What is a dictator?
a ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has obtained power by force.
Who were some dictators?
Adolf Hitler
Joseph Stalin
Tojo Hideki
Benito Mussolini
Dictators have been around for awhile but Hitler,and Stalin and although both worked together they eventually parted ways but hHitler caused a mass genicide and Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union.
The defendersWinston Churchill kept warning of the Nazi danger in pre-war years. He was elected prime minister of Great Britain after the total collapse of the appeasement policy of his predecessor Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain failed to understand that aggressors like Hitler can not be appeased. Churchill became prime minister on May 10, 1940, at the same day when the German Blitzkrieg invasion of France began. After the quick collapse of the French military, Britain itself was under a threat of a German amphibious invasion, and was attacked by the full force of the German Luftwaffe. It was also under a maritime siege by the German U-boat submarines. At these very difficult and dangerous times, Churchill, "the British Lion", excelled as a wartime leader. His fighting spirit raised the morale of the British people. He also forged a strong alliance with the US. Churchill is one of the main World War 2 leaders, and one of the most prominent national leaders in history.
Joseph Stalin was the very brutal Communist dictator of Russia (1928-1953). In the years before World War 2 Stalin murdered or imprisoned almost all of Russia's senior military officers, and millions of other Russian citizens, in a paranoid and unprecedented wave of political terror. This clearly weakened Russia and further encouraged Hitler to attack it. The pre-war pacifist strategy, military weakness, and anti-Communism of Britain and France led Stalin in August 1939 to decide that making a deal with Hitler is a better way to protect Russia from Hitler than making an alliance with Britain and France against him. As part of the deal Russia invaded half of Poland after Hitler started World War 2 by invading Poland. In June 1941, after conquering the rest of Europe, Hitler did what he promised for 18 years and invaded Russia. In addition to the great weakness caused by the absence of experienced senior officers because of Stalin's political murders, Stalin further damaged the Russian military's ability to fight by first obsessively ignoring all the intelligence warnings of the incoming German invasion, and later by obsessively enforcing a rigid and very wasteful defensive strategy which helped the German military to achieve tremendous victories in the summer of 1941 and brought the Germans all the way to Moscow. Only then Stalin realized that he must allow his Generals to fight the war more professionally, not obsessively. He made the brilliant General Zhukov his top military advisor and also sent him to command the forces directly in key battles. This finally allowed the huge Russian military to exploit its full potential and succeed. After the war ended, Stalin's horrible political terror quickly returned and continued until his death.
Anecdote: In 1975-2003 the brutal Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein used Stalin as his role model of "a successful dictator". Saddam said he read many books about Stalin and learned from them.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, president of the United States of America (1933-1945) initially followed a very strong political demand to remain neutral and isolate the country from foreign wars, but he realized that the Nazi aggression was a global threat and the total opposite to the values of democracy and freedom, and persuaded the Congress to allow selling weapons to Britain and France, later declaring that the US will become the "arsenal of democracy". In May 1941, when German expansion and its attacks on British shipping to the US increased, he declared a state of national emergency, and realistically assumed that US forces will eventually have to participate in fighting against Nazi Germany. When Germany invaded Russia, he extended the military aid to Russia too, and enormous amounts of American military equipment and material were transferred to Russia during the war, allowing the Russian military industry to focus on mass production of the main weapon systems and ammunition.
Despite the strong sympathy of the American public in support of Britain and against Nazism, only an attack on the US could persuade the American public to go to war. The attack eventually came from the opposite direction when Japan surprise attacked the US naval and air bases in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in December 7, 1941. The destructive surprise attack ended American isolationism and the US joined the war and allied with Britain and Russia to defeat the aggressors Axis of Nazi Germany, militarist Japan, and Fascist Italy. The mighty American industry went into full war production effort which dwarfed those of both allies and enemies, allowing the relatively small US military forces to rapidly grow to a mighty force, and defeat Japan and help Britain and Russia defeat Germany and Italy. President Roosevelt died in April 1945, shortly before the end of the war, and was succeeded by vice president Harry S. Truman.
a ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has obtained power by force.
