I just finished the outstanding book, “Totalitarianism” by Hannah Arendt, first published in 1951. She made two points, among many, that ignited my “little grey cells”.
First, that a revolutionary totalitarian movement must be expanding. Becoming ossified by bureaucracy, laws and government causes the movement to lose its raison d’etre.
Second, that western appeasement simply feeds its growth and helps sustain fervor and avoid governmental morass.
Two well-studied instances of 20th century totalitarianism are the Soviet Union under Stalin and Germany under Hitler. Two critical instances of western appeasement are the Munich pact and Yalta decision.
After Munich, Hitler correctly believed that Britain and France would not oppose his eastern expansion. Even before that he had good evidence they would do nothing since they had permitted him to militarize the Rhineland in 1936 and occupy Austria in 1938. But the Munich conference made them expressly agree. Czechoslovakian treaty obligations were broken and that free nation was turned over to the Nazis to the eternal shame of Britain and France.
Feeding the beast merely makes it stronger. Next Hitler made a deal with his totalitarian brother Stalin to divide Poland. Believing Britain and France would again acquiesce, Hitler proceeded to attack free Poland which was then attacked in the rear by Stalin. Passivity ruled, as France and Britain declared war, but did not attack Germany. Nazi totalitarianism extended over almost all of Europe. Active, aggressive opposition would have scared the German generals who, at those early times, could have deposed Hitler.
What about Yalta?
At the time of the Yalta conference in February 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt was a dying man. The Red Army occupied Poland, most of the rest of Eastern Europe and lay only 40 miles from Berlin. Stalin promised free elections in Poland, but he had already installed a puppet government. Silly World War II propaganda cast Stalin as “Uncle Joe”, a good ally. Roosevelt wanted Stalin to attack Japan and to participate in the United Nations. Britain and the US wanted free elections in Poland and all of Eastern Europe. Stalin wanted to keep the territory he had seized in 1939 from free Poland and his intent to establish hegemony over it had already been shown. But free Poland was an ally against Nazi Germany. Britain had treaty obligations with the free Polish government (then in exile) and the US had a moral obligation to it since Poland had been re-created after World War I in the Versailles conference where President Woodrow Wilson had been very influential.
We know now that Soviet help with Japan was not necessary because of US development of the atomic bomb. We also know that the US State Department and the Yalta delegation were riddled with communist spies, as was the atomic bomb project.
The US and Britain appeased Stalin by ratifying his seizure of the half of Poland he had occupied since 1939 and the free Polish government in exile was not reinstalled as with other conquered nations. The combined effect served to feed Poland to Stalin’s movement. Czechoslovakia, the object of the Munich appeasement with Hitler, was also effectively turned over the Stalin’s totalitarianism. His hegemony over most of Eastern Europe was ratified and the phony elections installed communist governments that were recognized by the US and Britain. All became members of the UN; Stalin received two extra votes for Ukraine and Byelorussia. The beast of Stalinism was invigorated by the Yalta appeasement, a despicable act of immoral realpolitik.
Stalin did keep his promise to attack Japan. He did so through Manchuria and, following his precedence in Poland, helped the communist military under Mao to seize power in China. His military helped put a communist leader in control of North Korea. Later he violated his Yalta agreements on Berlin, causing the Berlin airlift. And he approved and supported the invasion of South Korea, leading to the Korean War.
The appeasement of Stalin extended his revolutionary totalitarian movement to many lands. The express ratification by the US and Britain of Stalin’s takeover in Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe gave life to his revolutionary movement outside of the Soviet Union. World revolution became institutionalized as part of the Politburo post-Stalin. Over the next decades, revolutionary communism metastasized into “people’s liberation movements” in many places in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Although recognition of the threat of Stalin’s totalitarian movement began in 1946 with Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech and with the Truman Doctrine in 1947, Stalin’s movement for world domination already had fresh momentum. The Cold War thus began almost immediately after the Yalta appeasement. Many consider the Cold War as World War III.
What was the alternative?
Do nothing.
The US would have defeated Japan by itself. Not recognizing any communist government in Eastern Europe could have sent the signal that no appeasement was forthcoming and that any totalitarian encroachments were not going to be accepted, ever. Containment would have proceeded immediately as it did anyway three years later. The UN would have been for free nations – perhaps a bastion against totalitarianism. Without promised “loot” for attacking Japan, Stalin may not have attacked Japan and hence enthroned Mao. Without that, there is no Korean War and no War in Vietnam. No Cuban revolution. No revolutions in Africa. In some ways, Khrushchev was similar to Gorbachev – an instigator of internal change. He was no angel, but did repudiate Stalin, closed most of the gulag, allowed Eastern Europe greater freedom of action in domestic affairs, and opened up thought and writings – a bit. Without hope for world revolution and further expansion, perhaps the Soviet government would have reached the sclerotic decay stage after Stalin died instead of decades later after only four years of Ronald Reagan. The reinvigorated Reagan containment policy led to rapid downfall of the communist movement and then to the fall of all Stalin’s expansions of the late 1940s. Without Yalta appeasement and ensuing revolutionary momentum, perhaps all this could have occurred in the late 1950s or early 1960s under Khrushchev when containment was also vigorous.
Why Think About This?
Because the appeasement of the totalitarianism of Al Qaeda and Iran will simply be feeding the beast and likely eventually lead to World War IV. Free nations must never, ever appease a totalitarian movement.
