Howard Zinn’s chapter on World War II offered many counterarguments to the version of the war learning in standard textbooks. As Zinn points out, WWII is widely considered to be the most supported war in American History. The United States was standing up for democracy and fighting against oppression and overpowering regimes. The Nazis had invaded its neighbors, persecuted its people who were not part of the “Aryan Race” and done whatever is best for the economic needs of the German Reich. The difference between the United States’ strategy and the Germans was that the US kept its real motives away from the public eye. The Nazis were explicit in their anti-semitism and quest for global superiority. The United States was more subtle in their imperial conquests, claiming that they were promoting global democracy and just lending a hand to less developed countries. However, their true goals were to expand their sphere of influence across the world so they had as many trading partners as they wanted and very few enemies. The United States valued its economic assets above its social stances at this time because they kept sending oil to Italy even when Italy invaded Ethiopia. They also adopted appeasement stances in the thirties with Hitler’s regime to prevent a war that was already inevitable because they knew the war would be costly. The United States was focused on gaining trading partners abroad at all costs. If anything threatened their interests, they did what they could to tear it down.
After the war, the main concern on the homefront became communism. The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the two largest world powers after the Yalta conference, and both believed their governments were superior. The US government became obsessed with cracking down on spies and disloyalty following the war because they were nervous about communism spreading into their country. World War II fed right into the cold war because of the Truman Doctrine and the two world powers that emerged after the war.
Every event has a cause and effect, and many historians like to play the blame game and trace back every event to something before it. David Swanson’s Article World War Two Was Not a Just War had many interesting claims about when this chain of wars during the twentieth century truly began. Swanson blamed World War I and the unsuccessful Treaty of Versailles for causing World War II, which is also believed by many historians, but the causes for World War I can be traced back even further. The top powers of the world are always looking out for their economic interests over anything else. This selfish point of view is the ultimate cause of conflict in the world. The United States is just as much to blame for this behavior as any other country, and it is probably the biggest culprit. As I discussed earlier, the US puts its economic interests as its number one priority. Swanson even discusses how Wall Street continued to fund Nazi Germany leading up to WWII even though they were suspected of being despotic and authoritative.
I think you bring up an interesting point with the “blame game.” A common theme I have found is that the US doesn’t like to be responsible for any war. This came up when president Wilson said he wanted to stay neutral, but then we entered because “we had to” due to the Germans bombing our submarines. But of course they bombed submarines they believed had weapons that were going to be used against them. Not only the US, but most countries don’t want to blame themselves for mistakes in history. I think you are right when you say there is a cause and effect chain of events.
I think your comparison of the United States and Germany during WW2 is interesting; however, I would push back against your statement that Nazi Germany was explicit about their actions during the war. In the 1930s, many in Europe were not sure if the Nazis were planning to control the world. In fact, many in Europe did not see the Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia as indicative of the Nazi’s intents to control Europe. It was not until the invasion of Poland (after the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia) that European powers declared war on the Nazis. Additionally, as ZInn notes, many Americans did not know of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust until after the war, suggesting that the Nazis weren’t explicit in their action during World War 2.
I can understand your point in saying that the United States had a part in causing WWII, and that is true with the Treaty of Versailles Wilson should’ve stood up to France. Wall Street funding Germany leading up to WWII was pretty much humanitarian aid in an attempt to prop up their broken economy. Although we definitely should not have continued providing this economic aid once Hitler rose into power.