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Germany is our problem,

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The other reviews you'll find here are beside the point. The merits of Morgenthau Jr.'s book or his views on the Germans as such are largely moot: the book has by now become a historical document. Morgenthau wasn't just any old crackpot, but Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary of the Treasury from 1934 to 1935, and the Morgenthau plan for the future of post-WWII Germany is one of the most bizarre poilitical fantasies ever published by a prominent member of an American administration. The book is fascinating on many levels, but perhaps most intriguingly in light of the speculation that the "Morgenthau Plan" was in fact in its essentials authored by Morgenthau Jr.'s aide, Harry Dexter White. White was later identified as a Soviet agent and may have advocated the plan at Soviet behest. Regardless of whether your area of interest is WWII or the Cold War, this is a book well worth knowing about.

Although it has not happened yet, one is starting to see books emerge that begin to discuss the legacy that The Morganthau Plan (the feelings in academic cirlces that would even have allowed for this to be put on the table), and its whole era (now passing, obviously) had on the American protestant "base" of America that is anglo-scots-german in its core. Many of those people simply call themselves "american," but even now are said to be the largest population (german the largest descendent group). And this, after the population "changes" produced by policies since the Hart-Celler and other wasp-disincentivization acts of the 1960s.

There was a book American Dreams, Nazi Nightmares about how the influx of "feminist" jews reconfigured the largley (at that time) anglo-saxon/ german-english home as a bastion of hate, repression, etc. And how they projected this. In Theaters of Occupation Fay, university of MN)---- it becomes clear that some of the "Re-education" films were never even shippped overseas, but were shown only to Americans. Of course, their "loyalities" would be split in viewing a film such as Tomorrow--the World! with its headline ads "the Making of an American" about a 13 yo "nazi boy." The "nazis" as MOST Americans saw them looked and talked exactly like them in the movies. Ethnically, they were one. Supposedly, ideologically, the Americans were for "the constitution" adn a "republic not a democracy" and this was why they had fought the (supposedly) Totalitarian Hitler. Of course, in the restructurings after WWII, toward a more Statist Welfare-Warfare entity, underwritten by non-christian social systems (the exact things the Americans thought their families had died fighting to maintain--- were in a conundrum. The world had become more like Hitler (Totalitarian) and ethnically, people seemed to hate them IN America.

One day, some of the later happenings ----the confusion at Waco, for instance--- Here a very newly created sect (The Branch Davidians, which were MADE by a mysterious immigrant from WWII and Europe created the group for possibly other than religious ends). At any rate, Koresh was very germanic looking. He was also of a group both first generation jews AND catholics might feel they could justly persecute many catholics also came from europe then, as morganthau wrote as a jew, they saw from the catholic mindset So--- Koresh was both typed as 'protestants' and therefore 'heretics' and therefore candidates for just persecution, even death, historically from the catholic end. And as the German evil from the jewish end. Same with the sudden taking of 500 Mormon children in Texas mostly germanic looking and protestant-typed.

The effect on the Protestant base of the country, which made up by far the majority after WWII, just 50 years ago--- should be an object of study for all americans. This book, along with Foxe's Book of Martyrs--- will help clarify for many Americans how other european groups projected onto the Americans what they had in europe for the "germans" and for the "protestants." While it is doubtful there will be any reparitions for the affected Germanic-protestant Americans, the truth of how they came to be objects of hate in their own country will become known.

The Morgenthau Plan may be summarized as follows: "The German lust for war survived defeat in 1918, and was intensified by skillful propaganda and wild demagogy. But the yearning for revenge, the myriad illegal military organizations, the intensive search for new and improved weapons, the fifth column work among intended victims--the whole scheme of German aggression would have had to dissipate itself in empty mouthing and ridiculous parades if it had not been equipped by German heavy industry." (p. 122). Morgenthau rejects the premise that WWII had been caused by the oppressive nature of the Versailles accords. They were actually mild and ineffective (e. g., p. 123, 150-151)

The old alternatives are useless. Simply watching over Germany would have allowed a German re-arming as soon as the monitoring slackened, as it inevitably would in time. Forbidding Germany to use industry for military purposes meant nothing. Once an industrial infrastructure is in place, it is very easy and quick to convert it from peacetime uses to military ones (p. 18). Clearly, the disarming of Germany must be made difficult to reverse: hence deindustrialization. The entire Ruhr region must be taken from Germany, de-industrialized, and, to avoid becoming a bone of contention, jointly ruled by the United Nations (pp. 20-23).

