I don’t understand this quote: “Without American production the United Nations could never have won the war” Was Stalin referring to WWI? I thought you using this quote as your sig was a reaction to a WWII discussion. If so, did Stalin just screw up the grammar in saying “could never have”, b/c in 1943, the Axis was in full control. Or by “war” did he mean “battle” in reference to Russian victory at Stalingrad or Kursk? The Russians didn’t even begin their offensive until late 1943, how could they have won the war by then?
I’m curious as well.
If you follow the link below it takes you to a thread from earlier that Muddahudda and I hijacked by discussing the time frame of my quote. To sum it up, contrary to popular current belief people at that time already viewed the war as over with the Allied’s having won. Although the Russian offensive had yet to go into full swing and the final front had not yet been opened up via D-day, the US had begun to scale back military production and close plants. The Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin had each given quotes basically saying the war was over and the Tehran conference that year was focused primarily on postwar strategy and how the Allies would divide up territory & policy rights. Essentially the key victories had been scored by the Allies in Africa and Italy and the Russian victories you mentioned at Stalingrad & Kursk had broken the German’s back. At this point it was widely acknowledged that the outcome was assured, even if the time line may not be. http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/read.php?1,1173937,1174059#msg-1174059