Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941

  withdrawal from

  Lebensraum

  and eastward expansion

  military successes in 1942

  naval treaty with Britain (1935)

  Olympic Games (1936)

  and Pact of Steel

  public opinion

  rearmament

  Reich Cabinet

  Reichskristallnacht (1938)

  and risks of war on two fronts

  Security Police

  and Soviet Union

  anti-Bolshevism

  economic reasons to attack

  ideological reasons for attack

  invasion of

  strategic reasons to attack

  and Treaty of Locarno

  and United States

  anti-American propaganda

  avoidance of provocation (1939–41)

  perception of American support for Allies

  pre-war relations with United States

  and prospect of war with United States

  reaction to attack on Pearl Harbor

  Weimar Republic

  western offensive: advance on Dunkirk

  and defeat of France

  invasion of Belgium

  see also

  German army; German navy; Hitler, Adolf; Luftwaffe;

  Operation Sealion Gibraltar

  German plans to take

  Goebbels, Joseph

  on Atlantic Charter

  and declaration of war on United States

  and extermination of Jews

  and Japan

  and Pearl Harbor

  on Roosevelt

  Golikov, General Filip, Soviet military intelligence

  Göring, Hermann, Luftwaffe Commander-in-Chief

  and Dunkirk offensive

  and Jews

  Gort, General Lord, commander of BEF

  Grandi, Dino, Fascist leader in Bologna

  Graziani, Marshal Rodolfo, chief of Italian army staff

  in north Africa

  Grazzi, Emanuele, Italian ambassador in Athens

  Great Britain

  and American aid

  and American lend-lease agreement

  appeal to America for destroyers

  and appeasement

  army see

  British Expeditionary

  Force (BEF)

  Cabinet discussion

  decision to stay in war

  declaration of war on Germany

  economic weakness

  and Greece: guarantees to (and Romania)

  intervention in

  and Italian invasion

  intelligence

  military weakness

  and Mussolini

  naval treaty with Germany

  pessimism about Red Army

  and Poland

  policy towards Japan

  and possibility of alliance with Stalin

  possibility of negotiated peace

  risks entailed

  propect of invasion

  public opinion

  and Churchill’s ‘never surrender’ speech

  mood of pessimism (May 1940)

  significance of Mediterranean to

  urgency of rearmamen

  war aims (1939)

  see also

  British Empire; Churchill,

  Winston; War Cabinet

  ‘Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere’

  as fundamental to Japanese policy

  Greece British as guarantors of independence

  British intervention

  civil war

  effect of Italian fiasco on German war

  German occupation

  Helli

  incident

  Italian invasion

  Greek forces, underestimation of

  Greenland

  Greenwood, Arthur, Minister without Portfolio in War Cabinet

  Greer, USS, encounter with U-boat

  Greiser, Arthur, head of Gau Wartheland

  Grew, Joseph C., American ambassador in Tokyo

  and Japanese decision for war

  meeting with Konoe

  and proposed meeting of Konoe and Roosevelt

  Guadacanal, battle of

  Guadalajara, Italian defeat at (1937)

  Guilty Men

  Guzzoni, General Alfredo, Italian commander in Albania

  Hainan Island

  Halder, Colonel-General Franz, chief of German army General Staff

  and invasion of Soviet Union

  and Japanese entry into war

  Halifax, Lord, British Foreign Secretary

  and American occupation of

  Iceland

  and appeal to Roosevelt

  and approach to Mussolini

  broadcast speech on intention to

  fight on

  meeting with Bastianini

  relations with Churchill

  on Roosevelt’s Greer

  speech

  search for alternatives to fighting

  Hanfstaengl, Ernst

  Hara Yoshimichi, president of Japanese Privy Council

  Harnack, Arvid (the ‘Corsican’)

