PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY THE CORNWALL PRESS, CORNWALL, N. Y.
To Agnes
CONTENTS
NOTE: This descriptive table of contents gives only a
sampling of the many provocative questions discussed.
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| Foreword | [xi] | |
| Introduction | [xv] | |
| 1. | Germany | [1] |
| Have you ever met Hitler? | ||
| What impression does he make when you meet him? | ||
| Does Hitler’s personality grow upon closer acquaintance? | ||
| Is Hitler personally brave? | ||
| Is it true that Hitler is a homosexual? | ||
| Are women attracted to Hitler? | ||
| What kind of public speaker is Hitler? | ||
| What is the secret of Hitler’s power? | ||
| Do you think Hitler is personally responsible for the war? | ||
| Is Hitler the real boss of Germany? | ||
| Are any of the men around Hitler of a calibre to succeed him? | ||
| Does Hitler actually direct his battles as did Napoleon? | ||
| Why didn’t Hitler attack England after Dunkirk? | ||
| What was Hitler’s second mistake? | ||
| Isn’t there anything constructive about Hitlerism? | ||
| How has Hitler run his show without money, without gold, without foreign exchange? | ||
| Can the Nazi economy continue to run indefinitely? | ||
| How can you describe the German people as hysterical? | ||
| What would happen if Hitler were killed? | ||
| Why doesn’t somebody kill Hitler? | ||
| What was the explanation of the bombing attempt on Hitler in the Munich Beer Hall? | ||
| Were the Nazi atrocity stories exaggerated? | ||
| Do you consider Out of the Night authentic? | ||
| Hasn’t Hitler proved he is an enemy of Bolshevism by attacking Russia? | ||
| What should we do with Hitler after he is defeated? | ||
| 2. | Russia | [88] |
| What is the best way for the United States to help the Russians? | ||
| How can the Russian resistance to the German attack be explained? | ||
| What do the Russians fight for? | ||
| Is it true that the Soviet government has restored freedom of worship? | ||
| Are we running a risk if we support the Russians? | ||
| Can Stalin be trusted? | ||
| Under what circumstances would Stalin make a separate peace? | ||
| What would be the effect of such a compromise peace on Great Britain and the United States? | ||
| What is the NKVD? | ||
| Are the peasants better off on collective farms? | ||
| How about the Soviet elections of which we hear? | ||
| Why do you give so much importance to the Soviet Terror? | ||
| How do you explain Russian inefficiency and wastefulness? | ||
| How has the Red Army been able to stand up so well? | ||
| Could Stalin carry on with the resources of the Urals? | ||
| 3. | England | [139] |
| What place will Churchill have in history? | ||
| Is Churchill really backed by the English people? | ||
| Can Churchill be trusted? | ||
| What does Churchill think of the United States? | ||
| What are Churchill’s characteristics as a person? | ||
| Would the British Navy survive the fall of the British Isles? | ||
| How can the flight of Hess be explained? | ||
| What is the secret of Churchill’s success? | ||
| What are Churchill’s principal interests? | ||
| 4. | War Aims | [184] |
| What are Britain’s war aims? | ||
| What was the meaning of the Churchill-Roosevelt meeting? | ||
| How can the gains of victory be consolidated? | ||
| Will the United States come out of the war in a better economic condition than others? | ||
| What will the peace conference be like? | ||
| In what sense will the conquered peoples be slaves? | ||
| How could we compete with Hitler after a German victory? | ||
| Can’t American labor produce better and cheaper than slave labor? | ||
| What are Hitler’s plans for Europe? | ||
| What kind of negotiated peace would be acceptable to the Axis? | ||
| What is the text of Hitler’s terms? | ||
| What chance has Communism in a defeated Germany? | ||
| Is there any way to render Germany impotent? | ||
| Is the problem of the Germans insoluble? | ||
| Will England come out of the war with a socialist system? | ||
| What is to be done with all the former nations of Europe? | ||
| 5. | France | [234] |
| Why did France fall? | ||
