WWII Quotables

The distinguished American historian of World War II, Herbert Feis, sums up: "Our full induction into this last World War followed our refusal to let China fend for itself. We had rejected all proposals which would have allowed Japan to remain in China and Manchuria….Japan had struck - rather than accept frustration. The American people, in a war which they had not sought, had full right to feel that they had been not only true to their ideals but most faithful defenders of the people of China." (‘The China Tangle,’ 1953, Chapter 1)

The noted 20th-century military historian Basil Liddell Hart sums up the situation of the Pacific theater at the end of 1941 in the following words:  "On the map there appeared to be numerous alternatives [for any countermove towards Japan that the Western allies attempted] but in closer analysis these were few. The north Pacific route was ruled out by the lack of bases….A counter-offensive from Soviet Russia’s position in the Far East was annulled…as long as Russia was hard-pressed by the German attack on her western flank. An Allied countermove through China was made impossible by the difficulties of supply…The still more distant route of return through Burma was nullified by the extent to which the British had been driven back…and their all too evident lack of resources….Thus it soon became clear that any effective counteroffensive must depend on the Americans."