Would Vladimir Putin attack the United States – as Adolph Hitler wanted to do?
If the world has learned nothing in the last few days it is that yes, Putin really is the ruthless dictator many thought him to be. But there has also been an unspoken assumption that his ambitions lie in Europe, and that he would not attack the United States and open a full-scale global war.
The time is more than here to question that unspoken assumption. And do it by recalling the actual history of another infamous dictator and his ambitions to attack America.
That would be, of course, Adolph Hitler. And that actual history is this.
America’s largest city – New York – was almost 4,000 miles from Germany. Thus it was that Hitler set about a plan to build a long-range bomber. It was to be called the Amerika Bomber, and the idea was that once operational it could fly from Germany to New York and back without refueling. It would bomb New York City in much the way the German Luftwaffe – the Nazi air force – had relentlessly bombed London and more in the infamous Battle of Britain. Hitler was also at work building up the German Navy, which he used effectively with submarines sinking American merchant ships in the opening rounds of what became known as the Battle of the Atlantic.
But there were Americans who were, in fact, concerned that Hitler-with an assist from Japan – would attack the US mainland directly.
In fact, the popular Life magazine, a staple of the American media of the day, did an extensive analysis of just how a combined German-Japanese attack on America could work.
Published in March of 1942, a series of 6 detailed maps of the United States imagined just how this attack could work. The All That’s Interesting website of today has published the 6 Life maps – itself doubtless causing an unsettling stir in the day among Americans who tended to view themselves as locked safely in a “Fortress America”, protected by the reach of the Atlantic Ocean on the East Coast and the Pacific Ocean on the West Coast.
The six plans outlined by Life were these:
Plan 1: The Germans would invade the American East Coast, the Japanese would invade the West Coast. The Germans would attack with “hit and run raids by subs, bombers and warships.” On the East Coast, German troops would be landed to attack urban centers ranging from New York and on down through cities that appear to be Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Atlanta and Miami, with more troops sent to New Orleans. On the West Coast the Japanese would begin by attacking the “U.S. base at Dutch Harbor (off the coast of Alaska) then moving along the Canadian coast and on down to the American cities of Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Plan 2: There would be a frontal attack on California via a renewed attack on Pearl Harbor. There would be three “feints” to fool the Americans, with supposed attacks targeting Seattle, Los Angeles and the Panama Canal but the real attack coming in San Francisco.
Plan 3: The Japanese would invade America through the Panama Canal, then move north through Mexico to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.
Plan 4: The Axis powers – the combined forces of Japan, Germany, Italy and Vichy France – would take over the Atlantic, then move into the Gulf of Mexico, capture New Orleans and invade the US by moving up the Mississippi River.
Plan 5: Has the Germans and their allies surging through the Atlantic and attacking Norfolk, Virginia, – where there was a U.S. Navy base- moving on from the captured base to invade the rest of the country.
Plan 6: The Germans would take over Greenland, then invade Canada and move down the St. Lawrence River through New York’s Hudson Valley.
Then there was this story at CNN. The headline:
Hitler-owned book hints at plans for North American Holocaust
The CNN story says, in part, this:
“(CNN) – A rare book owned by Adolph Hitler, which is believed to detail the blueprint for a North American Holocaust, has been acquired by Canada’s national archive.
…The 137-page report – titled “Statistics, Media and Organizations of Jewry in the United States and Canada” – was compiled in 1944 by German linguist and researcher Heinz Kloss. He was responsible for conducting key research for the Nazi regime on issues such as nationality, with a particular focus on the United States.
Kloss – who visited the United States in 1936-7 and maintained a network of Nazi sympathizers – used 1930s population data to produce a personalized census of the Jewish population in North America, along with information about Jewish organizations and newspapers.
…Rebecca Margolis of the University of Ottawa noted in a statement that the report offers a “documented confirmation of the fears felt so acutely” by Canadian Jews during World War II – that the Nazis intended to invade North America.”
There’s more, but the point is clear. What was thought unthinkable by many Americans of the day was in fact not at all unthinkable, and indeed Hitler and his Axis allies were in fact trying to figure out how exactly to accomplish an invasion of the United States.
Now?
Now it is critical for Americans – particularly those surrounding President Joe Biden – to understand that it is, in fact, entirely possible that somewhere in Vladimir Putin’s power-crazed mind, a mind disturbingly similar to Hitler’s, the thought is there that he could indeed launch a nuclear attack on the United States – and win.
Not good. Not good at all.
