Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 58

Countdown to Hiroshima: X-Minus 1 Day

Each summer I count down the days to the atomic bombing of Japan (August 6 and August 9, 1945),  marking events from the same day in 1945.  I've been doing it here for more than two weeks now.    I've written  three books and ebooks on the subject:  Hiroshima in America (with Robert Jay Lifton),  Atomic Cover-Up (on the decades-long suppression of shocking film shot in the atomic cities by the U.S. military),  and Hollywood Bomb   (the wild story of how an MGM 1947 epic was censored by the military and Truman himself).

August 5, 1945:

—Pilot Paul Tibbets formally named the lead plane in the mission, #82, after his mother, Enola Gay. A B-29 that would take photos on the mission would be named Necessary Evil.

—Also on Tinian, Little Boy is ready to go, awaiting word on weather, with General Curtis LeMay to make the call. At 3:30 p.m., in an air-conditioned bomb assembly hut, the five-ton bomb as loaded (gently) on to a trailer. Crew members scribbled words onto the bomb in crayon, including off-color greetings for the Japanese. Pulled by a tractor, accompanied by a convoy of jeeps and other vehicles, the new weapon arrives at the North Field and is lowered into the bomb pit.

--The bomb is still not armed. The man who would do, before takeoff, according to plan, was Parsons. But he had other ideas, fearing that the extra-heavy B-29 might crash on takeoff and taking with it “half the island.” He asked if he could arm the bomb in flight, and spent a few hours—on a hot and muggy August day—practicing before getting the okay.

—Pilot Tibbets tries to nap, without much success. Then, in the assembly hall just before midnight, he tells the crew, that the new bomb was “very powerful” but he did not mention the words “nuclear,” “atomic’ or “radiation.” He calls forward a Protestant chaplain who delivers a prayer he’d written for this occasion on the back of an envelope. It asks God to “to be with those who brave the heights of Thy heaven and who carry the battle to our enemies.”

 —Hiroshima remains the primary target, with Kokura #2 and Nagasaki third. The aiming point was directly over the city, not the military base or industrial quarter, guaranteeing the deaths of tens of thousands of women and children.

— The Soviets are two days from declaring war on Japan and marching across Manchuria. Recall that Truman had just written in diary "Fini Japs" when the Soviets would declare war, even without the Bomb.  (See new evidence that it was the Soviet declaration of war, more than the atomic bombing, that was the decisive factor in Japan's surrender.)

 —Halfway around the world from Tinian, on board the ship Augusta steaming home for the USA after the Potsdam meeting, President Truman relaxes. Truman’s order to use the bomb had simply stated that it could be used any time after August 1 so he had nothing to do but watch and wait. The order included the directive to use a second bomb, as well, without a built-in pause to gauge the results of the first and the Japanese response—even though the Japanese were expected, by Truman and others, to push surrender feelers, even without the bomb, with Russia’s entry into the war on August 7.

Update: Rick Rolled?

NYT piece just out on "controversy" around Rick Perlstein's new book on the '70s and claims of plagiarism.  "Mr. Perlstein, 44, suggested that the attack on his book is partly motivated by conservatives’ discomfort with his portrayal of Reagan. Mr. Shirley is president and chief executive of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, which represents conservative clients like Citizens United and Ann Coulter.

"But Mr. Shirley and his lawyer contend that Mr. Perlstein paraphrased original research without properly giving credit. 'The rephrasing of words without proper attribution is still plagiarism,' Mr. Shirley said in an interview."

Sam Tanenhaus about to slam in a review, but he 's a conservative who also hit, in the NYT Book Review, my otherwise very well-received book on the Nixon-Douglas Senate race. 

Most of the claims of plagiarism actually relate to re-used "facts," which as Perlstein's lawyers point out are far from "copyrightable." But I have to say, Perlstein asked for trouble by putting all of his footnotes/endnotes online.  When he asked his Facebook friends what we thought of it, I replied that it was foolish--selling hardbacks but expecting people to pop out their iPads or phones to find a citation.  He later admitted that vast majority agreed with me, at least in that posting.

