By the way,...

Jerry Jethro (see recent post comments), I agree. There is certainly a natural parallel between the sweeping darkness of the Nazi regime and the Empire's influence on its galaxy. For the record, I believe that the Nazi campaign in World War II was one of Lucas's strongest models in building the saga. In fact, I believe the Nazi infantry, or at least a subset of the army, was referred to as "storm troopers" (for fun see The Nazi Secret Service at ISWWR IfStarWarsWasReal.com)...