Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Neal Stevens
Sorry, I don't buy it. I'm not saying each individual German soldier and sailor was evil, but they were fighting balls to the wall to advance the goals of a murderous, evil system. I equate it to the South, where Confederate soldiers were willing pawns in defence of slavery.
|
And in 1945 to the present they suddenly aren't? In the beginning they believed Hitler. In the middle they questioned. In the end it was for survival, but yes all the way through a portion were pure nazi.
It is a fact that when the armies for the North and South were first formed, only a small minority of the soldiers on either side would have declared that the reason they joined the army was to fight either "for" or "against" slavery.
Southern politicians convinced their majority that the North was threatening their way of life and their culture. Northern politicians convinced their majority that the South, if allowed to secede, was really striking a serious blow at democratic government. In these arguments, both southern and northern politicians were speaking the truth--but not "the whole truth." They knew that to declare the war to be a fight over slavery would cause a lot of the potential soldiers of both sides to refuse to fight.
But was it only about slavery? No. It was also about the constitutional argument over whether or not a state had a right to leave the Union, and--of primary concern to most southern soldiers--the continuation of antebellum southern culture. Although the majority of Southerners had little interest in slaves, slavery was a primary interest of Southern politicians--and consequently the underlying cause of the South's desire to seek independence and state rights.
http://members.tripod.com/~greatamer...ry/gr02013.htm
History is never simple.