****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Incredible amount of information, about how Henry Ford was an automotive genius, but a cantankerous curmudgeon otherwise, who, at first, stoutly resisted any idea of producing any war materiel for WWII, since he proclaimed himself a pacifist.Not only that, but the Ford company owned factories in many foreign countries, including Germany, and he was suspected of having Nazi sympathies.But his only son, Edsel, was a loyal American, and since he had been elevated to the presidency of Ford Motor Company, he intervened and boasted that his company could produce a bomber every hour, to defeat Hitler and Japan.Of course, this was a completely audacious idea, which no one thought could ever be done.He had to literally start from scratch, even to the extent of building a totally new building to house the world's largest assembly line, to construct B-24 bombers.But the real genius of America's performance during the war was Roosevelt, and I can't imagine anybody but him being able to pull it off as well as he did - like a symphony conductor with an intimate grasp of every instrument in his immense orchestra, and he couldn't even get out of his chair!Just the idea of converting every manufacturer from civilian to war production started with Roosevelt.Only a person of incredible talent and ability, such as he was, could possibly have put it all together.Ford Motor Co., as well as virtually all American car companies, plus many other companies which previously manufactured mundane civilian products, converted to war manufacturing, and although it took us awhile to get in gear, we ultimately became the source for just about all war production for the whole Western world, including Britain and Russia.Ford not only made B-24 bombers, but also a whole litany of other defense products, such as the Jeep, and of course, trucks, as well as portable bridge systems, and almost every other defense item you could imagine.Even the gliders that we used in the D-Day invasion were made by Ford, from lumber made from trees on one of Henry's farms.But along the way, Henry's influence was sinister, and he definitely had a dark side, which especially revealed itself in his hiring a virtual criminal, Harry Bennett, who ingratiated himself into the company to the extent that he ran it like a fiefdom, with Henry's blessings, which undermined Edsel at every turn.He brought in thousands of henchmen, to carry out his and Henry's dirty work, especially in opposing the unions.Bennett came very close to weaseling away the Ford company and getting it completely under his control, as Henry was becoming senile.That's the only plausible explanation, since Henry had been a very loving and attentive father when Edsel was young, but he pitted Harry Bennett against his only child, as time presented choices that Henry wanted to avoid.In the midst of all this, Edsel, who had always been in ill health, suddenly died, just as the goals he had set for the company were starting to pay off. It took heroic effort by others, namely, Henry's wife, and Edsel's wife, as well as Edsel's son, Henry II, and his wife, to keep Bennett at bay.But throughout the war, all the companies, including Ford, stepped up and geared their production to whatever war materiel was needed, and overwhelmed the likes of Hitler and Hirohito, and saved our bacon.But the fact that it happened at all, considering that Henry almost literally had to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing something entirely against his will, is amazing.And that at a time when Henry was probably the richest man in the world.Roosevelt was very close to resorting to taking over the Ford Motor Company, if Henry had not finally capitulated.It is definitely a fact that without the supreme effort that everybody made here in America, Germany and Japan might have prevailed.Our soldiers, sailors and Marines, plus the fliers from all services, and the good old American can-do attitude, gave us just enough to oust the bad guys, but it wasn't a cake-walk, by any means.So much so that over 60 million people died, all around the world, in WWII.In fact, it was a Herculean effort, but that's what was necessary, since we were fighting two extremely fanatical and determined foes, both of whom had a big head start in war production and preparation.
