This Pat Buchanan column (flagged by Dave in comments below) reminds me of something I read recently in Liberation, William Hitchock’s account of the end of World War two in Europe and the period that immediately followed. He quotes several accounts to the effect that there was real concern amongst the US authorities that many GIs in the American zone were becoming influenced by the self-exculpating accounts of the war they heard from German civilians: we never wanted it, it was forced on us, we should all be in it together against the Russians and so on. It makes me wonder how much of this got back to the US with the returning soldiers and from there into American rightwing politics.
Buchanan’s Hitler is a remarkable fellow with a knack for ambling along minding his own business when entire countries fall into his lap out of the sky. Then everyone, jealous of his luck, gangs up on the poor chap…
David Hoggan and Harry Elmer Barnes got there first.
Posted by: Fellow Traveller | September 06, 2009 at 02:49 PM
I'd not heard the name Murray Rothbard before clicking on the second link: I could not have been less surprised, looking him up on Wikipedia, to see him wearing a bow-tie.
Posted by: ejh | September 06, 2009 at 07:32 PM
Some of Rothbard's stuff's pretty good like this take on the Ayn rand cult:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard23.html
Posted by: jamie | September 06, 2009 at 08:24 PM