Nukes won WWII.
uuuuh...no...They:
- Shortened the Pacific war greatly
- Made an Amphibious Invasion unnecessary
While indeed there were some overtures of desire for negotiation from the Empire of Japan, the US wanted an "Unconditional Tapout". MacArthur talked Washington into one "condition"...let them keep the Emperor. It was feared that an invasion would have almost a million US casualties.
The Germans surrendered because they lost the race to the atomic bomb.
uuuuh...no...The Germans lost because:
- The Soviets to the East, who were whipped into an insane frenzy by 20 million Russian casualties.
- The French/Brits/Europeans to the West who were almost as pissed as the Russians.
- Hitler’s beginners luck at the start of the war that made him overconfident when in fact he was not a great military man.
I have talked with many German WWII veterans and in the final months of the war there was a saying going around the German Troops, “Um Christi willen Hingabe an die amis!”…(for Christ’s sake, surrender to the Yanks!)
The United States was not as angry in Germany as the Europeans because:
- The US Mainland was untouched.
- The US Army had many soldiers from Milwaukee, Nebraska, Texas, New York City who had parents/grandparents/relatives from Germany/Austria and for whom the primary language in the household was German. (The Supreme Allied Commander was a guy named “Eisenhower”)
- And of course, they knew that Germany would be an important ally in the future. They knew that they had to let all that had happened up to then be considered “water under the bridge.”
I have German associates and they are ashamed of the Reich..
The Nazis were never the majority…in 1933 they received 43%.
Because there were six different parties, the Nazis came to power as the result of coalition agreements.