I find it difficult to understand Englishmen or Americans who weep about enemy civilians who were killed but who have not shed a tear for our gallant crews lost in combat with a cruel enemy, wrote his friend General Eaker in part. I think it would have been well for Mr. Irving to have remembered, when he was drawing the frightful picture of the civilians killed at Dresden, that V-1's and V-2's were at the very time falling on England, killing civilian men, women, and children indiscriminately, as they were designed and launched to do. It might be well to remember Buchenwald and Conventry, too.
Eaker's foreword ended this way:
I deeply regret that British and U. S. bombers killed 135,000 people in the attack on Dresden, but I remember who started the last war and I regret even more the loss of more than 5,000,000 Allied lives in the necessary effort to completely defeat and utterly destroy nazism.
So it goes.
What Air Marshal Saundby said, among other things, was this:
That the bombing of Dresden was a great tragedy none can deny. That it was really a military necessity few, after reading this book, will believe. It was one of those terrible things that sometimes happen in wartime, brought about by an unfortunate combination of circumstances. Those who approved it were neither wicked nor cruel, though it may well be that they were too remote from the harsh realities of war to understand fully the appalling destructive power of air bombardment in the spring of 1945.
The advocates of nuclear disarmament seem to believe that, if they could achieve their aim, war would become tolerable and decent. They would do well to read this book and ponder the fate of Dresden, where 135,000 people died as the result of an air attack with conventional weapons. On the night of March 9th, 1945, an air attack on Tokyo by American heavy bombers, using incendiary and high explosive bombs, caused the death of 83,793 people. The atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed 71,379 people.
So it goes.
"If you're ever in Cody, Wyoming," said Billy Pilgrim behind his white linen screens, "just ask for Wild Bob."
Lily Rumfoord shuddered, went on pretending to read the Harry Truman things.
I'm not quite sure what Rumfoord is trying to prove with these forewords. All that really sticks out from the quoted passages are the numbers: 135,00 dead in Dresden; 5,000,000 Allied soldiers dead; 83,793 dead in Tokyo; and 71,379 dead in Hiroshima. The numbers are staggering. So many people killed in the name of warfare.
Again, don't misunderstand me. There are just reasons for going to war, including the destruction of the Nazi regime. Adolf Hitler had to be stopped, at any cost. That is not something to be disputed. That does not, however, negate the human price for stopping the spread of nazism, which was considerable.
I don't think Vonnegut is arguing here that Hitler should have been left alone. What Vonnegut is doing is pointing out that warfare is horrible, on every side. That innocent men. women, and children die. That is Vonnegut's true mission. He wants his readers to understand, in a very personal way, what happens when humans fight other humans.
War should not be whitewashed or glorified. It's not a John Wayne movie, where patriotic music plays are soldiers return home from battle into the loving arms of their mothers and wives and girlfriends. War is about bodies. Lots of them.
Would I give up my life to stop another Adolf Hitler? Yes, I would. I believe in the greater good.
But I also believe that the greater good involves compassion, love, understanding, and acceptance between all people, regardless of race, religion, gender, or social class. Every person is a child of God, and every person deserves happiness.
Saint Marty is thankful today that his family is safe from war. Who knows about tomorrow?
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