12th February 1943.
 
 
 
My dear Myron Taylor,
 
     
 
 
I have read with great interest the memorandum on Germany which you enclosed in your letter   
of January 23rd.    Herewith my comments for what they are worth.    They are of course purely   
personal and not based on any discussion with colleagues in the Government.
 
     
 
 
The memorandum falls into three parts; firstly,a diagnosis of the reasons why Gremaby has   
gone amok; secondly, what should be done with Germany at the end of the war by way of punishent;   
and thirdly, what is the right permanent treatment of the German problem.
 
      
 
 
I am afraid I do not agree at all with your friend's diagnosis that the dominating cause   
which has driven Germany on her present course has been an economic fear haunting her for   
gererations. I would say on the contrary that the domiuating cause has been the Prussian military   
tradition, based on Prussia's success in building up a powerful and wealthy state by means of   
successful war.  Hitler is simply a vulgarisation of Bismarck, making use of modern demagogy and   
of the passionate resentment of Germany over her last defeat.  Undoubtedly the great depression   
of twelve years ago swelled the discontent that gave him his chance, but it was not the real   
cause.
 
      
 
 
It is quite true that in more recent times, since Germany acquired a dominant positon on   
the continent, German publicists have dragged in economics and the need for raw materials as a   
justification of colonial expansion or for the domination of South Eastern Europe.