Silly people, and there are many, not only in enemy countries, might discount the force of the United States.

Some said they were soft, others that they would never be united, they would fool around at a distance,

they would never come to grips, they would never stand at a distance. They would never come to grips.

They would never stand bloodletting.

Their democracy and system of recurrent elections

would paralyze their war horizon to friend or foe.

Now we should see the weakness of this numerous but remote, wealthy, and talkative people.

But I had studied the American Civil War, fought out to the last desperate inch.

Winston Churchill

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Thank you.

Music Episode 369

Operation Sledgehammer

As soon as the United States entered the war,

its top military leaders were champing at the bit for an invasion of German-occupied

France. The Americans had no patience for the British strategy of picking away at the periphery of

the Nazi Empire. They wanted to take on the Wehrmacht at once in 1942.

U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt pledged to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin that the Western allies

would open a second front against the Germans before the end of 1942, as a means of forcing

the Germans to redeploy military units away from the east

and take some of the pressure off the Red Army. In private communication, Roosevelt told

Churchill that allied losses might well be heavy, but it would be worth it nevertheless if

...