DR. EXNER: Please answer a question which appears to be important to me: What were the deadlines in connection with the armament in 1935?
JODL: Various stages were provided for. The first deadline set was 1942-43. Most of the West Wall was to be completed by 1945. The Navy’s plan of construction ran on to 1944-45.
DR. EXNER: At that time what did you consider the objective of the armament?
JODL: Since it was not possible to achieve general disarmament, the objective was to establish military parity between Germany and the neighboring countries.
DR. EXNER: In this connection I should like to refer to a document which has already been submitted—the 2-year report of General George Marshall. This has already been submitted as Raeder-19. I have a part of it here before me, a part which I submitted under Exhibit AJ-3, (Document Jodl-56) Page 168. Regarding the problem of rearmament, some sentences seem to hit the nail right on the head.
In the second paragraph on Page 6, or rather the last sentence there, we see:
“The world does not seriously consider the wishes of the weak. Weakness is too great a temptation to the strong, particularly to the brutal who scheme for wealth and power.”
Then on the next page there is another sentence:
“Above all we must, I think, correct the tragic misunderstanding that a security policy is a war policy...”
Can you tell us, please, what the ratio of our military strength to that of foreign countries was at that time?