Fwd: Truth is the First Casualty of War

[Brad De Long]

>glb answers:
>
>France's Daladier sent about 100 bombers and 50,000 "volunteers" to 
>Finland (England agreed to send 50 bombers) to be used against the 
>Soviets. This was in early 1940 as German troops were massing on 
>their border with France. Strange actions for governments that had 
>*declared* *war* on Nazi Germany.

But to provide support to Finland in the winter of 1939-1940 was not 
at all inconsistent with waging war against Nazi Germany.

Recall that back at the start of 1940 Stalinist Russia was Hitler's 
*ally*--using its control over local CPs in the West to try to 
undermine the British and French war efforts, supplying Hitler with 
immense amounts of raw materials very cheap, and trying to conquer 
small nations: eastern Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland.

Thus Finland's struggle to keep from being overrun by Stalin seemed 
then to be the *same* struggle as the struggle to reverse the joint 
Nazi-Stalinist conquest of Poland. Why not aid Finland in its fight 
against the Nazi ally--especially when aiding Finland would also cut 
off some of Germany's key iron ore supplies?

Brad DeLong