Russian Soldiers’ Part in WWII

Re “A Serious Case of Mistaken Identity,” Commentary, June 22:

Benjamin Schwarz makes some good points about American hubris and the oft-slighted Soviet role in World War II, but he is way off base even “possibly” crediting Josef Stalin with the victory. Stalin’s partnership with Hitler started the war in the first place, and his self-serving actions and inexcusable negligence brought his country to the brink of disaster. Stalin was a monkey on the back of Soviet soldiers, who never knew when they or their families back home might be the next victims of one of the bloodthirsty dictator’s murderous whims. The more honor to them, caught between two monsters.

GILBERT DEWART

Pasadena

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While I agree on the great contribution of the Soviets during the war, Schwarz deliberately understates the vital American role. According to John Keegan, “Wartime Russia survived and fought on American aid.” That aid consisted of Lend Lease and amounted to almost a million motor transport vehicles, 13 million winter boots for Soviet soldiers and 5 million tons of food. Other items were 2,000 locomotives, 11,000 freight carriages, 540,000 tons of rails and thousands of tons of aviation fuel. Most historians believe Russia couldn’t have won the war without American aid.

Schwarz also neglects to mention American strategic bombing, which utterly destroyed German industry by late 1944 and tied down over a million Germans in antiaircraft roles--men who could not be used to fight at the front lines. Schwarz’s article simply isn’t true when describing America’s decisive role during the Second World War.

SEAN FEE

Granada Hills

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Germany lost 3.3 million soldiers. The Western Allies killed about 370,000 and the Russians killed a bit fewer than 3 million. England, France and the U.S. lost a combined total of about 600,000 soldiers killed. The number of Russian soldiers killed was about 12 million. It is very doubtful that D-day would have succeeded if the Russians hadn’t tied up over 100 German divisions, and previously demolished nearly another 100.

GEORGE M. SICULAR

San Jose

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I consider it true that America was an “indispensable nation” in World War II. I am a 64-year-old man, and I lived through WWII in Romania. All the countries involved on the European front had a concrete motivation: conquest or defense of territories, with the exception of the U.S. Army. America fought and sacrificed only for establishing democracy and human rights, for abolishing Nazi Germany. That’s not self-righteous, nor a self-serving mythology.

NICOLAE CONSTANTINESCU

Los Angeles