Future revolutions

9. WW2, the "Cold War" and the fall of Socialism.

While Stalin was harassing USSR's citizens to "industrialize or be crushed", all privately run economies plunged into their worst economic crisis ever. The collapse of the New York stock market on "Black Thursday", October 24, 1929, threw all BB economies into their worst economic crisis (dubbed "Depression" rather than "Crisis") Unemployment in all BB economies soared to an all time high. Many businessmen committed suicide. But in the USSR citizens enjoyed guaranteed employment (some of it forced), state-paid housing, state-paid healthcare, state-paid education and state-paid pensions. Communist Parties in BB economies gained popularity - and members. The advantage of BG economy over BB economy was never more glaring than during the 1930s. The USSR state-owned economy expanded rapidly providing all citizens with jobs, incomes, state-paid housing, education, health services and pensions, while the BB economies created continuous unemployment for 25% of the workforce, causing many to lose their housing, healthcare, education, hope, and even their life.

Unemployment in Germany swelled the ranks of two Parties - Nazis and Communists. Each had its solution for the economic crisis. The Nazis - war. The Communists - a state-owned economy. The Nazis promised full employment and revival of National Pride, humiliated by defeat in WW1 and by the Versailles Peace treaty imposed on Germany. The Communists promised a State-owned economy with full employment, state-paid housing, healthcare, education and pensions. In the January 1933 elections the Nazis got 11.7M votes, the Socialists - 7.2M the Communists - 6M. A Socialist-Communists alliance with 13.2M votes could have stopped Hitler, but Stalin ordered the Comintern in its 10^th congress in July 1929 to pass a resolution calling on all Communist parties "To conduct a determined struggle against the Social Democrats, especially their Left section, being the worst enemy. To sever all links with them and expose their social-fascist nature". This policy enabled Hitler to become ruler of Germany and to outlaw all other parties. He imprisoned all Communists and declared repeatedly he would destroy Communism. So did Mussolini, the Italian Dictator. The British and French governments liked this. In 1933 Germany had no army, navy or air-force, but by 1938 it had all three - big and modernized. This was possible only because Britain and France allowed it. Shortly after Mussolini set up his fascist dictatorship in Italy (1925) Winston Churchill visited him in 1927 declaring:

" If I were an Italian I am sure that I would have been wholeheartedly with you from start to finish in your triumphant struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism. . . . Your movement has rendered a service to the whole world. The great fear which has always beset every democratic leader or working-class leader has been that of being undermined or overbid by someone more extreme than he. It seems that continuous progression to the Left, a sort of an inevitable landslide into the abyss, was the characteristic of all revolutions. Italy has shown that there is a way of fighting the subversive forces, which can rally the mass of the people, properly led, to value and wish to defend the honour and stability of civilized society. She has provided the necessary antidote to the Russian poison" ("The Times" 21.1. 1927).

Shortly after WW1 (in March 1920) Churchill sent Prime Minster Lloyd-George a memorandum suggesting rebuilding Germany as a bulwark against Lenin's regime.

In 1935 Churchill said: "One may dislike Hitler's system and yet admire his patriotic achievement. If our country were defeated I hope we could find a champion as admirable to restore our courage and lead us back to our place among the nations". ("Winston Churchill in war and peace" Emrys Hughes, Glasgow 1959. p. 139)

Churchill's idea to use Hitler to destroy Communism had its consequences. The Versailles Treaty forbade Germany to build tanks, war planes, guns bigger than 150mm, or keep an army of more than 100,000 soldiers. Article 198 of the Treaty states: "The armed forces of Germany must not include any military or naval air forces." On 13.10,1933 Germany left the League of Nations and the Disarmament Conference. On 16.3.1935 Hitler introduced universal military service. From August 2, 1934, German soldiers swore allegiance to Hitler, not to Germany or its constitution. On 30.5.1937 German warships bombarded the port of Almeria in republican Spain. By 1936 Hitler had a modern air force, tanks, navy, and a big army, This was a blatant violation of the Versailles treaty. Britain and France did nothing to stop any violation of the treaty. On April 26, 1937, Hitler's new air force, supporting the Fascist Franco rebellion against the elected government of Spain, bombed the Basque town of Guernica killing some 1700 people and wounding many more. It was the first planned bombing of civilian population in history. It caused world-wide protest. Many governments declared bombing of civilians a War Crime. Film newsreels all over the world showed bombers of Hitler's new air force dropping their bombs. Hitler's violations of the Versailles treaty were known. Why didn't Britain and France stop these violations?

Former PM Lloyd George told Parliament (28.11.1934): “In a very short time, perhaps in a year or two, the Conservative elements in this country will be looking to Germany as the bulwark against Communism in Europe...Do not let us hurry to condemn Germany. We shall be welcoming Germany as our friend.” (House of Commons Vol. 295 col. 905-922).

In 1936 Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, Chamberlain's predecessor, explained UK’s policy for the coming European war, to a group from the House of Lords. Baldwin, a director of Lothian's Rhodes Trust, and member of the inner circle known as 'Round Table', had told the Lords: "If any fighting is to be done in Europe, I should like to see the Bolsheviks and the Nazis doing it".

In November 1936 Nazi-Germany and Japan concluded the 'Anti-Comintern Pact'. It was directed against the Communist International (Comintern) and the USSR. Germany and Japan agreed to co-operate "to safeguard their common interests" agreeing not to conclude any political treaties with the USSR. Germany also agreed to recognize the Japanese puppet regime in Manchuria. In 1937 Italy joined the Pact. The three were called 'the anti-communist axis; and in WW2 - the 'Axis States'.

