|
This is a great question.
The truth is the Russians beat Nazi Germany, and did it with very little help. Attacking and invading Russia - with it's vast resources and huge numbers of fighting aged men - was the dumbest thing that Hitler ever done. While we tend to portray Hitler as a mad man and the most evil person in the world (and he was), the truth is that he was brilliant when it came to politics. He took Germany from ruins during the depression in the 1930s and rallied the entire country into an economic superpower with the strongest and most powerful military in the world. But when it came to military matters, while he liked to pretend otherwise, the truth was he made huge mistakes with the military. And it's understandable why - The German war machine, at first, just rolled over entire countries. No one was able to stop them, and everyone in Germany thought they were invincible.
If Germany never attacked Russia, and the agreement remained in place, Germany never would have been bogged down in mother Russia and would have turned it's attention to England. Depending on what involvement the US had at that point - I'm guessing the US would have been all in - it would have been vastly different. Just imagine if during the "Battle of Britain" (where Germany was attempting to gain air superiority over the UK) only half of Germany's resources (planes) were used. Then imagine Germany didn't have to use any of it's planes in Russia, and had twice as many men and planes attacking the UK. Then imagine all of those troops no longer needed in Russia, who could have attempted to land in the UK. Game changer for sure.
But the truth is more like the Molotov?Ribbentrop Pact was nothing more than a stall tactic - They knew it was only a matter of time before Germany attacked Russia?
Also... Wasn't the Molotov?Ribbentrop Pact more or less approved by the Western World because they wanted entire countries to fall under the Soviet sphere of influence?
|