War

Matthew Petti | 10.24.2024 10:30 AM

There's another controversy about whether former President Donald Trump praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in private. In a New York Times interview published Tuesday, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelley claimed that Trump said, "Hitler did some good things." The same day, The Atlantic reported that Trump said, "I need the kind of generals that Hitler had," citing anonymous sources. Trump's campaign has denied both reports. These allegations, which have come up before, fit a liberal argument that Trump is a dangerous would-be dictator in the making.

Whether or not the specific reports are true, the discussion often misses an important historical fact. A large part of the Nazi political program was about revenge for losing a past war. Germany and its allies not only turned their guns on their own people, but focused heavily on military glory through conquest. Anyone concerned with the danger of fascism today has to understand the role that militarism played back then.

Hitler was not able to seize control simply because he was skilled at riling up mobs. The Nazi movement took root in soil poisoned by the economic collapse and political chaos caused by losing World War I. Most people understand that Hitler overthrew the weak and chaotic Weimar Republic, but many do not know how that chaos was directly related to the war.

World War I ended for Germany in 1918 with a revolution and counterrevolution. After it became clear that the war was hopeless, the country suffered a mutiny by sailors who didn't want to fight anymore, which turned into a nationwide uprising, forcing the German emperor to step down. As the new German republic tried to hash out peace terms, the........

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