HELL - BENT FOR WAR

HELL - BENT FOR WAR
by Hugh S. Johnson

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Text extracted from opening pages of book: CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE 7 I WHAT GOES ON HERE? .... 15 II Is BRITAIN FIGHTING OUR WAR? . 35 III MACHINES? BLOOD? OR BOTH? AND WHY? 50 IV To RECONSTRUCT THE WORLD? ... 72 V CAN WE LIVE IN THE SAME WORLD WITH HITLER? 91 VI WHAT ARE WE TO FIGHT FOR UNION Now? 107 VII O. K., WISE GUY. WHAT BETTER COURSE THAN OURS? .... 124 PREFACE THE LEASE-LEND BILL has passed. It passed in the best tradition of free American debate. It had smash ing majorities, as did also the bill for appropriations to implement it. That decision must be accepted by all who opposed it, as this writer did not; by all who thought it ought to be modified, as this writer did. All must loyally support it. But let us not forget one thing. It was not ad vanced as a measure either to get us into war or to put us into a position to accept responsibility to recon struct the world after the war. On the contrary, it was advanced as a measure to keep the war away from our shores by aiding those who, for their own reasons, are resisting its spread westward and for that alone. That, I think, is how most people understood and supported it. Now it is being assumed, and with a good deal of reason, that it really involves us in the war or makes such involvement inevitable. It has further been announced that its purpose was, in part, to give us a voice in the & quot; reconstruction of the world& quot; which 7 8 HELL-BENT FOR WAR presupposes a reconquest of Europe. Mr. Roosevelt has said so and Mr. Churchill has confirmed him. No such thing as that has been decided by popular mandate after full and free debate. There is still an opportunity and, I think, a duty to debate that and the reasons advanced to support that. I fully realize that & quot; it is later than you think.& quot; I know how viciously this book and its author will be attacked. I know from recent experiences and also from the wisdom of our great sages. It was discussed in a recent column of mine: & quot; In the gentle debate on getting into war, Dr. L. M. Birkhead said of the America First Committee whether its members know it or not and whether they like it or not [ it] is a Nazi Front ... a Nazi transmission belt/ with an - intimation that it is also anti-Semitic. Columnist John Flynn resented that as a smear/ Now the editorial page of the New York Herald Tribune says, 4 Herr Hitler s approving citation by name ... of General Robert E. Wood . . . lends a certain added point to the brisk interchange . . . here is Adolf Hitler himself, head Nazi of them all, using their [ America First s] acting chair man s name for exactly that purpose. The word PREFACE purpose here refers to feeding the American people the vicious arguments of Adolf Hitler/ The editorial continues in part they [ members of America First] should, in short, do something positive to prevent their being used in that way/ & quot; What Hitler said was: The fact that the American General Wood before the investigating committee of the American Senate testified that, as early as 1936, Churchill told him Germany was getting too strong again and must be de stroyed in a new war, established firmly in his tory the real responsibility for present develop ments/ & quot; The fact is, of course, that Allied indiffer ence and the vast offensive German rearmament beginning not in 1936 but in 1933 and not what Churchill told Wood, or any inference there from, is responsible for present developments/ But as for Wood, quoting Churchill, being in any sense a transmission belt for Nazi argument* the mere assertion of such a thing shows how far hysteria has blacked out fairness in this country. & quot; Churchill didn t tell Wood any such opinion in confidence. In the most remarkably prophetic speeches ever made in Parliament, from Novem ber 1932 to the beginning of this war, many of 10 HELL-BENT FOR WAR them published in his book While England Slept, he foretold exactly what has happened and urged England to all-out armament

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