UPDATE   An email to me from Perlstein this morning, includes letters back and forth from lawyers and this:

Meanwhile I want to call to your attention the true evil absurdity of the charge, which its authors admit to be ideologically motivated. Review the attached letters. It's scandalous that the New York Times decided to elevate this to the level of he said/she said "controversy." Craig Shirley, by the way, is also Ann Coulter's and Dinesh D'Souza's publicist.

One of his examples includes a quote from NBC's reporter Frank Reynolds. I checked Shirley's source for the Reynolds quote, Martin Anderson's "Revolution." He misquotes his source egregiously. My mistake was trusting Shirley. Who made up a quote.
Another example, as footnote 2 in my lawyers' letter explains, says I steal a quote from Nancy Reagan from him (he doesn't understand that once a fact is published, you can't steal it, but that's another issue). Well, I got that quote from a book published in 1977. I told the Times that, but this one one of the many dispositive details left on the cutting room floor.
That 1977 book, "PR As in President," by the still-active Republican publicist and writer Victor Gold. In my phone conversations with Shirley, making small talk, I asked him if he read this excellent book, full of behind-the-scenes nuggets. One of those nuggets is that Reagan's famously "spontaneous" speech at the 1976 convention, which concludes my book, was not spontaneous at all but carefully negotiated with the Ford forces. He claimed to have read and liked this book--but the heroic final chapter of his book depicts Reagan making the speech spontaneously.
This is Benghazi-level stuff. Or worse. And the Times fell for it, "opinions differ on the shape of the earth"-style.

Tuesday Updates (from the top) On Israel-Gaza Tragedy

11:30  a.m.  Richard Engel of NBC tweets:  "Gazans telling me all day, they’re desperate, penned in, jobless. War is fast death. Living under Israeli and egyptian closure is a slow one"

10:20 a.m.    Peter Maurer, president of International Committee of Red Cross, tweets on visit to Gaza: "I have a deep feeling of shock at what I've seen and anger that we weren't able to prevent what has happened."

NDTV (that's India) video report seems to show Hamas installing rocket launcher next to hotel, later firing.  But first video showing this date, it seems.

9:30 a.m. ET  Israeli general--there are no innocent civilians in Gaza.  In op-ed he writes, "[T]hey are to blame for this situation just like Germany's residents were to blame for electing Hitler as their leader and paid a heavy price for that, and rightfully so."

BBC report on "staggering" destruction in Gaza. 

Senior Foreign Minister in British gov't resigns, saying she can no longer support policy on Israel. 

8:00 a.m. ET  Ceasefire holding, more or less, so far.

New Gallup survey finds support for Israel's attack holding firm at 42% approval to 38%.  As noted earlier, less than that among those under 50, women, and minorities.  Highest backing from those who get news mainly from TV.

Terrific NYT online-only lengthy "diary" of eight harrowing days in Gaza by novelist/political scientist.   

Classic:  after three days of taking hits on Israeli censorship of story or  stories related to the "capture" of Lt. Goldin--who actually was dead (se below)--the NYT finally posts a full piece about it, by embattled bureau chief Jodi Rudoren.  And...it's behind the NYT "Premier" pay wall!  Note: NYT mentioned at least twice that it was subjected to censorship, in one case even reading part of a story over the phone to Israeli official.  But at least once it deleted a key paragraph, without noting that--perhaps IDF asked and they complied. Rudoren has long been accused of hardly needing a censor to toe Israel's line.   Update:  Here's special link where you should be able to get behind wall to see.  Note that she admits that a key reference to "Hannibal"  was in early version of story, then cut--without explaining why.   Just lets it pass. She also fails to acknowledge that--given the savagery of the Israeli response to the "capture" (killing 200 civilians)--it was important that readers know that one reason for that might have been the soldier's relation to the defense chief.  Which she killed.  She writes she has adopted a "Don’t Ask/Hope They Don’t Tell" atttude and it's too apparent that this is her policy, even if she means it in a different way.

Good piece by NYT's Anne Barnard on psychologist who tries to treat trauma of others in Gaza and ended up a victim himself after shell hit home and killed 6 relatives.