  German communist agent

  Harvey, Oliver, British embassy in Paris

  Hata Shunroku, Japanese Army Minister

  Haushofer, Karl

  Hess, Rudolf

  Heydrich, Reinhardas architect of ‘final solution’

  and deportations

  and gas chambers

  and ‘Jewish Question’

  and Soviet Jews

  and Wannsee Conference

  Higashikuni, Prince

  Hillmann, Sidney, Amalgamated Clothing Workers

  Himmler, Heinrich, head of SS

  as architect of ‘final solution’

  and deportations of Jews

  and elimination of Jews

  and gas chambers

  and Soviet Jews

  Hindenburg, Paul von, President of Germany

  Hirohito, Emperor of Japan

  and decision for war

  and ‘Essentials’ plan for war

  opposition to war with America

  and possibility of negotiated settlement with America

  powers of

  and proposed meeting of Konoe with Roosevelt

  and resignation of Konoe

  Hiroshima

  Hitler, Adolfaddress to party leaders (December 1941)

  alternatives open to

  and Britain

  admiration for Lloyd George

  and effect of decision to fight on

  and invasion of

  and need to remove from war

  notion of continental block against

  ‘peace offer’ to (October 1939)

  view of British Empire

  character and motivations: ambitions

  antisemitism

  as gambler

  ideological

  megalomania

  preoccupation with secrecy

  racism

  fear of conflagration in Balkans

  foreign policy: from

  from

  and France: armistice terms Pétain

  and Franco

  as head of state

  nature of dictatorship

  and Italian entry into war

  and Italian invasion of Greece

  and Japan

  Japanese attack on Singapore

  Japanese intentions

  ‘no-separate-peace’ agreement

  optimism about

  and Oshima

  and visit of Matsuoka

  and war on Soviet Union

  and Jews: antisemitism

  blamed for all ills

  and ‘Jewish-Bolshevism’

  and killing of Jews

  decision

  implications of invasion of Soviet Union on

  role in planning

  and Lebensraum

  Mein Kampf

  and Mussolini

  meetings with

  Reichstag speeches: (30 January 1
939)(19 July 1940)(11 December 1941)

  remilitarization

  rise to power

  and Roosevelt

  and South Tyrol

  and Soviet Union: attack on

  intention to invade

  and Molotov

  and need to keep America out of war

  optimism about war in

  order for Operation

  Barbarossa

  and

  Stalin

  and United States

  and agreement with Japan

  and Atlantic Charter

  declaration as matter of prestige

  declaration of war

  expectation of war with

  and Greer

  incident

  hostility towards

  reaction to

  Pearl Harbor

  and war in the Atlantic

  war strategy

  Raeder’s ‘peripheral strategy’

  and war on two fronts

  western offensive urgency of

  ‘world-view’

  see also Non-Aggression Pact (Hitler–Stalin) Hoare, Sir Samuel

  Hodja, Daud, Albanian bandit

  Hong Kong

  Hopkins, Harry, adviser to Roosevelt

  and FDR’s speech on Greer

  incident

  and lend-lease

  visit to Stalin

  Hornbeck, Stanley K., US State Department

  Hull, Cordell, US Secretary of State

  commitment to world peace

  and FDR’s speech on Greer

  incident

  ‘Four Principles’ for negotiation with Japan

  and inevitability of war with

  Germany

  and Kurusu

  and lease of military bases in British possessions

  and oil embargo on Japan

  and Pearl Harbor

  and proposed meeting of Konoe and Roosevelt

  rejection of Japan’s terms

  and repeal of neutrality laws

  ‘Ten Points’ counter-proposals to

  Kusuru

  view of Japan

  view of Tojo

  Hungary

  murder of Jews

  Iceland

  American occupation of

  Ickes, Harold, US Secretary of the

  Interior

  support for destroyers for Britain

  and support for intervention

  and threat from Japan

  India

  Japanese threat to

  Indian Ocean

  Indochina

  Japanese invasion

  Inner Mongolia

  intelligence

  agents

  MAGIC intercepts of Japanese signals

  Soviet military

  Stalin’s distrust of

  translation distortions

  international relations

  system of collective security

  see also

  League of Nations

  Ireland

  Ironside, General Sir Edmund, CIGS

  Italian armed forces

  air force

  army: ‘in no condition to wage war’

  officers

  navy

  and plans for invasion of Greece

  Italy alternatives to intervention in war neutrality

  ambitions: dream of great power status

  expansionist policy

  and opportunities offered by war

  American oil supplies to

  and Austria

  cult of the Duce

  economy

  Fascist Party

  Foreign Ministry