While still imprisoned during the Nuremberg Trials, Hermann Göring gave an interview to the psychologist Gustav Gilbert.
Göring said: “Of course the people don’t want war. Why should some simple farmer risk his life in a war, when the best he can get out of it is to return to his farm uninjured? No one wants war - neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is obvious.
But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a Communist dictatorship, or a Parliament, or a Fascist dictatorship.”
Gilbert replied: “There is one difference in a democracy - the people can express their opinion through their elected representatives.”
Göring answered: “Oh, that is all well and good, but whether the people have a voice or not, they can always be brought to heel. It is simple. You just tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. That works the same in any country.”
Source: April 18, 1946, quoted from Gilbert’s book Nuremberg Diary
Source (page 270): https://perma.cc/JSC9-42J9