New from Human Rights Watch:  "Gaza: Israeli Soldiers Shoot and Kill Fleeing Civilians."  Some had ordered same people to leave homes.  Some carried white flags.  Not exactly news and limited but still vital....

Yes, there's a new Bomb Gaza video game you can play online but Google finally axed it.  Okay to kill civilians.

All in the Game

Yes, there's a Bomb Gaza game uploaded at Google Play--last week--and Buzzfeed has account. "It quickly becomes apparent that it is almost impossible to avoid bombing civilians, who are in the same buildings as the terrorists firing rockets at the Israeli jet."  Company PLAYFTW is behind it.

Google getting criticism. It is not the only game available on Google Play that involves bombing Gaza, including “Gaza Assault Code Red” that tells users to “secure the region” by taking control of “an Israeli UAV equipped with powerful weapons in an attempt to secure the region.”

Countdown to Hiroshima: X-Minus 2 Days

Each summer I count down the days to the atomic bombing of Japan (August 6 and August 9, 1945),  marking events from the same day in 1945.  I've been doing it here for more than two weeks now.    I've written  three books on the subject:  Hiroshima in America (with Robert Jay Lifton),  Atomic Cover-Up (on the decades-long suppression of shocking film shot in the atomic cities by the U.S. military),  and Hollywood Bomb   (the wild story of how an MGM 1947 drama was censored by the military and Truman himself). 

August 4, 1945 :

—On Tinian, Little Boy is ready to go, awaiting word on weather, with General LeMay to make the call. With the weather clearing near Hiroshima, still the primary target, taking off the night of August 5 appears the most likely scenario. Secretary of War Stimson writes of a “troubled” day due to the uncertain weather, adding: “The S-1 operation was postponed from Friday night [August 3] until Saturday night and then again Saturday night until Sunday.”

—Hiroshima remains the primary target, with Kokura #2 and Nagasaki third.

—Paul Tibbets, pilot of the lead plane, the Enola Gay, finally briefs others in the 509th Composite Group who will take part in the mission at 3 pm. Military police seal the building. Tibbets reveals that they will drop immensely powerful bombs, but the nature of the weapons are not revealed, only that it is “something new in the history of warfare.” When weaponeer Deke Parsons says, “We think it will knock out almost everything within a three-mile radius,” the audience gasps.

Then he tries to show a film clip of the recent Trinity test—but the projector starts shredding the film. Parsons adds, “No one knows exactly what will happen when the bomb is dropped from the air,” and he distributes welder’s glasses for the men to wear. But he does not relate any warnings about radioactivity or order them not to fly through the mushroom cloud.

 —On board the ship Augusta steaming home for the USA after the Potsdam meeting, President Truman relaxes and plays poker with one of the bomb drop’s biggest booster, Secretary of State Jimmy Byrnes. Truman’s order to use the bomb had simply stated that it could be used any time after August 1 so he had nothing to do but watch and wait. The order included the directive to use a second bomb, as well, without a built-in pause to gauge the results of the first and the Japanese response—even though the Japanese were expected, by Truman and others, to push surrender feelers, even without the bomb, with Russia’s entry into the war on August 7.  Hence: assembly-line massacre in Nagasaki.

--Gen. Douglas MacArthur,  who directed the U.S. war in the Pacific, and would soon become the head of our occupation of Japan, had still not been told of the existence and planned use of the new bomb.  Norman Cousins, the famed author and magazine editor, who was an aide to MacArthur, would later reveal:  "MacArthur's views about the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were starkly different from what the general public supposed....When I asked General MacArthur about the decision to drop the bomb, I was surprised to learn he had not even been consulted. What, I asked, would his advice have been? He replied that he saw no military justification for the dropping of the bomb. The war might have ended weeks earlier, he said, if the United States had agreed, as it later did anyway, to the retention of the institution of the emperor."  As we noted earlier, both General Eisenhower and Truman's top aide, Admiral Leahy, both protested the use of the bomb against Japan in advance.

Monday Updates (Added at the Top) on Israel-Gaza Tragedy

Yes, there's a new Bomb Gaza video game you can play online. Okay to kill civilians.

