>Yes, along with a massive superiority complex that led the grandparent to ask “why didn’t those Silly Billies just listen to us?”

But that's exactly what this boils down to. Indeed, why didn't the Europeans (really, "Germans") listen to the Americans? No amount of "How uncouth of you to tell us the truth, and how unfair of you to tell us that we should have listened to you" doesn't affect the validity of the truth, or the wisdom in listening to it in the first place.