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Entry: Buchanan, Kennan, and the "Good War" Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/buchanan_kennan_and_the_good_war#28945 Post contents: My good friend Paul Gottfried suggests that Britain feared Germany (Hitler) much more than the Soviet Union of Stalin, in 1939. Certainly, by mid 1939 German expansion had become a major worry for the Foreign Office. Yet, there is substantial evidence that all through the 1920s and most of the 1930s major segments of educated British opinion feared an expansionist Soviet Union (Communism) more that Naziism (and certainly more than Fascism). Communism was seen as a direct threat to the free enterprize system; it was internationalist (as the conflict in Spain had proven). As Ernst Nolte (in DIE EUROPAISCHE BURGERKRIEG) points out, it was the (rightful) fear of Communism that drove so many Europeans to the conclusion that perhaps an alliance with Mussolini (e.g. Stresa) or even directing Hitler's expansionist tendances to the east, might be justified. There are ample quotes from Stanley Baldwin and others (even Churchill) to that effect. Of course, the German protectorate of what remained of Czechoslavakia effectively ended the hopes engendered at Munich. Still, in 1939 (as opposed to 1914) Germany did not present a real threat to the British Empire; there were no German colonies, and the German fleet, although growing, was still no match for the British one. The guarantee to Poland was foolhardy and unenforceable, and practially guaranteed war. Hitler had long professed a desire for an alliance with the Polish colonels, directed again Stalin and the Soviets. Of course, it is easy now to speculate of what MIGHT HAVE BEEN if the Poles had made such an alliance---and whether Hitler would have respected it. The fact is such a course was not taken. Chamberlain (supported by Churchill), rather than urging negotiations, gave a pledge to the Poles that meant war and their annihilation. Sent at: 2008 11 20