Finally an expert analysis, at Foreign Policy, of Hamas crude, very unguided, rockets--and you'll understand why Israel civilian death toll has remained at three for two weeks now (and it's not mainly because of Iron Dome).  "Few in Israel or the West seem to understand the purpose of Hamas’ rocket attacks. Killing Israelis is a secondary goal in launching the rockets. The primary goal is to change Israel’s political calculations by creating the conditions for that country’s international isolation. And for now, at least, it seems to be working." h/t @BBedway

UK investigating report that Brit national killed in missile attack in Rafah while delivering supplies. Meanwhile, two alleged "terror" attacks in Jerusalem, one dead.  Seems to be some dispute on the tractor vs. bus incident.

Full-page ad in NYT with letter signed by Elie Wiesel accusing Hamas of "child sacrifice." The current conflict is clearly between "those who celebrate life and those who champion death."  Some celebration.

CNN exec:  No, we have not been hindered or intimidated by Hamas in covering Gaza. 

Official Amnesty Int'l plea--sign petition to John Kerry to halt weapons to Israel.  "The Israeli military has used a wide variety of conventional weapons such as guns, bullets, missiles, drones, jet fighters, artillery, tanks, armoured vehicles and naval vessels to commit serious human rights abuses in Gaza. It is time for the U.S. government to urgently suspend arms transfers to Israel and to push for a UN arms embargo on all parties to the conflict."

8:00 a.m. ET Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept with new piece based on Snowden docs on full extent of U.S. aid to Israel.  "The U.S. government has long lavished overwhelming aid on Israel, providing cash, weapons and surveillance technology that play a crucial role in Israel’s attacks on its neighbors. But top secret documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden shed substantial new light on how the U.S. and its partners directly enable Israel’s military assaults – such as the one on Gaza....The new Snowden documents illustrate a crucial fact: Israeli aggression would be impossible without the constant, lavish support and protection of the U.S. government..."

Israeli air strike may have broken its own ceasefire--bombed refugee camp no less, one dead, 30 wounded. 

NPR from Jerusalem on lack of "empathy" for others in tragedy.  NYT graphic/map showing destruction from shelling in Gaza may shock some.  Right-wingers claim BBC removed top correspondent due to anti-Israel bias--just another lie.  He's on vacation.

I noted a day ago Haaretz (that's the Israeli daily)  item suggesting that Israel has been telling lie all along about the three soldiers, including poor Goldin, attacked and blown up by militant wearing  "suicide vest." Now it has a full story on this, affirming it, and linking to the "Hannibal Directive" (also see below).   Still leaves huge gap on where Goldin found and why dead.  Reading between the lines, and all the references to the Hannibal, one might surmise reporter is hinting that Israel killed Goldin.  Some of his "remains" found but not from suicide vest so...because of what?  "According to an IDF source, virtually all the firepower in the south-central region of the Gaza Strip were sent to the Rafah sector, where the incident took place, on orders from Givati Brigade commander Col. Ofer Winter. This included a tank battalion and an infantry battalion, which helped search for additional tunnel shafts. These forces also laid down heavy fire 'from all directions,' including tank shells, artillery bombardments and air strikes...."

Note:  NYT had a couple sentences on Israel utilizing "Hannibal" in main story earlier--but now it's not-so-mysteriously vanished.  See cut here.  This was it:  "On Friday, Israeli forces immediately used a protocol for captured soldiers known as 'Operation Hannibal' to pursue the Hamas squad into the tunnel and try to cut off any possibility of escape.  Hannibal includes intense pursuit and an option to engage the enemy 'even at risk of the soldier,' Colonel Lerner said."  Given the paper caving  to Israel censorship demands on the soldier story all weekend we can probably guess what happened.   

Haaretz piece on the "Hannibal Directive."  In case you thought critics were making it up.

