manoeuvre. As a consequence, and in light of the swiftly deteriorating international situation, the leadership of the Reich came to see 1939 as the best time to launch a war, even if it was still far from ideal to do so. The only other option available to the Reich in 1939 was to throttle back armaments production and to pull back from hostilities. Due to the rapid pace of Allied rearmament and the total hostility of Hitler to such a move this was seen as completely impossible. Germany was then pushed into an early war due to structural economic problems, and the collapse of its international strategy.
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