Category: Germany

How German Nazis made alliances with Americans before WWII with Bradley Hart

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How German Nazis made alliances with Americans before WWII with Bradley Hart

Check out the book here https://amzn.to/3eOf1S3

Interview Timeline

Bradley Hart is an assistant professor at Cal State, Fresno and his research focus is far right extremism in the United States. We discussed his latest book on American support for Nazis prior to WWII. Hitler’s American Friends (Thomas Dunne Books, 2018)

0:47 – Bradley talks about how he got into studying and writing WWII history. Eugenics started in Britain and the US especially in California.

2:27 – Bradley talks about his book and the research. His book focuses on various groups that supported the German Nazi party.

5:30 – Bradley talks about the various open and secret ways in which Germany tried to influence US politics.

7:07 – Bradley talks about anti-Nazi Germans in the US. However a lot of US college administrators supported Nazi discussions on campus to communist support.

11:40 – Bradley talks about religious figures that supported the Nazis.

14:24 – Bradley talks about Nazi-ism and occultism especially among the SS.

15:58 – Bradley talks about US military support for the Nazis.

16:55 – Bradley talks about politics affects on US support for the Nazis.

17:50 – Bradley talks about how he did his research and the diaries he came across. British agents spied on Nazis in the US and helped stop them.

24:34 – Bradley mentions which American cities had the most Nazi support.

27:15 – Bradley mentions Hollywood films and Germany. He also talks about how the British viewed the US and support for Nazis.

31:15 – Bradley was surprised at the bipartisan hatred for FDR that he found. He also talks about American and British authors who supported and opposed Nazi thought.

36:06 – Bradley talked about using FOIA to get some documents.

41:45 – Bradley mentions a Hollywood ant-Nazi league that included Hollywood celebrities and movie people. But this league was also backed by the communists.

51:38 – He’s on twitter @drbhart and he has a website at bradleywhart.com.

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/3eOf1S3

http://bradleywhart.com/about-me/

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Bradley Hart

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, WWII, World War Two, Hitler, Germany, Nazi, FDR, United States

Check out the book here https://amzn.to/3eOf1S3

 

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WWII history book – “They Fought Alone” (Penguin Press, 2018) – Charles Glass interview

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Charles Glass is a broadcaster, journalist and writer. Early in his career he worked in the ABC News Beirut bureau with Peter Jennings. He covered the October Arab-Israeli War on the Egyptian and Syrian fronts and the civil war in Lebanon. He was ABC News Chief Middle East correspondent from 1983 to 1993. He’s been a freelance writer since then covering hot spots around the world. He spoke to me about his latest book on two British spies who operated in WWII France.

1:11 – Charles Glass talks about how he got into writing about special operations in WWII Europe. He started by studying Tony Brooks, an agent during WWII.

2:30 – Charles talks about the book and the Starr brothers and how they joined the British Special Operations Executive. A lot of the book is about how they evaded capture while conducting operations.

6:15 – Charles talks about his previous books about WWII.

10:04 – Charles talks about how the brothers maintained security.

11:38 – Charles talks about how French spy networks were created.

17:10 – Charles talks about how the SOE interacted with their agents in France.

19:04 – Charles talks about how the SOE was run.

30:25 – Charles talks about the inefficiencies of the hundreds of resistance groups during the war.

33:00 – De Gaulle was very tough on SOE agents after the war.

43:15 – His website is www.charlesglass.net

Links of interest

www.charlesglass.net

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Charles Glass

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, Britain, France, germany, Nazis, special operations executive, SOE, occupied France, French Resistance, D-Day, Starr brothers, spies

Cold War history book – “Sovereign Soldiers” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) – Grant Madsen interview

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Dr. Grant Madsen has long been interested in history and this led him to earn a PhD in History. Sovereign Soldiers is his first book and explains how the US military transformed the global economy with the economic policies it applied to the occupation of Germany and Japan after WWII.

2:03 – Dr. Madsen talks about how he got into studying and writing about history. He grew up with historians and he felt he made sense of the world historically. He decided to get a PhD in history and the book stems from his dissertation research.

5:10 – Dr. Madsen talks about the details of the book. After WWII, the US military men found that they needed to understand how to run the economies of Germany and Japan. Joseph Dodge was instructed to fix the economy of Japan.

7:28 – There is agreement that these military leaders succeeded in developing the occupied territories and helped the economy of the West. Dr. Madsen examined economic theories and practice in his research.

9:43 – Economic stability seemed to be the key to success. Dr. Madsen feels there was no Keynesian approach to how these economies were developed.

12:03 – The military had economic policies in place as soon as the occupation periods started. These policies were based on New Deal policies but disappeared over the time of the occupations. Germany had cartels and Japan had zaibatsus which had to be worked with to develop these economies.

15:28 – The military dropped its military economic policies quickly in Germany and used a new approach to build that economy. Japan took a little longer to develop.

17:24 – Though the US held all military power in Japan and Germany, it wasn’t useful in imposing US economic will. Clay in Germany and MacArthur in Japan had to be careful on how they used their military power.

20:48 – About 1947, the US military was focused on making Japan and Germany capable of helping to resist the Soviets.

22:46 – There was a fight between State and Defense on who would pay for the occupations. The military was stuck with the bill. Many military leaders didn’t want to be blamed for failure in the occupations since they didn’t think they would succeed. They didn’t want to look bad like it had in earlier decades.

26:06 – In 1947-48, the US strategically decided to make Germany and Japan perimeter defenders against the Soviets. The initial plan was to jointly control Germany with four nations to create worldwide peace and cooperation, but by 1947, Germany became a country that would be a perimeter. Military bases became a way to funnel US money into Germany and Japan.

30:38 – The book starts with the Spanish-American War where the US begins controlling other territories. The US had governance issues when they planned to stay in places only temporarily. The book first focuses mainly on the Philippines during the early occupation. The middle chapters talk about Germany and Japan. The final chapters focus on Eisenhower’s military-economic focus.

35:41 – Joseph Dodge left many useful historical papers to the Detroit Public Library. Mr. Madsen also used the various Presidential libraries for his research. The Eisenhower address took on a different tone as he did his research.

40:36 – One question Dr. Madsen had was how were US leaders using the word democracy. He decided that the word was a stand in for the term economic policy.

43:44 – It’s around WWI that countries realize that military power and industrial economy became strongly linked. Eisenhower jumped up in the ranks quickly because he understood combined arms and industrial conversion of a peacetime economy to a wartime economy.

47:19 – Right after the war, the US and the Soviets discussed what economic system they would impose on Germany. The Soviets planned to just let the Germans starve and had no plan for an economic system there. By 1947, the Soviets imposed communism since they saw they had to grow East Germany to counter the West.

51:28 – In 1950, the Japanese economy was struggling and an anti-American Prime Minister was elected. This was when the US changed course in Japan.

53:11 – Dr. Madsen hopes that the book changes how historians discuss the post war period. Peacekeeping operations are much more common than wartime operations so this is an important subject to study in regards to war and the history of military nation building and peacekeeping.

59:21 – His website is grantmadsen.net.

Links of interest

Grantmadsen.net

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Grant Madsen

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, spanish-american war, Philippines, Germany, Japan, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Soviet Union, economy, military-industrial complex, Keynesian