On this anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, I thought I'd link this Paul Fussell essay. It's from the Free Republic link because all the other sites with the full essay are pdf.
I actually gave Gen. Paul Tibbets a copy of this at a tribute dinner for him and his crew at The Proud Bird Restaurant near LAX. I was a bit surprised he had never seen it. I had earlier seen a History Channel program where he had said in an interview that some of the younger members of his family considered him to be a monster.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I listened to a program on the radio, probably NPR or PBS and they mentioned there was an article in the New Yorker. I found it and read a good portion, Here is a link, one probably has to be a subscriber, perhaps not. [newyorker.com]
dalefvictor
Level 8
Aug 7, 2021
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Thanks for the New Yorker article, I’m able to read all of it and will do so.
In short, I think America’s use of the first nuclear weapons told the world’s ruling classes that in a general nuclear war they too would die. Small proxy wars became the norm in America’s effort to make the world safe for American investors.
Contemporaneously an awkward moment of American history unfolded:
“OSS Deer Team members pose with Viet Minh leaders Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap during training at Tan Trao in August 1945. Deer Team members standing, l to r, are Rene Defourneaux, (Ho), Allison Thomas, (Giap), Henry Prunier and Paul Hoagland, far right. Kneeling, left, are Lawrence Vogt and Aaron Squires. (Rene Defourneaux)”
Scott321
Level 7
Aug 6, 2021
2
And more from that wiki:
“ In 1981, Patti stated that Julia Child, who had worked at the OSS in 1945, had allegedly submitted his position papers on Vietnam to appropriate authorities, but the way in which he had found them upon his retirement was exactly as she had sent them, and they had never been opened or read”
History stranger than fiction.
Ho Chi Minh and Thomas Jefferson.
@WilliamCharles From there fast forward to Graham Greene’s The Quiet American as reasonably captured by the movie starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser. It is kinda vague, if memory serves, if Greene was side-eying the exploits of Ed Lansdale who helped fight the Filipino Huk rebellion (vampires?), spent relevant quality time in Vietnam, and then proceeded into Operation Mongoose.
@WilliamCharles Interesting, I had heard this but had not seen the information published. Thanks,
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