In his speeches Hitler constantly attacked Communism. This convinced the British and French governments that he was not only a bulwark against the USSR but the force that will destroy it. Reviving the German army and arms industry enabled Hitler to abolish unemployment in Germany. British, French, and American Banks helped finance this. Hitler created the most powerful modern army by violating all clauses of the Versailles Treaty. Britain and France saw it and did nothing to stop him. Small countries bordering on Germany, like Poland and Czechoslovakia, became worried and signed treaties with Britain and France committing these powers to defend them if attacked. Czechoslovakia also signed such a pact with the USSR.
In March 1938 Hitler annexed Austria, claiming to unite all German-speaking people. Next he demanded part of Czechoslovakia inhabited by Germans - Sudetenland. Czech resistance to his demand presented him with a challenge - to invade or back down. He hinted he intends to invade. This posed a dilemma for Britain, France, and the USSR, who had treaties with Czechoslovakia committing them to defend it. USSR was ready to do so but the Prime Ministers of Britain and France flew to Munich (without telling Stalin) to tell Hitler they would not honour their treaties with Czechoslovakia if he annexed only Sudetenland. They signed the notorious Munich Agreement in September 1938. They hoped Stalin would honour his treaty with Czechoslovakia and war between Germany and the USSR would start. This would have suited them, but Czechoslovakia decided to hand Sudetenland to Hitler. As Britain and France did not tell Stalin about their intention to sign an agreement with Hitler he concluded they were plotting against him. Stalin saw their readiness to hand over Sudetenland to Hitler as a ploy to push the USSR to war against Germany, after which Britain and France would pick up the pieces of both.

War between Germany and the USSR was imminent. However, in March 1939 Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia annexing all of it. He violated the Munich agreement where he promised to annex only Sudetenland but not Czechoslovakia. He thought Britain and France would acquiesce as they did over Sudetenland. But they realized he cannot be trusted and warned that if he invaded Poland (with whom they had mutual Defence treaties) they would declare war against him. To counter this possibility Hitler rushed to secure his eastern flank by signing a non-aggression pact with Stalin, who was delighted to turn tables on Britain and France by signing it. This pact divided northern Europe (and Poland) into two "Spheres of Influence" between Hitler and Stalin. The Hitler-Stalin pact (named "Molotov-Ribbentrop pact" after the Foreign Ministers who signed it) was signed on August 24^th 1939. A week later Hitler attacked Poland with 62 divisions. In 5 weeks he won that war. Britain and France declared war on Hitler on September 3^rd. They had 110 divisions and could have invaded Germany from the west to help Poland. They didn't. Hitler left only 23 divisions facing France. But Britain and France did not attack Germany to help Poland. Stalin annexed Poland's eastern half. The USA stayed neutral. Although Britain and France were now at war with Germany no fighting took place for the next 8 months. This was known as "The Phoney War". Hitler attacked in the west on May 19^th 1940, conquering Holland and Belgium. British and French forces fought back but on June 15 - to everybody's surprise - France surrendered. The British army withdrew from the European continent to defend Britain against a Nazi invasion.

To fulfil his main aim of conquering the USSR Hitler needed to secure his rear and minimize the military threat of Britain and France. After France's surrender he prepared to invade Britain. He tried to win air superiority over it but failed. He then turned to conquer the Balkan and Crete and moved into Africa to conquer Egypt. He was winning on all fronts. Only a weak Britain still fought him but it posed no threat.

The Stalin-Hitler pact caused a major crisis in every Communist Party. Before this pact communists everywhere fought Fascism and Nazism as their main enemies. Fascist and Nazi ideology flaunted racism and practised it. When Mussolini became dictator in Italy (1925) and Hitler in Germany (1933) they declared the Communist Parties illegal, killed many communists, and imprisoned the rest. During General Franco's Fascist rebellion in Spain (1936-1939). Hitler and Mussolini openly supported him by sending arms. This enabled Franco to defeat the Spanish democracy and set up his Fascist dictatorship which lasted almost 40 years. Britain and France declared their commitment to democracy but refused to help the Spanish Republic. They imposed an arms embargo on it, damaging its efforts to defend itself against Franco's Fascist rebellion. They even recognized Franco's dictatorship (on 27.2.1939) while the Republic was still fighting against him. This convinced genuine democrats and communists everywhere to fight Nazism and Fascism. However, when Stalin signed the pact with Hitler all Communist Parties ceased to fight Fascism. The word "Fascism" vanished from their vocabulary. They imitated USSR's foreign policy. This shocked many. Communist Parties lost members and credibility because of the Stalin-Hitler Pact. The Communist Party of USA, which gained influence and members during the "Depression" lost both after this pact. Former sympathizers began to deride communists by greeting them with the Nazi stretched arm salute shouting "Hail Hitler". The CPUSA was wrecked by this treaty and never recovered.

Two points merit consideration in discussing the Stalin-Hitler Pact (of 24.8.39): 1.As a tactic to gain time to prepare USSR against a Nazi attack, it could be justified. This is disproved by the second pact (28.9.1939) and by Molotov’s third visit to Hitler (13.11.1940) when Hitler offered Stalin to divide the British Empire between Germany, Italy, USSR and Japan. Germany and Italy were to get Western Europe and Africa, Japan would get China, and Australia, and USSR - Persia, Afghanistan, and India. Stalin accepted this offer on 26.11.1940 (see Bundesarchiv Koblenz RM 41/40). Hitler used this tactic to conceal his impending attack on Russia but Stalin’s acceptance was strategic. He desired a world-power-sharing agreement with Hitler. He industrialized USSR and strengthened its economy but his strategy of power-sharing with Hitler shows that such achievements can still serve racism.

