BEST ESCAPE
How the Axis self-destructed.
 Hitler's betrayal of Stalin brought the Soviets to the Allies -- and proved fatal for the Axis powers. |
or much of the millennium, if one place or people came to a bad end, it would not necessarily affect others: the regions of the world lived separate lives. By the 20th century, however, the world had become one. Thus, the clouds of totalitarianism that formed over Europe in the 1920's and 1930's cast their shadow over the entire planet. By 1941, when almost every country in Europe was ruled by a dictator of one sort or another, it was questionable whether freedom had a future.
Worse was to come. Three powerful military machines -- those of Nazi Germany, imperial Japan and the Soviet Union -- formed a fearsome alliance, whose combined might was overwhelming. At the time, there were estimated to be perhaps three million troops in the German Army -- and 174,000 in the American. The qualitative difference in military forces was even more stark, as was demonstrated in June 1940, when Germany tore France to shreds in a matter of weeks.
The dictators embarked on campaigns of aggression that seemed certain to win them mastery of the world. They held sway over much of Eurasia; even in the Western Hemisphere, German agents were at work, turning Latin America against the resented Yankees.
Britain was beleaguered. The United States refused to be drawn into the fighting. Moreover, an alliance with Britain, even if possible, would have been no match for a Eurasia led by Stalin, Hitler and Hirohito, with their legions commanded by such generals of genius as Rommel and Guderian. It was a fateful moment: the lords of evil were about to make the world part slave colony and part death camp.
| David Fromkin is the author of "The Way of the World," a brief world history. |
Then, in the early summer of 1941, Hitler betrayed Stalin by invading Russia, forcing the Soviet Union to change sides and ally itself with Britain and, later, America. Why did Hitler do it? Because conquering Slavic Europe had been central to his racist program all along. The alliance with Stalin had served a tactical purpose in the 1939-1940 campaigns in Eastern Europe, but now could be discarded. Besides, Hitler believed the Soviet Union was feeble. "We have only to kick in the door," Hitler told one of his generals, "and the whole rotten structure will come tumbling down."
What came tumbling down instead were the Axis powers. With Russia among the Allies, the military odds were evened; the democracies seized their chance, and mankind made its narrow escape from global darkness.
