Comments by "Itinerant Patriot" (@itinerantpatriot1196) on "Did the Allied policy of ‘unconditional surrender’ prolong WW2?" video.

  1. Roosevelt didn't come up with unconditional surrender on a whim. He did believe that not marching into Berlin and proving the Germans had lost to the Germans in an up-close personal way played a role in militarism taking root in the 1930s. And there was a lot of truth to his belief. The thing is, Ulysses Grant had set the precedent 80 years before at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. Then he made it a central part of the doctrine when he came East and gave Sherman permission smash the Confederacy to smithereens and make the populace feel the pain. Total war. Grant was very good at fighting it and most every general on all sides in WWII read his memoirs. An American tradition if you will. Unconditional surrender is tough but Grant proved it works. Roosevelt knew that going in. As far as Churchill being good with it or not, there is evidence on both sides of that argument. Churchill had good reason to not want unconditional surrender. He was fighting to keep the British Empire alive and in order to achieve that he needed Germany to act as a bulwark against the commies in post-war Europe. Maintaining a balance of power in Europe was something Britain had fought for going back to the days of Waterloo, even earlier for that matter. You don't get that if unconditional surrender is forced on Germany, not unless you turn the job over to the Americans which was a toss-up at best at that point in the war. Churchill knew Roosevelt would like nothing better than to see all empires go kaput, including and especially the British Empire, so the idea he would keep troops in Germany to hold off the Russians long term wasn't that strong. Churchill was a master at writing and rewriting history to make anything sound anyway he wanted so once unconditional surrender was settled, well of course Winnie was on board all day long. Hell, I'm surprised he didn't jump up and say: "It was my idea first," after Roosevelt kicked off. I don't buy that crap for a moment. Churchill was pissed when Roosevelt made the public announcement. There are enough sources who back up that claim and as I laid out, a weak Germany was not in the best interests of the Empire, anymore than a weak Empire was in Hitler's best interest. Anyway, that's my take on it. Did it prolong the war? That is a question that really can't be answered definitively. It sure was helpful as a motivator for Goebbels to use once things turned permanently south for the Reich. That much is known.
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