By Elliot Ackerman, October 2, 2024
https://www.thefp.com/p/usa-germany-wor ... ee-weaponsTwo years ago, I was invited to lunch in Washington with Gilman Louie, a tech venture capitalist. He was in town to discuss the passage of the CHIPS Act, a $53 billion reinvestment in America’s semiconductor supply chain. Gilman believed that the offshoring of tech manufacturing was a dire national security issue. His concerns were many—from the vulnerability of Taiwan’s chip industry to China’s navy having surpassed the size of our own. If we ever had to fight World War III, the U.S. wouldn’t be ready.
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“In the Second World War, which nation produced the most exquisite technology? Because it wasn’t the United States.”
It was Germany, as Gilman reminded me.
Back then, American Sherman tanks—nicknamed “flaming coffins” by GIs—proved no match in a one-on-one contest with their German counterpart, the Tiger tank. Both the fighter jet and the long-range ballistic missile, innovations that came late in the war, weren’t creations of the Allies, but of Germany. With the notable exception of the atom bomb, the Germans were consistently the first to field what was then considered exquisite technology. The problem for the Germans was that they lacked industrial capacity. The Allies defeated the Axis with inferior technology that could be mass produced.
Today, the United States finds itself in the position of the Germans. We have divested ourselves of much of our industrial capacity. China, meanwhile, with 35 percent of the world’s global manufacturing output, finds itself in the position that allowed the United States to win the Second World War. With wars being fought in Europe and the Middle East, and continued Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, it’s hard to understate our vulnerability.
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Interesting article re our readiness, or lack thereof, and is definitely worth a read.
This Free Press article lays bare how unprepared we are. Does our country have what it takes to meet the demands of modern warfare? Would our bureaucrats and business titans step up when patriotism is most needed?
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These questions reminded me of a book I read recently:
Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II
Freedom's Forge is an excellent read for anyone interested in WWII history, and it also underscores our current lack of preparedness. Freedom's Forge is the story of the men who set aside petty differences, industrialized our unprepared nation, and developed the U.S. war machine of WWII. I highly recommend this book!
From Goodreads:
Remarkable as it may seem today, there once was a time when the president of the United States could pick up the phone and ask the president of General Motors to resign his position and take the reins of a great national enterprise. And the CEO would oblige, no questions asked, because it was his patriotic duty.
In Freedom’s Forge, bestselling author Arthur Herman takes us back to that time, revealing how two extraordinary American businessmen—automobile magnate William Knudsen and shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser—helped corral, cajole, and inspire business leaders across the country to mobilize the “arsenal of democracy” that propelled the Allies to victory in World War II.
“Knudsen? I want to see you in Washington. I want you to work on some production matters.” With those words, President Franklin D. Roosevelt enlisted “Big Bill” Knudsen, a Danish immigrant who had risen through the ranks of the auto industry to become president of General Motors, to drop his plans for market domination and join the U.S. Army. Commissioned a lieutenant general, Knudsen assembled a crack team of industrial innovators, persuading them one by one to leave their lucrative private sector positions and join him in Washington, D.C. Dubbed the “dollar-a-year men,” these dedicated patriots quickly took charge of America’s moribund war production effort.
Henry J. Kaiser was a maverick California industrialist famed for his innovative business techniques and his can-do management style. He, too, joined the cause. His Liberty ships became World War II icons—and the Kaiser name became so admired that FDR briefly considered making him his vice president in 1944. Together, Knudsen and Kaiser created a wartime production behemoth. Drafting top talent from companies like Chrysler, Republic Steel, Boeing, Lockheed, GE, and Frigidaire, they turned auto plants into aircraft factories and civilian assembly lines into fountains of munitions, giving Americans fighting in Europe and Asia the tools they needed to defeat the Axis. In four short years they transformed America’s army from a hollow shell into a truly global force, laying the foundations for a new industrial America—and for the country’s rise as an economic as well as military superpower.
Featuring behind-the-scenes portraits of FDR, George Marshall, Henry Stimson, Harry Hopkins, Jimmy Doolittle, and Curtis LeMay, as well as scores of largely forgotten heroes and heroines of the wartime industrial effort, Freedom’s Forge is the American story writ large. It vividly re-creates American industry’s finest hour, when the nation’s business elites put aside their pursuit of profits and set about saving the world.
