[PornoDoggy]

If the German General Staff hadn't found Hitler, they would have found someone else. Much of the framework for the German war machine, including the air force, was already in place by the time Hitler decided to start a revolution in a beer hall.

I'm not so sure that any easing of the financial terms of Versialles would have prevented the 2nd world war in Europe. There was going to be a rematch. Everybody in Germany knew it; everybody in France knew it.

If France and England had found the balls (or the French had gone it alone) to ENFORCE the provisions of the Versialles Treaty when the Germans reoccupied the Rhineland, then the 1st round of the 2nd world war in Europe might very well have been Germany vs the Soviet Union alone. Had THAT happened, (and assuming the same alliance evolved) then I think the Japanese would have looked north and west instead of south and east, and things would have gotten really, really fucked up once they defeated the Soviets - and a double strike could have done it.

If the Japanese would have shown Hitler the same courtesy against the Soviets that he showed them against America, then the likelyhood of an Allied victory becomes one hell of a lot more dicey.

You also have to wonder what would have happened if the French right would have spent a little less time worrying about the perceived threat of Communism and paid a little more attention to the very threat from the east.