During the period known as the interwar period, which took place between the First and Second World War (1919-1939) many countries suffered a period of serious shift in their orders. The changes that happened led to the Second World War and ignited the rivalry between two participants of the war, US and USSR. First, there was the period of great success for the American side, as they had not lost that much money their economy was booming in a period of time known as the "roaring twenties". Other countries that participated did not have a very nice recovery from the war, as their countries had been devastated from the war, to name two main victims, France and Germany. These two countries, which were next to each other, were sharing the misery that their people felt, although the situation in Germany was by far the worst. Germany was in a tunnel that did not seem to have an exit; the situation was horrible and only one miracle could save them, this miracle was Adolf Hitler. This ruthless fascist politician and war veteran had emerged from the political obscurity to attain power in a period less than 20 years. His ideal of nationalism and knowledge of media tools, the use of propaganda helped him gain the hearts of the German people, creating the Nazi Germany, the igniter of WWII.
Other country that had used fascism to rise from its crisis was Italy, even before than Germany. The Italian people had found in Benito Mussolini the perfect leader, a ruthless dictator, which apart from his secret police and mass purges lowered unemployment. He was a brilliant man, who was a great strategist and used his knowledge to get powerful allies such as the Catholic Church with the Lateran Treaty and Germany, led by his admirer and Fascist leader Adolf Hitler.
Surprisingly enough, every totalitarian ruler got their power from scratch; for instance, Mussolini and his Blackshirts seized power with his several marches. These countries had risen from the economic chaos, mainly Germany that rose from being the greatly affected country, which was in a huge debt to being one of the most powerful world powers in a short period. There were other countries, which had put under a totalitarian government and their respective dictators, the Soviet Union, Spain and China. The latter country began its totalitarian government after the interwar period, where Mao Zedong had seized power.
Francisco Franco, a general who had first sought the liberation of his people at the nationalist side. Franco had to use a totalitarian government, having a keen eye for the media, controlling it fully. He also did many purges just as Hitler and Stalin against the men who decided to have elections or disobeyed his curfews. However, Franco was intelligent and knew how to act to survive, making alliances first with US, then Hitler, and then US again.
Every ruler was very intelligent in a specific thing; Stalin was intelligent at remaining in power and raising his country’s economy by quite a lot. Stalin had also had his share in the military, he was a participant with the Bolsheviks, and he then got the power after the death of Lenin and the "mysterious disappearance" of fellow Bolshevik Leon Trotsky. Furthermore, Stalin, purges and crimes apart was a smart man, with his five-year plans he had achieved a great economic boost in economy. At the end, all these countries and their rulers were similar in the sense that they had a great plan; they just took it too far and their power slowly consumed them.
With this said, the tactics implied by the several leaders could be applied to another countries, since they were in similar conditions. For example, Hitler’s Nazi strategy could have perfectly worked in the United States. There were many sympathizers for the Nazi cause in the US, some examples are Gerald Ford and William Randolph Hurst.
Actually, the Nazi strategy would have worked even better at US, where there was no crisis, Hitler could have boosted the country’s nationalism, used propaganda, establish his youth programs, it could have all worked. These strategies were actually used by the American government itself during WWII, not the youth programs, but they indeed had the most popular place to be or dedicate yourself to-the army. It was all in a similar condition and therefore Hitler’s strategy would have easily worked on America, and who knows, even the fate of the war may have changed. Further, there was quite the scientific movement in Germany; it was a progressing country, just like the US, where it was constantly trying to improve them. In my opinion, this scenario could work out just fine, the two countries were similar and one specific thing they had in similar was the Aryan way of life. Germany under Hitler’s Nazi strategy had openly declared itself as following the greatness of the Aryan empire; US had not done that, but believed in that in some way. America has always searched for the supremacy of the American continent, always the nationalism through the roof and a sense of greater calling in life; some examples of this are the Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny. The switch would have worked indeed, in two countries that had been born again and looked for progress; Germany and United States, Hitler and FDR; it would have worked.
