New book puts World War Il in perspective

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18 SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 1987 lay 1945: Red Army on move The Meaning of the Second World War, by Ernest Mandel. Verso Press, available from Schocken Books, 62 Cooper Square, New York, N.Y. 10003. 210 pages, $12.50 paperback.

Marxist theoretician Ernest Mandel introduces World War II as a struggle in which "literally millions of men and women were engaged in conflict across a geographical area from France to Bengal, from Chad to Leningrad, from the Philippines to Birmingham...Never before had so many people, on all continents, participated directly or indirectly in political and armed conflict."

So vast was the arena of this war that most historians have been content to concentrate on a small segment, often in works running into several volumes. Mandel has given us a Marxist overview of the entire drama, taking us from the siege of Leningrad to the Battle of Midway in the Pacific. He probes the thinking of the general staffs on both sides and the reaction of the war weary masses in Europe and Asia.

Five different conflicts Mandel says that World War II was a combination of five different conflicts: (1) an inter-imperialist war fought for world hegemony and won by the United States; (2) a just war of self defense by the Soviet Union; (3) a just war of the Chinese people against imperialism, which would turn into a socialist revolution; (4) a just war of Asian colonial peoples against various imperialist powers; (5) a just war of liberation fought by the occupied peoples of Europe. Unlike the Stalinists, Mandel does not include among the "just" the ruling classes of the capitalist countries.

Wars between major powers today, Mandel tells us, are "conveyor belt" wars in which the country with the greatest industrial-financial base will be the winner. Destruction of factories and infrastructure becomes as important as winning battles. If battle losses in human lives and materiel can be replaced, the war can go on.

Germany, for example, captured 40 percent of the Soviet Union's industrial plant in 1942. But the Soviets moved 1360 large factories east of the Urals and built 2250 new plants in 1942-1943. Britain increased its production during the war, in Berlin while the United States enjoyed an industrial plant that was scarcely strained by the war effort.

The United States possessed an aggregate of power that was bound to win in the long run. The only hope for victory by either Germany or Japan lay in a lightning thrust or "Blitzkrieg" in Europe and an islandhopping push into Southeast Asia by Japan.

Initial German successes

At first, Germany achieved remarkable success. The Dutch army was beaten in four days, the Belgians after 18 days, and the British were pushed off the continent in two weeks. The French army was crushed in six weeks.

While military machines and strategy may operate brilliantly, Mandel points out, errors of judgment, lack of information, or self-deception can influence a war in unexpected ways.

Hitler, for instance, did not think that the capitalist countries would ally themselves with the Soviet Union. Stalin did not believe Hitler would attack. The capitalists underestimated the Soviet Union's industrial and social strength. Everyone-including Stalin-underestimated the revolutionary dynamic of the suffering masses in Europe and Asia.

Mandel speculates that Hitler might have won the war if he had pressed his bombing campaign against Britain further and limited his aims to victory in Europe. But Hitler sought world domination by invading the Soviet Union. The German general staff expected they would crush the Soviet armies in four to eight weeks.

Due to Stalin's criminal beheading of the Soviet army's top leadership-and lack of preparation-the Russians lost heavily in the first months. One-hundred-and-fifty divisions were annihilated and thousands of miles of territory was lost. Even Moscow was threatened.

But Hitler gained ground only at a heavy cost. He lost a million men before the battle for Moscow, and he could not replace them. Meanwhile, the Soviets rebuilt their army and had nearly 300 divisions by the end of the war.

Upheavals dictates strategy

In June of 1942, Japan's advance was halted at the naval battle of Midway. In November 1942, British and American forces landed in North Africa. In February 1943, Germany's advance came to an end with the Soviet victory at the battle of Stalingrad. The initiative now passed to the Allies, and they never lost it.

The war continued for another three years, largely a war of attrition as Germany slowly retreated from the extensive territory it had conquered. Allied strategy became more and more dictated by fear of political upheavals and threats to the capitalist order.

Stalin called for a second front in Western Europe. Roosevelt delayed the landings partly because he wanted both Germany and the Soviet Union to be bled white by continued war. Churchill wanted to drive through Southern Europe to keep the Soviets out of Bulgaria and Greece.

Gen. Douglas McArthur reinvaded the Philippines—instead of taking a more direct route to Japan-because he feared the guerrilla movement would contest U.S. hegemony over the islands.

The use of the war's ultimate weapon was dictated by political-and not military considerations. Claims of saving American lives by its use was a lie. Japan had already offered to surrender. The atomic bomb was dropped mainly to impress the Soviet Union and to proclaim American military hegemony over the world.

With the retreat of Hitler's forces, partisan bands became an increasing ACTION SOCiALisE BUILD A BETTER WORLO JOIN SOCIALIST ACTOR!

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Name Address City State Zip Tel. military threat to the Germans and a political threat to the Allies. Stalin would not tolerate any partisan force not under his control. In 1944, when a heroic uprising in Warsaw stood off the Germans for two months, Stalin ordered Soviet troops to halt until Warsaw was overrun and the anti-Nazis slaughtered.

The Italian ruling class switched sides in the middle of the war. It feared the growing partisan movement would seize power and end its privileges. The Yugoslavian and Albanian ruling classes could not save themselves this way. Here the wars of liberation were extended into socialist revolutions and the establishment of two workers' states. The same thing happened in China, the most populous nation on earth.

New map of world created Mandel says the new map of the world created by World War Il was not the result of diplomatic agreements. Rather it reflected the freezing of battle positions held when hostilities ended. The Soviet Union held Berlin, half of Germany, and Eastern Europe from Stettin to Trieste.

Roosevelt and Churchill wanted to push the Soviets back, but it was impossible. War-weary troops would not fight any longer, partisans in Northern Italy and Greece may have taken power. Revolution in France was possible.

The Soviet Union did not end the war weak and exhausted, as Churchill hoped, but emerged from the war as a superpower. Because the Soviet Union was not defeated in World War II, imperialism launched the Cold War that continues today.

Mandel does not confine himself to a mere chronology of battles fought and errors made. He analyzes many aspects of war that are manifested far from the battlefield. He has chapters on resources, weapons, logistics, and science.

In the final chapter, Mandel points out that, "Violence and barbaric disregard for elementary human rights, starting with the right to life, spread on a larger scale than anything seen during or after World War I. The climax to the rise of barbarism was the advent of the Bomb."

Eighty million lives-eight times the number of lives lost in the slaughter of the First World War—were lost in World War II.

For all this suffering endured by millions, the problems of capitalism were not solved. After a few years of prosperity, enjoyed only by the developed nations, the stage is being set for another plunge into expanding war and ultimate barbarism.

Mandel concludes on a more optimistic note. He says the increasing crisis of capitalism creates the conditions for socialist revolution. Mandel writes:

"Socialist revolution remains the best chance-in fact the only chance-of avoiding World War III. Humankind can only be saved from destruction by establishing rational control over international and domestic affairs, i.e., by abolishing class and national conflicts and competition. And only a democratic socialist world federation can achieve that goal. "

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Despite Mayta's years of Marxist training, which have taught him that the workers and peasants can liberate themselves only through their own activity, he falls under the influence of a young, impetuous, military man who has hatched a plot to start the revolution by means of a rural revolt. This foolish adventure, opposed by his

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