In all three of the Western zones, early zeal was quickly replaced by retreat. The program that began in 1946 was discredited within five years, both within Germany and among the Allies. Among the Allies, criticism often originated on the political right, as the red scare set in. An early such critic was General George S. Patton, who was installed as military governor of Bavaria in 1945. “What we are doing,” he wrote to his wife, “is to utterly destroy the only semi-modern state in Europe so that Russia can swallow the whole.” The Germans—even hard-core Nazis—were needed for the impending war
...more
