Re: Annual attempt at correction

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

I wasn't going to get into this WWII stuff, but, as a WWII refugee to the U. S., and having  lived through The War and the Cold War and Korea (my first husband and my brother are Korean war vets) I can't resist some comment


> .As far as
>
> I understand the "neutron-bomb" was developed to kill people in tanks, but
>
> not the farmers. 

The "neutron bomb" was never developed.  The idea was that people would die but structures would remain standing.


The Japanese annected Korea in the beginning of the 20th


> century - but they did not kill the population. Koreans had to work to
>
> provide food for Japan.


The Japanese may not have engaged in wholesale slaughter of the Koreans, but a large number of Koreans were political prisoners during the many years of Japanese occupation.


> If any war in Europe (or the Near East or the Far East or in Africa....)
>
> would have ended with the extinction of some peoples, Europe would be a
>
> devastated land since long. 

Have you forgotten the 6 million European Jews so soon?  They may not have been extinguished, but that was not for lack of Nazi effort and intent.


First of all, wars cost money and one of the


> most common reasons for ending a war, was simply that the agressor ran short
>
> of money to pay the mercenaries, to feed the regular troops after they had
>
> robbed the attacked country of everything eatable etc. Another reason was,
>
> that suddenly the "Big Brother" of the country attacked rose up and told the
>
> attacker "Don't mess with my little brother - or I will send my troops".
>
> This is a common argument even nowadays.
>
>
> Politically it seems to me clear, that the "Western World" needed Germany
>
> and Japan and other countries after WW 2 in order to have both in Europe and
>
> in the Far East a counterweight to communism. To drop a bomb (or two bombs)
>
> killing hundreds of thousands of people is one thing, to have allies for the
>
> next enemy is another one.
>
>
> The Marshall Plan, which restored Europe's economy, the postwar economic aid to Japan, the military aid to Greece and Turkey, and the Berlin Airlift, were certainly "counterweights " or whatever to communism and to Soviet domination. They were also motivated by the "lessons learned" after WWI, when the idea was to reduce Germany and Austria to agrarian states with little else economically.  Hitler rose to power because of the desperate economic situation in Germany after 1918.


I am reading Roosevelt's Secret War by Joseph Persico, and I recommend it to anyone interested in these discussions, as it bears on them.


Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

ruthweiner@aol.com