2. Even justification of the Hitler-Stalin pact as a tactical move designed to give the USSR time to prepare for an impending Nazi attack, does not absolve Communist Parties of continued anti-Nazi struggle. They all stopped it. They emulated USSR’s foreign policy. They forbade use of the term “anti-Fascism” in their vocabulary. Communist Parties linking their policies to the USSR's foreign policy ruined their revolutionary credibility. Revolutionary Parties are not States and should not act like states. States are not revolutionary Parties. States seek stability but revolutionaries seek revolution. Stability contradicts revolution. Communist Parties should have conducted revolutionary policies irrespective of USSR foreign policy which alternated between Socialist principles and State interests. USSR policy towards Nazi Germany is a good example. From 1933 to 1939 it was guided by Socialist principles and denounced Nazi racism, dictatorship, and war mongering. But in 1939 Stalin signed two pacts with Hitler and forbade denouncing Fascism. Communist Parties obeyed and stopped denouncing Fascism. This ruined their revolutionary credibility. Communists became parrots of USSR's foreign policy. The USSR neither consulted them, nor informed them, before changing its foreign policy.

Stalin turned the tables on Britain and France by signing his pacts with Hitler. Now Hitler, instead of declaring war on the USSR, invaded Poland. This time Britain and France honoured their treaties with Poland and on September 3 declared war on Germany (but did not attack Germany and sent no military aid to Poland). Hitler conquered Poland in five weeks but did not immediately start a serious military campaign against Britain and France. From September 1939 to April 1940 he waged a "Phoney War" against them. During this time efforts were made to reconcile Britain with Germany. Hitler believed this was possible as the King of England, Edward VIII, abdicated in 1936 after Parliament opposed his marriage to the American divorcee Mrs. Wallis Simpson. The FBI believed she was pro-Nazi. The ex-King visited Germany in 1937 as a personal guest of Hitler. He - and his brother the Duke of Kent - sympathized with the Nazis. The Nazi media publicized this. Some Lords sympathized with the Nazis. Prince Philip Mountbatten's sister and brother-in-law were members of the Nazi Party. Oswald Moseley, 6th Baronet, and Lady Diana Mitford (and her sister Unity) were close friends of Hitler. Joseph Kennedy (father of US President John Kennedy) was US Ambassador to the UK and pro-Nazi and claimed credit for having influenced Chamberlain to trust Hitler and sign the "Munich Agreement". His daughter Kathleen married the son of the Duke of Devonshire, head of one of England's grandest aristocratic families. Kennedy's aim was an Anglo-Nazi pact to protect Germany's rear when it invades USSR. Hitler was ready to let Britain keep its overseas empire if it lets him conquer the USSR. . On May 10th 1941, twelve days before Hitler's invasion into USSR, his deputy, Rudolf Hess, flew to Scotland, to meet the Duke of Hamilton, whom he had met at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Hess offered Britain peace and return of all west European countries conquered by Hitler to their former governments, and paying the costs of rebuilding these countries. In return, Britain would support Hitler’s war against USSR. After WW2 Albert Speer, Hitler's friend and Minister of War Production was imprisoned with Hess in Spandau Prison. Hess told him he took to England the message: "We will guarantee England her empire and in return she will give us a free hand in Europe". Speer adds "This had also been one of Hitler's recurrent formula before, and occasionally even during, the war" ("Inside the Third Reich" by Albert Speer, Macmillan 1970, p.176)

During WW2 Hess was imprisoned in Britain and committed no war crimes but in the Nuremberg war-crime trials in 1946 he got the longest prison sentence - solitary confinement for the rest of his life. No one was allowed to interview him during the 40 years in prison. He died in his cell in suspicious circumstances on 17th July 1987 aged 93. Later autopsies found strangulation marks on his neck. Someone didn't want anyone to know about any efforts to sign an Anglo-Nazi pact. When Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940 he dashed hopes to sign an Anglo-Nazi pact. He considered Hitler’s Germany far more dangerous to the UK than the USSR - but many in British BB - and nobility - disagreed with Churchill and agreed with Hess.

Hitler started his "Battle of France" in May 1940. To everyone's surprise France surrendered on June 22, 1940 after fighting only six weeks. French BB preferred to be dominated by Nazis than by the French Left. Britain was left alone to fight Hitler. He tried to win air superiority over Britain to enable his army to invade it. This started the aerial "Battle of Britain" which Hitler almost won by destroying most Royal Air Force airfields in the south of Britain. The Luftwaffe was winning the battle of the airfields. The RAF considered withdrawing its squadrons from the south of England. To prevent this Churchill ordered the RAF on August 25-26 to bomb Berlin to provoke Hitler to order the Luftwaffe to attack London rather than RAF airfields. The Berlin raid hurt Göring's pride as he had previously claimed the RAF would never be allowed to bomb Berlin. Hitler swallowed the bait. On September 4^th he diverted the Luftwaffe to bomb London. This gave the RAF time to repair its airfields and continue fighting, causing Hitler to postpone his invasion of Britain. He did not covet tiny Britain. He coveted the huge USSR and prepared to conquer it. He wanted to destroy Russia’s BG economy (that’s why all BBs supported him) and turn Russia into a German colony providing cheap grain, oil, gas, and minerals. The USSR population was to serve as slave labor. Russia would become Germany's colony creating a Nazi Empire from the Baltic to the Pacific. This would make Nazi Germany the most powerful state in Europe - and in the world. This was Hitler's main purpose in WW2.

