`New York Times' Coverage of 1932 to 1948 History Revisited: Part 1

Between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times newspaper claimed to always be providing its readers with accurate information about what was going on during the 1932 to 1948 period of world history. But between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times sometimes printed articles that turned out to be historically accurate; and sometimes also printed articles that turned out to be historically inaccurate.

In an August 16, 1932 article, headlined "Hitler Dictatorship In Reich Held Unlikely: Woodbridge Thinks Nazi Leader Cannot Seize Power--Sees Steadying Force in People," for example, the New York Times stated:

"Professor Frederick J.E. Woodbridge, Theodore Roosevelt Professor of American History at the University of Berlin for the last year, returned on the Holland-American liner Volendam yesterday and said the probability of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists gaining power in Germany was not strong. He said he did not think it possible for Hitler to seize power and that the Nazis would have to wait for a majority in the Reichstag..."

Then, in a January 31, 1933 article, headlined "Hitler Puts Aside Aim To Be Dictator," the New York Times stated:

"Adolf Hitler's acceptance of the German Chancellorship in a coalition with conservatives and nonpartisans marks a radical departure from his former demand that he be made `the Mussolini of Germany' as a condition to his assumption of government responsibility...

"...A group of Nazi industrialists in the Rhineland the Ruhr, who have been among Hitler's chief financial backers, have urged him to drop his uncompromising attitude and join the government. According to recent dispatches from Berlin, former Chancellor von Papen was the `friendly broker' between the National Socialists and this group of industrialists.

"Recent Berlin dispatches indicate also a deal between Papen and Hitler for the overthrow of General von Schleicher, who roused the displeasure of the Rhineland-Ruhr industrialist by his inclination to deal leniently with labor and to seek the support of the trade unions. In this policy, these industrialists foresaw the abandonment of the economic program laid down by Papen as Schleicher's predecessor in the Chancellorship.

"Outstanding is the dramatic element of Hitler's accession to power at the age of 43. The new Chancellor began as the son of poor parents in Austria. For  a long time he was not even a German citizen..."

And after German Imperialist Dictator Hitler ordered German Imperialism's war machine to invade Poland in early September 1939, the New York Times asserted that "following upon the sinking of the Athenia yesterday the United States took its first sweeping step to insure neutrality in the European war" by issuing a proclamation "establishing an arms embargo against present belligerents as required by our neutrality statute," in a September 5, 1939 article; and a September 10, 1939 article by an apparently white racist Columbia University Professor of History, Allan Nevins, headlined "Can Civilization Survive A World War?," was printed a few days later by the New York Times, which stated:

"There is danger that the depletion of European manhood, if pushed much further, will permanently weaken the Caucasian stock in its competition with black and yellow races; that Asia and Africa by sheer default of the present leaders will take a new rank in world affairs. European strength cannot withstand the drain of successive periods of butchery without exhaustion, and some of the resulting changes may go further than people of European blood will like to contemplate..."

In a September 12, 1939 article, headlined "Poles Unprepared For Blow So Hard," the New York Times also then stated:

"It is a mystery to both German and neutral military experts on the tour with the writer that the Poles made no provisions for second or third lines and that in retreat they did not make any attempt to throw up earthworks or dig trenches such as helped the Germans stop the Allies after the Marne retreat in 1914..." (end of part 1)