The 14 hour Ken Burn's documentary on World War II debuted this week on PBS. Since 14 hours is quite a bit to invest I have been archiving it to watch when I have time. I just completed episode one and was struck with something that isn't really covered: World War II was about going after three tyrants: Hitler, Mussolini and General Tojo who were out to establish empires. What's left out: how did they get there in the first place? They didn't get their on their own. Who backed them? Who were the industrialists and bankers who backed them and why? The answer so far wasn't in the first episode so it will be interesting to see if it is at all in the remaining ones. In fact the impression I got was that the war was more a failed exercise in trying to reduce the world's population dramatically. And there is a section on how they got people in the US to buy bonds to finance the war but no answer as to who made all the money off the weapons sales. That should be part of the story too.
And isn't it interesting at a time when there is much saber rattling over Iran such a documentary should come out?
