Buchanan said Britain should not have pledged to fight for Polish independence and should have allowed Germany and Poland to reach a settlement over Danzig and the Corridor
* German military leaders, PRIOR to Versailles Conference began secret rearmament with help of Soviets
* Poland was 1st target

Great!
- Although not much of a sailor myself, a great experience was teaching for three months on a series of old Luders yawls (44’, no aux power) while awaiting for further duty
- Sorry to have not followed up with more fun in those vessels, that used to be at several Naval Bases for recreation

- Luna repeated false claims that the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen
- She authored the 2023 Christian children's book, The Legend of Naranja, which suggests that Biden stole the 2020 election
- In March 2025 Luna expressed opposition to U.S. membership in NATO

Marks left by Stone Age humans were surprisingly complex Their information density rivals the immediate predecessors of writing

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- If you are perhaps looking the most important of several reasons for the Crash, Depression, Fascism in multiple countries, and ultimately WWII, it is WWI. That is a majority historical opinion, but hey, those opinions can change!

- Germany did not fail because of either War Reparations or US Loans which were were tightly managed between US & Germany
- Most of the world was in a financial mess
- USA, as the world’s biggest lender and manufacturing giant was both affecting other countries and deeply in a depression itself

Germany beginning 1928, raised taxes, reduced expenditures and increased exports, maintaining a better financial balance than most of the world until 1931 when bank failures, first at CreditAnstalt Austria rippled through Europe causing UK to leave the Gold Standard
- Hoover ended ALL war payments

Actually loans to Germany peaked in 1928. By 1931 when Germany defaulted on the US which was by far Germany’s biggest lender, US exposure to German debt was approximately 13-16 % of US GDP.
- US Banks’ lending domestic&foreign peaked earlier, by 1927 and by 1931 lending was almost nonexistent

- As a result of the disastrous reaction to WWI loss, Germany took a substantially different approach post WWII
- The cooperative plans established by 1950 with West Germany and the Western democracies gave birth to spectacular successes; hugely better than post WWI

- Germany lost 13% of its land, far less than the other empires that were disassembled
- The War Guilt Clause and ending most Defense were the biggest blows
- Thanks to reducing their Reparations through Dawes & Young Plans, plus US Bank loans, Germany had a net POSITIVE capital flow 1919-1933!
2/2

- In physical terms right after 1918, France and Belgium bore the overwhelming share of visible destruction on the Western Front: obliterated villages, cratered landscapes, contaminated soil, ruined factories and railways
- Destruction in Germany was light by comparison 1/2

With over 70% of Americans against joining the Allies, no way a politically savvy President could do more than Lend Lease and convoy protection with US destroyers

Doc Watson said the never really learned double-thumbing.
- maybe he was just being his modest self, but it is challenging to teach, as. I can attest, even while teaching excellent bluegrass banjo players trying to also learn clawhammer

Madison Grant’s 1916 (still in print) racist screed “The Passing of the Great Race” helped crystallize a way of thinking about “real” Americans as a threatened core and that logic remains embedded in U.S. immigration law, political rhetoric, and popular conspiracies about “replacement” by immigrants

- Wilson foreign policy bent on protecting Western Culture from other influences, refusing at Versailles to support equal rights for Japan and China
- 1924 Immigration Act used 1890 national mix to determine quotas, blocking most Eastern Europeans and ALL Orientals

- Federal Government enacted the 1882 Chinese exclusion despite the extraordinary contributions of that community
- Teddy Roosevelt and the “Gentleman’s Agreement to block Japanese immigration
- First post-Civil War Southern President, Wilson re-segregated Federal Government

1) Eighty years, seven Congressional Investigations and numerous books about alleged conspiracy involving FDR & Pearl Harbor = No proof!
2) War with Japan made no sense, as Germany was NOT obligated to join in, if Japan INITIATED hostilities

Yes!
Anyone who could accomplish what FDR did is going to have significant shortcomings

You could say that about the sequence from FDR decision to stage the Doolittle Raid, through the Jap/US actions at Midway

Army Radar set for “training,” officer told technician it was “B17s coming from US
- Torpedo nets down so fleet could deploy faster to Philippines
- Army grouped A/C close because sabotage the threat
- Miniature sub detected when PH in relaxed weekend mode, anticipating the pause before deployment

Some years back, one son and his Japanese girlfriend spent a week at our house
* Out of the blue, this lovely, polite college student blurted out:

“In World War II, Japan had been just following the example of America”

How Japan was “provoked:”
- Invaded China 1894, gained Taiwan
- Attacked Russia 1904, gained Korea
- 21 demands to China 1915
- Captured Manchuria 1931
- Attacked China again 1937
- Refused US diplomatic requests to leave China 1937-1941

(Recent post of mine from “X”)

When I taught my “Imperialism in the Pacific” the details of the actual PH attack were not stated, because it seemed important for the actions from the time of Opium War, US Manifest Destiny and Spanish-American War and other events before 1941 set the table for USA entering WWII.

You are right!
- Two carriers had been assigned by local Naval authorities to be on a logical mission
- Last Pacific Fleet carrier still in California for refit
- Japanese spies were apparently surprised at that factor
- Japanese admiral leading the attack decided against 3rd strike, on fuel stocks

- Over 70% of Americans did NOT want to join the Allies in fighting Fascists, even after Battle of Britain and Nazi attack on USSR
- American Military Establishment believed USSR and Britain would fall to Germany
- American “leaders” with few exceptions like FDR, wanted to save their own skin

FDR briefed his incoming administration on the dangers of Hitler and his minions even before inauguration
- FDR supported Britain, China against Japan and later USSR to the limit of American Isolationism pushback
- FDR pushed for industrial expansion of shipbuilding and aircraft BEFORE 1941

Even Hawaii newspapers screamed war with Japan coming soon, but
- Despite General Billy Mitchell warning in 1925 that Japan would attack Pearl, military establishment undervalued Japanese competence

Hitler was NOT obligated under its treaty with Japan to declare war IF Japan instigated the war.
- Hitler had originally planned to attack USA only after British had withdrawn and USSR was defeated
- FDR was cautious, but needed to aid China after his diplomatic attempts to sway Japan failed

A few of my former Navy squadron-mates had brief sojourns in Federal air traffic control; this was before Reagan reversed course on supporting PATCO union.
- Despite extensive history of interactions with controllers, most pilots found the job very tough and demanding of long training, UNLIKE ICE!

* Fears of Slave Retaliation provided an engine of eventual emancipation:
- Example of Haiti, brought by French slavers to US, manifested in German Coast uprising
- “Back to Africa,” reducing slave imports to S. Carolina
- Banning return to Virginia of the 25% of its slaves sold elsewhere