History books that were written at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century had a great deal in common with the analysis that is contained in this explanation of history. Historians documented the development of modern society in Europe and America. They described the traditional societies in most of the rest of the world and explained how imperialism was bringing them the benefits of modern institutions. This work contains a different interpretation of imperialism, but in general terms, it would have been familiar to history readers a century ago.
All of this changed with the development of communism and fascism and the beginning of the Second World War. Communism and fascism both use dictators. Historians began to write about the great clash between democracy and dictatorship. No one understood that communism and fascism were actually part of the worldwide transition to democratic market society. They were seen as new forces leading off in a different direction toward autocracy and totalitarianism.
During World War II, Western propaganda portrayed the war as a clash between democracy and dictatorship. According to the popular media, Germany and Japan had attacked France, Britain, and the United States in order to destroy their freedom and democracy. This was very effective propaganda. Americans believed that their freedom was at stake, and that it was necessary to work hard and fight hard to defend their way of life. The Arsenal of Democracy cranked out an incredible amount of war material, and millions of men fought like hell to defend their freedom.
Historians accepted this propaganda and turned it into history. Politicians, editorialists, news commentators, teachers, ministers, and public figures of all kinds adopted it and preached it relentlessly to the American public. As a kid in the 1950s and 60s I sat through hundreds of repetitions of “the speech&rdquo. It went like this.
“During the 1930s America tried to ignore the rest of the world and concentrate on dealing with its own problems, mostly the depression. Evil dictators who wanted to destroy democracy and conquer the world took advantage of this isolationism. They built up gigantic military forces, and when they were ready to strike, they launched World War II. For years they engaged in a mass orgy of killing and conquering, until America, Britain and their allies were finally forced to employ their entire national resources to defeat them. Let this be a lesson to future generations of Americans. Dictators are evil. They want to destroy freedom and democracy. They want to kill and conquer. They must be stopped in the early stages before they are powerful enough to unleash their reign of terror on the world. America must never again retreat into isolationism and allow evil dictators to grow strong and wreak havoc on the world.”
Every member of the baby boom generation heard this speech hundreds of times. The next generation has also been indoctrinated by it. It seemed so clearly to be the lesson of World War II that no one doubted it. Most Americans today learned this lesson as children. It has become embedded in their minds. There is no controversy over it and no doubt about it. Americans firmly believe that dictators are evil and must be crushed—the sooner, the better.
“The speech” is very stirring, very patriotic; it makes sense, sounds good, and encourages Americans to make sacrifices on behalf of freedom and democracy, not just for ourselves, but for the entire world. But there is a problem. It has led to a gigantic misunderstanding of what is happening in the world. Its affect has produced an increase in world violence, not a reduction.
For over 50 years the United States has been going around the world attacking dictators, not for what they have done, but for what Adolph Hitler did 60 years ago. American scholars study dictators only to document their evilness. There is no attempt to understand dictators and the societies that produce them.
In the 1930s about half of the world was part of some large multinational empire. One fourth of the world was under the control of the British Empire. Large areas were ruled by France. Much of the Soviet Union was actually the Czarist Empire. The Dutch Empire, most of which is now Indonesia, was one of the wealthiest. Belgium ruled the heart of Africa. There was a moderate size Portuguese Empire, and a relatively small American Empire.
Germany had lost all of its small empire during World War I. The Germans were jealous of the other European imperialists. They wanted to have a large and wealthy empire of their own. This is why Adolph Hitler was so aggressive. He intended to conquer Poland, Czechoslovakia, White Russia, the Ukraine, and more. Mussolini wanted to expand the small Italian Empire. The Japanese were extremely jealous of the Europeans who ruled most of Asia. When Germany defeated France, Britain, and the Netherlands in 1940, they saw an opportunity to grab the undefended colonies and greatly expand their own Asian empire.
World War II did not happen because dictators are evil and like to kill and conquer. World War II happened because the world was still in the imperial age. Most countries still thought that it was acceptable behavior to conquer and rule empires. This included Germany, Italy, and Japan.
American and British wartime propaganda did not mention anything about empires. Winston Churchill was one of the leading British imperialists. During the war he said, “I did not become the king’s first minister to preside over the dissolution of the British Empire.” Instead allied war propaganda focused on the idea that evil dictators wanted to destroy freedom and democracy and conquer the world. This was very effective propaganda, but it was not true.
Hitler considered democracies to be weak and impotent. He was very pleased that his enemies in the West were democracies. To him, it meant that they were much easier to defeat. The very last thing that Hitler wanted was for his opponents to find strong willed dictators to prosecute the fight against him. If France and Britain had been dictatorships and tried to stop German expansion in Eastern Europe, Hitler still would have attacked them. Hitler did not care how a foreign government was organized. He only cared what its policy was toward Germany.
The Same thing was true for the Japanese. They believed that Americans were undisciplined and dissolute. If the United States was a militant nation with a strong dictatorship, it might have tried to conquer Asia for itself. This was the last thing that the Japanese wanted. They believed that American interference with their plans in Asia was halfhearted and that a sharp defeat at Pearl Harbor might convince them to mind their own business. They were certainly not fighting to change the United States from a democracy into a dictatorship.
The Idea that World War II was a fight between democracy and dictatorship is just plain wrong. On the allies’ side, the majority of the fighting was done by the Soviet Union, which was a dictatorship. Are we supposed to believe that Stalin was fighting for democracy? The entire idea of a massive war between democracy and dictatorship is propaganda. It was not real during World War II, and it is not real today.
