Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Surprised to see Churchill’s take on the German problem was the same as mine

A couple of years ago I mentioned in this blog my belief that the core challenge facing Europe is not Russia or stability or democracy, but Germany. This bothered some people.

Churchill_CCathedral_H_14250
Churchill_CCathedral_H_14250

A couple of years ago I mentioned in this blog my belief that the core challenge facing Europe is not Russia or stability or democracy, but Germany. This bothered some people.

A couple of years ago I mentioned in this blog my belief that the core challenge facing Europe is not Russia or stability or democracy, but Germany. This bothered some people.

So I was interested to come across this comment of Churchill in September 1944, predicting that after the war, “Europe’s two-thousand-year-old problem of Germany will remain as great as ever.”

For the last century, Europe’s solution to this problem has been to drag in the United States. I wonder if German culture will awaken to this gambit, and if we will see a wave of anti-Americanism in Germany over the next 20 or 30 years.

I also was struck by a comment made on this blog the other day: “Germany needs to reflect on the political purposes and consequences of the Marshall plan.  It’s time for them to pay forward if they want to escape the consequences of political chaos directed at them by the Greeks, possibly Spanish and Italians.”

Imperial War Museums/Wikimedia Commons

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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