# Best way to prevent WW2 **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 6, 2016, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782 "2016-10-06T16:36:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/1 "2016-10-06T16:36:59Z")
I was thinking, perhaps the best way to prevent Hitler’s rise to power and the second world war in general was to go back to the first world war and ensure that Germany wins the war or at least that they were not declared the losers and starters of the war. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/2 "2016-10-06T16:40:43Z")
Hitler would find something else to harp on. Winning WWI would make Kaiser Bill even more of a threat to Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/3 "2016-10-06T16:59:51Z")
Don’t crush Germany under virtually unpayable war debt and reparations. IOW, the Marshall Plan or something like it instead of essentially continuing an economic war of revenge that does nothing but provoke them into rebellion in the form of a return to master-race nonsense and scapegoating. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/4 "2016-10-06T17:26:39Z")
It might have helped if the US Senate hadn’t walked away from the peace settlement… ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/5 "2016-10-06T17:40:46Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > It might have helped if the US Senate hadn’t walked away from the peace settlement… What are you talking about? Are you talking about the Paris Peace Conference of 1919? ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/6 "2016-10-06T19:57:21Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > What are you talking about? > > Are you talking about the Paris Peace Conference of 1919? I think the fact that the senate wouldn’t ratify the treaty of Versailles or join the League of Nations. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/7 "2016-10-06T20:04:44Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Hitler would find something else to harp on. > Winning WWI would make Kaiser Bill even more of a threat to Europe. He might have but would people have been buying what he was selling? It’s very much harder to convince people to behave like barbarians if they’ve got full bellies and a dry place to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/8 "2016-10-07T03:35:08Z")
I’ve always liked the theory that pantsing Adolph at a big public rally would have put a stop to it all. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/9 "2016-10-07T13:09:11Z")
I suspect that having Germany win WWI and pulverize France would have led to just as unstable a situation (especially if it kept propping up Austria-Hungary with its multiple unhappy ethnic groups), leading to eventual massive conflict with Britain, the Soviet Union, the U.S. etc. Militarist powers tend to want more and more territory, and this pisses off other nations. > [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Don’t crush Germany under virtually unpayable war debt and reparations. This meme is arguably [false](http://thefederalist.com/2014/07/29/world-war-i-reparations-werent-as-unfair-as-you-think/). ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/10 "2016-10-07T13:16:53Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > This meme is arguably [false](http://thefederalist.com/2014/07/29/world-war-i-reparations-werent-as-unfair-as-you-think/). I think it will take more than one fringe blog essay to counter the weight of every historian of the last 100 years. Germany’s absolutely dismal economic state was what directly fueled the rise of Hitler and National Socialism. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/11 "2016-10-07T14:03:23Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I think it will take more than one fringe blog essay to counter the weight of every historian of the last 100 years. Germany’s absolutely dismal economic state was what directly fueled the rise of Hitler and National Socialism. Then why didn’t we have another world war with Germany? The treaty we imposed on Germany in 1945 was far harsher than the one we imposed in 1919. Plenty of historians now argue that the problem with the Treaty of Versailles was that it was too easy on Germany. It was hard enough to make the Germans resentful but soft enough that they were willing to risk another war. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/12 "2016-10-07T14:15:07Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Then why didn’t we have another world war with Germany? The country was split with control by four nations, their war associated industry was destroyed, and the Russians carried off everything they could get their hands on. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/13 "2016-10-07T14:23:26Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Then why didn’t we have another world war with Germany? The treaty we imposed on Germany in 1945 was far harsher than the one we imposed in 1919. Plenty of historians now argue that the problem with the Treaty of Versailles was that it was too easy on Germany. It was hard enough to make the Germans resentful but soft enough that they were willing to risk another war. Because Germany was left largely intact and weakly controlled, but economically punished in 1918. No one stopped them from rebuilding their armed forces and no one more than weakly attempted to interfere with their nationalist rise. The link you cite, like most such, cherry-picks a few stats and conditions and fashions a contra-history (maybe even contra-reality) situation from them. While the overall historical interpretation has evolved in 100 years, the basic forces that sent us into WWII against a renewed Germany are not very arguable. We were too harsh in some ways and too lenient in others… and ignored violations of the armament treaties. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/14 "2016-10-07T14:54:12Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > We were too harsh in some ways and too lenient in others… and ignored violations of the armament treaties. The US didn’t ratify the treaty of Versailles because of the harsh demands. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/15 "2016-10-09T18:12:51Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > The link you cite What link? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2016, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/16 "2016-10-09T23:02:59Z")
Simple. Follow Pershing’s advice and have a grand victory parade in Berlin. Show the Germans they truly lost and kill the myth of the stab in the back dead. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/17 "2016-10-09T23:04:39Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Simple. Follow Pershing’s advice and have a grand victory parade in Berlin. Show the Germans they truly lost and kill the myth of the stab in the back dead. Facts never have gotten in the way of a conspiracy theory. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2016, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/18 "2016-10-09T23:14:56Z")
> [@rsat3acr](#): > > Facts never have gotten in the way of a conspiracy theory. Its why Reynolds is able to sell so many hats. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2016, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/19 "2016-10-09T23:31:12Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Don’t crush Germany under virtually unpayable war debt and reparations. IOW, the Marshall Plan or something like it instead of essentially continuing an economic war of revenge that does nothing but provoke them into rebellion in the form of a return to master-race nonsense and scapegoating. This, but if you do decide to crush Germany because Germany is perceived as a permanent threat to Europe’s peace, then you have to actually be willing to pay a price yourself to keep Germany under your heel. And that’s something the Allies weren’t willing to do. The Allies should have occupied Germany the second Germany broke out of their Versailles military limits. They had many other opportunities to put an end to the threat, each one more costly than the next, such as the Rhineland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. Britain and France are fortunate that they didn’t end up under Nazi rule for a generation or more, because without Hitler’s miscalculation in invading the Soviet Union and allying with Japan unconditionally, he would have brought Britain to its knees by 1943 or 1944. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2016, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782/20 "2016-10-09T23:44:00Z")
Don’t you think people haven’t tried? But there’s way too much competition between the time travelling Hitler assassination squads. They keep offing each other before they can hit their primary target. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-prevent-ww2/767782.md?page=2)