Henry Morgenthau was a US politician who proposed a plan to essentially neutralize Germany after WW2 - split it up in several smaller states, and deindustrialize it to prevent any future rearmament. This plan was rejected though, along with Soviet attempts to turn Germany into a neutral (and demilitarized) buffer state between them and the Western Allies, so we eventually got the Federal Republic of Germany, complete with the Wehrmacht being essentially reactivated and significant propaganda effort being put into convincing people that they really weren’t that bad and it was only the SS who did all the war crimes. All in the name of anti-communism.
Henry Morgenthau was a US politician who proposed a plan to essentially neutralize Germany after WW2 - split it up in several smaller states, and deindustrialize it to prevent any future rearmament. This plan was rejected though, along with Soviet attempts to turn Germany into a neutral (and demilitarized) buffer state between them and the Western Allies, so we eventually got the Federal Republic of Germany, complete with the Wehrmacht being essentially reactivated and significant propaganda effort being put into convincing people that they really weren’t that bad and it was only the SS who did all the war crimes. All in the name of anti-communism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgenthau_Plan
It’s so cool that the whole back half of the 20th just absolutely could have been avoided
I mean I know itcan’t, but lots of smart people knew exactly what was gonna happen and why.