Comment on Russia is at war with Britain and US is no longer a reliable ally, UK adviser says
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 6 days agoCan you articulate why, with what they knew in 1939, the US should have declared war and not after they were directly attacked?
I’ll let prime minister Neville Chamberlain do so.
“We and France are to-day, in fulfillment of our obligations, going to the aid of Poland, who is so bravely resisting this wicked and unprovoked attack upon her people. We have a clear conscience. We have done all that any country could do to establish peace, but a situation in which no word given by Germany’s ruler could be trusted and no people or country could feel themselves safe had become intolerable.”
LilB0kChoy@midwest.social 6 days ago
That explains the UK and France since France and the United Kingdom were the two dominant players in world affairs and in League of Nations affairs, and usually were in agreement.
However, the US was not part of the League of Nations, had not been attacked, had adopted an isolationist approach to foreign policy between WW1 and WW2 and had already fought in one European war. There was no UN, no NATO, no mutual defense agreements like exist today because WW2 was the catalyst for many of those things.
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” – attributed to Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Yes. We know why the US didn’t join initially. I was answering why they should have done.
LilB0kChoy@midwest.social 6 days ago
No, he’s not. Your quote is from a radio broadcast on September 3, 1939 where Chamberlain was speaking about England and France declaring war.
Note, this is also the same Chamberlain who made a speech in 1938 after signing the Munich agreement where he said, “My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time….”; The speech would later seal Chamberlain’s reputation as the chief architect of appeasement..
What I’m gathering is that everyone here seems to think the US had some moral obligation to declare war earlier, which is easy to say in retrospect but history doesn’t support that idea when viewed in situ.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 6 days ago
The US should have been part of the League of Nations. It was cowardly not to have been.
If it were moral for England and France to enter into war, then why would it not moral for the US?