North Reich - Robert Conroy (2012)

Introduction

On December 11, 1941, Nazi Germany declared war on the United States. Many historians consider this action one of Hitler’s greatest blunders. He was under no obligation to go to war with the United States. His treaty with Japan pledged him to come to her aid if she were attacked by the U.S. Instead, Japan had been the aggressor at Pearl Harbor. Hitler was openly contemptuous of America's fighting abilities. He did not think that the United States would be a factor in the European war.

What if Hitler hadn’t declared war? The United States was outraged at Japan, not Germany. There would have been little political support for an unprovoked declaration of war by the United States against Germany. Despite President Roosevelt’s strong efforts to involve us in a war with Germany, it is likely that America would have been totally focused on defeating Japan. Thus, efforts to support Great Britain and the Soviet Union via Lend Lease would have withered. Without American support, those two nations might have collapsed.

North Reich tells what might have happened if Hitler had not so foolishly declared war on the United States. FDR certainly understood that Germany was the greatest threat, but might have been helpless to do anything about it. War between the United States and Germany was still considered inevitable, but not in December of 1941. North Reich is the story of the war that was going to come sooner or later. However, in this instance, the fighting takes place not in Europe but in North America.