[arethuza]

A bit like the UK plan to assassinate Hitler in 1944 which was cancelled as "he was by then considered to be such a poor strategist that it was believed whoever replaced him would probably do a better job of fighting the Allies"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Foxley

[maxxxxx]

Not doing this was a really bad mistake. I think most of his successors would have tried to find a peace agreement quickly.

[LeifCarrotson]

From the linked article:

> Thornley also argued that Germany was almost defeated and, if Hitler were assassinated, he would become a martyr to some Germans, and possibly give rise to a myth that Germany might have won if Hitler had survived. Since the idea was not only to defeat Germany but to destroy Nazism in general, that would have been a highly undesirable development.

Hitler was an eloquent and persuasive person who effectively represented/exploited Nazi philosophy. There were certainly (secret) critics of his policies and goals, but he was not some kind of sorcerer with a spell over the German population as if, on his assassination, the Axis powers would shake their heads and blink their eyes and say "wait a minute, are we the baddies?"

The same applies even more to modern politics because modern states are not as totalitarian in their removal of critics - they must therefore have stronger supporters. You cannot blame only Donald Trump or Theresa May or Xi Jinping or Angela Merkel or whoever your opponents figurehead may be; they have huge political parties behind them and are backed by huge numbers of constituents who identify with their message. There are surely strong effects from having these leadership positions, but you also need to reach their base with your message.

[maxxxxx]

From what I know by 1944 pretty much everybody around Hitler knew that their cause was lost. I doubt anybody else would have had the power to continue. And yes, he had a spell over the people around him when you read biographies.

Obviously we will never know but I think at the present taking out Kim Jong Un should be worth consideration.

[digi_owl]

Well the plans drawn up seem to match very closely to when the generals themselves tried to get Hitler removed via a bomb.

And even if Hitler was removed, there was the remaining SS to contend with.

[maxxxxx]

"And even if Hitler was removed, there was the remaining SS to contend with. "

They all went home immediately after Hitler's death. By 1944 almost nobody wanted to fight anymore.

[digi_owl]

After Hilter's suicide.

After the bombing, they rounded up some 5000 people, and executed most of them. And others were forced to take their own like, like Rommel.

[arethuza]

By that point the Allies (actually originally just Roosevelt, with the others following along) had insisted on unconditional surrender:

"those Germans — and particularly those German generals — who might have been ready to throw Hitler over, and were able to do so, were discouraged from making the attempt by their inability to extract from the Allies any sort of assurance that such action would improve the treatment meted out to their country."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconditional_surrender