[donzigschaap]

Ik ga volledig akkoord met uw bericht. Toevallig zitten wij daarmee ook op dezelfde golflengte als veel historische revisionisten die schrijven over WOII.

Voor mij is er ook geen onderscheid. Zij die het onderscheid wel maken halen dingen aan als "de staat zag geen andere uitweg om haar eigen burgers/soldaten te beschermen" (alsof dat is wat een staat voor ogen heeft), "de staat is moreel superieur, want het regime waarvan het de onderdanen terroriseert is veel erger" (alsof een staat ooit morele superioriteit kan claimen met zijn monopolie op geweld), et cetera.

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Murray N. Rothbard

One of Barnes' most important contributions to Cold War Revisionism came in the spring of 1958, when he published what is still the best single article on what might be called "Hiroshima Revisionism" – the real reasons for dropping the A-bombs on Japan.10 Barnes was here the only writer – and, remarkably, remains the only writer to this day [1968] – to make use of the highly significant MacArthur memorandum to F.D.R. of January 20, 1945. This forty-page memorandum explicitly set forth the terms of an authentic Japanese peace offer which were virtually identical with the final surrender terms that we accepted from the Japanese seven months later – at the cost of countless needlessly expended lives, Japanese and American alike. The proffered terms included: complete surrender of all Japanese forces and arms; occupation of Japan and its possessions by Allied troops under American direction; Japanese relinquishment of all territory gained during the war, as well as Manchuria, Korea, and Formosa; regulation of Japanese industry to prohibit any production of war implements; release of all prisoners of war and surrender of any war criminals so designated by the United States.

This MacArthur memorandum, the details of which were later fully confirmed by the general, was leaked in strict confidence to Walter Trohan of the Chicago Tribune by Admiral William D. Leahy, chief of staff to the President, who was alarmed lest Roosevelt might fail to follow through on the Japanese proposal, which proved to be the case. As soon as the war with Japan was ended, Trohan was free to publish these revelations, which completely established the American knowledge of what were later to be fully acceptable Japanese peace terms. And yet, apart from Harry Barnes, no Hiroshima Revisionist to date has made use of them.11 They are equally indispensable to those who have presumed to write on the last year of the war between the United States and Japan and on Roosevelt's conduct at the Yalta Conference, but they have been ignored by all such writers to the present time. Nothing has annoyed Barnes more than the timidity or dull-wittedness of those historians who call themselves Revisionists but have consistently and deliberately refused to make use of the MacArthur memorandum after Barnes had not only repeatedly called their attention to it but had also furnished several of them with copies and all the related documentation required fully to authenticate it.

Barnes also disclosed, for the first time, the personal testimony of Herbert Hoover that President Truman, by early May, 1945, informed him that he knew of the extensive Japanese peace offers and admitted then that further fighting with the Japanese was really unnecessary. But, Truman also disclosed to Hoover, he did not feel strong enough to challenge Secretary Stimson and the Pentagon. Yet neither of these confirmatory revelations have been picked up by Alperovitz and the other recent expositors of Hiroshima Revisionism. In his article, Barnes also supported the P. M. S. Blackett thesis, since adopted by Alperovitz, that the major reason for dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a sabre-rattling gesture to the Russians against whom we were already preparing the Cold War. Indeed, Barnes concludes that "many date the origins of the Cold War from the time he [Stalin] received news of the [atom] bombing shortly after the Potsdam Conference."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard27.html

Barnes over revisionisme:
http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/barnes.html

(The Memory Hole: a web publishing project intended to make accessible certain materials otherwise generally unavailable owing to the political squeamishness of the American public.)