But wouldn't a de-industrialized Germany have starved? No! (p. 61) Morgenthau presents facts and figures that argue for a viable agricultural Germany. In fact, German agriculture had always been underdeveloped, and, ironically, past German politics (notably that of the Junkers) had hindered this development (pp. 57-61).

Although Morgenthau rejects collective German guilt, he doesn't lose sight of the deep historical roots of German aggression (pp. 102-115). He quotes Heinrich Heine: "It is the fairest merit of Christianity that it somewhat mitigated that brutal German gaudium certaminis or joy of battle, but it could not destroy it...That talisman is brittle, and the day will come when it will pitifully break." (p. 103). Racist theories existed everywhere, but only in Germany were they developed so extensively and taken so seriously (pp. 104-105)

Morgenthau anticipates and rejects the argument that an armed Germany was necessary as a bulwark against Communism. Subsequent events of the Cold War have borne him out. Germany, whether disarmed or armed, was largely irrelevant. Even with a re-armed West Germany, NATO forces were too weak to have stopped a Soviet-bloc invasion of Western Europe through conventional weapons alone. They would have needed to resort to tactical nuclear weapons which, in no time at all, would have escalated into a global nuclear conflagration. The Soviets, of course, knew this also.

I'm an agronomist and I live in Brazil.I like to read books.
I tried to read this trash-book, here in Brazil.About twenty years ago, an american lent this trash-book to me.
This book is absurd, bogus, bigoted, ridiculous and outdated.

In 1945, Henry Morgenthau, FDR's secretary of the treasury, who's
policies kept America from recovering, in peace, from the 1929-
1932 Depression, and the ROOSEVELT DEPRESSION of 1937-1939--due
to the sky-high Federal Income Rate increases in 1936-1938, wrote
a book, 'Germany is our problem'. The Morgenthau Plan, had it been
enacted after World War Two, would have had Germany reduced to an eighteenth century pastoral polyglot of 12 separate states,
and the Soviet Union would have taken over not only Germany, but
ALL of Europe. It MUST be remembered that the Versailles Treaty of 1919, and the folly of the victors after World War One--including the United States, that lead to the rise of Hitler, the Third Reich, and World War Two. Morgenthau forgot this.
In many ways, the Roosevelt Administration showed little if any
REAL concern for the persecution of groups within the Third Reich, until after Pearl Harbor. Morgenthau forgot this too.
The 1939 cruise vessel incident, the SS St. Louis,where 456 German-Jews being denied the right to land in America, is the prime
example. FDR LET IT HAPPEN, and Henry Morgenthau was his secretary of the treasury: He did NOTHING--period!!
Morgenthau, as FDRs secretary of the treasury, actually approved
licences to American Firms doing business with the Third Reich as late as July of 1940.
As a third-generation GERMAN-AMERICAN, and PROUD OF IT, I am sick
and tired of seeing all things German being held to the standards of the Third Reich. Yes, the horrible Holocaust occured, yet American businessmen, like Ambassador Joseph P.
Kennedy, were "in bed" with many anti-semites. Morgenthau forgot
this, also. Post-war German recovery in 1945 was ESSENTIAL for
Europe, and the World.
Morgenthau's book should be read, but a REAL HISTORIAN like myself, would say to the reader--read the book, but get different
views,because in America,REAL intellectual curiosity is very
dormant. When I defend my German-and-American heritage, I do NOT
appreciate this constant reference to the Nazi Third Reich as
my "heritage". I did not cause the Holocaust. The Morgenthau
Plan, and his book, were written in the 1945 time-frame. Q.E.D.
Read the book for what it is: Re-fried 1945. World War Two, and
the Holocaust--a tragedy, are behind us, and German-hating will
accomplish nothing. America would probably "do business" with
the long-dead Ghengiz Khan, if someone wanted to make a "fast buck"!! Read the Morgenthau book anyway, but remember that
America has BLOOD on it's hands too, vis-a-vis Nazi Germany
before the Second World War, and the Holocaust began in 1939.
Danke Schoen, y'all!!
Dr. Nick Stage--PHD. History--Zionsville, Indiana. Ja Wohl!!