Who were some dictators?
Adolf Hitler
Joseph Stalin
Tojo Hideki
Benito Mussolini
Dictators have been around for awhile but Hitler,and Stalin and although both worked together they eventually parted ways but hHitler caused a mass genicide and Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union.
The defendersWinston Churchill kept warning of the Nazi danger in pre-war years. He was elected prime minister of Great Britain after the total collapse of the appeasement policy of his predecessor Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain failed to understand that aggressors like Hitler can not be appeased. Churchill became prime minister on May 10, 1940, at the same day when the German Blitzkrieg invasion of France began. After the quick collapse of the French military, Britain itself was under a threat of a German amphibious invasion, and was attacked by the full force of the German Luftwaffe. It was also under a maritime siege by the German U-boat submarines. At these very difficult and dangerous times, Churchill, "the British Lion", excelled as a wartime leader. His fighting spirit raised the morale of the British people. He also forged a strong alliance with the US. Churchill is one of the main World War 2 leaders, and one of the most prominent national leaders in history.
Joseph Stalin was the very brutal Communist dictator of Russia (1928-1953). In the years before World War 2 Stalin murdered or imprisoned almost all of Russia's senior military officers, and millions of other Russian citizens, in a paranoid and unprecedented wave of political terror. This clearly weakened Russia and further encouraged Hitler to attack it. The pre-war pacifist strategy, military weakness, and anti-Communism of Britain and France led Stalin in August 1939 to decide that making a deal with Hitler is a better way to protect Russia from Hitler than making an alliance with Britain and France against him. As part of the deal Russia invaded half of Poland after Hitler started World War 2 by invading Poland. In June 1941, after conquering the rest of Europe, Hitler did what he promised for 18 years and invaded Russia. In addition to the great weakness caused by the absence of experienced senior officers because of Stalin's political murders, Stalin further damaged the Russian military's ability to fight by first obsessively ignoring all the intelligence warnings of the incoming German invasion, and later by obsessively enforcing a rigid and very wasteful defensive strategy which helped the German military to achieve tremendous victories in the summer of 1941 and brought the Germans all the way to Moscow. Only then Stalin realized that he must allow his Generals to fight the war more professionally, not obsessively. He made the brilliant General Zhukov his top military advisor and also sent him to command the forces directly in key battles. This finally allowed the huge Russian military to exploit its full potential and succeed. After the war ended, Stalin's horrible political terror quickly returned and continued until his death.
Anecdote: In 1975-2003 the brutal Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein used Stalin as his role model of "a successful dictator". Saddam said he read many books about Stalin and learned from them.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, president of the United States of America (1933-1945) initially followed a very strong political demand to remain neutral and isolate the country from foreign wars, but he realized that the Nazi aggression was a global threat and the total opposite to the values of democracy and freedom, and persuaded the Congress to allow selling weapons to Britain and France, later declaring that the US will become the "arsenal of democracy". In May 1941, when German expansion and its attacks on British shipping to the US increased, he declared a state of national emergency, and realistically assumed that US forces will eventually have to participate in fighting against Nazi Germany. When Germany invaded Russia, he extended the military aid to Russia too, and enormous amounts of American military equipment and material were transferred to Russia during the war, allowing the Russian military industry to focus on mass production of the main weapon systems and ammunition.
Despite the strong sympathy of the American public in support of Britain and against Nazism, only an attack on the US could persuade the American public to go to war. The attack eventually came from the opposite direction when Japan surprise attacked the US naval and air bases in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in December 7, 1941. The destructive surprise attack ended American isolationism and the US joined the war and allied with Britain and Russia to defeat the aggressors Axis of Nazi Germany, militarist Japan, and Fascist Italy. The mighty American industry went into full war production effort which dwarfed those of both allies and enemies, allowing the relatively small US military forces to rapidly grow to a mighty force, and defeat Japan and help Britain and Russia defeat Germany and Italy. President Roosevelt died in April 1945, shortly before the end of the war, and was succeeded by vice president Harry S. Truman.