On June 22, 1941 three million Nazi soldiers with 4000 tanks invaded the USSR. Stalin was stunned. He ignored repeated warnings about this invasion; being convinced they were a British ploy. Stalin first thought some Nazi General had acted on his own initiative so he forbade his Army to fight back. When he realized it was an invasion on a vast scale he suffered a nervous breakdown and hid in his villa outside Moscow. It was Foreign Minister Molotov who had to inform the USSR's citizens they were at war. Ten days later, members of the Politburo came to ask Stalin to return to Moscow. He opened the door saying: "Have you come to execute me?" expecting them to behave as he would in such circumstances. He returned to Moscow to address the USSR's citizens on radio - for the first time since the war began - only on July 3. Why was he silent during the first eleven crucial days?

In 1937 Stalin believed his Generals were plotting against him. He executed most Red Army Generals: Chief of Staff Tukhachevsky, and 3 out of 5 Marshals (equivalent to 6-star US Generals), 13 out of 15 army-commanders (equivalent to 5 and 4-star US Generals) 8 out of 9 admirals, 50 out of 57 army Corps Generals, 154 out of 186 Division Generals, all 16 Army Commissars, and 25 out of 28 army Corps Commissars. The executions turned the “Red Army” into Stalin’s army. Hitler knew it. When Hitler's 3 million soldiers and 4000 tanks invaded the USSR on 22.6.1941 Stalin’s Army was confused, unprepared, and lacked its experienced High Command. Stalin's view that Hitler would not attack the USSR gravely damaged his Army. In the first week of war the Nazis had taken 750,000 of Stalin’s soldiers prisoner, and destroyed 1200 airplanes, 800 on the ground. It was all Stalin's fault.

At first many USSR citizens welcomed the Nazi invaders as liberators. They hated Stalin and his terror believing the Nazi regime could not be worse. Stalin knew it, so he called on the population to defend the Motherland - not the socialized economy. He named the war "The Great Patriotic War" not "The great Socialist war". This nationalistic title contradicted Marx's and Lenin's internationalism but Stalin saw no other way to induce USSR citizens to fight. Nazi public mass-executions soon convinced USSR citizens that Hitler’s regime was worse than Stalin's.

In a mere 130 days Hitler’s Army reached Moscow taking two million of Stalin’s soldiers prisoner. The USSR looked defeated. Hitler expected the war to end any moment. However, Stalin was informed that Japan, Germany's ally, would not attack the USSR in the East. Japan's BB - lacking oil and raw materials - fought to colonize China and India. It avoided war against USSR to dedicate all its resources to its colonial war. This enabled Stalin to move half a million soldiers prepared to repel a Japanese invasion - to Moscow. The winter of 1941 was severe. It paralyzed Hitler’s army. Hitler’s soldiers wore summer uniforms, expecting to conquer Moscow before winter. They began to freeze. So did the oil in the engines of tanks, cars, airplanes. Stalin’s Army launched a counter attack with fresh troops from the east equipped for winter. They threw Hitler’s army back and relieved the siege of Moscow. It was never renewed. In a series of battles, culminating in the Battle of Stalingrad (winter 1942) and Kursk (spring 1943) Stalin’s Army pushed Hitler’s Army back and conquered Berlin in May 1945. The turning point in WW2 was the battle of Stalingrad where 100,000 of Hitler’s soldiers, with their Generals, surrendered.

The battle of Stalingrad was the largest single battle in human history. It raged for 199 days. Numbers of casualties are difficult to compile owing to the vast scope of the battle and the fact that Stalin didn't allow estimates to be published for fear this might create opposition. In its initial phase, Hitler’s army conquered most of Stalingrad, but Stalin’s Army launched a pincer attack surrounding Hitler’s army in the city, cutting off its supplies. Starved and frozen 100,000 surrendered with their Generals. Scholars have estimated Hitler’s army had 850,000 casualties in all sectors of its - and its allies - forces:400,000 Germans, 200,000 Romanians, 130,000 Italians, 120,000 Hungarians were killed, wounded or captured. In addition, some 50,000 Russian "Whites" - allies of Hitler, were killed or captured by Stalin’s Army. It was the greatest military defeat in German history and the turning point in WW2. Stalin’s Army suffered 478,741 men killed and 650,878 wounded (for a total of 1,129,619). Also, more than 40,000 Russian civilians died in Stalingrad and its suburbs during a single week of aerial bombing as Hitler’s 6th and 4th Tank (“Panzer”) armies approached the city. The total number of civilians killed in the regions outside the city is unknown. In all, a total of anywhere from 1.7 million to 2 million German and Russian casualties were caused by this one battle, making it the largest in human history. This battle was the turning point in WW2. It transferred the initiative to Stalin’s Army enabling it to conquer Berlin and to dictate an unconditional surrender to Hitler’s army on May 8, 1945

In the 1930s Hitler repeatedly declared his commitment to crush Communism but to everybody's surprise (including Stalin’s) WW2 turned the USSR into the world's most powerful State. No other State had an army as big. Stalin's army numbered 4 Million experienced soldiers, equipped with 20,000 tanks, and 10,000 airplanes. The British and US armies together numbered less than one million soldiers. Stalin could conquer the whole of Europe within a month. Many Europeans saw Stalin’s Army as liberator because it defeated their Nazi occupiers. Many wanted a state-owned economy. Some USSR Generals advised Stalin to conquer all of Europe. But he rejected this proposal, saying: "How shall we feed all these people?" The war ruined Europe, fields lay in waste, farmers were killed, factories, roads, and railways were destroyed. A ruler of Europe faced the immense task of re-building it. Stalin had to rebuild the USSR; he preferred that Britain and USA, who invaded Europe in June 1944, conquering half of Germany, should rebuild Europe. They did.

