[lbo-talk] Query: U.S. military expenditures compared to Japan and German pre Pearl Harbor

Gar Lipow the.typo.boy at gmail.com
Tue Apr 12 18:23:21 PDT 2005


Doing some research, and need to get an idea of what U.S. military expenditures were in the ten years preceding WWII compared to Japan and Germany.

What I'm trying to figure out is: was the U.S. as the standard story goes a weak military power prior to Pearl Harbor? Or was it a strong military power who was unprepared for this particular war? It occurs to me that military strength aimed at bullying poor nations for resources, cheap labor and markets - especially in Latin America -- might have been less th an perfectly useful against Nazi Germany. (No reason why both can't be true of course; you don't need as much military power to prop up a favorite dictator in Central America, as to stand up to Nazi Germany; it is not just a question of quality; the quantity of power required may be less.) Anyway, I'd just like to get a look at the statistics and see what they say. Is there a book someone would reccomend? Or some standard on-line statistical sources that would give military expenditures and balance of forces info that far back?

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