Eighty Years and One Hundred Sixty Years: An Evaluation

This title may seem confusing to readers. An explanation is in order. Eighty years ago, 1945, World War II ended. This world war, the second of the twentieth century, resulted in the deaths of at least 50 million people and gave us a new word: genocide. Nazi Germany the successor to imperial Germany, fought in a new way, yet in a manner similar to its behavior in World War I, targeting civilians, and killing at least  6 million Jews, citizens of various European countries as well as untold numbers of Sinti and Roma. In addition to having political goals, Nazi Germany was also engaged in a racial war. So great was their racial hatred that they were willing to lose crucial military battles by diverting needed resources to kill innocent civilians as part of their racial project. It was understood that this was a real battle for civilization over barbarianism and savage totalitarianism. There was no room for any peace, cease fire or other interim agreement or negotiation with the Nazi leaders of the Third Reich. They were truly beyond the pale. Unconditional surrender was the demand of the Western Allies. Despite hindsight criticism by various so-called scholars that this demand may have prolonged the war, such criticism may be discarded by simply acknowledging that no negotiations with Nazis was possible. Decent people could not have sat in the same room with such people and no peace or understanding could be achieved with such murderers.

It is important to note that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), led by Josef Stalin, a so called ally of the United States and United Kingdom in the fight against Nazi Germany, actually aided and abetted the Nazis in starting World War II and in their conquest of most of Europe. The notorious Molotov Ribbentrop pact of August 1939 was a new type of Schlieffen Plan. While dividing up Eastern Europe, the Nazis did not need to worry about their eastern front. By the spring of 1941, most of Europe was under German control. Until June 22, 1941, when Germany invaded its partner, the USSR, the latter was faithfully supplying war materiel to the Nazis. So much for the mistaken idea that the extreme right and extreme left can’t get along with each other. On the contrary, if one draws a circle, the two extremes meet to complete the circle. Nazis and Communists get along fine with each other. Stalin and Hitler were cut from the same cloth. Indeed, all tyrants are the same and it is a major strategic error to think otherwise. With the downfall of the Third Reich, denazification trials took place though it is generally conceded that they were ineffective in purging German life of “former” Nazis and in many cases the trials could even be described as farcical. It is unfortunate that after the downfall of the USSR and its eastern European satellites that deCommunistatation trials were not held. Instead, much of the former nomenklatura ended up as important government or political leaders or as important international business figures known as oligarchs. So the story remains the same, only the scenery is changed.

Today, Germany, after 45 years of separation into two states is united, democratic and peaceful though would-be extreme nationalists (AfD) still exist and nostalgia for the good old days remain. As a member of NATO and the European Union, with the strongest economy in Europe and moderate, responsible leaders, the defeat of World War II has changed Germany. There is no doubt that Germany lost the war. Such doubt existed after World War I as Germans spoke of the “stab in the back”. The war was fought on French and Russian territory.  After the Battle of Tannenberg there was essentially no fighting on German territory. So after the German high command (Hindenburg and Ludendorff) begged for an armistice in November 1918 and Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated and fled to Holland, a republic was declared and Germans asked ‘how could we have lost the war when we were fifty miles from Paris?”. The punitive Versailles Treaty didn’t help matters as the extreme left and extreme right prospered in the untested and unprepared democratic republic. The Great Depression saw the death spiral of the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich. The lesson here is that a county that loses a war must be occupied and taught that they really lost and that there is no doubt that they lost. No resistance can be tolerated and all doubts should be erased. It must be made clear that starting a war and losing has very severe consequences. Life is not a schoolyard game with do overs.

