Hitler's Table Talk

US ENTRY INTO WAR 489
to reply to these short-sighted spirits that the present conflict
is one of life or death, and that the essential is to win—and to
that end we are quite ready to make an alliance with the Devil
himself.
Taking a more objective view, it is obvious that the Japanese
alliance has been of exceptional value to us, if only because of
the date chosen by Japan for her entry into the war. It was, in
effect, at the moment when the surprises of the Russian winter
were pressing most heavily on the morale of our people, and
when everybody in Germany was oppressed by the certainty
that, sooner or later, the United States would come into the
conflict. Japanese intervention, therefore, was, from our point of
view, most opportune. Apart from that, the way in which
Japan interprets her obligations under the terms of our alliance
does her the greatest credit and is having a happy influence on
the German people.
221 18th May 1942, midday
Two German diplomats worthy of honour.
I must pay tribute to the merits of our last Charge d'Affaires
at Washington, the Councillor of the Embassy, Thomson, and
also to those of Bötticher, our Military Attaché. These two
men showed them over there that they were diplomats who
could not be bluffed. The reports which they sent us must be
regarded as models of their kind, for they invariably gave us a
perfectly clear picture of the situation. I intend not only to give
immediate proof of my particular appreciation of these two
men, but also, once the war is over, to confide to them missions
worthy of their capabilities. I shall hold Thomson, in particular,
for a post of exceptional difficulty.
222 18th May 1942, at dinner
The inevitable characteristics of war with Russia.
Nothing demonstrates so clearly as the unfolding of our
conflict with Russia how essential it is that the Head of a State
must be capable of swift, decisive action on his own responsibility,
when a war seems to him to be inevitable. In a letter