President Roosevelt died a month before the end of WW2. George Marshall, the US Chief of Staff during WW2, warned the new US President Harry Truman, that most people in Europe might decide to set up BGs - state-run economies - as the best way to reconstruct their countries. Truman convinced US Congress to provide enormous economic aid to resurrect the European BB economies. This was later called "The Marshall Plan" and Marshall received the Nobel Peace Prize for it. Marshall was named Secretary of State in 1947. In this role, on June 5 1947 at a speech at Harvard University; he explained the U.S aid to European recovery:

"Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist."

By "doctrine" he meant Communism and the term "Free institutions" is the American euphemism for "BB economy". The European Recovery Plan, known as the "Marshall Plan", helped rebuild Europe's BB economies. What motivated the "Marshall Plan" was the US BB fear that Europeans would set up their own BG with socialized economies. Marshall estimated that the hardships of WW2 caused by BB economies and people's mistrust of politicians and businessmen, who had caused it and exploited it, might motivate many Europeans to set up BGs with socialized economies. US foreign policy since Lenin's revolution was committed to prevent this. From 1917 onwards BB and all governments of USA, Britain, and France acted against Lenin's BG and its state-owned economy. In 1935 they allowed Hitler to resurrect the German army hoping he would use it against the USSR. In 1938 they agreed to Hitler's annexation of part of Czechoslovakia hoping this would start a war between him and the USSR. They told Hitler they would not honour their pact with Czechoslovakia, but did not inform Stalin, hoping he would honour his pact with Czechoslovakia and get into war with Hitler. After WW2 the US sent aid to war-ravaged Europe to prevent creation of socialized economies there. This was the continuation of BB's pre-WW2 policy to prevent the emergence of more BGs.

War in Europe ended on May 8, 1945 but war against Japan went on. The US began to bomb Japan. On March 9, 1945, the US bombed Tokyo killing 100,000 civilians.

In February 1945 Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met in Yalta, in the Crimea, and agreed that the USSR would join the war against Japan on land in Manchuria three months after Germany’s defeat. This gave the USSR time to move troops from Germany to Japan. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, so the date for the USSR's entry to war against Japan was to be August 8, 1945, which it kept exactly to the day. Churchill called this:"...another example of the fidelity and punctuality with which Marshal Stalin and his valiant armies always kept their military engagements."

(Winston Churchill, House of Commons.)

Truman wanted Japan to surrender only to USA as surrender to the USSR would grant the USSR rights in Japan. US Generals wanted to see the damage nuclear bombs cause real cities. They needed a city that was not bombed by conventional bombs. Hiroshima was such a city, so it was selected for the "experiment" on August 6, 1945.

Was the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan a military necessity?

" Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.."

(US Strategic Bombing Survey 4, "Summary Report on the Pacific War" (Washington D.C. 1.July 1946) Thomas K. Finletter, Chairman of US Air Policy Council, said:

" There was not enough time between 16 July when we saw at New Mexico that the atom bomb works, and 8 August, the Russian deadline date, for us to have set up the very complicated machinery of a test atomic bombing involving time-consuming problems of area preparations, etc... No, any test would have been impossible if the purpose was to knock Japan out before Russia came in - or at least before Russia could do anything other than a token of participation prior to a Japanese collapse."

("Saturday Review of Literature" 15.6.1946).

Leo Szilard, the physicist who discovered the nuclear chain-reaction that made the bomb possible and later drafted Einstein's letter to president Roosevelt that initiated work on the bomb, met with Secretary of State Byrnes in 1945. In an interview with three of the top scientists in the Manhattan Project early in June, Mr. Byrnes did not, according to Leo Szilard, argue that the bomb was needed to defeat Japan, but rather that it should be dropped to "make Russia more manageable in Europe."

(Szilard, "A personal history of the atomic bomb" p. 14-15)

Japan was effectively defeated and had already offered to surrender. The Japanese had asked the Soviet Union to mediate in peace negotiations discussing surrender terms as early as March 1945. Truman decided at the beginning of July 1945 to drop the atom bomb on Japan and Japan's offer of surrender on July 22, 1945 was rejected.

British Prime Minister Clement Attlee said: "...The decision to use the atomic weapon against Japan was taken at the beginning of July, 1945. The first atomic bomb was dropped on August 6 and the offer of peace made by Japan on July 22 was not accepted till August 10. ("News Chronicle", Dec 5, 1946.)

Why didn't the US respond to Japan's offer to surrender made on July 22?

The US was informed again, on July 28 at the Potsdam Conference, before the bomb was used, that Japan was prepared to surrender: Stalin: "I want to inform you that we, the Russian delegation, have received a new proposal from Japan - it is offering to cooperate with us. We intend to reply to them in the same spirit as last time." Truman: "We do not object." Attlee: "We agree." (Protocol of the Potsdam Conference, July 28, 1945.) But the US did not respond to this offer either.

