HW 25

Here's HW 25, pretty simple: Complete questions A-B from Chapter 14.
A)
1. America was a rich, strong nation that could assist Germany's enemies hugely. America had a huge army to deploy against Germany and Japan, and could also assist Britain and Russia, which were both fighting Germany as well. The assistance of America, Russia was able to form a new army that defeated the German army in the battle of Stalingrad, for example. America also joined forces with Britain on D-Day, making raids with bomber plains on German cities.

2. I do think that had Germany not declared war on America, the outcome of WWII might have been significantly different. Up until 1941, when Hitler declared war upon America, he was in control of most of Europe and Germany was doing very well in the war. However, after he declared war on America, he gave his other enemies the means to defeat him. Britain and Russia couldn't have done it themselves, but with America's power and assistance, the three teamed up into a far stronger unit. Without America's contribution, it is plausible that Germany could have defeated Britain and Russia.

B)
I find it hard to argue that NOT killing Hitler would be the "right" thing to do. From the perspective of Stauffenberg, I think it was the right thing to do as well. From the perspective of somebody who would have wanted Germany to win WWII, it would be a tough choice to make, because Hitler was the charismatic leader that glued the country together (on most accounts); however, he was making poor military decisions. It was obvious that at this point he could not win the war, yet he insisted on sending what remained of his men into battle only to be slaughtered. If Hitler could not be reasoned with, it might have been that the only option was to take him out before he doomed the entire German army, and possibly nation. I think that if the plot succeeded Germany probably would have surrendered sooner and perhaps would have gotten slightly better treatment at the hands of the Allies. I don't think that it would have been possible for Germany to regroup at that point, though, so ultimately in both situations Germany probably would not have won the war.