Bangladesh, Oct. 27 -- As World War II drew to a close, the United States briefly entertained one of the most draconian postwar ideas in its history – the Morgenthau Plan. Proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, the plan envisioned a demilitarized, dismembered, and deindustrialized Germany, stripped of its factories and reduced to a pastoral state. The assumption was that Europe did not need a strong industrial Germany – a premise as dangerous as it was misguided. Fortunately, geopolitical reality soon intervened. With the Cold Wars onset, Washington and its allies quickly reversed course. Germanys economic recovery became essential, and the Marshall Plan replaced Morgenthaus vision with one of reconstruction and pros...