| Were there traitors on the French General Staff? | ||
| How did treason manifest itself in the operations of the army? | ||
| Who gave the orders? | ||
| What is the opinion of informed Frenchmen? | ||
| Is Pétain a patriot or traitor, or misguided? | ||
| Is Pétain moved by personal ambition? | ||
| What would Hitler do if he finally tired of fooling with Vichy? | ||
| What about Darlan? And Laval? | ||
| Has Laval a chance to seize power? | ||
| In what way are we Americans very much like the French? | ||
| Are there any encouraging differences between ourselves and the unfortunate French? | ||
| Is there any hope that the French may come back? | ||
| Will Hitler’s treatment of France be different later? | ||
| How was the French indemnity fixed? | ||
| How does this compare with the reparations paid by Germany after the World War? | ||
| What is Hitler doing with French industry? | ||
| Should we continue diplomatic relations with Vichy? | ||
| 6. | The United States | [293] |
| What is the greatest danger we face as a nation today? | ||
| Is our morale very bad? | ||
| What is the state of our armament? | ||
| If we have nothing to fight with, how can we go to war? | ||
| Could Hitler succeed in invading the British Isles? | ||
| Why doesn’t Ireland allow Britain to take over naval bases? | ||
| Is it true that Hitler wants to destroy the United States? | ||
| Haven’t we plenty to do at home without getting into a foreign war? | ||
| Why do you think we ought to go to war with Germany today? | ||
| Why would a declaration of war be worth so much immediately? | ||
| What effect would a declaration of war have on the morale of the Army? | ||
| But weren’t we suckers in the last war? | ||
| Would an American declaration of war have any effect on the morale of the Germans? | ||
| Would another A.E.F. be required? | ||
| Might a new League of Nations be successful? | ||
| 7. | Fifth Columnists | [339] |
| What makes Lindbergh the way he is? | ||
| Are we fair in calling Lindbergh a Copperhead? | ||
| What is the reason for the divorce between Lindbergh and the American people? | ||
| Why did Lindbergh attack the Jews? | ||
| What is to be the fate of the Jews? | ||
| What are Lindbergh’s arguments against our entering the war? | ||
| What is the answer to America’s Fifth Columnists? | ||
FOREWORD
I met H. R. Knickerbocker way back in 1927 or thereabouts. Those were the good old days. They were the days of the Long Armistice. No one had ever heard of the Rome-Berlin Axis, Stuka dive bombers, or the Haushofer Plan. Mr. Roosevelt was out of politics, Mr. Churchill was a chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mr. Lindbergh had just flown the Atlantic. We talked of such neolithic creatures as Pilsudski of Poland and Alexander of Jugoslavia, and most of us thought that Hitler was a bad Austrian joke, more or less. Those were the good old days. Even so, thunderheads were gathering.
I first met Mr. Knickerbocker in Berlin. This was fitting, since Berlin was his bailiwick. We all had bailiwicks in those days. Duranty was in Moscow, Raymond Swing was in London, and Dorothy Thompson had just left Berlin. I was bouncing all over the place. I didn’t have my bailiwick yet. We were all very good friends. We formed a kind of fluid international community. We were buzzards in every foreign office, and kings on every wagon-lit.
We didn’t meet often, since we lived in different cities, and it took something of a catastrophe to bring us all together. When we did meet, the vault of heaven shook. I remember days—and nights—in Geneva, Bucharest, Cairo, Helsingfors. I think of Sheean, the Mowrers, Webb Miller, Shirer, Jay Allen, Fodor, Whitaker, and many more. Don’t let me sound nostalgic. I am thinking merely that we have all grown up. We are not cameras any longer.
This foreword is not about Mr. Knickerbocker’s book. Let that speak for itself. Knick is the most pertinacious, plausible, and inquisitive question-asker I ever met. In this book he answers questions instead of asking them. I like to see the tables turned. I don’t know that I agree with all his answers. But let him answer them.