Sean McMeekin, professor of history at Barnard College in New York, has written a new book, Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II, that seeks to “reinterpret World War II. Sean McMeekin’s new book, Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II, attempts to “reinterpret World War II. By shifting the center of the outbreak of World War II to the East, he has revolutionized the understanding of the global conflict. According to McMeekin, World War II was not “Hitler’s war,” but “Stalin’s war” because Hitler “did not benefit from World War II. This macro-historiography, although it cannot find any historical laws, can open up new perspectives.
MacMeekin argues that the Pacific War of 1941-1945 “achieved Stalin’s goal” of a devastating war of attrition between Japan and the Anglo-Saxon capitalist powers. Regarding the Soviet defeat of the Nazis, McMeekin asserts that the “self-destructive strategy” of the United States and Britain, which stemmed from the “short-sightedness” of the West, “largely saved Soviet communism. These initiatives began with the Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union. American and British supply committees blindly agreed to almost every Soviet demand. Stalin’s war machine depended heavily on the United States for all supplies of material.
McMeekin’s views coincide with those of Zhong Wen’s book “A Hundred Years of Contest – Can America Defeat Communism? This book is not unlike the views of Zhong Wen.
The Hundred-Year Contest was published before McMeekin’s Stalin’s War. Zhong Wen argues that Stalin and Hitler, were two conspirators in starting World War II. Before Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union had invaded and occupied half of Poland, the whole of Finland, Lithuania and three other small countries, and Stalin’s iron hoof ravaged Eastern Europe. The development of world history after WWII proved that Hoover was right in his attack on Roosevelt. The alliance with Stalin brought tragedy and communism ravaged the world, killing about 70 million people in China alone.
Former U.S. President Hoover had an important point during World War II: the United States should let Hitler and Stalin kill each other and consume each other, rather than aid one to fight the other. Hoover said, “If we go to war and win, what we win is Stalin’s iron-fisted communist rule in the Soviet Union. We help him impose more communist regimes in Europe and around the world. Far from being a farce, it is a tragedy for us to make such a great sacrifice and claim to join Stalin in the fight for freedom.”
This observation by Hoover is still deafening today. America’s strategic failures stemmed from Roosevelt’s misreading of communism. 1937∼1938 during Stalin’s Great Terror, the Great Purge, the Holocaust, the sentencing of 1.3 million people, the shooting of 680,000 people, and America’s lack of response in the face of the brutal ravages of communism. President Roosevelt did not recognize communism as the greatest scourge of mankind and did not see Stalin as the enemy, but only Hitler.
The United States should not have been involved in the fight between the two devils; it was not only involved, but it was on the side of the communist Soviet Union. The United States should have distinguished who was the big devil and who was the little devil. It should not help the big devil to destroy the little devil. Roosevelt, the wartime president, allied himself with the communist bandwagon brother, the Soviet Union, in order to destroy the fascist camp. This is the greatest blunder in contemporary American history. This mistake is the same as when George W. Bush Jr. abandoned the communism of the Chinese Communist Party’s “axis of evil” and switched to terrorism against the Taliban.
Human history often goes astray at critical moments. In order to defeat the persistent enemy Germany, Roosevelt made a goodwill gesture to the Soviet Union and allied with it to fight against Germany. As soon as World War II ended, the Soviet Union immediately revealed its expansionist nature. Roosevelt is regarded as one of the most outstanding presidents in the history of the United States. He made a major diplomatic mistake of direction by having a poor understanding of communism. His diplomatic blunders in supporting Stalin caused communism to stretch on and have an impact to this day.
Roosevelt’s greater blunder was his policy toward China. Roosevelt’s China policy was based half on his personal feelings for China and half on his perception of the world situation. These two feelings were entwined to form his particular policy toward China. He even presented himself as the savior of the Republic of China and interfered directly with Chiang Kai-shek’s military command in the United States, asking Chiang to hand over the command of the Chinese war zone army to Stilwell. Stilwell became the supreme commander of the Nationalist army. Roosevelt sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek: “Please give command to Stilwell immediately and do not hesitate for a moment.” On that day, Chiang wrote in his diary, “It is really the greatest shame in my life.”
Roosevelt’s diplomacy with the Soviet Union saved the Soviet Union, said Zhong Wen, author of A Hundred Years of Contest. His Lend-Lease Act kept the Soviet Union alive for 70 years. The Chinese Communist Party could not grow and expand without the nursing and nurturing of the Soviet Union as its nurse. The political system of the Communist Party of China has an innate Soviet totalitarian gene. Roosevelt’s foreign policy toward China was intended to hatch a dove of peace in China, but it turned out to be a red dragon. (The Hundred-Year Contest – Can America Defeat Communism? (Borden Books, New York), available on Amazon and google play by typing in “hundred years of competition”)
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