Réo’s Reviews > Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945 > Status Update

MacArthur was distinguished by the splendor of his self-image as a warlord, which it suited his nation to indulge, rather than by gifts as a battlefield commander. While he directed the 1944 phase of the New Guinea campaign with some flair, he floundered in the Philippines; superior resources, especially air support, were the deciding factors in his victories. (643)

The United States was the only belligerent which emerged from the war without a sense of victimhood... Thanks to Pearl Harbor, fewer of Roosevelt's people questioned the justice of their cause than in any other war their country has fought. "It was the last time most Americans thought they were innocent and good, without qualification," said Pfc. Robert Lekachman. (640-1)

Because German and Japanese soldiers displayed high courage and tactical skill, the principal Axis powers were overrated by their enemies. From June 1940 onwards, both Berlin and Tokyo made strategy with awesome incompetence. Japan's early victories in 1941-42 reflected local Allied weakness, not real Japanese strength... (638-9)

Stalin ... recognized that the common commitment of Britain, Russia, and the United States to defeat Hitler did nothing to bridge the yawning divide between their other respective national objectives. He intended to sustain a tyranny which denied any vestige of freedom to his own people, and to secure territorial gains for the Soviet Union which the Western Allies would never willingly approve. (638)

Most French people persuaded themselves in 1940 that the Pétain regime constituted a lawful government... After the liberation in 1944, France indulged in an orgy of domestic recrimination... Communist factions emerged from the war strengthened in France ... for some years there were fears for the survival of democracy... Bourgeois capitalism eventually prevailed, but political stability proved slow to achieve. (637)

The Superfortress program cost $4 billion, against $3 billion for the Manhattan Project … [but] did not match the impact on Japan’s economy of the submarine blockade, because they took place when industry had already been crippled by lack of fuel and raw materials … LeMay’s role in punishing Japan for launching a war of aggression was more significant than his contribution to enforcing its surrender. (617)

"The spirit of human aggression has a magical tendency to evaporate as soon as the shooting starts," wrote [a British infantryman, Lt.] Norman Craig, "and a man then responds to two influences only — the external discipline that binds him and the self-respect within him that drives him on ... Courage is essentially competitive and imitative." (524)