There are images of Roman soldiers looting the Temple in the aftermath of the Jewish War. This was the norm in conquest and booty (as well as rape) was an incentive for soldiers to fight. It made war all that much uglier.
Sherman’s march to the sea may have been a somewhat more disciplined activity but it left a trail of destruction. What was euphemistically called ‘reconstruction’ had a strong element of retribution and the harshness of the Radical Republicans ensured that a Solid South would evolve and subsequently endure for decades.
The ‘war guilt’ aspect of the Versailles treaty was particularly harsh on Germany. Yet France was eager for war as was the ally Germany. The Kaiser was no monster nor was the Dual Monarch. Reparations left Germany in a sad state and ripe for political extremism. The potential stabilization of the monarchy was eliminated in the spirit of republicanism.
Germany was rebuilt and Japan was becoming a major industrial power. Their alliance for conquest (with Italy as a junior partner) seemed threatening but the resilience and resources of their enemies assured their defeat. The United States and Great Britain were able to rapidly put their economies on a total war mode and build aircraft at a pace that astounded Berlin. Cities, factories, and transportation centers were smashed. Energy sources were rendered useless. As victory seemed near, there were plans for vengeance, especially against Germany. This was embodied in the Morgenthau Plan, one that would heap more economic devastation on defeated Germany than the bombing campaign. Some attribute this plan to the traitor Harry Dexter White, a former aide to Morgenthau who left Treasury to head the World Bank. When this plan was leaked, it was effectively used by the Nazi propaganda machine to maximize the German will to fight to the last man. The plan cost many American lives.
Our economic policy was reversed. There was the Marshall Plan for former enemies as well as allies. This was denounced by the foreign and domestic left as interference with other nations. German prosperity was assured when the Adenauer government ignored the economic advice from the United States and adopted policies that eschewed inflation. There seemed to be an economic miracle in what became the Federal Republic of Germany. There was prosperity but no urge to create another aggressive military force but one that could defend the nation.
But what of the fate of the nations ‘liberated’ by the USSR? Some enjoyed a brief period of political autonomy before coalition governments became ‘Peoples’ Republics’. Living standards plunged beneath the pre-war levels. Prewar Poland was on an economic parity with Northern Italy and Czechoslovakia was akin to prosperous Switzerland. Allegedly ‘liberated’ Eastern Europe was reduced to a subsistence level by the folly of enforced socialism.
Yet the moral relativists insist on equating the United States with those nations that employ terror and plunder.
