Grumpy lefties and VENONA

[Jacob Segal]

>>>> Jacob Segal <jsegal at mindspring.com> 12/07/99 10:36PM >>
>It is nonsense to think that the US would have started dropping nuclear
>bombs here and there after WWII.  The atom bombing of Japan was a great
>crime, of course, but there is no basis or reason to think the US would
>have used nuclear weapons again if the Soviet has not developed the same
>weapons.
>
>(((((((((((
>
>Charles: It is only nonsense to think it if you have some naive trust and
>faith in the good ole USA.
>Since the U.S. did drop the bomb on Japan, seems the burden is on those
>who say they wouldn't have dropped the bomb on the  SU to give their
>reasons why the U.S. wouldn't . In other words, the fact that the US
>dropped the bomb on Japan is a reason to think that they would drop it on
>the S.U. The burden shifts to you to give a reason why not. Why didn't the
>U.S. agree to ban the bomb when they had it and the Soviets didn't ?
>
>After the Soviets got the bomb, that was the deterant that prevented the
>U.S. from dropping it.
>
>

I don't believe that Truman, Eisenhower, et al. would have, outside of open
war,  willfully killed millions of people in particular acts for which
responsiblity could not have been avoided.  This is not to say they are
were at all innocents or that they were not responsible for the deaths of
many.  However, they wwere things they were not capable of.  I also think
that their actions would have been influenced by public opinion in the US
and world opinon.

To defend the US from some accusations is not to defend US cold war policy
in general.

Jacob