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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?

#31

Post by flenserboy »

itronitron wrote: post #10
gsich wrote: post #4

To answer the question: it'a a retroactive downplay of the USSR after and during the cold war.

So, USSR took a break from killing it's own people to killing Germans instead?

Not really. They pretty much stayed on course with both programs throughout the war — and this was true for those in the military just as much as civilians. The policy of shooting anyone who hinted at retreat, combined with treating Soviet POWs as traitors (which encouraged soldiers to fight to the literal death), contributed to both tallies.

Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?

#32

Post by kjs3 »

pmoriarty wrote: post #6

That 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.…

tl;dr: If you want to make a country look bad, it's easy to find a small number of morons to put on youtube and imply it's a representative sample.

Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?

#34

Post by yakshaving_jgt »

daleharvey wrote: post #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

And if you were Russian you would know that it was the Soviets that defeated the Nazis and won the war.

And if you were Polish you would know that the Soviets were bad for invading originally, and the English were also pretty bad through their initial inactivity. In fact if you look at the death toll by nation, one could argue that the UK barely went to war at all. The UK lost what, 400,000 people? Compared with Poland's 5,000,000? And of course a significant portion of the pilots in the Battle of Britain were Polish, and the Enigma machine was cracked by three Polish mathematicians eight years prior to Alan Turing pushing the work over the line (and subsequently taking all the credit for it, at least in the eyes of the British).

Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?

#35

Post by GenerocUsername »

bawolff wrote: post #16
booleanbetrayal wrote: post #5

Because the US emerged with supreme reserve currency status, supported by its reconstruction approach? To the victor go the spoils.

Arguably, the USSR also got lots of the spoils and emerged a super power.

And 100 years from now, China will have won WW2 with their subtle but very important sideline involvments

Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?

#36

Post by twelve40 »

anticristi wrote: post #2

I 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.

I agree, I really liked history and the humanities back in school but after traveling and living in different countries I found it extremely repulsive how the humanities are basically getting twisted to fit the local agenda everywhere. So I stuck with STEM and really happy I don't have to deal with this BS at least in my professional life.

Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?

#37

Post by prestigious »

gsich wrote: post #4

To answer the question: it'a a retroactive downplay of the USSR after and during the cold war.

Well the even parts of Europe where USSR won those countries lost. Only Europe “won” by US/Britain can be considered free/independent. Those who were on the USSR side were hardly better off under USSR than Nazi Germany.

Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?

#39

Post by Gibbon1 »

rkk3 wrote: post #17

The Headline misses the second half of the question, "because the USSR killed 75% of German Soldiers in WW2". KIA/Casualties are just one metric. You would expect the long war of attrition and many Pyrrhic victories on the Eastern front to have a high cost of human life, that doesn't necessarily equate to strategic impact. The saying is... Churchill gave the time, Roosevelt gave the money and Stalin gave the Blood.

War ended with 5 million pissed off Russian Potato farmers riding into Berlin on GM trucks.

Soviet Casualties were probably 10% per month for 44 months.

British and American/Common Wealth causalities were not much better but only over about 9 months.

Getting shot sucks no matter what uniform you were wearing.

Re: Why do people think that the US won WW2 in Europe?

#40

Post by tompazourek »

pmoriarty wrote: post #6

That 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.…

I thought of this one from the Friends sitcom. Feels a bit more real than asking actual people, even though it's been written by comedy writers. https://youtu.be/1aX12xGM7GQ
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