1939: The Alliance That Never Was and the Coming of World War II

by Michael Jabara Carley

At a crucial point in the twentieth century, as Nazi Germany prepared for war, negotiations between Britain, France, and the Soviet Union became the last chance to halt Hitler’s aggression. Incredibly, the French and British governments dallied, talks failed, and in August 1939 the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact with Germany. Michael Carley’s gripping account of these negotiations is not a pretty story. It is about the failures of appeasement and collective security in Europe. It is about moral depravity and blindness, about villains and cowards, and about heroes who stood against the intellectual and popular tides of their time. Some died for their beliefs, others labored in obscurity and have been nearly forgotten. In 1939 they sought to make the Grand Alliance that never was between France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. This story of their efforts is background to the wartime alliance created in 1941 without France but with the United States in order to defeat a demonic enemy. 1939 is based upon Mr. Carley’s longtime research on the period, including work in French, British, and newly opened Soviet archives. He challenges prevailing interpretations of the origins of World War II by situating 1939 at the end of the early cold war between the Soviet Union, France, and Britain, and by showing how anti-communism was the major cause of the failure to form an alliance against Hitler. 1939 was published on September 1, the sixtieth anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland and the start of the war.

Genres: History, World War II, Politics, Soviet Union, Military History

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 25, 1999

Reviews

[Hatuxka · Rating 2 out of 5]

The eventuality of the Soviet-German nonaggression treaty was not at all due to being induced into a state of "paranoia" as another reviewer asserts, it was pure rationality. In fact, the book shows in exhaustive detail just how far the Soviet Government was willing to go in being patient in their pursuit of leading or letting events lead the western powers to ending their self-destructive maneuverings away from a collective security alliance that might have saved their countries and scores of millions of lives in the world altogether. No one can read this book, so excellently documented in its detailing of the moral and political failings of the political elites of Britain, France and Poland without understanding that the western mythology about an "Alliance" between the USSR and Hitlers Germany was in fact a rational final attempt by the USSR to stave off and buy time to prepare for the eventual onslaught that came. Western versions about the treaty are merely attempts to cover up how the west caused their own destruction that only the Soviet Union eventually prevented from being total and permanent. Carley detracts from the value of his narrative by engaging in outdated coldwar orthodoxies about what he calls the "Stalinist purges"and that there was a "secret protocol", which he claims was "well enough known". No such protocol has been authenticated. The book was published in 1999, so uncritically repeating that vague term was incongruous to the critical examination he applies to the myth of a Hitler-Stalin "alliance". Others have demolished the cold war orthodoxies that there were "blood purges by Stalin. There were in fact conspiracies with Germany intelligence by rogue wreckers to eliminate party members to spread terror and provoke an uprising against the Soviet Govt that failed and the perps were caught, confessed sentenced to death and executed.

[Bobby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite likely the clearest book available on the diplomatic situation leading up to the Second World War. This book tells the more logical and, ultimately, more believable reasons behind the diplomatic collapse between the Western allies and the Soviet Union. A full recap of why and how the former essentially stalled (and stalled and stalled and stalled) the latter into a complete state of paranoia about an attack from all quarters.

The book lays bare and dismantles the post-war revisionist theory that the 'dastardly' and 'cunning' Soviet Union gladly united with Hitler's Germany because, well... because the Soviets were so dastardly and cunning! Through careful, chronological analysis and a solid examination of the thousands of letters, aide-de-memoirs, and other diplomatic correspondence, Carley shows clearly how the Western powers were much more hopeful of letting Hitler have his way in Czechoslovakia, Poland, et. al., especially if it meant that he would eventually attack the Soviet Union. The West was positively more anti-communist than anti-Hitler and this is shown time and time again by it's stalling maneuvers and constant bickering over minutiae.

Regardless of one's agreement with Carley's premise, the book is a more-than-fascinating read regarding the diplomatic foibles in the years leading up to WWII and -- quite literally -- will have you reading with mouth agape at some of the resultant tragic consequences.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect, narrow study of a moment in history we so often get wrong. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact came as a last-ditch effort of the USSR to avoid it being drawn into the war it knew was coming. A story of how anti-communism in Britain and France kept a collective security agreement out of reach until it was too late.

Aside from the incredible scholarship put into the book, the writing kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next. It's a talent for non-fiction to read as smoothly as fiction.

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last 3 or so pages in which Carley seems to almost equally blame both the Soviet and English/French governments absolutely reeks of some sort of editorial intervention on behalf of the publisher to make the USSR look worse then it comes out looking in this book, as what preceded it was 300 pages of the USSR doing everything it could to form an alliance with England and France and being denied at every turn thanks to anti-communism, with Carley himself spending the entirety of the book himself castigating the English and French until, again, the last few pages. The fact that a work like this exists and yet the USSR is still blamed for the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact shows just how deep anti-communist propaganda runs

[Geoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little dry for me. I prefer my history books a bit higher level, more on the meta-level and honestly, more engaging. Well researched.