[imbokodo]

> The German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact - the green light for Hitler's invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II

How about the earlier Munich Pact where France and England handed Czechoslovakia over to Hitler? In my eyes, that was the "green light" for Hitler's imperial ambitions.

Speaking of the Munich Pact - Stalin wanted to move Soviet troops through Poland to defend Czechoslovakia, but Poland refused passage. So if you're going to say the Ribbentrop Pact green lighted the invasion of Poland, you could say Poland green lighted the invasion of Czechoslovakia, which ultimately led to its own invasion.

The Soviet Union wanted self-defense pacts with England, which were not given. The Soviet Union had a very weak one with France in 1935, which former UK PM David Lloyd George said justified Hitler's Rhineland militarization.

Any how - Japan and the USSR staying at peace had an effect on WWII. From the time of the Pacific lend-lease, Russian flagged ships sailed from Vladivostok to Seattle and back, carrying needed supplies, unmolested by German submarines.

The Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact was signed two months before Operation Barbarossa. Stalin went to the train station to see Foreign Minister Matsuoka off, which is something he never did. Obviously he saw it as crucial. So too did the Japanese probably, as it saw the western powers encircling it in 1941.

[sbmthakur]

> Poland green lighted the invasion of Czechoslovakia, which ultimately led to its own invasion.

I think that's a no-brainer considering that Poles helped themselves to annex parts of Czechoslovakia.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish–Czechoslovak_border_c...

[macspoofing]

>So if you're going to say the Ribbentrop Pact green lighted the invasion of Poland, you could say Poland green lighted the invasion of Czechoslovakia, which ultimately led to its own invasion.

Wow. That's one interesting interpretation of history.

Soviet Union presented an existential threat to Poland, a country that only gained independence from Russia (amongst others) post-WW1 and fought off an Bolshevik invasion a few years after. And with our 20/20 historical hindsight, it is only a few years later that the Soviet Union annexed the eastern half of Poland (which lead to mass murder of civilians and of course the Katyn massacre), and followed by 50 years as a Soviet vassal state ... but yeah, if only Poland had trusted Stalin's good-will.

Honestly ...

[sbmthakur]

Poles(at that time) had territorial ambitions wrt Czechoslovakia. So it isn't a surprise.

[nickik]

It a total overstatment to say that 'The Soviet Union wanted self-defense pacts with England'.

The new Stalin biography by Steven Kotkin goes into great detail about all these negotiation. The way you frame it that the SU 'was not given'that is not how diplomacy works.

The SU might accept a deal with Britain IF they agree to literally everything the SU demanded.

But in reality it was a very clear strategy by Stalin to avoid a 'Imperialist-Capitalist Block' and he had this strategy as early as 1922.

At the same time yoir interpretation of Japan as 'getting encircled' is a very benefical interpretation. The western powers stopped selling them oil because they were a relentlessly agressive empire that attacked China and was talking about far greater things. Not selling an empire like that the resources to expand is not the same as 'encircling them'.

P.S. There were almost no German subs in the pacific, so it not suprising that no ships were attacked there.

[gandhium]

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact "green lighted" the invasion of Poland and invasion of Baltic states.

It's all was described in secret addendum to that pact - two biggest socialist countries decided to split Eastern Europe and agreed on which countries to gobble.