The obvious answer that most will turn to in asking what are the lessons of World War II is always avoid appeasement. Stand up to the bully. Fight for freedom.
These are obvious as the lessons of Munich - when Chamberlain (and reluctantly a very unhappy Daladier) sacrificed then Czechoslovakia to what they assumed to be "peace in our time" - linger. Indeed, there is a grain of truth in that lesson. Preparedness and all the rest.
However, the answer is too pat and too abstract. It is the application of abstract principle to concrete realities without taking into account the implications. As the historian A. J. P. Taylor pointed out in his - at the time very controversial - book, "The Origins of the Second World War," the problem was less appeasement than that Hitler and Mussolini were willing to pursue their nation's concrete and historic national interests while Chamberlain (with poor Daladier in tow), was willing to sacrifice his nation's to an abstraction - freedom, peace and all the rest.
As Lord Palmerston said, "We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow." This Chamberlain lost sight of. He thought in terms of Utopian ideals and took no account of the realities.
To be sure, Chamberlain was not operating in a vacuum. The First World War had destroyed Western self-confidence and, indeed, it has never really recovered. As John Toland put it in his book on the Battle of the Somme, "The boys in the trenches went over the top and off of a moral cliff." Chamberlain was, in that context, seeking to affirm those Western principles of peace, fair play, freedom and all the rest. The irony then being that he ended up sacrificing Czechoslovakia and affirming nothing.
Ditto, if fairness, Taylor's analysis was a bit too simple. Hitler (and Mussolini and Stalin) were not simply asserting and defending their nation's national interests as those had been defined by geography, economic factors and history. Rather, he was (and they were) pursuing a messianic vision of a new world order. The West was dead, so Mussolini elevated the state to the pinnacle of creation, Stalin said class was the driving force in History - with a capital "H" - and Hitler argued with him that it was race and not class.
These visions were as anti-historical in their way as what Chamberlain was attempting. The difference was the former operated in the context of the strategic realities. Specifically, that the international arena - NOTE: "arena" and NOT "community" - is the realm of power and not principle. Of Machiavelli and not Mother Teresea. Absent a neutral authority above states that can define and impartially impose rules, international relations are "the law of the jungle" and not "the laws of man and God."
The lesson should have been learned sooner. President Wilson at Versailles had sought to replace the balance of power and spheres of influence with a system based on international law, collective security, a "parliament of man" (called the League of Nations), and global free trade. For his troubles he got a profoundly flawed peace treaty and another world war.
The U. S. interventions in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq were waged not through the prism of national interest, but in the name of freedom and democracy and all the rest. The result was "nationbuilding" in lands of which the United States knew little and thus endless war with no real definable goals or endpoint.
To be sure, Western ideals should not be neglected. However, the lessons of the WWII are that such principles will prevail only where the West is successful and thus there is generated a belief that such principles are the key to success and security in a tumultuous and uncertain world. To achieve that success means that nations must accept the world as it is and that international affairs are about interests and power, not ideals and principles.
CONT.
You know, I'd still feel like this is done to death. Yeah, Hitler was bad. Sure. Now. What about Stalin and Mao? Where in culture today are those? Mainly ignored. Killed more than Hitler, but nobody cares. And make no mistake, they were not communists, that's just tool they used. They were brutal dictators.
So I guess the misconception is that naziism killed less people than „communism“ and dictatorship.
Nazi rule ended, but USSR has negative influence to this day. Nobody cares. Communist China is the new buly on international stage. Nobody cares. But nazis are bad. Yes, they are, we all know, but they are also dead. Sure, you have couple „nazi movements“, racists and stuff like that, but to be honest, that's just dumb, shitty people. They're harmless. CCP, however, that's something else. Or Putin and bros.
And I guess this always fascinate/pisses me off. Past problems, which don't really have much effect today are being discussed, but current ones? Naaah, it's fine. „But today's nazis kill people too!“. Yeah. They do. So does any other people group. So does CCP. In highly organized manner. Aka. Xing Jian province. Or latest Russian landgrab.
It's like crying about 10 dead while ignoring 1 000 000's. You know, what I mean?
m Don’t elect right wing populist demagogues.
Enough with the hate on Jews, the disabled and gypsies.
Which one? Pacific? Or the one with Hitler? I forgot got the name
Opinion
14Opinion
The lessons to be learned are people are easily manipulated.
The NAZIs, like all socialists, promised the world to the masses and even delivered to an extent, thus gaining them support even today.
Academics have worked VERY hard over the last 80 years to get a majority of people to believe the NAZIs were on the right side of the political spectrum, despite such a thing being absurd given 90% of the policies they supported.
People will believe anything if you work hard enough to make them believe it. Zohnerism is the elite's favorite weapon. I highly doubt the human race will last long enough to see a time when a majority of them realize what the real problem and who the real enemy is.
i think the most underappreciated lesson that comes from ww2 is this:
we always just put the "evil person" label on nazis. yes they did horrible stuff and i have no doubt that there were some really messed up in the head people among them.
however you must always consider, that the average person that ended up being a guard in the concentration camp torturing jews or mowing down enemies on the front with a large MG was just the normal guy next door. we know that every normal person can be pushed to become like that.
if you think it isn't possible to push you to do such things, you are horribly wrong and this lack of knowledge about yourself and about the human character is almost as big a problem as forgetting about the holocaust.
The Nationalist-Socialist (Nazis) were leftists, appeasement doesn't work, the allies performed poorly man for man and had to rely on overwhelming numbers and more resources in order to win the fight especially in Europe, don't ever neglect national defense readiness, and isolationism doesn't work.
A lesson to be learned is that if a defeated enemy has the victors also stomping his head in the mud and pissing all over him, that defeated enemy may one day turn to some extremist who tells them what they want to hear. During the Weimar Republic era Germany could have gone NAZI OR Communist. Imagine the allies having to deal with a combined Soviet Union/Communist Germany.
Stop calling anything and everything nazi or fascist. Not every alt-right or populist movement is nazi. Wehrmacht soldiers were not nazis. Whether you like it or not, the 3rd Reich allowed for tremendous progress when it comes to technology, military tactics, medicine and other fields. The French are not cowards, learn about the Résistance, the Free French Forces, the Normandie-Niémen, Charles de Gaulle, the Battle of the Saint-Louis Bridge and more.
I guess be ready to nip facist, Nazi, communist and imperialist aggression in the bud.
Also it's important to learn how the United States won ww2 and emerged as the world's most powerful superpower.
I'd say looking at the rise of political extremists in both Europe and America that it's too late and we haven't learnt anything.
Japan didn't surrender because of the Nukes
Operation Barbarossa saved the European Continent from the Soviet Union.
A lot of the modern liberal views in the USA are the same/similar to those of the Nazis.
Someone has to stop excessively powerful and arrogant countries. This leads to nationalism and concept of superiority, which has already caused a bloody war.
that we always will see wars until countries learn to compromise an stop hating 1 another an respect rights for all
The lessons need to be taught as many are clueless about it, the holocaust and other points. But they know the are 37 genders... or 87... whatever.
Blind nationalism and total faith in one leader is dangerous on any level. (Listening Trumpers?)
Its a matter to hold all human life as we should in God. Lets not let any country try to snuff out those who are just living life
Hitler did nothing wrong
Most Helpful Opinions