Somehow missed Woody Allen on the crisis, where he offers this history lesson:  "But I feel that the Arabs were not very nice in the beginning, and that was a big problem. The Jews had just come out of a terrible war where they were exterminated by the millions and persecuted all over Europe, and they were given this tiny, tiny piece of land in the desert. If the Arabs had just said, 'Look, we know what you guys have been through, take this little piece of land and we’ll all be friends and help you,' and the Jews came in peace, but they didn’t. They were not nice about it, and it led to problems."

Oliver Hits Advertising Going 'Native'

Another fine, fun, John Oliver segment last time, this time on the ad trend known as "native" that makes it hard to distinguish editorial copy from ads, online.  Falling of "the wall."   From NYT and more.

Beethoven Meets Hitler

Well, it's true, they were both Germans...but of different sort...I'd heard the esteemed Santa Fe Opera was doing Ludwig's only opera, Fidelio, this summer, set in a Nazi concentration camp.  NYT rips it today, finding it quite inapt.  One of problems:  in story, prisoner is ultimately saved because minister from government arrives and overrules evil warden.  Didn't exactly happen in World War II...

As many know, I co-produced current film on Beethoven's Ninth that explores modern (and apt) uses of it in recent times around the globe, also explored in my book with the director, Journeys With Beethoven.   For the book I interviewed ace pianist and writer Jeremy Denk, who wrote a review of new Beethoven bio for yesterday's NYT. 

He's Alt, Man

One of my former writers at Crawdaddy in the 1970s writes about later obsession for New York Times--and how he became official scorer at Mets and Yankees game.  I think in between he worked for the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland...

Countdown to Hiroshima: X-Minus 3 Days

  Each summer I count down the days to the atomic bombing of Japan (August 6 and August 9, 1945),  marking events from the same day in 1945.  I've been doing it here for more than two weeks now.    I've written  three books on the subject:  Hiroshima in America (with Robert Jay Lifton),  Atomic Cover-Up (on the decades-long suppression of shocking film shot in the atomic cities by the U.S. military),  and Hollywood Bomb   (the wild story of how an MGM 1947 drama was censored by the military and Truman himself).

August 3, 1945

--On Tinian, Little Boy is ready to go, awaiting word on weather, with General LeMay to make the call. Taking off the night of August 5 appears most likely scenario.

--On board the ship Augusta steaming home for USA after Potsdam meeting, President Truman, Joint Chiefs chairman Admiral Leahy, and Secretary of State James F. Byrnes--a strong A-bomb booster--enjoy some poker. Byrnes aide Walter Brown notes in his diary that "President, Leahy, JFB [Byrnes) agreed Japan looking for peace. (Leahy had another report from Pacific.) President afraid they will sue for peace through Russia instead of some country like Sweden."

--Leahy had questioned the decision to use the bomb, later writing: "[T]he use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender.... [I]n being the first to use it, we...adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children."

 --Our "Magic" intercepts show Japan monitoring the Soviets' military buildup in the Far East (prelude to the declaration of war in four days).  Also, Japanese still searching for way to approach Molotov to pursue possible surrender terms before that happens. Another Magic intercept carried the heading, "Japanese Army's interest in peace negotiations." War Department intel analysts revealed "the first statement to appear in the traffic that the Japanese Army is interested in the effor tto end the war with Soviet assitance." A segment of Prime Minister Togo's message declared: "The Premier and the leaders of the Army are now concentrting all their attention on this one point."

John McCloy, then assistant secretary of war and a well-known "hawk" in his later career, would later reflect, "I have always felt that if, in our ultimatum to the Japanese government issued from Potsdam [in July 1945], we had referred to the retention of the emperor as a constitutional monarch and had made some reference to the reasonable accessibility of raw materials to the future Japanese government, it would have been accepted. Indeed, I believe that even in the form it was delivered, there was some disposition on the part of the Japanese to give it favorable consideration. When the war was over I arrived at this conclusion after talking with a number of Japanese officials who had been closely associated with the decision of the then Japanese government, to reject the ultimatum, as it was presented. I believe we missed the opportunity of effecting a Japanese surrender, completely satisfactory to us, without the necessity of dropping the bombs."

 --Soviet General Vasilevskii reports to Stalin that Soviet forces ready for invasion from August 7 on.