The opinion in France reversed after reconstruction. Immediately after V-E, there was a strong opinion that the Soviets did the most to win the war: https://www.france24.com/en/20190601-who-won-wwii-russias-ro...
What about lend-lease?
Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?
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Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?
#22To answer the question: it'a a retroactive downplay of the USSR after and during the cold war.
You're getting downvoted by people who don't know shit / never set foot in a Western europe classroom.
This is documented : the role of the USSR in WWII victory was erased from public school programs and constantly downplayed in media.
There are numerous traces of the controversies that arose around this throughout the decades.
Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?
#23I also travel a lot. Especially hard lately.
Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?
#24That reminds me of this video[1], where Americans are asked questions you'd think they'd easily be able to answer. Such as... Q: Who won the Vietnam war? A: We did. Wait, were we even in the Vietnam war? Q: How many sides does a triangle have? A: Damn. Four. A: There's no sides... One? Q: How many World Wars have there been? A: Three. Q: What are Hiroshima and Nagasaki known for? A: Judo-wrestling? [1] - https://www.…
You can’t really trust these videos, because you could do this in any country. Interview 100 people and choose the dumbest 5 and selectively air those clips... It’s fun entertainment, but not much more.
Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?
#25Because the US emerged with supreme reserve currency status, supported by its reconstruction approach? To the victor go the spoils.
History is written by the victors.
Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?
#26> Why do americans think that the US won WW2 in Europe?
If you were British you would know the real truth from the 24/7 repeats of WW2 documentaries that Churchill won WW2
Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?
#27Isn't the simple answer just Cold War propaganda, especially within education systems in the west? There was a strong incentive to minimize the USSR's accomplishments and sacrifices in the west. Even if for some reason you think that the Soviets didn't have as much impact as people used to believe, it just means their propaganda was more effective earlier on. Either way, I think that's the easiest way to explain the change.
Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?
#28I got to learn "the other side" of the story, after meeting a few people from nations marketed as our "arch enemies". I became extremely disappointed that history is never a recollection of facts, rather a narrative to cater to national propaganda.
History, when I studied it in college, was a collection of opinions, claims of varying veracity, evidence of different strengths, lots of missing information, and attempts to find meaning in it all, usually from some current perspective. History professors these days are more often accused of postmodernism than narrative and more often of Marxism than national propaganda. Those electives in college are supposed to expose people to things like that.
There is something very unlike that taught before college in the US that's more about memorizing than understanding. It's a similar situation to how the math that people have phobias about doesn't resemble undergrad math major math at all.
Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?
#29Because propaganda works and Hollywood has been America's biggest cultural export?
Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?
#30In Brazil, a country heavily influenced by US culture, people will carefully explain you how the US won the Vietnam war.
People in the US don't even say that..... thats the primary one considered a loss.
In the US people don't discuss that. The idea is that if nobody remembers, they won't know that the war was lost.