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Entry: The Past Is Another Country--Counter-factual History and the Buchanan Controversy Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_past_is_another_country_counterfactual_history_and_the_buchanan_controv#29769 Post contents: I made the following comment on Lawrence Auster's VFR blog: It seems to me that Buchanan and many others are wrong to conflate Hitler's policy towards England with Hitler's policy towards France. German war strategy had long called for knocking out France before attacking Russia, in order (in theory) to avoid a two-front war with both. That's the strategy the German general staff followed in 1914, and which Hitler likewise followed in May 1940. It seems to me very likely that Germany would have attacked France whatever Churchill did. But the Germany-England situation is quite different. From the German perspective they were natural allies; Germany would have preferred an alliance with Germany controlling continental Europe and England (Britain) retaining her maritime empire, to the benefit of both. This however conflicted with England's long-term policy (inherited after WW2 by the USA I believe) of preventing a single power from dominating continental Europe. England's policy had previously been directed against France; as France weakened towards the later 19th century it became directed against Germany. Indeed by all accounts even today the British Foreign Office still retains a policy of allying with France against Germany--a completely obsolete policy since France and Germany since WW2 have had a policy of mutual alliance in order to dominate Europe together. In summary, it seems to me that Buchanan might be partly correct--Britain could have allied with Nazi Germany, disavowed all interest in continental Europe, and retained her empire. But France, and effectively all of continental Europe, would have been lost to Nazism. From a purely selfish point of view, Britain and Churchill made the wrong choice. From the point of view of humanity and civilisation, it seems to me to have been a price worth paying. Auster: So in that scenario, England makes peace with Germany, accepts its domination of the continent, and in that case Germany does not invade Africa? me: That's what I'd expect. Of course Germany would expect to regain her pre WW1 colonial possessions. And a successful Third Reich dominating Europe would have worked hard to bring Britain and America into line with Nazi ideology, just as she brought Italian Fascism into line with Nazi ideology and as Soviet Russia worked to bring the West into line with Communist ideology. So Britain and America would not have remained pure unsullied exemplars of Anglo-Saxon democracy; the prestige and power of Nazism would I think have gradually brought us into the Nazi orbit, even though Germany probably would not have attacked us. I guess this doesn't bother Buchanan, but it certainly bothers me. Sent at: 2008 12 02