Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

people possessed no 'people's army' in no way proved the contrary; for what matters is not
the momentary military form of the fighting forces, but rather the will and determination to
risk those which do exist. England has always possessed whatever armament she happened
to need. She always fought with the weapons which success demanded. She fought with
mercenaries as long as mercenaries sufficed; but she reached down into the precious blood of
the whole nation when only such a sacrifice could bring victory; but the determination for
victory, the tenacity and ruthless pursuit of this struggle, remained unchanged.
In Germany, however, the school, the press, and comic magazines cultivated a conception of
the Englishman's character, and almost more so of his empire, which inevitably led to one of
the most insidious delusions; for gradually everyone was infected by this nonsense, and the
consequence was an underestimation for which we would have to pay most bitterly. This
falsification went so deep that people became convinced that in the Englishman they faced a
business man as shrewd as personally he was unbelievably cowardly. The fact that a world
empire the size of the British could not be put together by mere subterfuge and swindling
was unfortunately something that never even occurred to our exalted professors of academic
science. The few who raised a voice of warning were ignored or killed by silence. I remember
well my comrades' looks of astonishment when we faced the Tommies in person in Flanders.
After the very first days of battle the conviction dawned on each and every one of them that
these Scotsmen did not exactly jibe with the pictures they had seen fit to give us in the comic
magazines and press dispatches.
It was then that I began my first reflections about the importance of the form of propaganda.
This falsification, however, did have one good side for those who spread it: by this example,
even though it was incorrect, they were able to demonstrate the correctness of the economic
conquest of the world. If the Englishman had succeeded, we too were bound to succeed, and
our definitely greater honesty, the absence in us of that specifically English 'perfidy,' was
regarded as a very special plus. For it was hoped that this would enable us to win the
affection, particularly of the smaller nations, and the confidence of the large ones the more
easily.
It did not occur to us that our honesty was a profound horror to the others, if for no other
reason because we ourselves believed all these things seriously while the rest of the world
regarded such behavior as the expression of a special slyness and disingenuousness, until,
to their great, infinite amazement, the revolution gave them a deeper insight into the
boundless stupidity of our honest convictions.
However, the absurdity of this 'economic conquest' at once made the absurdity of the Triple
Alliance clear and comprehensible. For with what other state could we ally ourselves? In
alliance with Austria, to be sure, we could not undertake any military conquest, even in
Europe alone. Precisely therein consisted the inner weakness of the alliance from the very
first day. A Bismarck could permit himself this makeshift, but not by a long shot every
bungling successor, least of all at a time when certain essential premises of Bismarck's
alliance had long ceased to exist; for Bismarck still believed that in Austria he had to do with
a German state. But with the gradual introduction of universal suffrage, this country had
sunk to the status of an unGerman hodgepodge with a parliamentary government.
Also from the standpoint of racial policy, the alliance with Austria was simply ruinous. It
meant tolerating the growth of a new Slavic power on the borders of the Reich, a power which
sooner or later would have to take an entirely different attitude toward Germany than, for
example, Russia. And from year to year the alliance itself was bound to grow inwardly
hollower and weaker in proportion as the sole supporters of this idea in the monarchy lost
influence and were shoved out of the most decisive positions.
By the turn of the century the alliance with Austria had entered the very same stage as
Austria's pact with Italy.