Joseph Rotblat, A Physicist who worked on the nuclear bomb in the "Manhattan Project" in Los-Alamos, told the London "Times": "In March 1944 I experienced a disagreeable shock. In a casual conversation, General Leslie Groves, the head of the Manhattan Project, said, "You realize, of course, that the real purpose of making the bomb is to subdue our chief enemy, the Russians!". Until then I thought that our work was to prevent a Nazi victory." ("The Times" July 17 1985.)

Building A-bombs began in 1942 to face a possibility that Hitler might build them. When Groves spoke, the USSR was an ally of USA fighting against Germany.

On hearing Groves’ comment Rotblat resigned from the "Manhattan Project".

Nobel Laureate Physicist Patrick Blackett, who was a President of the Royal Society (1965-1970) and member of the British Advisory Committee on Atomic Energy, wrote in his 1948 detailed study: "The dropping of the atomic bomb was not so much the last military act of WW2 as the first act of the cold war with the Russians." ("Military and Political Consequences of Atomic Energy." P.M.S. Blackett, Turnstile Press, London 1948, p.127)
US apologists justify their dropping of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki arguing that they did it to save the lives of American soldiers who would have died in a US invasion of Japan. They estimated US Army casualties would amount to at least 100,000. They fail to answer a simple question: Why was it necessary to invade Japan at all? The Japanese air-force and navy had been destroyed, and Japan lacked natural resources like fuel. A US naval blockade could starve the Japanese within weeks without loss of a single American soldier. Why didn't the US consider the possibility of blockading Japan? No one asked this question and no one answered it. But the answer is clear: USSR participation in this siege was inevitable, and this would grant USSR rights in Japan after its surrender. This contradicted US policy towards the USSR. General Leslie Groves had already stated it in 1944:"The real purpose of the A-bomb is to deter the USSR after the war". In WW2 Japan kept its peace with the USSR to concentrate its force on conquering Asia. This saved the USSR in 1941 by allowing troops prepared against a Japanese invasion to fight Hitler's army besieging Moscow. In the Yalta Conference (February 1945) Stalin agreed to join the war against the Japan within 90 days of defeating Germany. Germany surrendered on May 8. 90 day later was August 8. By dropping its A-bomb on Hiroshima on August 6 the USA forced Japan to surrender to USA alone, not to USSR. This explains why the USA was unwilling to impose a naval blockade on Japan forcing it to surrender without loss of life of a single US soldier. A blockade would have been a lengthy affair and the USSR would have joined it. Leaders of the USA wanted to avoid this. The USA realized the USSR will emerge from WW2 with an army much bigger than the combined UK-USA armies. So it decided to use its Atomic-bombs to deter Stalin from using his army to conquer Europe. Actually, Stalin had no such plans.

After WW2 the USSR and the USA emerged as superpowers while former powers like Britain and France were much weakened, and Germany - and Japan - defeated. In the Yalta Conference (February 1945) Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin divided the post-war world between them into spheres of influence. Western Europe - half of Germany, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Spain, Italy, and Greece - were to be in Roosevelt's and Churchill's sphere, whereas Poland, the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the Balkans except Greece, were to be in Stalin's sphere. Due to this division Britain did not intervene when local Communists took over Czechoslovakia and Poland, and Stalin did not intervene when the British Army defeated the Communist forces in Greece (1946).

This started a tense period known as "The Cold War" (1947-1991) in which the USA tried to prevent the creation of new government owned economies and the USSR supported anti-colonial struggles in Asia and Africa. Both sides tried to avoid a hot war. USA's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) overthrew five democratically elected governments - of Mossadeq (Iran 1953) Arbenz (Guatemala 1954), Lumumba (Congo 1961) Sukarno (Indonesia 1965) and Allende in (Chile 1973) because they nationalized parts of their economy. In Chile the US helped assassinate the Chief of Staff who refused to overthrow President Allende. The CIA replaced governments, elected by a majority, by pro-BB dictators. The CIA organized an invasion of Cuba to overthrow Castro ("Bay of pigs" 1961) and failed. Cuba was no military threat to the USA. So why attack it, and why impose a permanent US economic boycott on it? To undermine its state-owned economy whose guaranteed employment, free health-care and education could motivate millions of unemployed and underfed in South - and Central - America to replace their own BB economies by a Cuban type economy.
US leaders knew the USSR would not invade the USA or Europe. No BG leader ever had such intention. BG leaders were Marxists who believed all BB economies must create economic crises - and collapse. They saw no point in attacking them. But BB states tried non-stop, since 1917, to destroy BG's economy because they feared that its guaranteed employment and state-paid housing-healthcare-education-pensions demonstrates that an alternative to BB economy - with many benefits - is possible.

After WW2 USA developed its nuclear bombs - and air force - to threaten the USSR.

