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by aeontech 2921 days ago
Patton was a general, and it was his job to consider and prepare for the worst, of course. That doesn't mean he had any magical insight into the Soviet plans before the war.

At the end of the war, Soviets were in Berlin. If they were bent on continental domination, they could've fairly easily taken the rest of the exhausted Europe. Instead, luckily, the Allies managed to work out a peace agreement that held until the shockingly peaceful dissolution of the USSR, despite several close calls.
2 comments
Turing_Machine 2921 days ago
> If they were bent on continental domination, they could've fairly easily taken the rest of the exhausted Europe.

Hmm... and what do you imagine the Americans would have been doing while this was going on, given that they still had a gigantic and completely undamaged industrial economy (the only one left in the world, at that stage), nuclear weapons, and truly massive amounts of troops and equipment that would have been available for redeployment from the Pacific after Japan's surrender?

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aeontech 2921 days ago
Well, yeah. Hence peace talks, surely. Unlike a certain Hitler who decides to open a war on multiple fronts at once. I was arguing against the notion that “if it wasn’t for Germany, Soviets would have conquered Europe.”
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ropeadopepope 2921 days ago
> they could've fairly easily taken the rest of the exhausted Europe.

From Patton's journal, taken from The Patton Papers, 1940–1945, edited by Martin Blumenson:

> 18 May

> In my opinion, the American Army as it now exists could beat the Russians with the greatest of ease, because while the Russians have good infantry, they are lacking in artillery, air, tanks, and in the knowledge of the use of the combined arms’ whereas we excel in all three of these. If it should be necessary to fight the Russians, the sooner we do it the better.

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aeontech 2921 days ago
Perfectly reasonable statement in his position, but I don’t see how it translates to “we were fighting the wrong enemy all along.”
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ropeadopepope 2921 days ago
Patton said, word for word, "We defeated the wrong enemy" when he was relieved of his command. Which is trivial to find had you spent 10 seconds in google.
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