Linda and I attended the graduation
ceremony for St. Edward's University in Austin recently, as my niece
was graduating. I'd like to give you my reaction to the commencement
address which was delivered by Dr. David L. Warren, the President
of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
The theme of his address was the
concept of “boundary decisions” referring to life-changing
decisions and having the courage to make them. And he used as an example
President Harry S. Truman. He cited three boundary decisions that Truman
made: 1) he racially integrated the US Military; 2) he fired General
Douglas MacArthur, and 3) he dropped the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki.
Of course, it's easy to praise Truman for
the first decision, as there is no place for racism in the US
Military. And even the second decision, to fire MacArthur, was good
because MacArthur wanted to expand the Korean war into China instead
of making peace. But the third decision to drop nuclear bombs on
civilian population centers in Japan? Are we supposed to be believe
that that too was a brave, courageous “boundary decision?”
Yes, according to Dr. Warren. He
repeated Truman's oft claim that by dropping those bombs he saved a
million lives. Actually, the number kept growing and growing as the
years passed. At the beginning it was 200,000 lives.
But, it's all nonsense. Japan had
already agreed, in principle, to surrender. In fact, they had just
one sticking point: they requested that their Emperor Hirohito be exempt from
prosecution as a war criminal. They pointed out that, like the Queen
of England, he was more of a figurehead than a real leader. And they
pointed out that in their Buddhist religion, he was considered a divine
figure. They said that everyone else in the government and the
military could be subject to prosecutions and even to the death penalty,
but just leave him out of it.
Well, our side wouldn't go for it.
First Roosevelt and then Truman said that it had to be an “unconditional
surrender.”
So, we dropped the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. The death toll in the immediate aftermath was greater
than 200,000 people. But, many more deaths followed from radiation
sickness in the ensuing months and years.
Japan unconditionally surrendered right away after
that, but we never did go after their Emperor Hirohito. And he lived
a long life- all the way until 1989.
Are you thinking as I do:
“What the ffffff ??????? You mean we had no intention of prosecuting the
Emperor after all? Then why didn't we accept their terms and let the
war come to an end without dropping those bombs and killing all those people???????"
The truth is that the atomic bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a war crime, and arguably, it was the worst war crime
in the history of warfare. It was not a brave "boundary decision." It
was an atrocity.
But then, Dr. Warren fast-forwarded to
the Vietnam era, and there his emphasis was on civil disobedience. He
mentioned Thoreau. He said that during the Vietnam War, he got a
student deferment. Same for me. Then, when they ended
student deferments, he drew a high draft number, so he was never
really in danger of being drafted. Same for me. But, he
said he protested the war anyway, on campus and off. Same for me. And I think the idea was that for him and others like him, opposing the Vietnam War was a “boundary decision” that they made.
Well, that's all very well and good, but I'm
still back at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I don't think anyone can deny
that if our government or any government did that today- nuked civilian population centers – they would be considered monsters and maniacs. So, why should we look back at what happened in 1945 and see it any other way?
Japan was already crushed. They were
decimated. There was absolutely no need to nuke them. It was a crime
what we did. It was an unspeakable, dastardly, monstrous crime, and Harry S. Truman was a mass murderer.
And how could Dr. Warren talk about the
Vietnam War without talking about President Kennedy and his
assassination? Doesn't he know that a cardinal reason why Kennedy was
killed was to launch the Vietnam War?
Kennedy was bent on getting us out of
Vietnam. He had already signed the order to start withdrawing our
“advisers” at the rate of 1000 a month. LBJ reversed that order
the Monday following the assassination.
You can't talk about the Vietnam War
and how it came about without talking about the assassination of
President Kennedy. But, Dr. Warren didn't say a single word about JFK.
Here is a link to Dr. Warren's bio.
You'll see that he has reached the
pinnacle of achievement in education and political correctness and
societal respectability. Good for him. But, he doesn't
know shit from shinola, and in various and sundry ways, he has spent
his life supporting a very corrupt system.
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