They were selling weapons to both sides. GM controlled Opel until the 1940s, they built a lot of the nazi war machine (using forced labor), the Ford-Werke factory in Germany produced V2 rocket turbines among other parts, and US strategic bombers were specifically told to avoid bombing it because it was owned by an american, Exxon and Dow licensed patents for synthetic rubber and other war materials Germany lacked, Chase provided loans necessary for the rearmament, IBM sold the nazis the computers they used to carry out the holocaust.
The capitalist class looked at fascism as the savior of capitalism; they’d been terrified of a revolution in Germany and Hitler had just shown them an alternative. There’s a reason he was Time’s man of the year in 1938.
Good catch, I have edited it accordingly. Real “giving the nobel peace prize to Henry Kissinger and the guys he is currently dropping chemical weapons on” vibes.
Also: Holy shit, Chiang Kai-Shek is there for 1937.
I wish they’d put the articles behind those covers on their site, rather than just simple biographies. I’d like to read how people like Hitler and Stalin were perceived in the run up to WW2. Stalin in 39 is particularly interesting because that’s just after Molotov-Ribbentrop has been signed and WW2 has started with the Russian allied to the Germans.
The USSR never allied with the Germans, it was a non-aggression pact, made after the USSR failed to get Britain, France, or Poland to support them in invading Germany in response to Czechoslovakia. Instead Britain, France, and Poland signed the Munich Agreement, dividing Czechoslovakia between Germany and Poland.
To be clear, even after the invasion of Poland in 1940, the western powers intended to support Germany against the USSR, Britain even tried to send troops to support Germany’s ally, Finland in the winter war, after the invasion of Poland, and was only prevented when it ended too quickly.
They were selling weapons to both sides. GM controlled Opel until the 1940s, they built a lot of the nazi war machine (using forced labor), the Ford-Werke factory in Germany produced V2 rocket turbines among other parts, and US strategic bombers were specifically told to avoid bombing it because it was owned by an american, Exxon and Dow licensed patents for synthetic rubber and other war materials Germany lacked, Chase provided loans necessary for the rearmament, IBM sold the nazis the computers they used to carry out the holocaust.
The capitalist class looked at fascism as the savior of capitalism; they’d been terrified of a revolution in Germany and Hitler had just shown them an alternative. There’s a reason he was Time’s man of the year in 1938.
Adolf Hilter was Time’s Person of the Year in 1938. Joseph Stalin was 1939.
Source: https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2019712,00.html
Good catch, I have edited it accordingly. Real “giving the nobel peace prize to Henry Kissinger and the guys he is currently dropping chemical weapons on” vibes.
Also: Holy shit, Chiang Kai-Shek is there for 1937.
I wish they’d put the articles behind those covers on their site, rather than just simple biographies. I’d like to read how people like Hitler and Stalin were perceived in the run up to WW2. Stalin in 39 is particularly interesting because that’s just after Molotov-Ribbentrop has been signed and WW2 has started with the Russian allied to the Germans.
The USSR never allied with the Germans, it was a non-aggression pact, made after the USSR failed to get Britain, France, or Poland to support them in invading Germany in response to Czechoslovakia. Instead Britain, France, and Poland signed the Munich Agreement, dividing Czechoslovakia between Germany and Poland.
To be clear, even after the invasion of Poland in 1940, the western powers intended to support Germany against the USSR, Britain even tried to send troops to support Germany’s ally, Finland in the winter war, after the invasion of Poland, and was only prevented when it ended too quickly.
Person of the year is not a honorific. It just means most important or influential.
excuse me i won person of the year and i’m taking it as an honorific
Time Magazine Person of the Year is for the most influential person of the year. Not the best, or most admirable. Merely the greatest agent of change.
Wow