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In Brazil, a country heavily influenced by US culture, people will carefully explain you how the US won the Vietnam war.
In the sense that communism stopped spreading to new countries, perhaps it was a win of sorts.
South Vietnam falling not leading to a cascade of Communism just proved that not only was the war a loss, but the key premise for fighting it in the first place was false.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why delaying? USSR has the most powerful army in 1939. USSR could have occupied Ploesti oil fields in 1940 that would effectively stop the war. Creating a common border with your enemy is not a very effective way to "delay" from my point of view.
This is really absurd. By 1939 the Red Army was massively lacking in tanks, artillery, air power, and logistics. They could not have sustained an expeditionary offensive against Germamy, even in Romania. And while Ploesti had significant oil production, by 1939 Germany had alternatives and a lower oil consumption, so this would not have stalled the offensive.
> 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
Not sure why that would be the case. A lot of Brits understand that while Britain survived WW2 it was the US that came out strong and helped to end WW2 compared to any other nation on earth (except Soviet Union) with not only technology dominance but also economic and in many ways cultural. This also has a personal bias as I want the US to be remembered and not the UK who I think has done so much damage around the wo…
Some British people will obviously know more, but the vast majority will still believe, as the saying goes, "2 world wars and one world cup"
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.
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.
Casualties are a metric, but not the be all end of war. Indeed the USSR was victorious despite having more deaths then every other participant put together... Obviously there are other things that matter.
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.
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.
When you account for PoWs, the numbers are more equitable. Approximately 4 and 1 million German fatalities occurred on the eastern and western fronts respectively. The USSR took a further 3m PoWs, while the US, UK, and France captured 7.6m between them according to Overmans. Along similar lines, troop distributions again reinforce that both fronts were critically important to Germany. I'm sure many people will be hap…
Yes they were very different fronts... modern estimates put the USSR loosing upwards of 25% of its entire population during WW2.
In Brazil, a country heavily influenced by US culture, people will carefully explain you how the US won the Vietnam war.