Guest post contributed by Glenn LeBoeuf
British army intelligence began, in 1941, to explore the feasibility of assassinating Adolf Hitler. Nazi Germany’s navy and Luftwaffe were bombing British cities and sinking many of the essential supplies coming to England.
To carry out such a plan, first they needed a detailed psychological study of Hitler’s childhood, WWI traumas and parental influences, for example. By 1942 the report was secretly published and distributed to key members of the British government.
But by that time, everything was different.
German U-boats were being effectively hunted. U.S. convoys were getting through with increasing success, and the German Wehrmacht was blunted at El Alamein in north Africa and in Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad. Hitler was forced to scrap the invasion of England because of the tenacity of British and Polish pilots in the skies over England.
Hitler’s answer to these disasters was to personally take over command of all the armed forces. No longer would he listen to his generals, whom he felt had never really believed in his genius and vision for world domination.
The British High Command concluded that to assassinate Hitler would now be a huge mistake. Hitler issued costly “no retreat” orders; demanded new weapons be developed that diminished production of tried-and-true tanks and subs; demoted competent generals; promoted “yes men” to his inner military circle such as Borman, Goering and Himmler; and ignored his most competent commanders such as Von Manstein, Guderian and Rommel.
Winston Churchill’s decision? The British would “let Hitler be Hitler” and expect his downfall.
Donald J. Trump’s new campaign strategy, coincidentally, is “Let Trump be Trump.” I am struck with the parallels and predict that this strategy will be a failure. I’m not claiming that Trump is another Hitler; my point is that a habit of claiming to have superior thought over the experts, accepting no advice, and acting impulsively has been shown throughout history to contain the seeds of its own destruction. Such hubris has consequences.
After weeks of steady poll losses in key battleground states, the Republican candidate Trump’s inner circle is now comprised of Steve Bannon alone. I expect the campaign will step up the personal attacks against Hillary Clinton until the bitter end. By doing this, Trump will thrill his base perhaps but squander the chance to reach out to disaffected Sanders supporters, educated Republicans and Hillary Clinton-disliking Democrats and independents.
Clinton will not win this election. Trump will lose it instead.
The bitter end, politically speaking, will not be in an underground bunker in Berlin. It will be in a nice hotel suite where Trump will be watching the television coverage of the returns. His advisors and family will be talking in hushed tones as Trump jumps up and shouts at the television that the media and the Republican party have betrayed him and stabbed him in the back.
The History Doctor aims to be non-partisan; we fire illumination rounds only. But guest authors are gadflies for discourse and the issue Glenn raises is one of leadership, a worthy historical subject and one we plan to take up very soon. Hope you enjoyed this provocative guest post.