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July 28, 2008 | Recorded on July 9, 2008
In Defense of WWII
Victor Davis Hanson and Christopher Hitchens take on the World War II revisionists, focusing first on Patrick J. Buchanan, the author, most recently, of Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War. They counter the essential claims in Buchanan’s book that Britain’s guarantee to protect Poland in the event of a German invasion made the war inevitable; that the Holocaust was a consequence of the war and that, without it, the Holocaust may not have occurred; and that Germany invaded Russia only because Britain under Churchill was determined to partner with Russia against Germany. Finally they address two claims made by author Niall Ferguson that “[the Allies] adopted the most brutal tactics of those they were fighting” and that the principal beneficiary of the Second World War was Stalin’s Soviet Union. (39:55) Video transcript