You are missing the point (though I share your criticism of things as they are).
No country in recent history has been so thorroughly defeated both in military terms and in ideology as Germany. It would have been _incredibly_ easy to dole out severe punishment on Germany after WW2 (let's say, massive economic reparations, a ban on heavy industry, exclusion from public office/certain professions for any past member of the NSDAP). Some things like that were on the table.
Google Morgenthau plan.
Had that happened, I can assure you that either, we'd have had another big war within Europe by now, or (West-)Germany would have drifted towards the Soviet Union, or both.
Instead there was economic upswing and americanization. We became rich, we became fat, and we became disinterested in German nationalism and revenge (for injustices real and even moreso imagined).
No country in recent history has been so thorroughly defeated both in military terms and in ideology as Germany. It would have been _incredibly_ easy to dole out severe punishment on Germany after WW2 (let's say, massive economic reparations, a ban on heavy industry, exclusion from public office/certain professions for any past member of the NSDAP). Some things like that were on the table.
Google Morgenthau plan.
Had that happened, I can assure you that either, we'd have had another big war within Europe by now, or (West-)Germany would have drifted towards the Soviet Union, or both.
Instead there was economic upswing and americanization. We became rich, we became fat, and we became disinterested in German nationalism and revenge (for injustices real and even moreso imagined).
That is the success story.