Conclusion

The Great Depression, which brought fear, hunger, and joblessness to millions, created a setting in which dictators thrived because they promised to restore economic prosperity by destroying democracy and representative government. Desperate people believed the promises of these dynamic new leaders—Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler—and often embraced the brutality of their regimes. In the USSR, Stalin’s program of rapid industrialization cost the lives of millions as he inspired Communist believers to purge enemies—real and imagined. With the democracies preoccupied with economic recovery while preserving the rule of law and still haunted by memories of World War I, Hitler, Mussolini, and their millions of supporters went on to menace Europe unchallenged. At the same time, Japan embarked on a program of conquest aimed at ending Western domination in Asia and taking more of Asia for itself. The coalition of Allies that finally formed to stop the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan was an uneasy alliance among Britain, Free France, the Soviet Union, and the United States. World War II ended European dominance. Europe’s economies were shattered, its colonies were on the verge of independence, and its peoples were starving and homeless.

The costs of a bloody war—one waged against civilians as much as armies—taught the victorious powers different lessons. The United States, Britain, and France were convinced that a minimum of citizen well-being was necessary to prevent a recurrence of fascism. The devastation of the USSR’s population and resources made Stalin increasingly obsessed with national security and compensation for the damage inflicted by the Nazis. Britain and France faced the end of their imperial might, underscoring Orwell’s insight that the war had utterly transformed society. The militarization of society and the deliberate murder of millions of innocent citizens like Etty Hillesum were tragedies that permanently injured the West’s claims to being an advanced civilization. Nonetheless, backed by vast supplies of sophisticated weaponry, the United States and the Soviet Union used their opposing views on a postwar settlement to justify threatening one another—and the world—with another horrific war.