Unconditional Surrender.

This is coolbert:

During World War Two [WW2], the German people fought until the end and followed Hitler down a road to destruction. And many commentators have offered reasoning as to why this was. It seems that when faced with the ultimatum of unconditional surrender, the German people felt they had no recourse but to fight to the end, regardless of the consequences.

And it is true, the Germans did not have an option other than unconditional surrender. The Big Three Powers [Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the U.S.], all agreed early on that no option other than unconditional surrender would be offered to the Axis forces.

And there was sound reasoning for this line of thinking. It was felt, especially by Churchill and Roosevelt, that at the end of the war, a total restructuring of the German, Italian, and Japanese societies was required to ensure a lasting peace. The Axis powers were felt to be so irredeemable that this was the only action that would be worthy of the sacrifice made to defeat Germany, Italy, and Japan. The Soviets under Stalin had concerns about the invasion and destruction of their own country as a primary motivating factor in insisting upon unconditional surrender, but nonetheless, all Three Big Powers did agree upon this course of action. Unconditional surrender and nothing else!!

Of the leaders of the Big Three Powers, Stalin in particular was most adamant about not offering terms to the Germans, "no negotiations under any circumstances" was the phrase Stalin was fond of. And Stalin WAS very suspicious of the western powers [Great Britain and the U.S.] in this regard. It is known that all during the war, Stalin was constantly prodding his secret agents that he had among the western powers to be constantly on the lookout for any evidence that the western powers were going behind his back and negotiating with Germany. Or even contemplating to do so.

And all throughout the war, the western powers WERE true to their word and did not attempt any sort of negotiations with Germany, or did even contemplate doing so. Roosevelt in particular was extremely sensitive to assuaging the fears of Stalin, going to sometimes ridiculous ends to make sure that Stalin's "sensitivity" regarding unconditional surrender was always mollified.

And there is a tremendous irony to all this.

Stalin, while constantly lecturing the western powers as to the virtues of unconditional surrender, was HIMSELF NEGOTIATING WITH HITLER, and doing so behind the back of the western powers. It seems that in the summer of 1943 [presumably after Kursk], Ribbentrop and Molotov, the Foreign Ministers of Germany and the Soviet Union respectively, DID meet to discuss a possible negotiated settlement between the Germans and the Soviets. This meeting was held on German occupied Soviet territory, and held supposedly in secret.

But the allied western powers did know about the meeting. This was learned from decrypted radio intercepts of German Enigma traffic. While keeping good faith themselves and having to listen to constant lectures from Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt knew that Stalin WAS thinking about and was considering negotiations with Germany, and had began initial parley on the subject!! It would be interesting to know what the reactions of Churchill and Roosevelt were to this intelligence. Conventional histories of WW2 do not deal with this at all.

The meeting between the Ribbentrop and Molotov came to nothing, but nonetheless, it was held. Something that Stalin would not countenance in his western allies.

This is the type of incident that you would have expected from Stalin. A scheming, duplicitous, two-faced bastard if there ever was one!!

coolbert.