>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: RE: Scouted: Commentary: Why Europe Sides Against the Jews / time >.com >Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 15:59:40 -0400 > >Me: >Well, we didn't _use_ our time to prepare. I'm not sure where you're >getting this idea, actually, Jon, since the unpreparedness of the United >States to enter the Second World War is near-legendary. The American army >up until about 1938 was the size of Romania's. The famous exercises in the >South in which Patton and Marshall learned how to command tank attacks were >conducted with trucks, because the US had no real armored forces at the >time - and that was also in the late 1930s. The US had, IIRC, four >aircraft carriers on Dec. 7, 1941 - the Enterprise, Yorktown, Saratoga, and >Hornet. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor uses 6, IIRC, and that was not >their entire fleet. The United States had immense latent power - something >in the range of 50% of the world's industrial capacity - but very little in >the way of forces in being in 1941 when we entered the war. The European >countries had plenty of time to prepare, but, like us, they chose not to >use it. The struggles of Churchill to try and force Britain to rearm are >well-known. As is the fact that he was largely ignored until it was almost >too late. France refused to complete the Maginot line. The Netherlands >refused to allow the French to station troops on their soil, thus >guaranteeing both their own conquest and that there would be a gaping hole >in French defenses. No one was ready to fight the Germans, but you can't >argue that it was because of insufficient warning, and I don't think you >can say that the US was more ready to fight than anyone else. > >Gautam >
Well, you're proving wrong something I was almost positive I remembered correctly from a pre- and post-WWII history class I took in my Freshman year. I'll do a little reading and research... I wanna make sure you're right, after all :-) Jon _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
