© RIA Novosti / HaldeiThe Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Banner of Victory over Berlin, 1945
As little as 13 percent of Europeans think the Soviet Army played the leading role in liberating Europe from Nazism during WW2, a recent poll targeting over 3,000 people in France, Germany and the UK reveals.
The majority of respondents - 43 percent - said the US Army played the main role in liberating Europe. The survey, carried out from March 20 to April 9, 2015, was conducted by the British ICM Research agency for Sputnik News.
Over 50 percent of Germans and over 61 percent of French citizens believe their ancestors were liberated by the Americans. Nearly fifty percent of Britons think British forces actually played the key role in ending the Second World War.
Only 8 percent of respondents in France and 13 percent in Germany credited the Soviet Army for the victory.WW2 lasted from 1939 to 1945 and involved over 80 countries and regions. Up to 70 million people are believed to have lost their lives. However, the USSR suffered the biggest losses.
At least 27 million Soviet citizens died during the war.The US hoped to stay out, not taking part in WW2. Between 1935 and 1939 the US Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts meant to prevent Americans becoming involved. President Harry S. Truman was quoted as saying by the
New York Times in June 24, 1941: "If we see that Germany is winning, we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances. Neither of them thinks anything of their pledged word."
Comment: William Binney, who spent 36 years in the NSA and is now highly critical of the agency's spying programs, was interviewed last November regarding the NSA surveillance program. During the interview he commented about speaking as a witness by the NSA commission of the German parliament, the Bundestag: