JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH, Professor Emeritus of Harvard University, was one of the foremost economists of the 20th Century. He distinguished himself during the Nehru-Kennedy years as an exemplary Ambassador to India. After the Second World War, Galbraith was sent to conduct a study in Germany on inter alia the efficiency of the German war machine. He wrote two incisive and influential essays titled “Germany Was Badly Run” and “Retrospect on Albert Speer” on Nazi Germany’s war preparations.
Contrary to popular perception, Galbraith found the Nazi leaders lacked the competence to efficiently run a war economy. For instance, German aircraft procurement was a disaster. The vastly superior twin-jet fighter ME 262 was delayed for months by an irrational effort to convert it into a bomber. Furthermore, women were not employed in armament factories, which led to these critical factories in Germany shutting down at night. Despite a scarcity of steel, nearly fifty million metric tons remained unutilised. In Nazi Germany unilateral wrong decisions could not be corrected.
