ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at denazification largely through the efforts made by the Anglo-American coalition to purge fascism from the minds and hearts of the German people and their politics. The enormity of German destruction already had discredited fascism to a large degree among many of the German people, who faced economic ruin and psychological humiliation, with seven million Germans dead, cities burned, and countless wounded and jobless. Glory and military posturing are short-term solutions to induce popular support for state and corporate polices. In the long run, they must be matched with shared booty. Guns alone are not sufficient; butter is also necessary. America’s borrowing to buy guns may have bought several decades of prosperity, but by the 1970s, it became self-defeating. Until then, United States domination stemmed from one specific historical fact: the world wars left America’s infrastructure intact, but decimated its rivals.
