KWJ199F@SMSVMA.BITNET (K. W. Jeffreys) (02/20/90)
Dimitri,
Thank you for your posting. Being a history buff I am always in-
terested in such facts. However, I am sure you would find it difficult
to find to many people that would agree that Stalin was one of the good
guys. Please don't try and form a likage between Stalin's atrocities
and the Allied effort in WWII. What Stalin did during the war was not any
different than than what he did before or after the war. Please don't
include Stalin's activities in those of the axis. (Remember, Stalin was
such an good friend that he refused to allow allied bomber crews to
land in Russia, and if they did they were interred and the planes were
confiscated. Some friend. Also, just when did they join the allies and
declare war on Japan?) Stalin was in the effort against Germany only
because Germany broke a non-agression pact made with Moscow. Stalin
wanted our equipment, food, money and the allies to open up a second
front to take off the pressure. That was about it as to the cooperation
with Stalin. As for the war with Japan, they never were at war. The
war was over before they declared war on Japan. They jumped in at the
last minute just to grab more land.
As for your mention of bombing, I will give you Dresden. However this
was an abberation not general policy. It was prompted by the RAF as a
tit-for-tat response for the German terror bombing tactics.
I will even give you the firebombing of Tokyo. That was prompted because
of the lousy weather the bombing crews often encountered. (You know,
them damned Russians refused to let the US set up weather stations so as
to avoid such problems.)
If you can find a policy, approved and formulated by the Allies (lets leave
out Stalin as he was thought of as an ally only because he had no other
sphere of influence to join.), that directed allied forces to use terror
tactics (like some of the ones I mentioned) against civilians, let me know.
I will be very suprised.
The facts listed in my posting were either acts of National Policy, or the
acts of field commanders operating on orders from Hitler. If you cannot
point to a similar national policy that the allied powers (less Stalin)
operated under I cannot believe that the Allies were as bad as the Axis.
And that is the crux of my argument.
Dimitri, lets not get into a war of facts. Lets talk national policy.