Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Not True
The BBC issued a story that is remarkably tabloid worthy about the US's use of Nazi scientists post WWII to develop primarily rocketry. The last paragraph of the piece is just despicable.
But, while celebrating the undoubted success of Project Paperclip, many will prefer to remember the thousands who died to send mankind into space.The article ignores a couple of key facts
- While many of the scientists were members of the Nazi party and even the SS, they were not necessarily war criminals. We did not jail the entire german army after the war. As is alwasy the case with dictatorial parties, if one wants to do something, one must join.
- No one died to send mankind into space in WWII (the crew of Apollo One notwithstanding). WWII was about defeating Hitler, Japan, and Mussolini, pretty much saving the world. That's what people died for and that is a fine cause for which to do so. What happened after the war was dealing with an incredibly difficult circumstance.
What is it lately -- people think war ends when the shooting stops. That's just when the hard work begins. Conquering is easy compared to rebuilding or ruling. That is one of the greatest lessons of history. But wait, I forgot, most people don't read history...
UPDATE: Apparently the BBC has this whole "history project" thing going and this is a part of some larger context that I was unaware of. I still think the American press will take it out of context and try some revisionist history based on it.
