Kingdom Come

More than anything else [Hitler] dreamed of an alliance with Saxon England.

A nation, he believed, that was made up of and run by people of “excellent Germanic stock”… Hitler proclaimed that, “the English nation will have to be considered the most valuable ally in the world”. He added, “England was a natural ally for Germany and an enemy of France”, plus the latter’s communist friends in Russia, no doubt…he asserted that the English are, “our brothers, why fight our brothers?”.

Then Lloyd George came out with a quite remarkable comment. Although everyone was aware of Hitler’s antisemitism from his autobiography and in the 1930’s the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews…the ex-British premier reminded his audience that, “we must not forget the pogroms in Russia and in other European countries”. It was as if he was saying that maltreatment of the Jews happens, and has happened in communist Russia, so why attack Germany for doing the same?

Tacit British support for Germany continued under the veil of appeasement. During the Spanish Civil War…Britain wanted Franco and his fascists to take control of Spain rather than see it fall into the hands of…communists who would be controlled by Moscow…

So after looking at how friendly the British and German governments were in the 1930’s, why was there no Anglo-Nazi Pact?

One man who inadvertently undermined everything that Hitler wanted from an Anglo-German alliance…Joachim von Ribbentrop…German Ambassador to Britain in August, 1936. He single-handedly destroyed any hope of a rapprochement between the two countries in a number of ways. He insisted on giving an outrageous fascist salute when meeting King George VI [the reigning monarch of the, albeit undercover, Roman Empire and superior to Germany’s hopeful] and seemed astonished that the king did not reply in the same manner. At most meetings with British ministers he argued that Germany must be given back the colonies she lost after the First World War. [Despite the massive losses suffered by England fighting against Germany in WWI.]

Josef Stalin…and the politburo in Moscow certainly believed that an alliance between the two powers was in the cards…as late as 1940 [when] Prime Minister Winston Churchill suggested that Britain should defend Finland against the advancing Red Army.

For his entire life Stalin never trusted the British.

Is it possible that when Churchill – among whose many American connections was his mother – successfully led the British people to sacrifice all they had to fight, rather than join, Germany, that the Nazis looked instead to their military-industrial associates in America for an alliance?

More likely than not.

One of the key reasons for the strength of the special relationship in the Second World War was the close personal connection between Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt. They have often been associated with the development of the Anglo-US special relationship, and it was during this period that the political relationship between the two countries thrived. The two leaders met in person eleven times throughout the war and exchanged over 1,700 letters and telegrams. Although they would not always agree, this close personal relationship provided the strong base on which the political one could endure…

In December 1940, Churchill warned Roosevelt that the British were no longer able to pay for supplies…Instead, the United States would “lend” the supplies to the British, deferring payment. When payment eventually did take place…payment would primarily take the form of…the creation of a liberalized international economic order in the postwar world.

On February 14, 1945, months before the war ended on September 2, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. internationally considered a key Arab leader. Their meeting was secret because FDR had pledged to England’s Winston Churchill that the United States would not intervene in territory controlled by the British. Laying a foundation for U.S.-Saudi relations that would ensure U.S. access to Saudi oil reserves, the agreement has survived seven Saudi kings and twelve US presidents. 

Note – that is protection of the Saudi regime, not of the country, even against internal revolt by the people of the country. So much for the protector of democracy. 

It is all for access to Saudi oil reserves.

The supremely successful Lend-Lease Act public policy resulted in America, while riding in as a Savior wearing a white hat:

1. gaining access to Britain’s global network of military bases,
2. underwriting America’s transformation into a military-industrial complex, with, as President Eisenhower warned, “the disastrous rise of misplaced power,”
3. Apparent defeat of the Nazi Third Reich with limited loss of American soldiers’ lives, thereby defeating the powerful isolationist politicians at home and winning the majority of Americans to his conviction that Americans can, and must, save the world for democracy,
4. Entrance into the war, swooping in at the last minute to claim as spoils of war Germany’s top secret, highly advanced weapons technology,
5. “The creation of a new international economic order in the postwar world.”

Senate opposition to the Lend-Lease Act correctly foresaw that the bill would “...give the president power to carry on a kind of undeclared war all over the world.”