Let observe here the fact that Dictators such as Mussolini and Hitler
cause surprise as much as any thing because they really declare their
intentions
and carry them out. It is not bluff.
 
 
It is true that a Nazi action occasionally does not appear, on the
surface, to be following the general policies to be deducted from MEIN
KAMPF. As an example in point one may cite Hitler's Reichstag speech of
May 21, 1935, in which he ostensibly offered peace, albeit on his own
terms, to every country except Lithuania. Despite the bellicose
attitude towards France in MEIN KAMPF, that country was included in the
offer. Closer examination, however, reveals that this was mainly a
tactical move undertaken to bring pressure to bear on Lithuania with
the object of benefiting the position of the Memel Germans. As for the
peace offer, he doubtless argued that it would not be accepted, but
that if it were accepted it would furnish Germany with welcome respite
and could later be broken when convenient.
 
 
This Government operates on a doctrine of stark realism which has as a
corollary a brutal frankness and an opacity of vision toward the
outside innate in the German character. It is evident that in regimes
of the immediate past this characteristic has produced only a bungling
type of statesmanship .