Having used its only two A-bombs on Japan in 1945, the US began to mass-produce them. They were the main US weapon against the USSR. Some 70,000 were built. Most were Hydrogen bombs (1000 times stronger than the Hiroshima bomb). To deliver these bombs the US set up in 1946 a special air force ("Strategic Air Command" (SAC)) of 3000 long-range "Stratojet" bombers carrying atomic bombs, circling non-stop around the USSR. In an hour they could destroy any - or all - major cities in the USSR. Its commander was Curtis Le-May (nicknamed "Bombs Away Le-May"). He proposed repeatedly to “bomb the USSR back into the stone age”. Stanley Kubrick’s film "Dr. Strangelove" parodied SAC and its strategy. SAC was dismantled only in 1992, many years after nuclear submarines carrying long-range nuclear missiles, took over its role.
After WW2 an immense arms industry grew in the USA to build nuclear bombs, airplanes, submarines and rockets. It craved ever larger Defence budgets and exerted ever more pressure on US politicians and politics. The US Army, Navy and Air Force had powerful lobbies in Washington - backed by thousands of employees in arms factories. Their influence became so powerful that General Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied forces in Europe in WW2, and President of the USA (1953-1961), warned in his famous farewell speech (17.1.1961):

"….We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method . . . A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction."

"Until the latest of our world conflicts, the USA had no arms industry. American makers of ploughshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national Defence; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the Defence establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all USA corporations. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence - economic, political, and even spiritual - is felt in every city, every State house, and every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the committees of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of Defence with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. "(see the Internet)

This speech coined the phrase "military-industrial complex" and warned against its immense influence on politics. Yet politicians (whose careers depend on voters) cannot oppose pressures of managers of big business whose jobs depend on profits and who hire - or fire - the employees who vote. BB managers want profits to grow; employees want jobs and pay to grow. Both pressurize every political representative to vote for "Defence" budgets and to increase their share in them. Most managers, employees, and politicians never read Marx, but behave exactly as he predicted. When US President Bush declared war on Iraq in 2003 the silence in the Senate was such that one Senator said: "one could hear a needle drop on the floor". The reason? An anti-war vote would reduce contracts with military-industrial plants thus causing unemployment. The unemployed would vote against those who opposed war.

One effect of the US military-industrial complex was to produce a military-industrial complex in the USSR. Unlike in the US the USSR complex did not serve any economic purpose. It held back production of consumer goods. It too exerted pressure on politicians - and political decisions. In 1945 the US estimated it would take the USSR a decade to build its own nuclear bombs, but the USSR had one by 1949. This caused panic in the US, which assumed that spies passed atomic science secrets to the USSR. A US witch-hunt began against anyone suspected of pro-communist leanings. It was led by Senator McCarthy and lasted till 1956. Five spies were found but it seems their information was marginal rather than crucial. One scientist commented: "The main secret was the fact that an atomic bomb is possible. This secret was revealed by the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki".

USA's BB and USSR's BG were now locked in an arms race to produce ever more powerful weapons. In 1957 the USSR launched the first earth satellite, "Sputnik", into space. This meant it had powerful rockets capable of carrying nuclear bombs to the USA, or launch satellites with cameras to spy on the USA. The USA began to develop its own space rockets. After early failures it managed to do so, in 1969 US sent the first men to land on the moon. The "Space Race" created a "space industry". Like all "Cold War" industries it provided jobs and incomes, preventing economic crises or a "Hot War". Whole generations of new bombs, airplanes, warships, submarines, were built, stockpiled - and scrapped - without being put into use. This served the political - and economic - needs of the BB economy.

The USA surrounded USSR with rocket-launching bases in states linked by anti-USSR military pacts like North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and South-East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). USSR retaliated by setting up a missile base in Cuba. This also served to deter the US from invading Cuba to destroy its State-owned economy. When the USA discovered this it threatened the USSR with war unless it dismantled this base (October 1962). It was the peak of the “Cold War”. Nuclear war seemed imminent but both sides backed down. USSR dismantled its Cuban base, and USA agreed not to invade Cuba and dismantled its rocket bases in Turkey.

During Cuban missile crisis the leaders of USA and USSR realized that nuclear war destroying all life on earth could start by a mistake of a soldier rather than by decision of political leaders. This motivated USA and USSR leaders to start talks on agreements to reduce nuclear weapons and ban their testing. As a result the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) was signed in 1972. A series of similar treaties followed in a "Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty" (CTBT) banning all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or civilian purposes. Later a series of "Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties" (START) initiated the dismantling of thousands of nuclear bombs. START 3 will establish by December 31, 2007 a maximum of 2,000-2,500 strategic nuclear weapons for each of the parties, representing a 30-45 percent reduction in the number of strategic warheads permitted under START 2. Most of these weapons are about 1000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 killing some 100,000 people.

The "Cold War" arms race fed both BB and BG's State-owned, planned, economies. In BB economies it reduced the effects of repeated economic "recessions" by providing jobs paid for by government "Defence Budgets". In State-owned, planned, economies it reduced the funds allocated to State-paid housing, healthcare and educational systems, and reduced production of consumer goods.

Before WW1 Russia was a major grain exporter to Europe but 70 years later, between 1981 and 1985, it imported some 42 million tons annually, twice as much as during the years 1976-81 and three times as much as during 1971-1975. In the one-party state agriculture malfunctioned, mainly due to bureaucratic rigidity. The bulk of this grain was bought from BB economies. In 1985, 94% of the USSR's grain imports came from BB economies, with the US selling 14.1 million tons.

Until 1870 most people in the world worked in agriculture. In 1970 a mere 5% of the workforce in the USA grew enough food to feed the entire world. Industrialization of agriculture, and pesticides, made this possible. Within a century food production problems changed from coping with shortages to coping with surpluses.

