Posted on 05/25/2010 10:28:33 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
The Soviet leadership had at least two real chances to assassinate Adolf Hitler, but Stalin cancelled the plans over fears that Nazi Germany could strike a separate peace deal with the West, a retired Russian general said on Tuesday.
"A concrete plan to assassinate Hitler in his bunker was developed, but Stalin suddenly cancelled it in 1943 over fears that after Hitler's death his associates would conclude a separate peace treaty with Britain and the United States," Gen. (Ret.) Anatoly Kulikov, the chairman of the Club of Military Commanders, told a conference on military history in Moscow.
"We have documental evidence confirming that these talks took place," he added.
He also said Soviet Union had a second opportunity to kill Hitler in 1944 when the intended assassin managed to infiltrate Hitler's entourage and had a high degree of trust among the German leadership.
"A detailed assassination plan was prepared, but Stalin cancelled it again," the former general said.
According to foreign historians, at least 17 attempts on Hitler's life were planned during 1939-1945. None of them was successful.
Kulikov said the Club of Military Commanders has collected a great number of lesser-known facts about Russia's participation in World War Two and planned to publish them.
I recall reading somewhere that the US and Britain discussed killing Hitler, but came to the conclusion that Hitler was the biggest obstacle Germany had in the war, and it would be more difficult to win if he were eliminated.
But did he make out during Schindler’s List?
A lot of reasons for Stalin to want Hitler kept alive, including that assassinating his fellow dictator might give his own people ideas Stalin wouldn’t want them implementing.
This would be an entirely new historical revelation, if it were true. After the Soviet Union fell, a number of very interesting nuggets were unearthed from Stalin’s archives, such as his personal thanks for the spying efforts of the Rosengbergs to the authorization for Katyn. But I’ve not seen any hints of a plan to assassinate Hitler.
I do think Stalin would think of calling it off, as he always feared that the Germans and western Allies would cut a deal to turn on him. He was that paranoid.
Hmmm...I thought he was killed by machine gun in a movie theater. Who knew?
but came to the conclusion that Hitler was the biggest obstacle Germany had in the war, and it would be more difficult to win if he were eliminated.
There was a history professor at West Point who had the view that the Allies did not beat the Wehrmacht. Hitler beat the Wehrmacht;in fact, he ran it into the ground by overruling his generals.
Many among the Allies thought that due to Hitler’s disastrous micromanaging the war, that he was more valuable alive than dead and therefore did not want him dead or turned into a martyr as long as the war was on.
Col. von Stauffenberg and his colleagues, including Generals von Treskow, Ludwig Beck, Field Marshalls Rommel, von Kluge and Admiral Canaris were motivated by their by their patriotism and conviction that Hitler was leading Germany to complete and total destruction.
“he always feared that the Germans and western Allies would cut a deal to turn on him.”
Stalin allegedly viewed the delay of the normandy invasion as proof of an Anglo/American conspiracy against him. We fought in Africa and the Mediterranean basically to protect British colonial interests. America was looking to go into France much earlier than the Brits.
But nonetheless, i guess it worked out. We got good experience in Africa, Sicily and Italy. And the Bombing effort and eastern front meatgrinder had time to bleed the Germans.
But Stalin was always suspicious that the invasion of the continent was being delayed to free germans to fight him. (even as or convoys flooded supplies into him)
One can say what they want about Hitler mismanaging the war, but he endorse the radical plan that bumped off France in 6 weeks. That was definitely a world changer.
Stalin thought all other leaders were as cynical and paranoid as he was. He was reluctant to ally himself with France and Britain because he feared the Western Allies didn’t really want to fight. Instead they wanted to defeat Germany by spending copious amounts of Russian blood. He had good believe that. So he made his deal with Hitler, thinking that the Germans, British and French would exhaust themselves in a long war, and he could clean up in Europe at little cost. Instead, France fell in six weeks and the Hitler turned on him.
And so, in one those great ironies of history, the British, and then Americans, were able to defeat Germany by spending copious amounts of Russian blood. As paranoid as Stalin was, he probably figured we had all conspired to do this to him all along.
And that was when he let his generals do their jobs. After France Hitler started to be more meddlesome. I would place the start at the Battle of Britain.
That's one theory. Here's a more plausible one. We entered to the war on the Western front to relieve the pressure Hitler was putting on Russia on the Eastern front. This was the result of Roosevelt's socialist, pro-Russian leanings and his desire to keep Russia from total annihilation. If we had held off, the Germans and Russians would have beaten each other into the dust and we could have then swept things up. Instead, we had to fight Germany and ended up with a 50-year Cold War. Remember, Roosevelt deliberately provoked Pearl Harbor. See WORLD WAR II: The Rest of the Story by Richard J. Maybury for more info along this line.
Stalin....what a sissy.
Who knew?
Not really a radical plan, just Schlieffen redux. Schlieffen was the real visionary, but it took Tanks to make his plan work, and he damn near won it all on the Marne in 1914 anyways.
This is probably correct.
Look at what Roosevelt did with Torch. He kept Vichy in power rather then using the Free french.
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