Why did the Allies demand an unconditional surrender?

First, you claim my agreement with those ambiguous of 'unconditional surrender' must mean I'm another Nazi-apologist influenced by a David Irving.
Then, when you criticise me in particular for not even knowing who he was.
Are you serious?

Contrary to your assertion, I've seen people here actually quote unquestionably non nazi-apologist sources including Stillwell himself and Eisenhower. I haven't seen you quote Churchill or such stating they were unambiguous of 'unconditional surrender'. Please provide.

Just because someone doesn't know John Toland, I don't go dismissing their opinions on ww2. But to dismiss someone's opinion because they must be a Nazi when they don't even know who Hitler was, is just menopausal.

As for your near word for word quote from Oxford Companion.
Quote:
Unconditional surrender:
"The phrase did not occur in the communique of the conference and both Roosevelt and Churchill later tried to claim that that the phrase was unpremeditated. It is now known that Roosevelt had discussed the matter with his staff before leaving Washington, and that Churchill had had the opportunity to consult the war cabinet in London. The absence of the phrase from the communique, and it's subsequent use by Roosevelt, suggest disagreement between the two leaders and the likely cause of that disagreement was the treatment of Italy."

From: The Oxford Companion to the Second World War.

If you read down further.
"Churchill hoped for some way of easing Italy out of the war; Roosevelt thought that it more important to restate Allied war aims firmly and unambiguously. He did so not, as has sometimes been suggested, in order to reassure Stalin, restive over continuing delay in mounting the Second Front, but in order to reassure the American public opinion, unhappy with *Eisenhower's deal with the *Vichy French authorities in Algiers which had eased the American landings at the start of the *North African Campaign.

The irony here is that it was Churchill and Ike who supported DeGaulle and the Free French while FDR supported the Vichy. In this case, Churchill, "ambiguous of the unconditional surrender demand" was more hard-lined in who to support than FDR was.
Churchill/Ika ambiguous of unconditional surrender, AGAINST Vichy FOR Free French.
FDR the opposite.

It seems hypocritical to accuse the latter of being Nazi-apologists when it was in fact the former actively doing so.

I don't see anyone here equating unconditional surrender with leaving the Nazis anything but an illegal post-war organization.
Everything I've read indicates that the German Generals and Underground were all set on this principal as well. The General's plans always prepared for the immediate arrest and dis-arming of even SS divisions, as well lists sent out(which got them convicted and hung) of every Nazi Party official and member and organization leader to be arrested and jailed immediately as well.
To say that this 'card' in the deck doesn't deserve encouragement, but should be removed altogether, is just unreasonable.

But if you are going to punish even the Underground and anti-Nazis as Nazis anyways, of course that's going to affect their efforts.

It's not only taking away an enemy of Hitler, it's making them stand against us too. We made who should be our allies, resist us too. Not because they liked Hitler, but because they feared us.

I appreciate those who posted actual quotes by such leaders on the actual issue rather than just the "if you don't support Bush's Plan in Iraq, you must be allied to Alquaeda" response.

Cheers.

 

Pottered onto this picture while looking for something else.
Reminded me of this thread.



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I'd forgotten Balderdasher and his dual personalities.
He was fun. I'd hoped before he was binned that he was actually about to start arguing with his own sock puppet.

 

My memory is broken, but I tend to recall arguments.
My old dear calls it 'the family grudge'...

That, and Morgenthau's suggestion still gets more credit than it deserves, often by those looking to raise some of the aforementioned 'victim' status for Adolf & his boys while over-egging other strange relativist positions.