by Victor Davis Hanson Defining Ideas Sometimes, just a few months can change the course of civilization. That’s what happened in 1942 when a series of decisive events changed the trajectory of World War II. Before that turning point, Germany seemed destined for victory. In 1939 and 1940, Hitler’s army had won a series of […]
The Year That Changed History Read More »
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review Far from being inevitable, World War II resulted from the Allies’ failure to muster their combined resources and power in the service of deterring Hitler. Editor’s Note: The following is the fourth and final installment in a series of excerpts adapted from Victor Davis Hanson’s new book The
An Avoidable Great War Read More »
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review Hitler went to war without an accurate conception of the Allies’ strength. The Allies did the same without an accurate conception of Hitler’s ambition. Unprecedented bloodshed ensued. Editor’s Note: The following is the third in a series of excerpts adapted from Victor Davis Hanson’s new book The Second
The Deadly Cost of Mutual Misunderstanding Read More »
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review Hitler and his Axis cohorts couldn’t match their enemies’ resources to begin with. That they learned all the wrong lessons from military history while the Allies learned all the right ones doomed them. Editor’s Note: The following is the second in a series of excerpts adapted from
The Axis Was Outmatched from the Start Read More »
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review History shows that a lack of deterrence, not loose rhetoric, spurs aggression. As tensions mount with North Korea, fears arise that President Trump’s tit-for-tat bellicose rhetoric with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un might lead to miscalculations — and thus an accidental war that could have been prevented.
Are Wars Caused by Accidents? Read More »
by Victor Davis Hanson // Defining Ideas America’s great advantage when it entered world affairs after the Civil War was that its distance from Europe and Asia ensured that it was virtually immune from large sea-borne invasions. The Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans proved far better barriers than even the forests and mountain ranges of
The Need For Missile Defense Read More »
by Victor Davis Hanson // Defining Ideas Wednesday, August 2, 2017 A quarter-million troops of the British Expeditionary Force, together with about 140,000 French and Belgian soldiers, were safely evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk, France between May 26 and June 4, 1940, in one of the largest successful maritime evacuations of trapped armies in
Miracle At Dunkirk Read More »
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review What has become of the prescient post-WWII dictum ‘Russians out, Americans in, Germans down’? The accomplished and insightful British general Hasting Ismay is remembered today largely because of his famous assessment of NATO, offered when he was the alliance’s first secretary general. The purpose of the new
Lord Ismay, NATO, and the Old-New World Order Read More »
By Victor Davis Hanson National Review’s “The Corner” D-Day was the largest amphibious invasion in history since King Xerxes’ 480 BC combined sea and land descent into Greece. The Americans, especially General George Marshall, had wanted to invade France as early as spring 1943, still confident from their World War I experience that they could
By Victor Davis Hanson National Review Germany’s negative attitude toward the U.S. long predates the rise of Trump. Berlin — Germans do not seem too friendly to Americans these days. According to a recent Harvard Kennedy School study of global media, 98 percent of German public television news portrays President Donald Trump negatively, making it
The Old German Problem Read More »