Comments by "Keit Hammleter" (@keithammleter3824) on "MOST CORRUPT SERIES: Franklin D. Roosevelt - Part II - Forgotten History" video.

  1. Some utter nonsense in this video. # At 5:10 he says that supplying arms to Britain was a violation of neutrality law. It certainly was not - it was a commercial transaction. The Brits submitted their requisitions and paid their money, going broke doing it. if you think selling arms on a cash basis is an act of war, then you must think that your local gun shop is committing murders. # At 15:58 he says Churchill was concerned (before Pearl Harbour) about Japan. He certainly was not, he was totally focused on the war in Europe. Churchill ignored Australian advice that Japan would attack Singapore and refused to improve its defense. Churchill refused to allocate meaningful weapons to Australia and tried his hardest to deny Australia of its own troops, such that Australia had to send recruits who had done only half their basic training to fight the 4 times bigger Japanese force in New Guinea. # At 16:47 he says Hitler was stupid in declaring war on the USA. But due to the Tripartite Pact and Japan attacking Pearl Harbour, neither Germany nor the USA had any choice - they were then automatically at war anyway. Both declared war on each other simultaneously to clear the air and remove any legal doubt. It is well documented that Hitler did not want war with the USA, and had a fit when he heard about Pearl Harbour. He knew he could win against Britain, but not against the USA. # The narrator says that Roosevelt was always itching to get the US into war. if that is so, how come Churchill in his multi-volume history of WW2 explains at length how he had to cajole, con, nag and trick Roosevelt and the USA for some time to get them in. That includes Churchill nagging Roosevelt into maintaining and keeping crippling trade sanctions against Japan, thus turning Japan into a cornered rat that thought they had no option but to attack. # As for Roosevelt supporting Stalin, he didn't have much option. The USSR made the biggest commitment to the War in Europe and was an essential component in winning as soon as it was. At the end, Stalin had the upper hand. # The narrator denigrates Macarthur leaving the Philippines. Sometimes in war you have to make tough decisions. Sometimes you have let troops die or be captured in order to serve a much greater good. This was one such circumstance. The USA pulled Macarthur, who was essentially retired due age, out of the Philippines in order to meet an Australian Government request for a competent 5-star general (Australian generals were British trained and not up to the job) to take over the defense of Australia and its surrounding seas, and to meet the US's own needs in the war in the Pacific. Macarthur was the only one the USA could spare but he turned out to be very good.
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  2.  @alwaysfreedom9354  ; I guess you are Amercian. Education here in Australia has been continually been going down hill since the 1970's here too. While the start of that coincided with the retirement of WW2 vets, that isn't the cause. The cause here is three main things;- 1. Australia had an independent standards setting system that was scrapped in the 1970's. It used to be that primary and high school syllabuses and certificate exams were set by independent universities. this meant the schools just had to measure up and teach so that a sufficient number of students passed. beginning in 1970 this system was scrapped and the schools themselves became able to set their own standards; 2. Schools adopted what was then new methods of American teaching - eg whole word reading instead of the c-a-t method. these methods proved to be no good. 3. The rise of feminism. Teachers noticed that girls don't do as well as boys in math and science and decided this needed to be corrected. fair enough, but their cure was to dumb math and science down, and take out what needs the student to think. This has caused boys to find math and science boring. A less important reason (some think it a critical factor) is that discipline standards have changed. Until the 1970's a kid being naughty what given a firm NO and smacked. Now they get diagnosed with some nonsense condition like ADHD and given special treatment.
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  3.  @FORGOTTENHISTORYCHANNEL  In answer to your numbered points:- 1. No, shipping the goods was not a violation. It too was a commercial transaction that Britain paid for , no different to you ordering a farm gun and having it shipped to you. It is neither the supplier nor the courier's responsibility if you use the gun against your enemy. 2. Actions speak louder than words. Actions show a politician's true colours. Churchill in his various acts and decisions showed that he was not concerned about what Japan might do, he just wasn't concerned about the colonies and dominions such as Australia. In British tradition he regarded them as sacrificial, unimportant except as a source of troops (cannon fodder is the term) to defend Britain by tying up enemy troops away from Britain. It was the trade embargoes imposed by the USA that really affected Japan and what caused Japan to attack the USA. And in fact in his history of WW2 he included contemporary dialog in which he said he wasn't concerned. For example, if Churchill was concerned for Australia, he would have returned their troops instead of tricking the troops into Greece to tie up Germans on a mission that was certain to fail. 3. No contradiction. As I said, Churchill just wanted to defend Britain, he didn't care about colonies. But he did encourage the US sanctions and if he did that to induce Japan to attack the USA in cornered rat style that is a quite separate thing. Churchill and Stalin got on well with each other and respected each other - probably because they were both ruthless conniving pricks happy to do whatever it takes. Not a lot of trust, but plenty of respect. 4. You may be right here, though it is not clear what your point is. 5. Any lie by Macarthur is incidental to the big picture. He was needed somewhere else and he was needed there good and quick. You have a point on the subs. Getting surface ships away was probably wise, as at that time they didn't know how good or how bad the Japanese were at sea battles. It was only learned later the Japs weren't very good, as their IJN officers were often drunk at critical times, crews poorly trained, and they failed to adapt to changing circumstances.
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  4.  @alwaysfreedom9354  ; Macarthur had been lent to the newly independent Philippine government, to create a Philippine army. He was essentially retired from the US Army but was recalled to duty as a US army general on 26 July 1941. He actively attempted to prepare the Philippines for defense against Japan with US troops but as you say he was ordered to leave and take over Australia''s forces. Macarthur proved very good in Australia, far better than our own generals, who regarded the Japanese as unstoppable and planned to let them invade half the mainland. But in the Korean War he was in his 70's, too old, had lost the plot and wanted to use nuclear weapons against China, and the US president had to sack him. I have his book that he wrote some years after he was sacked. It is a fascinating read, but he was then quite nuts and what he wanted to do in Korea is quite horrifying - would have left much of the country uninhabitable for most life forms, scattered radioactivity in adjacent countries, and would have started world war 3. Uncle Joe got his name from the fact that he helped the USA get through the Depression - an uncomfortable fact that Americans don't like to talk about and conveniently forget. He did that by purchasing huge quantities of machines, machine tools, and tractors from US factories. I worked for the local dealer of a certain large US earth moving machinery and diesel engine manufacturer whose corporate colours are black and yellow. When you work for such companies, they give you presents when you do something good. One time I got an expensively printed corporate history. In that book it describes how they were certain to go bankrupt, but ended up doing quite well during the Depression as the USSR bought so many of their tractors. Of course Stalin didn't do that to be nice. He did it because he needed the goods and thought American goods the best (which they were). But it wouldn't have seemed a good idea for the US govt to p--- him off. However, Roosevelt didn't use the name '"Uncle Joe" much in public until WW2 resulted the USSR being on the same side.
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  5.  @alwaysfreedom9354  : Roosevelt also created a depression era law that prevented mines and factories from employing children. Industrialists began to call him communist and an admirer of Stalin then, pointing out that the USSR had the same law, but so did lots of other western countries.
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