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Henry Morgenthau, The German Character
Five chapters from Morgenthau’s book, Germany is our Problem, here published with an introductory note by Ellopos. Emphasis, in bold or italic letters, by Ellopos. Complete book in print.
52 Pages
Page 21
Under cover of cartel agreements, Germany penetrated the economy of other nations, including the United States. Using their cartel affiliates or subsidiaries, German industrialists built up a network which impaired the production of other nations, obtained sources of foreign exchange for Germany, gathered economic intelligence and spread Nazi propaganda. The argument against attempting to control another nation's economy down to the last detail is that even with whole armies of inspectors and technicians it is almost impossible, as the Nazis found in the countries they occupied. Applied to the internal economy of Germany, this is a sound argument. But foreign trade is another matter. It can be controlled by a few key people in a few key places. The two problems are as different as collecting a nation's internal revenue and collecting the customs. The United States needs fifty thousand persons for the first task; the second is efficiently performed by eight thousand.
The elimination of German heavy industry is no hate campaign. The world has seen enough of hatred, and the United Nations have no need to adopt the policy of their enemies. Nor is the program a panacea for peace. It is, however, an essential preliminary to peace, to realization of the ideals for which the United States has fought, to the security of all nations (even including Germany), and to that better world which the sacrifices of all peoples have entitled them to expect. What to do with Germany is still the first of the big postwar questions the United Nations must answer. The right answer will give us a tremendous lift toward the attainment of our other aims—toward what Woodrow Wilson called a "community of power" to replace the balance of power and keep the peace, toward the increasing exchange of goods and ideas among nations, toward the continuance of full production and full employment at home.
Cf. H. Arendt: totalitarianism reduces men to impersonal natural forces * German philosophers in support of Nazism * Beethoven and Mauthausen * The Superior Race of Germans * Kalergi, European Spirit must Precede Europe's Political Unification * La Construction de l'Europe selon Jean Monnet * Plan Fouchet * Mitterrand and Kohl urge European Political Union * Il Manifesto di Ventotene
