Hitler's American Gamble

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2021

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941 remains etched in public memory as the turning point of WW2. But in fact, it was Hitler’s declaration of war on the United States – four days later on December 11, 1941 – that changed everything.

In this episode, Professor of International Relations at Cambridge University Brendan Simms tells Dan the story of those five unsettling days. Churchill did not sleep “the sleep of the saved and thankful” after the attack, as he later claimed. Japan’s leaders were unsure whether Hitler would honour a private commitment to declare war. Roosevelt knew that many Americans didn’t want their country to entangle itself in a conflict with the Third Reich as well as Japan. In the end, it was Hitler’s decision that ended the uncertainty, bringing the US into the European war and transforming world history. You can read more in 'Hitler's American Gamble', the new book by Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman.

Please vote for us! Dan Snow's History Hit has been nominated for a Podbible award in the 'informative' category: https://bit.ly/3pykkds

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, everyone. Welcome to Dan Snow's history. On the 11th of December 1941, four days after the
0:07.0	Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and with the USA embrolled in a war now in the Pacific against
0:12.8	Japanese Empire, Hitler took to the stage in the Reichstag and announced that Nazi Germany was
0:19.6	declaring war on the United States of America. Now bear in mind, the USA had not declared war
0:26.5	on Germany. Germany had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor. Hitler's momentous decision meant
0:32.2	that Roosevelt and Churchill had their wish. They could focus on what they believed was the
0:37.3	primary threat, Germany, and then deal slightly later with the Japanese in south and east Asia
0:44.3	than the Pacific. Roosevelt had a very tough time, understandably convinced the American people to
0:48.8	focus on Germany first, given that Germany had nothing to do with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
0:53.4	But Hitler made it very easy, as I said. As a result, that decision that Hitler made is one of the most
0:59.6	momentous of the Second World War, one of the most momentous of the 20th century. Why did Adolf Hitler
1:06.4	declare war on the world's most powerful, financial, industrial, and agricultural power?
1:13.2	Had a great deposit of minerals, gigantic exporter of oil, with a population of millions and millions
1:20.5	of people that could be mobilised in its factories and its military units. It was a decision that
1:25.6	would help to prove the undoing of Germany. In this podcast, Adolf Dupt-Brenden Simpsons is a
1:31.0	very brilliant academic. He's professor of the history of international relations at the University
1:35.6	of Cambridge. He's somebody who's written many wonderful books. I'm a big fan of his
1:39.1	Magisterial Survey of History from 1453 to the present Europe, the struggle for supremacy,
1:44.0	but I've also got the 400 men who decided to face the Battle of Waterloo, the longest afternoon,
1:49.1	loved that book as well. So I'm a long time fan of Brenden Simpsons. I haven't ever had them on
1:52.4	the podcast for such a great pleasure to have him on now, because he's just written a new book
1:56.3	alongside Charlie Laderman about this exact thing. Why Hitler came to that decision? How he made
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.