SEVEN COMMON MYTHS ABOUT THE THIRD WORLD WAR
1.) IT WASN'T COMPLETELY ABOUT BERLIN
Yes, we all learned in school about the planes getting shot down over Tempelhof. But it's not like the Russian Airforce randomly decide that the summer of 1948 was a good time for a war!
The previous few years formed what's often called the 'Peace of Potsdam' or 'The Fake Peace.' During this time, the USSR (not Russia) jockeyed with her previous allies for influence in Eastern Europe, and in East Asia. If you want to understand World War Three, you need to know about more than just the airlift!
2.) NO, IT ISN'T STILL ONGOING
People like to claim that the fact that the People's Republic of China (to seperate it from the then seperate Taiwan government) has never formally made peace with the Japan means that the war never actually ended. HOWEVER, while the two armies do enjoy staring angrily at each other across the Korea Straits, neither was officially a belligerant in the Soviet-American war, Japan not existing as an independent country and Mao just using the distraction to claim the rest of the Korean peninsula without a fight.
3.) IT WAS NEVER CHURCHILL'S WAR
Although at the time, and for along time afterwards, the Soviet Union and anti-War politicians in the West liked to think that they had been duped into another World War by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and a vast conspiracy network he had formed on a tour of the Western Allies post-war, the fact is no evidence has has ever come to light to substantiate the claims. The origin of this theory comes out of Operation Unthinkable, possible war plans the British came up with in the event of war in 1945. By the time war broke out however, Churchill had been out of power for 3 years and the ideas - it is a vast overestimation to call Unthinkable a final war plan - were thrown out by the next government, and Britain's involvement in the land war didn't not warrant the amount of influence that Stalin thought it had. If this been known to the Marshal or Soviet High Command it is likely that they would have chosen a more sensible target than Kent for their first atomic strike.
4.) It wasn't Patton's fault
George S. Patton usually gets painted as one of the villains of the piece, a vainglorious blowhard whose mad dash into East Germany sparked off a destructive conflict that rivalled the one just finished. A pervasive myth but one that omits certain facts, the main one being Patton was simply following the chain of command and the orders of EUCOM. The disastrous first push into Eastern Germany that led to the Lepzig massacre needed a scapegoat, as did the mass death that followed and it was easiest to blame the media friendly Patton. Especially helpful was the fact he died at the front, killed in a random strafing attack. The Patton myth still exists to this day, despite modern historians attempts to debunk it, even Patton's private paper show his deep unease with the orders he was given. This looks to be one myth that simply refuses to d
5) WE WERE ONLY SAVED BY NAZIS
This myth is heralded by the far left and the neo-Nazis alike, as well as various pop culture takes. It is true that Von Braun's team and the A1 nuclear rocket was of vital strategic importance in preventing the first Soviet advance - but originally that was meant solely as a way of stopping the Red Army at the Franco-Belgian coast, which would have resulted in a 'stalemate' (realistically, a Soviet strategic victory). The French forces holding on for as long as they did meant the A1 was able to force the Soviets to leave part of continental Europe unoccupied. And that would still have led to another Soviet-supporting stalemate if other fronts, devoid of the 'wonder weapon', had all ended in Soviet victory.
1.) IT WASN'T COMPLETELY ABOUT BERLIN
Yes, we all learned in school about the planes getting shot down over Tempelhof. But it's not like the Russian Airforce randomly decide that the summer of 1948 was a good time for a war!
The previous few years formed what's often called the 'Peace of Potsdam' or 'The Fake Peace.' During this time, the USSR (not Russia) jockeyed with her previous allies for influence in Eastern Europe, and in East Asia. If you want to understand World War Three, you need to know about more than just the airlift!
2.) NO, IT ISN'T STILL ONGOING
People like to claim that the fact that the People's Republic of China (to seperate it from the then seperate Taiwan government) has never formally made peace with the Japan means that the war never actually ended. HOWEVER, while the two armies do enjoy staring angrily at each other across the Korea Straits, neither was officially a belligerant in the Soviet-American war, Japan not existing as an independent country and Mao just using the distraction to claim the rest of the Korean peninsula without a fight.
3.) IT WAS NEVER CHURCHILL'S WAR
Although at the time, and for along time afterwards, the Soviet Union and anti-War politicians in the West liked to think that they had been duped into another World War by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and a vast conspiracy network he had formed on a tour of the Western Allies post-war, the fact is no evidence has has ever come to light to substantiate the claims. The origin of this theory comes out of Operation Unthinkable, possible war plans the British came up with in the event of war in 1945. By the time war broke out however, Churchill had been out of power for 3 years and the ideas - it is a vast overestimation to call Unthinkable a final war plan - were thrown out by the next government, and Britain's involvement in the land war didn't not warrant the amount of influence that Stalin thought it had. If this been known to the Marshal or Soviet High Command it is likely that they would have chosen a more sensible target than Kent for their first atomic strike.
4.) It wasn't Patton's fault
George S. Patton usually gets painted as one of the villains of the piece, a vainglorious blowhard whose mad dash into East Germany sparked off a destructive conflict that rivalled the one just finished. A pervasive myth but one that omits certain facts, the main one being Patton was simply following the chain of command and the orders of EUCOM. The disastrous first push into Eastern Germany that led to the Lepzig massacre needed a scapegoat, as did the mass death that followed and it was easiest to blame the media friendly Patton. Especially helpful was the fact he died at the front, killed in a random strafing attack. The Patton myth still exists to this day, despite modern historians attempts to debunk it, even Patton's private paper show his deep unease with the orders he was given. This looks to be one myth that simply refuses to d
5) WE WERE ONLY SAVED BY NAZIS
This myth is heralded by the far left and the neo-Nazis alike, as well as various pop culture takes. It is true that Von Braun's team and the A1 nuclear rocket was of vital strategic importance in preventing the first Soviet advance - but originally that was meant solely as a way of stopping the Red Army at the Franco-Belgian coast, which would have resulted in a 'stalemate' (realistically, a Soviet strategic victory). The French forces holding on for as long as they did meant the A1 was able to force the Soviets to leave part of continental Europe unoccupied. And that would still have led to another Soviet-supporting stalemate if other fronts, devoid of the 'wonder weapon', had all ended in Soviet victory.