Re: LOTR and 20th Century Western European Prejudices

On 15 Nov 2003, Jordan179 wrote:

[...]
 
> First of all, it's possible that without US intervention the Germans
> would have either defeated Russia or at least achieved a stalemate in
> the East.

If by "intervention" you include extending economic and material help 
to the Soviets you may be right -- but I think stalemate rather than
victory as the USSR had gobs more warm bodies with cheap guns. One of
my pet peeves is that armed U.S. intervention on the ground (opposed
to just operating as an RAF adjunct) was basically unnecessary: what
that accomplished was shortening the war by a few months, giving the
"Axis personnel" non-Soviets to surrender to, and killing thousands
of Americans and western Europeans, "merely" to keep Uncle Joe from 
kicking the Nazis' butts clear into the Pyrenees. 

> Secondly, Soviet domination of Western Europe would have been almost
> as bad for the Western Europeans as Nazi domination of Western Europe.

Oh please. It would've been worse: the western bourgeoisie LOVED Hitler.
If Germany hadn't started the war they'd've had to, simply to surrender.
 

[...]
 
> So I think American involvement made a _big_ difference to the world.

But unfortunately as it turned out not for Americans in the long run.
If the U.S. hadn't "won" WW2 would we be a Third World country today?