Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Daniel Ellsberg: Howard Zinn The Bomb

The Bomb: Daniel Ellsberg
FORA TV



As an active WWII bombardier returning from the end of the war in Europe and preparing for combat in Japan, Howard Zinn read the headline Atomic Bomb Dropped on Japan and was glad—the war would be over. "Like other Americans," writes Zinn, "I had no idea what was going on at the higher levels, and had no idea what that 'atomic bomb' had done to men, women, children in Hiroshima, any more than I ever really understood what the bombs I dropped on European cities were doing to human flesh and blood."

During the war, Zinn had taken part in the aerial bombing of Royan, France, and in 1966, he went to Hiroshima, where he was invited to a "house of rest" where survivors of the bombing gathered. In this short and powerful book, the backstory of the making and use of the bomb, Zinn offers his deep personal reflections and political analysis of these events, and the profound influence they had in transforming him from an order-taking combat soldier to one of our greatest anti-authoritarian, anti-war historians.

To Watch the Episode

1 comment:

Brad Nichol said...

Great interview with Ellsberg about how different it is with the internet today. http://travelsofjohn.com/interviews/general/daniel-ellsberg/ - "Nowadays, I would not spend three and a half months wondering what was going on. I would buy a scanner, and I would have put it out on the Internet. I just wouldn’t have waited."