General Halder in 1939

[besilarius]

https://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=1544

German general Halder had a lengthy discussion with the American consul in Berlin.  The report seems to show that he accurately for saw where Hitler would lead Germany.

[bob48]

Wow! That is interesting.

[Martok]

Wow.  Yeah, he definitely appears to have called it pretty well. 

[JasonPratt]

When Halder is concerned about "intense war talk abroad", the number one intense war talk abroad at the time was coming from Stalin and his government, and had been consistently doing so since Lenin took over Russia. (Or even before then: Lenin launched a war to get into and take over Germany less than 48 hours after the formal end of WW1, and while his own armies were still fighting the Civil War.)

Naturally, Hitler used that as an excuse for convincing the German people to tolerate or outright go along with whatever supervillainy he wanted to indulge in. Stalin did the same thing on the other side (having helped put Hitler in place for his own purposes to begin with -- partly so he could point to Hitler as an excuse for gripping more tightly upon his own people!)

Seems curiously naive that Halder thought achieving Hitler's goals for securing the control of resources and means of production, would lead to the end of Hitler's government and his National Socialism. 

[besilarius]

Halder knew, and was in position to know, the reality of the situation.
My feeling is that he felt that his oath required him to do his best, even though he saw the looming abyss.
In one of Hans Helmut Kirsts novels, he refers to a number of generals who performed their duties to the end as "the last of the Prussians."