If Western pseudo-historiography mainly points to ancient history, then during World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union could each cause such a big controversy.
Although the US imperialist will not die, and it has been particularly unfriendly in recent years, it is not necessary to deny the United States to this point.
World War II is only the history of 70 years ago, not far away, and considering the progress of modern archives and video records, the performance of the Soviet Union and US imperialism during World War II is actually completely verifiable.
On the one hand, the liberation of Auschwitz and the capture of Berlin are undoubtedly the achievements of the Soviet Red Army, and on the other hand, the role of the United States in turning the tide of the war and the strong assistance to the allies are also objective facts.
This article combines domestic history textbooks and official historical materials to focus on several key controversies.
The first problem is that the United States sold steel and oil to the Japanese and slaughtered China.
In short, one of the central factors of this controversy is time. The United States was the last major Allied power to enter World War II. There is obviously a gap of several years between the perception of World War II between China and the United States.
The accusation that the United States helped Japan fight China was also concentrated in the years before the United States declared war on Japan.
The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was calculated according to the eight-year War of Resistance, beginning with the July Seven Incident in 1937, and the 14-year War of Resistance and beginning with the September 18 Incident in 1931.
The United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese death attack on Pearl Harbor.
Three days later, on December 11, Hitler's Nazi Germany and the fart Italy declared war on the United States at the same time, and on the same day, the United States declared war on Germany and Italy.
However, whether diplomatically, militarily, or legally, the United States did not cross the red line when it did business with Japan before declaring war. It's not that the U.S. did it get it right, but it didn't cross the red line — we can blame the U.S. morally, but it's well known that morality is a higher standard, meaning "should," not the bottom line, not "can't."
The US approach is not only the pursuit of interests, but also the embodiment of American society, culture and history, which is not the "ironclad evidence" of former US President Calvin Coolidge's classic quote - "All affairs of the United States are business!" ”
Of course, the United States also paid a terrible price for this extremely mercantilist creed, and Japan and the United States fought to the death in the Pacific theater, with 93,000 American troops killed and 210,000 wounded, 188 warships including 11 aircraft carriers, and 21,000 aircraft destroyed.
Although Japan was beaten even worse, with 800,000 civilians and 2 million soldiers killed, the US ledger is estimated to have lost money from doing business with Japan.
Regarding the time, there is also a well-known detail behind the Pearl Harbor incident, that is, Japan made an oolong that year: Japan's original calculation was to declare war on the United States first, and then launch a sneak attack, but by mistake and mistake, it became a sneak attack first, and a declaration of war against the United States later.
The sneak attack and undeclared war, this oolong of the Japanese devils gave Roosevelt double confidence, and at noon on December 8, he delivered a "Day of Shame speech" to the Congress, the first sentence of which doomed the defeat of Japanese militarism: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a day that will forever be notorious..."
It was one of the most famous speeches in American politics. It was broadcast live on radio and attracted the largest audience in the history of U.S. broadcasting, with more than 81 percent listening to the speech. Shortly after the speech, Congress almost unanimously declared war on Japan, officially entering World War II.
The second question is the basis and roots of the US policy of neutrality.
The United States remained neutral before the Pacific War, and doing business with Japan and Germany was tantamount to scheming with the tiger, taking advantage of the fire, and finally setting itself on fire. This plot seems nonsensical, and the cycle of heavenly retribution is unhappy, but it is indeed not surprising that it happened to the United States.
Behind the neutrality is actually the self-isolation of the United States, that is, the deep-rooted "American exception" mentality, which Trump was still holding high until a few years ago.
American neutrality not only helped the Axis powers, but also the Allies. Before Pearl Harbor, the United States ignored its European allies and its own British father. Anyone who has seen the movie "Darkest Hour" knows how British Prime Minister Winston Churchill "groveled" and "begged" Roosevelt to help and did not hesitate to send mules to the Canadian border to pull planes.
From the short history of the United States for more than two hundred years, it can be seen that the United States in the New World actually had no good impression of the Eurasia of the Old World.
The development of the Americas was originally a group of puritans and aliens who could not be mixed in Europe, and ran to the New World to reopen a copy. Most of the founders of the United States are also the descendants of this gang of "anti-thieves", and the origin of the American War of Independence is nothing more than a split between the North American colonies and the British Empire.
During the two world wars, there was a folk saying: since the European powers were so keen to scourge the old world, let them go to the woe.
Therefore, the United States entered two world wars and faced domestic public resistance.
On the one hand, the United States is far away from the battlefield and has a wealth from war, on the other hand, Americans live comfortably, and going to war is a fatal thing. So, once upon a time, it was a Yankee tradition to take to the streets for anti-war purposes, just as the French took to the streets for a holiday. The dismal end of the Vietnam War has something to do with the hippies and Forrest Gump.
But in the end, the United States was still involved in two world wars, and the opportunity to join World War I was the famous "Zimmerman Telegram", the Germans colluded with Mexico, intending to attack the United States, and the opportunity to enter World War II was undoubtedly the attack on Pearl Harbor.