PS: I took a class at Harvard as an undergraduate entitled, “Nazi Totalitarianism” in the early 1970s. We read many books, including some fine histories that compared Stalinism and Nazism. That’s where I first read the book, “Totalitarianism”, aforementioned. I re-read that fine book over the past few weeks. That’s an example of how I continued my reading on this subject and the history of Nazism and Communism ever since. I guess that’s what those “broadening” courses are supposed to do. That one worked for me. As did the “History of Inner Asia” course, helping me become familiar with Afghanistan, Tibet and the rest of Central Asia long before they hit the headlines.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
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14 comments:
Bunkerman what are the five best books you have ever read? Or perhaps the five "must-read" books that you have had the pleasure of reading...Thanks...
Let's be clear on one issue. America was not a 'free and democrtaic' country either in the 1940s. Not only were blacks not allowed to vote.......they were oppressed and treated like farm animals. Perhaps that is why Stalin ignored US demands in eastern eurpoe.
Stalinism...Naziism...or the southern segregationists. All the same to me. Where one group of people is considered superior to another. And the 'superior' ones enslave and kill the inferior ones.
well its been along time since hitting the board.
first let me start out by saying my days of commenting about the market can only be done via email. so dont even ask me what i think about the tape.
i will say one thing. i am the worlds biggest mush times 10! i wonder how much i left on the table the past two weeks, probably buds entire net worth!
interesting comment b man. i still think the USA needs to go the route of Israel, if we wanna really win this war. hit 18, graduate hs or not, 2 yrs in the millitary. i think this wud be gud for the country on many fronts, but its hard to talk that walk since i was forced to do, but the world was almost peaceful in 1989 when i turned 18.
LIL BUSH is getting funnier by the week. i think the writers quickly realized to make the show work they had to bring in the left and just rip on all of dc. the show is really climbing the charts at my house.
notice selig yawning as barry rounded third last nite? almost like greenspan yawning about all the crap he pulled till he retired.
like selig didnt all but gives a big thumbs out to the juice after 94. hitting huge dingers is what sorta saved baseball after 94. so what if barrys head is 2 sizes bigger and his feet have gone from a size 11 to 14, in his 30's. thats normal, ive gone from a size 10 to a size 7, ROFL!
bonds truly disgusts me. vick is a witch hunt. hes a thug, an idiot and cruel to animals, but so r a lot of people. if u eat meat, u r cruel to animals. i love dogs more than most but this is just silly.
on the other hand, if someone were to put a cap in bonds head as he rounds 3rd base on the next one, ill be like selig and yawn, plus maybe a little LOL.
phillies sux!
bud u gonna love the new me. no market comments, just bs! i know how much u love that!
peace
yahl
ps. mav sent cramer blowing up at erin on friday. now that was LOL funny. i wudnt mind seeing him stroke out, on the air, and die. that wud tickle me pink.
cramer, who is from philly, started his wallstreet days in 1982. ironically that is the last yr "the city of champions" won thier last title.
there r many rumors to the philly/mern mush, but no one points to cramer starting on wallstreet as to what but a cap in the azz of us philly faithful.
i love how he acted like he was buyer, in his fund, at the 98 low. if i recall, he wanted to go 200% short and berkowitz and harrison faded him, in the fund, behind his back, to save thier yr.
we all have selective memory but his is off the chain.
Who SOLD OUT a piece of national treasure vital to our survival, to Russians, dirt cheap? On paragraph 4.
Watch out SWC on monday for earnings release after hour. Crooks knocked down SWC from $16.47 to $8.56 in less than 3 months, for no good reason. Maybe they want to sell the remainder to Russians cheap?
Deeply oversold, I expect a blowout SWC quarterly earning, and from here SWC MUST have a dramatic reversal and a great rally on the good earnings. Don't let go of the opportunity!
I'm thinking about your question, mfl. One problem is that books are so multi-dimensional and have qualities along so many attributes. It's analogous to IQ: intelligence is multi-dimensional and one scale or number misses a huge universe of abilities.
Perhpas I'll list some that have had a major influence on my thinking on various subjects.
By the way, I almost never read fiction, so they will all be non-fiction.
Uh Bud, I don't think anyone believes or ever even considered that Stalin took any qualities or failures of the US into account for his demands or plans.
And the point of US being a non-perfect society is just rhetorical ploy used to then "conclude" that issues regarding other evils just can't be discussed by Americans. It's a non sequitur.
The statement that Stalinisn, Naziism and southern segregationists are "all the same" is just wrong. And it demeans the millions [about 50 million] persons exterminated under Stalinism and Naziism. Stalinism actually did not place one race or group over others. An elite core was placed over all others and souls were fed to the camps or starved to death or exterminated in other ways. And even the elite core was purged every few years.
And if Hitler had won on the Eastern Front, Nazi records shows he planned to exterminate every Slav to the Ural mountains - for starters.
And the Nazis did exterminate the sick and others deemed "not healthy".
These two episodes of totalitarianism really have very minor overlap with southern segregationist ideology.
Barry Bonds - ugh!!! I agree, mern.
jj...why aren't insiders buying SWC?
At least mern admits that Bud Selig was in the dugout stickin syringes in mcgwire and sosa'a ass. That's why i don't take him seriously.
SWC sure has a pretty chart. I think i'll pass on this 'opportunity!'
Lmaoooooooo
uhh Maverick, don't let facts get in the way of a good story...lmaoooo
die mkt die!
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