World War II was fought to prevent a new wave of imperialism from overthrowing the established order. It was a magnificent success. The war not only stopped German and Japanese imperial aggression, it also destroyed all existing empires and ended the entire concept of imperialism. A hundred nations gained their independence because of the Second World War. This was not the original intention of France and Great Britain when they declared war on Germany, but the law of unintended consequences came into play.
When the war was over, the wartime propaganda should have been consigned to the dustbin, but that is not what happened. As the saying goes, the victors get to write the history books. The American people liked their wartime propaganda. It portrayed themselves as the good guys, fighting for freedom and democracy. Their enemies were the bad guys, evil dictators fighting for power, greed, and oppression. The American people, the government, and the media worked to perpetuate this myth.
Books, movies, and popular literature often have the theme of the struggle of good versus evil. Today it seems like every third movie out of Hollywood features an evil dictator trying to conquer the world. Americans like to believe that they are the righteous soldiers of God, fighting against evil dictators and in favor of peace, stability, and democracy. This is a great fantasy, but it is not reality.
The real world is going through a massive revolutionary transition from traditional societies to democratic market society. It is not engaged in a Hollywood fantasy battle between evil dictators and Western democracies. Dictators have often played a role in the revolutionary transformation of society. Most countries have used dictators as part of the revolutionary process. This includes many of the thirty or so countries that have already developed into democratic market societies.
Traditional societies were ruled by monarchs, aristocrats, and tribal leaders. Fully developed modern societies are ruled by democratic politicians. Very few countries manage to go directly from traditional leaders to democratic leaders. There is usually a transition period of chaos and anarchy that includes one or more dictators. More than half of the world is still in this transition period today, and they sometimes use dictators to reduce the chaos and impose some kind of order. This is why there are dictators in the world. They are not here to glory in their evilness and attack freedom and democracy in the West.
Of course, if the United States insists that dictators are evil and must be destroyed, they quickly become America’s enemies. After World War II, the U.S. decided that communism was an evil tyranny that wanted to destroy freedom and democracy everywhere. This idea existed before the war, but it grew in strength and became America’s dominant ideology as a direct resolute of wartime propaganda.
The Soviet Union had been an extremely useful ally, but by screaming and hollering that they were evil and intended to conquer the world, the United States quickly turned them into an enemy. This was completely unnecessary, and it probably led to a prolongation of the unworkable communist system in the Soviet Union and their defensive buffer zone in Central Europe. Mao Tsedong, Ho Chi Minh, and Fidel Castro never wanted to be enemies of the United States until America declared that they were evil dictators who must be destroyed. After that, they did not have much choice.
America’s own actions have been turning its wartime propaganda into prophecy. By picking fights with dictators, this country has managed to create a history of warfare between democracy and dictatorship, but it did not have to be that way. This policy brought about the Cold War, and now it is leading the United States into war with the Arab world. This conflict is just as unnecessary as the Cold War. It is the result of World War II propaganda. One of the primary reasons for writing this explanation of history is to clear up this misunderstanding.
It is certainly true that revolutionary dictators can be a problem, and sometimes, they start wars. This has been going on for more than 400 years. The Princes of Orange performed a role very similar to that of revolutionary dictator in the Dutch Revolution of the 16th century. Oliver Cromwell was a revolutionary dictator during the English Civil War of the 17th century. Revolutionary leaders in France established dictatorial rule at the end of the 18th century. Both Napoleons called themselves emperors, but they were actually revolutionary dictators, along with Simon Bolivar and many others, in the 19th century.
The 20th century had a bumper crop of revolutionary dictators. This is largely because of the massive breakup of colonial empires after World War II. About 100 newly independent nations were born. In most of these countries, the traditional leaders had already been replaced by colonial governors and administrators. Now the colonial rulers were gone, but most of these countries were not yet ready for democracy. In the last 50 years, they have had large numbers of revolutionary dictators.
According to the logic of the American myth, all of these dictators, from Oliver Cromwell to Saddam Hussein, are evil autocrats trying to destroy freedom and democracy. This is clearly not the case. They are a fundamental and necessary part of the revolutionary transition, which leads to only one place, democratic market society.
It is true that some of these dictators have gotten out of hand. This was especially a problem back when conquering empires was considered to be acceptable behavior. It is entirely possible that some dictators in the present and the future will also cause more trouble than they are worth. It is probably a good idea for the world to have an emergency process for the removal of revolutionary dictators that cause too much trouble. In order for such a process to work, the world has to understand what dictators are and why they are here.
Theory One
One theory, which is the conventional wisdom of modern America, is based on the World War II experience. It says that the world is in the midst of a war between the forces of democracy and the forces of dictatorship. It equates this to the conflict between good and evil. According to this theory, evil dictators—like Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, and their fellows—are fighting against freedom, democracy, and world peace. It comes to the conclusion that these dictators are a cancer on the world and must be destroyed in order for democracy, and all things good, to flourish.
Theory Two
My theory is more complicated and is based on the entire flow of human history. It says that the world is undergoing a massive revolutionary transformation of its economic, political, and social institutions. This revolution was set off by the adoption of markets as the primary mechanism for the distribution of food. Dictators are part of the revolution. War is part of the revolution. Chaos and anarchy are part of the revolution. All of these things are temporary. They will not last forever. The end result of this revolution is democratic market society.
If the democratic nations of the world are going to go out and remove dictators from office, they should at least know why dictators exist and why they are connected with violence. Here are two very different explanations. Only one of them can be correct. Which one is it? You decide.
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