gave the order is unknown. Lots of speculation, but no one knows because he did not write it down or tell anyone that a historian could trust. He left a will and
Mien Kampf
but no diary as such.

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    Royal Air Force

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    Vichy France named for its capital city.

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ON WAR,
1833. Clausewitz’s book was the primer on war and its execution—at least prior to 1970. Some today argue it is out of date, others think it is still relevant and anyone ignoring its precepts is going to face hardships or outright defeat. I think it is still THE primer on war.

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    Killed in Action

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    In fact, they would have sailed in without any air support if necessary (my opinion)

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    I know others, even German generals, have said otherwise; but I still hold my opinion. Also, remember logistics. How could the Nazis get supplies to their troops once they were on the beach? The British navy could easily have cut the sea supply line through night actions alone.

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    Most of the material in this section comes from:
Hitler’s U-boat War: The Hunters, 1939-1942
, by Clay Blair, Modern Library, 2000;
and
Memoirs
,
by Carl Doenitz
, Da Capo Press, 1997 . . . note the author of this book.

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    One-third at sea, one-third in transit, and one-third in for repair and resupply.
SEE DONITZ, Memoirs.

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    Similar ship construction was accomplished in WWI as well.

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    Seventeen knots underwater speed which was faster than the Type VII surface speed.

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    The designer of the AK-47( Kalashnikov ) denies he took the design from the German model; however, he does admit the idea came from the German gun. In my opinion, looking at both weapons, they are very similar. The Panzerfast was another German weapon, and was developed into the RPG (rocket propelled grenade) that is widely used and extremely deadly.

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    The Sherman does get an undeserved bad reputation because people do not understand it was
not
supposed to fight other tanks. The
tank destroyer
was designed for that task. In pre-war doctrine, the Sherman would punch a hole into the enemy infantry line (trenches and the like), the Germans would then counterattack with tanks. The tank destroyer was to move in and deal with the counterattack. After the tank destroyer defeated the counterattack, then the Sherman would be on its way once more and exploit the breakthrough. These pre-war ideas were brought into Europe in 1944, and, unfortunately for the US and UK, the Sherman was often forced into tank to tank combat with superior German tanks.

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    Suicide attacks in which the pilot stays with the aircraft and rams it into the target. In essence, this is a (man) guided missile.

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The Third Reich in Power
, Evans, 2005, Penguin Books. Section 4: pages 352-454, esp pages 410-411.

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    Remember Kesselring from the Battle of Britain? He was one of the Luftwaffe team who designed the assault on RAF airfields that nearly succeeded.

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    For a while, the Germans did have critical information on convoy sailings through insurance companies in Switzerland that kept records of the sailings

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    The Suez Canal allowed the transport of oil, men, and material to and from India (the key British colony), Iran, and Australia. Closing it would mean the ships carrying these key supplies would have to round Africa to reach England. This voyage would be longer, use more fuel, and expose the ships to German attacks for a longer time.

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    Kesselring knew of the supply problems all over the Axis theaters of war, and he knew logistics would be a key factor in victory or defeat everywhere.

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    Montgomery had fought in WWI, and this is definitely a WWI attitude. Plus, such overwhelming force is difficult to come by since most nations cannot field that kind of army.

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    The German general staff had sent General
Von Paulus
to Africa, and he recommend an immediate withdrawal. Rommel decided against this, but it was one of his worst decisions. Von Paulus would surrender the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad.

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    Three hundred of these tanks were American Sherman’s with its new 75mm gun that outclassed most of the German tanks available to Rommel’s men and all the Italian tanks