What was the biggest mistake made during WWII?

[Borodog]

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I haven't read the other replies in depth yet (skimmed; lot of interesting stuff I'll get to), but the biggest mistake of WWII was not made during WWII. It was the Versailles Treaty. Or possibly the American entry into WWI in the first place. One or the other.

The next biggest mistake was also not made during WWII, but after, at Yalta.

After that would be Roosevelt maneuvering the United States into war, foolishly believing it would finally alleviate his Fabulous Depression.

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What decisions do you think made at Yalta were mistakes?

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The ones that plunged tens of millions of Eastern Europeans into barbarous communist rule for half a century. Way to save them from the Germans!

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What other options were there?

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Not doing the above. The best option would of course have been to not get involved in a foreign war in the first place.

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Someone before said we should have attacked Russia. That is just an absurd and ignorant suggestion.

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If Roosevelt had not died, you can bet your ass that is exactly what would have happened. Except he would have arranged it so that it appeared that Stalin had attacked us.

One thing that you should keep in mind when looking at world history during and before WWII is that Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, and Roosevelt were essentially the same man, very similar personality types and approaches to rule. They were all megalomaniacal socialist dictators who blamed everyone else for their disasters and were pretty much willing to do whatever they thought necessary to extend their power. They only differed in degree. I consider it pretty much a historical accident that the winners and losers turned out the way they did, and I doubt the world would be qualitatively very different nowadays if a completely different set of victors would have come out of the war.