Carrol Cox <cbcox@ilstu.edu> writes:
"What makes the pilot of the Enola Gray [sp?] a
war criminal is not dropping the bomb but
continuing after the fact to glory in his action"
Actually, it was the Enola Gay.
We're talking about a lot of stuff here
besides the 60s, but I guess that's OK
if the list members like it that way.
A lot of World War II veterans still shriek
at anyone who dares to question the dropping
of the bomb. That is because for many of the
GIs it was a big relief. They wanted to go
home instead of having to invade Japan.
The propaganda justification for dropping
the bomb was that if it wasn't done, we would
have been compelled to invade Japan, at a
cost of a million Allied casualties.
From no less a source than our own dearly
beloved David Horowitz, author of The Free
World Colossus, I came to understand in the
60s that the above notion was a false dilemma.
I recall Horowitz pointing out that the
Russians were about to invade Japan when
the bombs were dropped. It looks like
the real motives for dropping the bomb
were:
1. to make sure the US would have exclusive
occupation of Japan after the war, instead
of having to share it with the USSR; and
2. to force the Japanese to submit to an
unconditional surrender, instead of some
other possible outcome, such as a
negotiated armistice.
It was the commitment to the above two goals
which forced the choice between the costly
landed invasion or dropping the bomb.
I also recall Horowitz pointing out that
Truman was delighted to drop the bomb as
a means of scaring the Russians and gaining
an advantage in the upcoming Cold War.
~ Michael Wright <-- waiting for Horowitz
Norman, Oklahoma to shriek
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