The Ludwig von Mises Institute

Mises Academy

The Interwar The Interwar YearsYears

  

A A HHISTORY ISTORY BBETWEEN THE ETWEEN THE

WWARSARS  

A Mises Academy CourseA Mises Academy Course

Jan./Feb. 2014.

RoadmapRoadmap

Roadmap

• Hitler’s Germany• Architecture, Propaganda, Statism• the Spanish Civil War• Mises and the Austrians After Vienna• The European Allies• The Far East• Europe and the Outbreak of War• The Americans and the War

Charles G. Dawes--not just a an international banker and VP to Silent Cal, but a composer!

Melody in A major, 1912, words added by Carl Sigman in 1951: “It’s All in the Game”

Owen Young, Time man of the year,1930

In negotiating the Young Plan in 1929, Young was accompanied by J. P. Morgan, Jr., and Morgan partner Thomas Lamont

Fun Facts Page!

HitlerHitler’’s s

GermanyGermany

The National Socialist “Renewal”• Against DecadenceAgainst Decadence

• For a High-Tech FutureFor a High-Tech Future

• Jeffrey Herff: “Reactionary Jeffrey Herff: “Reactionary Modernism”Modernism”

• But But notnot conservative values conservative values

Against the TreatyAgainst the Treaty

• Germay withdraws from the League, 1935

• Rearmament 1934• Saarland Plebiscite 1935• Franco-Soviet Pact, 1935• Remilitarization of the

Rhineland 1936• Anschluss: Germany

incorporates Austria• Munich: Sudetenland ceded

to Germany 1938• Invasion of Czechoslovakia,

1939

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“Freeing” Saarbrücken, 1935

Celebrating Anschluss, Ringstrasse, Vienna

HitlerHitler’’s Planss PlansLebensraum idea (“space for living”)?

From 1924 onward, talk about complex plans for living space in the East.

• Four Year Plan, 1936 Germany must be ready for war in four years.

• A. J. P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War (1961)Hitler was a normal opportunist. He had no real longrange plans; the war

was a mistake on everyone’s part.

• Burton H. Klein, Germany’s Economic Preparations for War (1959)

Germany was not in any sense economically mobilized for a long war in 1939. Only in 1942 did a “Total War” economy take shape.

• Edward N. Peterson. The Limits of Hitler’s Power (1969)Hitler was a “weak” dictator who encouraged a kind of bureaucratic

and policy survival of the fittest.

• Sebastian Haffner, The Meaning of Hitler (1978)Hitler was “good against weak teams” but not against strong ones.

Against the Jews

Architecture, Architecture, Propaganda, Propaganda,

StatismStatism

and from his recommendations on the topic of comparative statism in the thirties, especially John T. Flynn, The Road Ahead

and Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy, and Hitler's Germany

Important: David Gordon, “What You Must Read About the Great Depression”http://mises.org/daily/3349/What-You-Must-Read-About-the-Great-Depression

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The Spanish Civil War

notes on the pre-history to the Spanish Civil War

1923--With support of Alfonso XIII, General Primo de Rivera staged a coup and became dictator

Primo was a statist who built highways, dams, and other public works projects.

In many ways, he nationalized the economy and instituted wide-ranging protection.

Huge public loans and currency expansion financed all kinds of “internal improvements.”

The system looked much like Mussolini’s corporatism.Primo died in 1930, depression, inflation, dissatisfaction,

and some revolt led to Alfonso suspending monarchy in 1931.

From 31 to 36, the “Spanish Republic” swung from right to left governments, all statist. The left eventually focused on limiting the power of the Church.

The Civil War, 36 to 39• Popular Front government, 1936• The generals revolt, with support of Church• Franco directs the Nationalists against the

government, the Republicans, or “Loyalists”

• Brutal fighting and outrages on both sides.• Internationalization of the war:--Entry of the Soviets on the PF side--Entry of Germans (planes) and Italians (men) on the Nationalist side.--“International Brigades” (actually volunteers on both sides)--Mexico also supported the Loyalists, Portugal the Nationalists. France was pro-Republic, but officially neutral.

Condor Legion

CostsCosts• About 500,000 dead• About 450,000 fled the country• About 150,000 civilians executed during war and aftermath by the Nationalists

• Between 38 and 50 thousand civilians excecuted during the war by the Loyalists.

Mises and the Austrians After Vienna

• Hayek to London School of Economics in 1931.• To avoid the Nazi influence in his Austrian homeland, in

1934 Mises left for Geneva, where he was a professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies. 1940 to US.

• Wilhelm Röpke left Marburg for Istanbul in 1933.• Gottfried Haberler moved to the US in 1936, Harvard U.• Fritz Machlup to US permanently by 1934.• Eric Voegelin fled Vienna in 1938, to LSU eventually.• Oskar Morgenstern left Vienna in 1938.

And many others... an intellectual emigration.

The European

Allies• Controlled Markets and a Zero-Sum

Game

• Appeasement: Chamberlain, Daladier, etc.

• Depression, Debts, Empire

The Far East

World War II Starts Early for Japan and China

1937--Marco Polo Bridge Incident leads to Japanese invasion of China.Dec. 1937--"Rape of Nanjing"--350,009 Chinese killed, 100,000 women raped.Dec. 1937--Japan sinks the USS Panay and three Standard Oil Tankers off of Nanjing.Nov 1938--Japan captures Canton.

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Japan Japan in in

China, China, 19411941

Soviet-Japanese Border conflict, 1939

• from the Nomonhan Incident, May 39

• to Khalkhin Gol, Aug. 39

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Europe Europe

and the Outbreak of and the Outbreak of WarWar

prelude to war• Second Czech Crisis, March 1939.

• Polish Crisis over Corridor and Danzig heats up.

• Allies finally turn to Stalin, but...

• August 1939, Molotov-Ribbentrop Nonaggression Pact

the Radio Tower at Gleiwitz

or

How to start a war

FDR--Naval and Economic FDR--Naval and Economic Pressure on JapanPressure on Japan

• 1935 on the eve of the naval disarmament conference

• 1937 FDR contemplates a blockade of Japan in light of renewed Japanese hostilities with China

• 1938 New joint Army-Navy plan adopted in the case Japan should attack without warning

• Multiple movements of fleet elements to Far East 1939. Whole fleet base moved to Pearl Harbor, October 1939(British are urging that the Fleet base itself in Singapore)

• The War Plans Division: Victory Plan... for Europe

• Eventually, the US sends missions to tempt the Japanese, freezes Japanese assets, etc.

• “I will never, never, never...”

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