People that were against the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan in WWII were obviously ignorant of the larger number of causalities it would have cost both Japan and the US in its place, and were insensitive to massive suffering and loss of life that the US and others had already endured.
Truman only had two options. 1) To kill one million more people, both Japanese and Americans, or 2) Kill 100,000 Japanese that started the war and end it.
To me, the choice is obvious. I am sure Truman would have dropped 12 billion roses instead if it ended the war, but it wouldn't, so he did what had to do to end the war. And dropping the bomb barely did end the war as Japan still didn't want to surrender initially after that.
Best Regards.
Donovan
--- On Thu, 2/19/09, Kenneth Marcy <kmmos1 at verizon.net> wrote:
From: Kenneth Marcy <kmmos1 at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Presidential Rankings (2009)
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 12:45 PM
On Wednesday 18 February 2009 14:03:26 Kai Eiselein wrote:
> Sooooo, would this apply to those who condemn the use of nuclear bombs on
> Japan?
Yes. I think that the Allies, and the Americans specifically, were war-weary
from large social and industrial reorganizations to support a war effort then
beyond all those previous. The prospect of any necessity of taking a land war
from the Allies into Asia implied such huge additional losses that any way to
end the Nipponese war, and prevent its spread more generally to Asia, was
seen as a useful effort.
More so than any subsequent major conflict, World War II was seen as a just
war; the Allied cause was worth winning for good reasons, and all efforts
toward that end were justified.
Yes, the atomic destruction was horrific, no doubt about it, and on sight of
the test blast, the decision makers all knew it. Oppenheimer said in New
Mexico "I am become death." And the chain of command, from Groves up
to
Marshall and then to Truman, presumably had some idea of the much larger
magnitude of the atom bombs, so the decision to use them was in service of
ending the Nipponese war sooner rather than later.
> Or the fire bombing of Germany?
Without reviewing the technical details, I will just say that after the U.S.
joined the Allied cause then underway, there was a strong determination to
see the war effort through to a victorious decision. No one doubted the
justness of the Allied cause, nor did anyone doubt that the awful destruction
was beneath the dignified preferences of civil societies. However, the Axis
aggression had to be stopped, and the prosecution of the European efforts
continued until that goal was reached. Whether the goal could have been
achieved more optimally with less destruction was a judgment call; second
guessing and arm-chair quarterbacking more than half a century later won't
change their determination then to get the job done with what was available.
> Or, the actions Europeans took in the Americas after stumbling upon the
> contintents?
Considering that Europeans first began attempting permanent North American
settlements centuries ago, it is even more important for us not to impose our
mind-set on their attitudes and motivations. Some of the earliest were
explorers, somewhat later they were escaping religious differences. Yes, they
had racist attitudes. Yes, they felt their technologies and their old-world
civilization gave them a sense of entitlement to what they saw before them.
There was no North American parliament with proportional representation of
the indigenous peoples, and if anyone had been so foolish as to suggest one,
they would have been laughed, or worse, out of the colony.
>From our contemporary understandings we can easily and glibly say that the
Europeans should have accepted the natives as human equals. But not all of
them were willing to accept the "savages" as fully human. They did
not have
the advantage of knowing about Darwinian science, Mendelian genetics, and
contemporary molecular biology that illustrates our closer human kinship than
their observations of skin color, physiognomy, and social culture allowed.
Even today not all of us have learned these lessons sufficiently well, so who
are we to suggest that those early colonists were incompletely informed?
> After all, there are those who do the same in those instances.
> My comment wasn't so much anti-war as it was historical fact. For some
> reason Vietnam and Kennedy are kept conspicuously separated in history
> textbooks, even though Kennedy's actions led the U.S. directly into
the
> Vietnam war.
Yes, it is true that many Americans are a soft-hearted bunch, preferring
polite conversation and gentle reminiscences of how nice the Kennedy family
looked, how cute and adorable the children were, and on and on. Oh my,
wouldn't it be fun to sail with Jack and the boys, or ride English
side-saddle with Jackie and the ladies? How wonderful we could feel about
ourselves, fantasizing ourselves into a far-away Camelot!
As the older generations fade into memory, younger generations of historians
will probably have sharper things to say about how close we came to a Soviet
American war near Cuba, and how lucky we were for back-channel communication
between the nonagenarian English Lord Russell and Nikita Khrushchev, and some
other fortunate military command communications incidents that forestalled
active engagement.
> On another note, it was Kennedy who signed legislation allowing U.S.
> companies to set up shop in foriegn countries without having to pay U.S.
> income taxes on their profits from those units. The idea was that by
> bringing jobs into countries that were at risk of falling to the commies,
> it would make communism less appealing. It was a logical move.
There probably were multiple reasons for allowing tax-free foreign commerce by
American organizations. Profits likely were a part of it, as was the
opportunity to extend the de facto American intelligence network abroad, but
outside of the usual military and diplomatic channels. And I would not be
surprised to learn that the administration found it convenient to allow
certain organizations to operate profitably without any necessity for their
books to be examined by anyone in an official sphere. The darker corners of
commercial activity can benefit more than just capitalists, as many have
noted since then.
> Unfortunately, an unintended consequence has been the wholesale migration
> of U.S. companies abroad.
Companies have been operating for profit internationally since ancient trading
times, so international business is nothing new. Consequences, unintended or
not, can be changed if the courage and collective will are marshalled to
change laws and behaviors to more desirable patterns. This is a question of
needed leadership, not of the horses irrevocably having escaped the barn.
> How much howling from big biz do you think there would be if the law was
> repealed and they had to pay taxes on their foreign income?
How much howling is there over any contentious tax issue? Capital gains, for
example? Too often, the lobbyists and the committee chairmen decide their
answer, and that's that. Powerless citizens may howl all they wish, to
little avail. Powerful interests need not howl at all; they pay their agents
and their will is carried out via gallons of ink printed on paper mountains.
Fundamental tax reform, as opposed to rearrangement of regulations, is
relatively rare in the United States. For example, the US does not have a
national property tax on large holdings of private property, specifically
land. Why do not corporations and individuals who own millions of acres of
land pay no federal property taxes on those large holdings? Exemptions for a
few thousand acres of actively farmed, or recently fallowed, land could
easily be arranged, so working farm families would be exempted. So, for the
remaining land hoarders, why should they not pay some small rate of property
tax to help offset the government expenses of their national defense and
liberties preservation? Jefferson bought the Louisiana Purchase from the
French to enlarge the United States. Don't we all have an obligation to
periodically re-examine who owns what land, and to re-evaluate how to keep
that land optimally productive, financially and environmentally?
Ken
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