The more conventional view is that the British and French ruling classes were split between those who placed their strategic national and imperial interests in the forefront, and those for whom class interest was paramount.
The former naturally favoured an alliance with the Soviets to contain a revanchist Germany - in effect, a revival of the WWI Triple Entente - while the latter saw fascism as a bulwark against European revolution and wanted to encourage Hitler's ambitions in the East and a war with the Soviets which would weaken both powers. The anti-Soviet camp was haunted by the revolutionary wave provoked by the first Great War, and considered (presciently) that a victorious alliance with the Soviets against German fascism could lead to a repitition. In this sense, they subscribed to the Marxist war-revolution thesis from the opposite side of the class line.
While both wings of the British ruling class had the same overarching national and class interest, Chamberlain was associated with the current of opinion which emphasized the latter and Churchill, of course, the former.
It's hard to see how that Britain would have seen the US as the greater strategic threat to its continental and imperial interests than a rearmed Germany under Hitler. But I haven't read Louw's book. Maybe Michael can elaborate.
On 2010-11-11, at 4:16 PM, Shane Mage wrote:
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> On Nov 11, 2010, at 2:43 PM, michael perelman wrote:
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>> Louw's Pax Americana, tells a different story. Chamberlain saw
>> England as having a greater threat than Germany: United States, which
>> had been for decades angling for decolonization in order to gain more
>> trade access to the colonies, seemed like a greater threat at the
>> time.
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> I doubt he found any British documentation for that thesis. In any event, Chamberlain immediately after declaring "Peace in our Time" ordered a great acceleration in British war preparations with the greatest emphasis on Spitfires--defensive aircraft that would be useless in a war with the US but were vital to the coming war with Germany.
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> Shane Mage
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> "Thunderbolt steers all things." Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64
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