BB economies suffer repeated recessions. State-owned economies suffered from corruption, inefficiency and rigidity of party-nominated managers and indifference of disaffected workers, lacking basic conditions and independent Unions. This indifference contributed to the collapse of many State-owned economies in 1991.

In 1956, a new leader of the Communist Party of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, gave a secret speech to his Party's 20^th Congress admitting that Stalin killed millions of innocent people, including dedicated revolutionaries, by accusing them of false charges. This stunned the entire Communist movement. In Poland and Hungary workers rose against their Stalinist rulers. Many communists everywhere left their parties; others began to criticize their leaders and policies. A disintegration process of the entire communist movement started. In 1991 the USSR - and most one-party states - dismantled themselves by decrees of their own parliaments - without civil war. No regime in history had disappeared like this. Citizens of one-party states refused to defend them despite the benefits their state-owned economy conferred on them.

After WW2 struggles for independence started in all British, French, Belgian, Portuguese and Dutch colonies in Asia and Africa. Some freedom fighters were nationalists, some were Marxists. Both wanted independence but the Marxists wanted a state-owned, planned, economy. Countries like Korea and Vietnam became divided into two, in the north - a state-owned economy. In the south - a BB economy. When supporters of state-owned economy in the South won elections their opponents set up a military dictatorship. War between North and South started. The North could have won easily but USA, Britain, and France, rushed to help the South. In the Korean War (1950-1953) they saved the south. In the Vietnam War (1954-1975) they lost. Today state-owned economies exist in one-party states like China, Cuba, Vietnam and North Korea. Most people there oppose the one-party system.

Lenin’s ban on opposition in the party was duplicated in every department of his BG state, economy, municipalities, Army, and by all Communist parties everywhere. Lack of opposition increased inefficiency, corruption, conspiracy. Lenin banned opposition not as an emergency during the civil war (1919-1921) but after winning the civil war when his party began to set up its new BG state. He believed he possessed the 'Objective Truth' about history and that all other views of history were wrong - and harmful; hence those holding them must be excluded from politics. After Lenin's ban on opposition communists had to keep their real thoughts to themselves and became yes-men parroting their leaders, or conspirators plotting secretly to overthrow them - or both. Leaders and policies could not be criticized openly and replaced. Policies that failed persisted due to lack of criticism. Subordinates trying to please superiors fed them false reports. Dishonesty became standard practice. This caused damage, waste and accidents, like the worst nuclear accident in history at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. It emitted more radiation than the Hiroshima bomb. Shortly after the accident one worker told a foreign TV reporter:

" The work ethic in the USSR is based on lies. An employee of the State cares more about pleasing his superiors than about his actual work. He will report "as if" his work was fulfilled according to the plan. "As if'" is called in the USSR "Pakazukha". This means that no Superior is interested in the real work of his subordinates. All he cares about is their written report about their work. He has no means to check their work. A worker can check the work of another worker but the Director of a factory cannot check the work of his workers. What matters to him is that they provide him with a signed report saying they fulfilled their work according to the plan. This relieves him of responsibility. If charged with negligence he can blame his subordinates. It goes like this all the way to the top. Lower ranks write reports to higher ranks, and so on. There is no way superiors can check the veracity of the reports of their subordinates. The main aim is that the paperwork will be OK. That the reports will show the plan was fulfilled. Nobody is interested in what really goes on but even if someone were there is no way he could check it. "

This practice originated in the Party, not in the economy. Appointing managers whose loyalty was to the Party rather to their job - and forbidding criticism - ruined the state-owned economy. It spread conspiracies, inefficiency, workers apathy, and hindered their elimination. When the BG States collapsed so did their economies. Many conclude this proves the non-viability of every socialized economy. This reasoning is flawed. What collapsed was one form of socialized economy namely - BG management by Party-appointed managers and ban on worker’s criticism. Had the workers themselves managed their factories - as Kollontai and the "Workers Opposition” proposed in 1920 - "Pakazukha" would have been impossible.

Some people argue that even in a multi-party state like Britain the nationalized parts of the economy (railways, electricity, transport, coal, oil) were inefficient, lost money, and had to be sold to private owners to make them profitable. Analysis of this issue requires a detailed research. Two points must be clarified: 1) which branches of a socialized economy should be run for profits and which should be run as a public-service? 2) As the Labour Party and the Conservatives Party alternated in power what damage did their conflicting policies inflict on the socialized part of the economy?

Political Parties care for their power far more than for the welfare of society. The only way to ensure that power politics will not harm the welfare of society is to abolish power. This can be done by a non-party state, where political parties do not decide policy for the citizens. In such a state all citizens vote directly on all policies, not on politicians. This is direct democracy (DD). Today this is feasible by using mobile phones and the Internet. In DD no person or party has power because no one has authority to represent others. Every citizen represents herself only. If the majority votes to run the economy - or part of it - for profits rather than as a public service - so be it. If citizens later regret this decision they can always revoke it. When all citizens shape all policies, and all employees shape the policies of their place of work, a socialized economy can be free from corruption, conspiracy, and inefficiency. Modern technology can provide all citizens with a much shorter working day, guaranteed employment, state-paid housing, healthcare, education, and pensions.

Direct democracy can create a new mode of human existence by relieving all people of economic anxieties and of obsession with Power. It can create new attitudes, aspirations, expectations, and a new morality. Preoccupation with economic issues, and obsession with personal power, are not necessary modes of human existence. Humanity is not doomed to wallow in them forever. Beyond them are other modes of human existence elevating "Homo-economicus" into "Homo-Universalis".