When it hits the United States, the United States will stop chasing money, roll up its sleeves and go dry.
The third thing is who is friendlier to China between the United States and the Soviet Union.
In terms of aid to China, the Soviet Union naturally could not compare with the United States. After all, the USSR itself was beaten to a pulp by the Nazis, and it was all counting on American aid to turn over, not to mention the Hump route, the Flying Tigers, and so on.
Just talking about Japan's puppet Manchukuo in the northeast can also see how different the pattern of the Soviet Union and the United States is.
After the September 18 Incident in 1931, Japan occupied the northeast region, and a year later supported Puyi as a puppet, established the puppet Republic of Manchukuo, and implemented the so-called "constitutional monarchy".
Naturally, the puppet state of Manchukuo was not recognized by many countries, except for Japan's accomplices Germany and Italy, and Franco's Spain, there were only a few "small countries".
In January 1932, the United States Government sent a diplomatic note to Japan and the Republic of China at the same time, explicitly not recognizing Japan's forcible change of international territory by force, that is, not recognizing the puppet state of Manchukuo.
In 1933, the League of Nations, then a low-grade version of the United Nations, passed the Litton Report, declaring that Manchuria remained part of China, and Japan withdrew from the League of Nations.
But the attitude of the USSR was much more ambiguous. On March 23, 1935, the Soviet government and the puppet Manchukuo government signed the "Basic Agreement between the Soviet Union and Manchukuo on the Transfer of the Eastern Railway", and this title alone indicates that the Soviet Union de facto recognized the existence of "puppet Manchukuo".
A few years later, the Soviet Union made a bigger and worse deal. On April 13, 1941, the Soviet Union and Japan signed the Soviet-Japanese Non-Aggression Pact, which legally recognized Manchukuo, and in return, Japan recognized the Soviet-made independence of Outer Mongolia.
The fourth thing is how much aid the United States gave to its allies during World War II.
The United States provided assistance to the Allies for both public and private motives. Yu Gong, only the United States is far away from the main battlefield, only the United States still has surplus food at home, naturally it is duty-bound. Privately, it is also unrealistic and cost-effective for the United States to single out Germany, Italy and Japan, so arming its allies and helping itself fight the war is a very realistic choice - this thinking actually continued until the later Marshall Plan.
The Soviet Union was undoubtedly the main force in World War II, and the liberation of Auschwitz and the capture of Berlin were all outstanding achievements of the Soviet Red Army. But as we all know, the German Nazis' blitzkrieg once beat the Soviet Union to the ground, lost its city, and pushed it all the way to Moscow.
The great reversal of the war situation, in addition to the super blood bar of the Soviet Red Army and the power of the winter general of Russia, is also inseparable from the cooperation of the Allies.
Leaving aside U.S. aid to Britain and China, let's just talk about U.S. aid to the Soviet Union.
According to the United States' own data, after the United States declared war on Germany, Italy and Japan, it provided the Soviet Union with more than $10 billion worth of various materials under the Lend-Lease Act, which was worth $180 billion in today's currency.
By the end of World War II, one-third of the Soviet Union's trucks and planes were American-made. The United States even moved an entire tire factory of the Ford Company, which made military tires, to the Soviet Union.
This scene was also mentioned in a movie a few years ago. The super rich second generation in "Speed King", Henry Ford II, boasted that his factory helped the United States win World War II.
Stalin did not shy away from this episode, and no matter how-for-tat the subsequent Cold War confrontation was, Stalin gave an objective assessment of American aid during World War II.
In a November 1941 letter to President Roosevelt, Soviet leader Josef Stalin said:
"Mr. President, it is with sincere gratitude that the Soviet Government accepts the $1 billion in interest-free credit materials and raw materials that you have decided to provide to the Soviet Union, which is a much-needed aid to the Soviet Union, which is fighting a bitter battle against its common enemy, the murderous Hitlerism."
During the Tehran Conference in December 1943, Stalin toasted at a dinner with the leaders of the Allies by saying:
"The United States ... It is the land of machines. Without the use of those machines obtained through Lend-Lease, we would have lost this war. ”
Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev, in his memoirs, also described how Stalin emphasized the important role of Lend-Lease aid:
"He said bluntly that if the United States had not helped us, we would not have won this war."
Even after the demise of the Soviet Union, Putin the Great repeatedly recognized the help of the Allies during World War II.
On May 9, 2005, Moscow held a military parade to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. In his speech, Putin said:
"We will always remember the assistance of the allies: the United States of America, Great Britain, France and other countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, anti-fascists in Germany and Italy."
Measured on the scale of history, the twentieth century was the century of the most rapid development of human science and technology, but it was also the bloodiest century in history.
Before the twentieth century, the largest Napoleonic Wars caused only 7 million casualties. But the two world wars of the twentieth century caused more than 140 million casualties, including more than 85 million in World War II alone.
Perhaps, it was precisely because of the horror and tragedy of World War II, and the concerted efforts of the Allies to eradicate the Nazi devil, that the relative peace of the postwar period was created for nearly 80 years.
Past experience, if not forgotten, is a guide for the future.!
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