[Regulator]

Know what?

I knew American citizens who spent the war in Greece terrified to admit they were American because you know what would have happened.

Germany was given a second chance by the U.S. and Britain and no reparations were exacted because of Versailles and its role in starting the second war.

Considering what the Germans did to the rest of Europe and its populace, they can damn well work for 1000 years in reparation. To this day they’re still mad they didn’t win.

[wolf78]

Germany was given a second chance by the U.S. and Britain and no reparations were exacted because of Versailles and its role in starting the second war.

But their modern success is due in no small part to the enlightened attitude of the Americans who used to run the United States - and who not only stopped German aggression but reconstructed Europe afterwards and shaped what would become the European Economic Community.

You should read up on your 20th century history. Of course there were reparations after the war. Especially the French and the Russians literally took everything they could get their hands on, from machines to whole factories. The patents and intellectual property Germany lost to the United States were worth ten times what Germany got in Marshall Fund money.

Also - other than e.g. the UK - Germany got that money as a loan, which it repaid. The idea that the US rebuilt Germany is a nice fairy tale. That doesn't mean that Germany didn't get something very, very valuable: Access to western markets and economic cooperation. That's the genius of the Marshall plan: Trade is good for peace (-> interdependence / prosperity).