Another Hitler Today?

When you're thinking about Hitler, you'll probably ask yourself whether another Hitler is possible today. After all, even if you wanted to fight the historical Hitler, you couldn't. Part of the Cold War was the threat of nuclear war. Even after the end of the Cold War, the major powers are keeping enormous numbers of nuclear weapons. And that makes today completely different from 1939.

Hitler wasn't completely sane. If he had had nuclear weapons, he would probably have used them. In 1939, he could threaten the whole of Europe without nuclear weapons. Today, a Hitler without nuclear weapons would be terrible in his own country but would pose little threat to the world. A Hitler with the US or Soviet arsenal would be a threat such as the world has never known before.

How would you--or anyone, for that matter--stop him? Other countries would probably threaten him with nuclear weapons. If war came, it would be nuclear, and it wouldn't matter very much whether you or anyone else decided to fight. Hundreds of millions would be dead before the armies could march. This would "stop" a new Hitler. It would also "stop" much--probably most--of the human race.

Many people think that a new Hitler is less of a danger to the world than "sane" world leaders with their fingers on the nuclear button. What do you think?

Go to next page