Betting Against America

“An engaging, punctilious, and revealing analysis of German and Japanese war decision-making” from the military historian and author of The Tank Killers (Aether: A Journal of Strategic Airpower & Spacepower).

Why did Axis countries go to war against America? Given America’s industrial base, what was the rationale that underpinned their decision? This new analysis by a seasoned intelligence officer, based mainly on German, Italian, and Japanese sources, offers a “red team exercise,” taking the viewpoint of the leaders of the Axis powers, looking at the build up to their war against America, and the course of the war itself. It identifies the moments when their leaders realized America and its American-supplied Allies were going to beat them.

It covers Japanese thinking about America and its other strategic rivals from the time of the Russo-Japanese war, because the Imperial Japanese Navy picked the US Navy as its notional enemy in 1907. It devotes serious attention to Japan’s war in China, because its inability to beat the Nationalists was the reason the Japanese made decisions that led to war against the United States.

The coverage of Germany starts with Hitler’s early views of America in the 1920s. Hitler put so little thought into declaring war that the High Command had not been treating America as an enemy and had little intelligence on which to assess its war policy. The coverage of Italy is largely derivative of its relationship with Germany, as was the reality.

“Those readers looking for an alternate perspective, and perhaps one that holds a sometimes-unflattering mirror to the traditional Allied-centric histories will find this book an excellent choice.” —The Journal of America’s Military Past