Has anybody watched - The Plot Against America

Jedi boro

Well-known member
The new hbo/sky Atlantic show about a world where the us turns it back on the uk and stays “neutral” in ww2 with a sympathised slant to the axis.

If so what did you think?
 
Yes! Gets better by the episode. I was unsure to start with but I was soon gripped. Very clever idea, transposing Nazism to the US. Scarily close to the present n'est ce pas?!
 
No it’s about Charles Lindbergh (but I get your point) beating FDR at the the 1940 election.

It cleverly done as it dripping with digs at the current regime despite its fictional period setting.

Very unnerving though. But def worth a watch only 6 parts first season.
 
Yes! Gets better by the episode. I was unsure to start with but I was soon gripped. Very clever idea, transposing Nazism to the US. Scarily close to the present n'est ce pas?!
It really is isn’t it. Trump’s paranoia must be going into over drive.

I especially like the dig at the “america firsters”
 
It really is isn’t it. Trump’s paranoia must be going into over drive.

I especially like the dig at the “america firsters”

John Turturro's part made me squirm. His appeasement, his acceptance... Such a slime ball but he played a great part and it was great when he found himself 'in trouble'.

And the metaphor about being transported to 'Kentucky'? Very clever. Gripping tv. I hope more people watch it but you're the first person who has mentioned it!!
 
Complete guess based on the OPs description, sounds like like I nailed it.
Not really it’s much more nuanced than that. As yes the overtones are there but the underlying point is that history is never written and what we think of as norms and freedoms Today can just as easily be taken away tomorrow.

As I said given the time the book was written-in 2005 about 1940s the parallels to the modern day us administration are as stark as they are foreboding.
 
I have watched 2 of them (set in 1941 and 1942) and they were interesting to me. I liked how it showed around 25% - 50% of US society slowly turned into fascists, and in the episode last night starting fixing election results to keep power in a so called democracy. In the US emphasis was placed on anti-communism as communists were seen as the evil bogeymen that had to feared at all costs, but in this drama they have thrown in Jews as an evil threat too.

Lindbergh in real life was a racist, but always denied he was fascist or supporter of the Nazis. He did receive a flying medal from Goring in 1938 and said the USA should not enter WW2 against Germany.
 
The yanks gave asylum to a load of Nazi scientists didn't they? That's how the nuclear weapons and space race games were furthered?.
 
The yanks gave asylum to a load of Nazi scientists didn't they? That's how the nuclear weapons and space race games were furthered?.
Saturn V is basically a larger v2 as Von Braun and his team took their rocket knowledge and moved it to the US. There is a really good book on this very subject of how war their records were largely wiped for senior nazi scientists once they moved them to the US.

As look at who built Von brauns vengeance rockets in the first place.

it scary when you think that nazi Germany had all this knowledge and expertise on their door step and how if they had discovered the bomb how different history could have been.
 
But this isn’t about a fictionalised Account of WW2 as the real war is hardly mentioned or only in passing. No it’s about how fascism and right wing ideology can pollute a nation and how that seed can grow and how history can often be decided on the smallest of margins.

Btw the same was true here as large members of chamberlains war cabinet were in favour of sue ing for peace with hitler to broker some firm of A deal, a fact largely downplayed now or even forgotten all together in some cases. As don’t forget Hess Germany’s second in command flew all the way to the uk to meet with high ranking British officials ... why did he do this who was he due to meet and how far advanced were these plans.

Churchill was one of the few that was opposed to the idea of an form of appeasement or capitulation and could see how dangerous this regime truly was.
 
Saturn V is basically a larger v2 as Von Braun and his team took their rocket knowledge and moved it to the US. There is a really good book on this very subject of how war their records were largely wiped for senior nazi scientists once they moved them to the US.

As look at who built Von brauns vengeance rockets in the first place.

it scary when you think that nazi Germany had all this knowledge and expertise on their door step and how if they had discovered the bomb how different history could have been.
Scary indeed.
I've read before that if Germany had kept the Allies out of the country for 2 more years the outcome of the war would have been very different and the south coast as far inland as London wouldn't be a viable place to live.
 
Scary indeed.
I've read before that if Germany had kept the Allies out of the country for 2 more years the outcome of the war would have been very different and the south coast as far inland as London wouldn't be a viable place to live.


This is the book I was referring to...

Eric Lichtblau
The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler's Men

A Newsweek Best Book of the Year: “Captivating . . . rooted in first-rate research” (The New York Times Book Review).

In this New York Times bestseller, once-secret government records and interviews tell the full story of the thousands of Nazis—from concentration camp guards to high-level officers in the Third Reich—who came to the United States after World War II and quietly settled into new lives.

Many gained entry on their own as self-styled war “refugees.” But some had help from the US government. The CIA, the FBI, and the military all put Hitler’s minions to work as spies, intelligence assets, and leading scientists and engineers, whitewashing their histories. Only years after their arrival did private sleuths and government prosecutors begin trying to identify the hidden Nazis. Now, relying on a trove of newly disclosed documents and scores of interviews, Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Eric Lichtblau reveals this little-known and “disturbing” chapter of postwar history (Salon).

From the Back Cover
"New York Times "bestseller Espionage category For the first time, once-secret government records and interviews tell the full story of the thousands of Nazis from concentration camp guards to high-level officers in the Third Reich who came to the United States after World War II and quietly settled into new lives. Many gained entry on their own as self-styled war refugees. But some had help from the U.S. government. The CIA, the FBI, and the military all put Hitler s minions to work as spies, intelligence assets, and leading scientists and engineers, whitewashing their histories. Only years after their arrival did private sleuths and government prosecutors begin trying to identify the hidden Nazis. Now, relying on a trove of newly disclosed documents and scores of interviews, Eric Lichtblau reveals this shocking, shameful, and little-known chapter of postwar history. Disturbing. Salon Engaging. "Chicago Tribune" A gripping chronicle. "Times of Israel" Riveting . . . An important, fascinating read. Jewish Book Council Eric Lichtblau is a "New York Times "investigative reporter in Washington. In 2006 he won a Pulitzer Prize for stories on the NSA s secret wiretapping operations. He is the author of "Bush s Law: The Remaking of American Justice.""
 
I don't think we would have ever gone Far Right - British people in modern times have been generally socially and racially tolerant in relative terms (UK has often attracted immigrants because of this). The Blackshirts in the 1930s never got more than a few percentage of the population supporting them. Hitler didn't have many supporters in the UK in the 1930s. The appeasers tended to want to avoid another WW1 and after Poland most supported going to War. I would have not sold Czechoslovakia out in 1938 and would have sold armaments to the Spanish Republic in 1936/7. Some say we were buying for time in 1938 as we really knew Hitler would start a War by then, but we were not ready. Fear of Bolshevik Communism from the Soviet Union has always been present in the UK and much more so in the USA.

The Nazi rocket scientists were forgiven their sins if they agreed to develop weapons for the USA for the rest of their working lives. The threat from the Soviet Union was seen as paramount. Nazism was no threat to the USA after May 1945 and war crimes trials was limited to a number of show trials of senior officials by the USA and its Allies in 1946.

Not many people know but we did imprison a lot of German Nationals and people with German connections on the Isle of Man in WW2 as they were seen as potential security threat, so we could do relatively extreme acts in war conditions. These people were housed in hotel and B&Bs, they were given adequate food and shelter although medical support may have been limited.
 
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