Samcanuck said:
No...Stalin just ushered in the actual Cold War...which If I'm not mistaken, we still suffer from today.
What can you see in direct consequence due to only Hitler, since Stalin and Hitler had an arms race during the prewar crisis of WW2. It was Hitlers desire to take out Sadam first that began his invasion of Czechoslavakia (just as much as the rineland to conflict a two prong war)...Both people impacted the pre WW2 and WW2 era since both the Gulag killings and holocaust happened at the same time (but Stalin killed OVER 3 times). Within that each share the consequence of the Cold war, though Stalin had an active role DURING the Cold war. Only thing I can see Hilter had a direct connection with that Saddam didn't is the Palistien/Israeli conflict.
So in a way...yes...Stalin did help usher in the biggest war in modern history by pushing Hitlers war train. EDIT:and pushing his own war train...not to mention his invasions and creating of the iron curtian...how many died because of that?
Plus over three times the torture deaths.
Stalin didn't single-handedly usher in the Cold War, the Cold War was the result of growing tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States that began in World War 2, don't put the blame soley on the Soviets, because that's ignorant. And why are you talking about Hitler's desire to take out "Sadam"? And what the fuck do you mean "just as much as the
rhineland to conflict a two prong war"? What the hell does that even mean? And the Gulags weren't "killing camps", they were labour camps. The concentration camps, on the other hand, in the latter days of World War 2, were full-blown death camps - the Holocaust is so significant because of how methodical and meticulous it was; deaths on account of Stalin's policies were often just byproducts of his policies - in the case of Hitler, the death of the Jews and other groups WAS the policy. Sure, Stalin did order the deaths of many people, but nothing on the scale of the Holocaust. And no, Stalin didn't have much of an active role during the Cold War - Stalin died in 1953, long before the Cold War really "took off". Sure, he was active in its beginnings, but the hottest points of the Cold War didn't really occur until the early 60s, and the 80s with Reagen.
Oh, and I don't know what this "arms race" was that apparently took place between Hitler and Stalin in the lead up to World War 2 - you are aware that in 1938 Stalin had almost every single leader in the Soviet army killed, right? Stalin was by no means active in ANY kind of arms race, I have no idea where you're getting this information; Stalin was fully convinced that Hitler would NOT invade the USSR (as indicated by the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1938), and the Soviet army was relatively primative in its technology up until 1942-1943, when the Nazi invasion of the USSR forced them to shape-up. Also, please be aware that Stalin's "creaton" of the iron curtain, as you put it, was not intentional. The iron curtain (a term coined by Winston Churchill, btw, after WW2) was a direct result of World War 2, which was, and I am willing to defend this point, ENTIRELY Hitler's and Nazi Germany's fault. The people who died to "create" the iron curtain were pretty much all Nazis, by the way (at least in its original form following the end of World War 2).
And finally, "Only thing I can see Hitler had a direct connection with that Saddam (do you mean Stalin?) didn't is the Palistien/Israeli conflict"? What the fuck? Hitler didn't have a connection with that at all.... Israel wasn't even a state when Hitler was around.
