(December 14, 2018 at 1:23 pm)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote:(December 14, 2018 at 10:53 am)Anomalocaris Wrote: So in practice Europe first was more in spirit than in substance. Europe first didn’t suit the navy’s agenda and during the shooting war with Germany and japan, the Navy won the resource war with the army.
Nope. FDR and WSC were in tune on the Germany First policy. The fiscal issues you cite were caused by the necessity to have a boat under our sailors in the Pacific.
Of course WSC would sincerely desire a Europe first policy. In FDR’s guts he also undoubtedly believed Germany to be a far more severe threat. He is on the record disparaging how long japan can hold out once Germany collapses. But his naval subordinated outmaneuvered him. The navy took up a far larger share of resources than required to hold the fort in the pacific in order to defeat Germany first, and then turning on japan. In fact the navy used war with japan as a pretext to swallow a portion of American war making potential sufficient to ensure absolute postwar naval supremacy in order to establish the centrality of the navy as america’s Premier instrument of postwar foreign policy.
If it was really Germany first, the US navy would not have arrived at japan’s Door steps at about the same time the red army arrived at the chancellery bunker in Berlin.