What about the USSR? Its Red Army marched eastward and conquered eastern Europe and occupied Berlin. The Red Army saw that Communist regimes, subservient to the USSR, were established and an “iron curtain” divided Europe from Stettin (Szceczin) on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic. Communists replaced Fascists without skipping a beat. With the downfall of Communism and the USSR (1991) the former nomenklatura kept power. Russia, as Germany after World War I, did not believe that they lost the Cold War. Today, a former KGB functionary. Vladimir Putin, serves as president of the Russian Federation and seeks to undo the dissolution of the USSR He is routinely re-elected every six years to a new term and he is rumored to be the richest man in the world. His cohorts have achieved respectability as big businessmen and Russia dreams of restoring the status quo ante when the USSR controlled eastern Europe. Since 2022, Russia, with the aid of North Korea and Iran, has fought with a former Soviet “republic”, now an independent nation, Ukraine. Though given substantial financial and material aid from the US and NATO powers, they received such aid with the conditions that they could not enter Russian territory. Fighting the Russian bear with both arms tied is a tough, futile fight. If Europe cannot stop Putin and Co. in Ukraine, one can be sure the the Baltic States are next as the bear seeks to move westward. Perpetual peace has not yet come to Europe. Europe must make a stand and act if its continent is to be free and peaceful.

One hundred and sixty years ago (April 9,1865), the American Civil War or War between the States ended with the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House. For a number of decades prior to the onset of the Civil War, tensions had been rising over the expansion of the United States westward. Should newly admitted states be free states or slave states? Various legislative solutions were attempted (Missouri compromise [1820] and the Kansas Nebraska Act [1854]) with little ultimate resolution of the above cited question. War broke out on April 12, 1861 with the attack on Fort Sumpter and the surrender of the Union troops there. This bloody and brutal war lasted four years, ended slavery and changed America forever. Abraham Lincoln, elected President in 1860 and re-elected in 1864, spoke, in his second inaugural address for reconciliation with the south as he declared famously “with malice towards none and charity towards all”. John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln  and he was succeeded by Vice President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, a much less capable person than Lincoln. Reconstruction was imposed on the south, northern carpetbaggers came south to become rich and a chasm existed between north and south for over a hundred years. After reconstruction ended, white southerners, now faced with free black fellow citizens established segregation, obstacles to voting and other rights of citizenship. Black Americans in the south became a permanent underclass deprived of civil rights. The Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson established separate and equal as the law of the land., thus supporting segregation. Of course, separate and equal did not exist and this persisted until its overturn by Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The Civil Rights struggle, led by Rev. Martin Luther King finally saw progress,,especially during the Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969). LBJ, a southerner from Texas did not adhere to the Southern Manifesto and forcefully led the Congress to pass voting rights and civil rights acts. Unfortunately, the turbulent election year of 1968 saw the assassination of Rev. King and widespread rioting and violence took place as a result. Black progress continued in fits and starts with gains in education and economic advancement occurring, finally culminating in the election of Sen Barack Obama of Illinois as the first Black president. In 2020, Sen. Kamala Harris of California was elected Vice President with President Joe Biden. Vice President Harris ran for President in 2024 but lost to former President Donald Trump. It is obvious that Black Americans have made great progress, in particular since the overturning of Plessy in1954. However, America still remains two societies, black and white. LBJ, in one of his speeches during his presidency stated that he wanted America to be nation of givers, not takers. This was in one of his talks on taxes. He wanted everyone to pay taxes, not to be receiving welfare. We are still waiting for LBJ’s wish to come true. Progress for all American citizens period!

America still faces many domestic problems, predominantly of a social nature. Drug addiction, poor education, single parent households, violence, out of wedlock births to name a few along with out of control budget deficits and bankruptcy staring us in the face. It’s time for America to wake up and get down to business. All Americans are needed for the effort and race has no part to play. Equality for all Americans is mandatory. We will prosper together or sink together.

Eighty years after the Civil War, very few veterans of that conflict were still alive. Today, eighty years after World War II, few veterans of that conflict are still alive. As a memorial to those who fought on the right side of those conflicts, let us fulfill their fight and sacrifice for a better life and a better world for all. Their sacrifices must not have been in vain.

Garry S. Sklar

Copenhagen, Denmark

May 21, 2025