Could the Morgenthau Plan had caused the US to lose the Cold War?

As you know the Morgenthau Plan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgenthau_Plan) involved destroying Germany as a country.

This would had removed Germany as a very strong ally in the Cold War, also it would had been a genocide that would had put the Nazis to shame, given how it was drafted by a Jew it would also had caused many people to ponder if the "Nazis were right" and would make the US look like a monster.

It would also be a massive drain in resources, with the US having to pay and pay to keep the area stable.

The Soviet Union and Eastern Germany would had looked a lot better than Western Germany and in fact, it would had made the Soviets look extremelly merciful on Germany compared to what the Western Allies did. In the eyes of many it would make Communism and the USSR look better than the US and capitalism.

So my question to you is: Do you think that this plan, could had been enough to cause the US to lose the Cold War and have the USSR to raise as the only superpower or at least have communism remain capitalism as the leading world idelogy?
 
So my question to you is: Do you think that this plan, could had been enough to cause the US to lose the Cold War and have the USSR to raise as the only superpower or at least have communism remain capitalism as the leading world idelogy?

To the first: Ha ha. No. The US is a towering giant next to the USSR. I can't see them losing before either nuclear Armageddon or the rise of China makes the US-USSR cold war irrelevant. The best the USSR can expect is to avoid losing.

To the second: Maybe. I rather doubt it though. Even if the whole European continent falls to Communism, the US, South Americans, British, White Dominions and Japanese aren't going to be falling to Communism because of some starving Germans.

fasquardon
 
To the first: Ha ha. No. The US is a towering giant next to the USSR. I can't see them losing before either nuclear Armageddon or the rise of China makes the US-USSR cold war irrelevant. The best the USSR can expect is to avoid losing.

To the second: Maybe. I rather doubt it though. Even if the whole European continent falls to Communism, the US, South Americans, British, White Dominions and Japanese aren't going to be falling to Communism because of some starving Germans.

fasquardon

The Anglosphere won't fall to Communism, no, but that's not to rule out the possibility that they'd instead go frothing insane with anti-Red paranoia and become police states run by ideological zealots who run them into the ground. Hell, for America, I'm kind of amazed we didn't IOTL.
 
To the second: Maybe. I rather doubt it though. Even if the whole European continent falls to Communism, the US, South Americans, British, White Dominions and Japanese aren't going to be falling to Communism because of some starving Germans.
But what about the rest of the world? The USA might have a harder time winning hearts and minds in the Third World.
 
But what about the rest of the world? The USA might have a harder time winning hearts and minds in the Third World.

That's why I said that the answer to the second part of the question was "maybe". But the US still has more money, more resources, a better educated population and a more robust political system. Add them to the large pools of skilled manpower in the British Commonwealth and Japan and you have a world-beating alliance.

Or at least you do until global nuclear war or the rise of China changes the whole game board.

fasquardon
 
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