Consume Product

Nice. I have it, but haven't read it yet. Came highly recommended to me by a fren I know IRL

To add to that, Hitler considered the element of surprise a military advantage (which it clearly was), and talking about a possible attack would have eliminated that. So it had to be kept in secret, and when it happened, it was a big surprise for everyone, even for the German people.

And the Soviets planned all of that from the very beginning. They accepted the pact knowing that "the capitalists" will be in war with each other and exhaust themselves - and when that happens, they come in snatch up the rest to conquer all of Europe.

So even if Hitler didn't attack, the Soviets would have attacked in 3 weeks. Even if they wouldn't have attacked in 3 weeks, they'd have waited for the right moment to strike. And there is no guarantee that the West was willing and/or able to fight them anyway, so even if they'd have attacked Germany, they'd consider it a good gesture, so the entire East would have been fucked anyway. Or if it came too late and come after the rest (and not directly against Germany), they'd have done nothing.

And given the uncertainty Hitler had to deal with, there was no obvious best decision. Of all possible choices he might have chosen one of the best. The others were based on hoping the Soviets wouldn't attack and wait too long to make their move. His choice required the West not to be so utterly kiked as to attack Germany from the West as he fended off the communist threat from East.